The religious rites of the ancient Persians were exceedingly simple.  They used neither temples, altars, nor statues, and performed their sacrifices on the tops of mountains.  They adored fire, light, and the sun as emblems of Ormuzd, the source of all light and purity, but did not regard them as independent deities.  The religious rites and ceremonies were regulated by the priests, who were called Magi.  The learning of the Magi was connected with astrology and enchantment, in which they were so celebrated that their name was applied to all orders of magicians and enchanters.

Wordsworth thus alludes to the worship of the Persians: 

“... the Persian,—­zealous to reject Altar and Image, and the inclusive walls And roofs of temples built by human hands,—­ The loftiest heights ascending, from their tops, With myrtle-wreathed Tiara on his brows, Presented sacrifice to Moon and Stars, And to the Winds and mother Elements, And the whole circle of the Heavens, for him A sensitive existence and a God.”

    —­Excursion, Book iv.

In “Childe Harold” Byron speaks thus of the Persian worship: 

   “Not vainly did the early Persian make
    His altar the high places and the peak
    Of earth-o’er-gazing mountains, and thus take
    A fit and unwalled temple, there to seek
    The Spirit, in whose honor shrines are weak,
    Upreared of human hands.  Come and compare
    Columns and idol-dwellings, Goth or Greek,
    With Nature’s realms of worship, earth and air,
    Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer.”

III., 91.

The religion of Zoroaster continued to flourish even after the introduction of Christianity, and in the third century was the dominant faith of the East, till the rise of the Mahometan power and the conquest of Persia by the Arabs in the seventh century, who compelled the greater number of the Persians to renounce their ancient faith.  Those who refused to abandon the religion of their ancestors fled to the deserts of Kerman and to Hindustan, where they still exist under the name of Parsees, a name derived from Pars, the ancient name of Persia.  The Arabs call them Guebers, from an Arabic word signifying unbelievers.  At Bombay the Parsees are at this day a very active, intelligent, and wealthy class.  For purity of life, honesty, and conciliatory manners, they are favorably distinguished.  They have numerous temples to Fire, which they adore as the symbol of the divinity.

The Persian religion makes the subject of the finest tale in Moore’s “Lalla Rookh,” the “Fire Worshippers.”  The Gueber chief says,

   “Yes!  I am of that impious race,
      Those slaves of Fire, that morn and even
    Hail their creator’s dwelling-place
      Among the living lights of heaven;
    Yes!  I am of that outcast crew
    To Iran and to vengeance true,
    Who curse the hour your Arabs came
    To desecrate our shrines of flame,
    And swear before God’s burning eye,
    To break our country’s chains or die.”