Paul Kriwaczek
The book traces not a prophet or a religion, but the ideas originally propounded by Zarathustra in the first millenium BC in Iran and Central Asia. His world view was dualistic with the continuous battle between the forces of Good and Evil forming the central theme. Even though the descendants of his religion in Iran have adopted Islam, there is a strong under-current of his philosophy still shaping their way of life.
Paul Kriwaczek first heard about Zarathustra when he read Thus Spoke Zarathustra where Nietzsche skillfully made Zarathustra the mouth of his own version of Dualism in the world. Nietzsche felt Zarathustra was vastly ahead of his times and that that is the reason why his views do not shape the minds of the world's majority. Paul Kriwaczek succeeds in mapping the influence that Zarathustra's philosophy had in the three great religions of the Middle East. He traces the thread of these ideas followed by the magnificent Persian Achaemenian Empire, Bogomils in Bulgaria and the Mithraic cults in Europe. His travels "across Central Asia and Iran in search of the world's first prophet" makes for an excellent story even as a travelogue. Non history enthusiasts can enjoy this book without being overwhelmed while the others can get a great insight into the Dualistic world view and the struggle that these ideas have gone through to survive into the third Millenium.