ZURVANISM. It is difficult to determine whether veneration of a deity of time and fate, literally a father "time" figure, named Zurvan (Avestan, Zrvan; Pahlavi, Zurwān—variant form, Zamān) developed chronologically or spatially into a distinct religious movement in ancient and medieval Iran that competed with Zoroastrianism or Mazdaism. Nevertheless, Zurvanism is attested in Iranian belief generally, and Zoroastrianism specifically, from at least mid-Achaemenian times (late fifth century BCE). By the Sasanian period (224–651 CE), Zurvanite theology and mythology seems to have gained substantial followers among the magi or Zoroastrian priests along with Iranian nobles and scholars, possibly exerting influence on doctrines at times when fatalism seemed appropriate. As a monist sect, it possibly was one form of early medieval orthodoxy in southwestern Iran, among other locales. Yet there are no Iranian temples that can be associated specifically with worship of Zurvan. Neither are there images that...