Criticizing the Claim that the Teaching of Mahdawiyyah is influenced by Belief in Soshyant

One of the Orientalist claims against the teaching of Mahdawiyyah is that it is influenced by the belief in Soshyant, the Iranian Zoroastrian Redeemer. The origin of this claim can be found in the existence of belief in redeemer in the Iranian Zoroastrian sources and their alignment in many details. By the terminology of the word Soshyant and examination of its usage in Zoroastrian sources, the present article firstly rejects this claim and then, based on the study of the sources of the Zoroastrian writings, the examination of their authenticity and offering some evidences that show the impressionability of Zoroastrian sources by the Islamic teachings in the years after the Islamic conquest of Iran and the complete control of Islam on this country, it emphasizes the possibility of the claim contrary.