A Zoroastrian Tapestry: Art, Religion & Culture

Rating:
Summary: Coffee table book
Review: I have been reading reviews by one Mr Noshir Khambata who rates every book he reviews as 5 stars and this raises the issue. His reviews do not help and it seems that he is out to please everyone and hence his reviews of all books are without any value

I have doubts about this book also and it looks like a coffee table book fit to be kept as a showpiece

Rating:
Summary: A Zarathushtrian Labour of Love and Sacrifice.
Review: The Editors of this magnificent and massive volume (762 folio pages) deserves the deepest thanks of the Parsee community of Bombay in particular, and Zarathushtrians in general on a global basis, for compiling for us, what is truly a "labour of love and stupendous sacrifice". The high quality of paper, printing, the selection of the articles, the magnificent coloured illustrations, the comprehensive glossary and chronological tables, truly makes this volume as one of a kind, that every Parsee household would do well to have on their prized book-shelf. The list of article contributors to this volume almost constitute a who's-who in the field of Iranian studies. Many of the reproduced photographs and illustrations are made available to the public for the first time. Every page delights a reader with uncanny information or stunning pictures or a fact of odd rarity. However the list of "Select Bibliography" at the end could undergo a substantial upgrading.

Very easily this work deserves a five star rating and beyond. But it breaks my heart that under the magnificence and glitter of this entire volume lies buried a grievous faux pas. This is not so much a judgement of error on the part of the very industrious Editors, but rather on the number of individuals who collaborated on this project and even contributed scholarly articles to it. The faux pas is the continued usage of the three most unfortunate words, i.e. Zoroaster, Zoroastrians and Zoroastrianism, when the correct designation Zarathushtra, Zarathushtrians and the Zarathushtrian Religion as dictated by the syntax of the English language have long been in existence and used by scholars of the highest intellectual calibre. Little, if any, is achieved in perpetuating an unfortunate error
steeped in ignorance and arrogance.

Congratulations to Mapin Publishers and Grantha Corporation and their massive editorial team for undertaking so massive a work and giving us a magnificent volume to treasure for years and beyond. It would be a great blessing if after some time the full volume can be accessed on the Internet with more stunning photographs and information.