I had never heard about Zoroastrianism before reading a brief history of Iran. Apparently, it was the primary religion of Iran (or what was the Iranian empire at a certain point in time) until a shift to Islam occurred with the Arab invasion in 641. Nobody's really sure when Zoroaster lived, or when he wrote his book, Avesta (could be anywhere between 18th and 10th centuries BC), but it was a big influence to both Platonism and Judaism. Zoroaster is attributed some very big ideas, one of which is free will.
Zoroastrians began building fortified dwellings to defend themselves. However, once Muslim dominance was in full swing, all sorts of legal restrictions were put on remaining Zoroastrians, many of which affected their houses. For instance, a Zoroastrian's house couldn't be taller than a man's reach. This forced them to find other ways to fortify. Archaeological evidence shows that they contained hidden rooms for valuables to be hidden in, in case the family needed to run away. An exciting note: there's a legend/urban myth of sorts that all old Zoroastrian houses have hidden treasure, probably because when leaving in a hurry they buried valuables under the floor. Think about it - this is just like the weird myth surrounding old Victorian houses ("haunted" houses) in the States. Few people realize that exists because of an economic crisis in the Victorian era where many people abandoned their houses to seek better fortunes out West. I wonder if modern-day Iranians know where that particular legend comes from... Another result of the religious turmoil was that Zoroastrian houses didn't have windows (only peep-holes to watch for attack), and had covered courtyards to defend against roof-top invasion. Mary Boyce (an expert) gave some insight onto the significance of this: “It is ironic that Zoroastrians with their sophisticated theologies of light should have been forced to live in such shadowy, enclosed buildings.”
However, they found other ways of expressing their religion through their houses. Here is an interesting linguistic note:
there were two buildings in a typical Zoroastrian dwelling, the "pesgam-i mas" or "great house," and "pesgam-i vrok" or "small house." This is so interesting when we're thinking of language because the small house wasn't actually smaller in SIZE. It was smaller in importance. The great house (generally SMALLER) was dedicated to religious activity, and only the pure could enter it.
Source: http://www.iranchamber.com/religions/articles/zoroastrian_houses_yazd.php
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