Ashwin Sanghi's 'The Magicians of Mazda' review: A historically enriching thriller
Granted that The Magicians of Mazda is a great thriller. That said, you find yourself plunging neck deep into the history of the Parsis, a community of achievers whose community nonetheless has been teetering perilously close to the very edge of extinction. There are only a hundred thousand left of those who became our permanent houseguests, after they fled persecution by Iran’s Umayyad and docked their boats on the coast of Gujarat as early as 720 CE, chanting Humarta, Hukhta, Hvarshta: Good thoughts, good words, good deeds.
What unfolds is the history of the Zoroastrians, who form the backbone of this thriller. A bit at a time, one learns about one of the oldest religions of the world and its followers who have suffered many atrocities, genocide and persecution, down the ages. After reading the book, one might wonder if they suffered more than many other races and communities. Unfortunately, very few are left to tell us the story.
The Parsis: pale as parchment, mad as loons and noses like hooks, but devoutly civilised, consummately lawful, and still abided by the spirit of the first contract they made in India, as refugees. Never eyeing political power and content to help their adopted home. Doesn’t it strike you as odd that we know so little about this great religion? Is it because Parsis treat their faith as a private affair? They haven’t cared to tell the world about their history of sustained persecution and ensuing holocaust. In the centuries that they have been with us, they have contributed immensely to our progress.
My task as a reviewer makes me tread on broken glass as I try to give away as little as possible about the story of a thriller. Here is a skeletal idea: our hero holds a relic which is as old as the Zoroastrians. He has no idea that it will end up attracting the attention of spy agencies from around the world. As a hard working scientist, he has created a wonder drug, so a pharma company is after him. They don’t want to be left out in the cold, and joining this hunt are others who are after him. Of course there is the Ayatollah’s Iran pulling strings before our hero is rescued by Mossad and RAW.
It’s a roller-coaster ride for the reader through unpredictable twists and turns that have by now marked the author’s work. The build-up to understanding the significance of Zoroastrian teachings, and the horrors faced by the Parsi community. It is in Gujarat that they finally find peaceful settlement and success.
With all the skills of a great storyteller, Sanghi takes us through the hell faced by them in Iran. Sounds ominously familiar. Lessons of history need to be learnt by civil societies or they are in danger of being run over by uncouth brute forces, as happened during the medieval period. This book enriches our knowledge of the history and beliefs of the Parsi community. Certainly they deserve to be around for the sake of humanity. An excellent cocktail of a thriller that has lessons for the present time too––history has the habit of repeating itself, especially when we don’t learn from it.