Iranica Antiqua, vol. LVI, 2021 doi: 10.2143/IA.56.0.3290278 BULL SACRIFICE AT ESFANJĀN, A CASE OF RITUAL SYNCRETISM BY Vahid ASKARPOUR 1 , Mohaddese KHALILI 2 , Neshat MOTTAGHI 3 , Esmaeil SANGARI 4 & Amirhossein MOGHADDAS 5 ( 1 Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran; 2 Jahad Daneshgahi University of Arts, Tehran, Iran; 3 Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran; 4 University of Isfahan, Iran; 5 University of Isfahan, Iran) Abstract: Annual sacrifice of bull is a local ritual performed in one of the vil- lages near Tabriz, known as Esfanjān. The ritual contains some features in terms of its date of exercise, its eminent emphasis on the bull, and the narrative which surrounds it, that absolutely take it apart from the current religious context of the village’s inhabitants, Islam. The present paper concerns with resolving this dilemma by looking for its possible pre-Islamic roots, through an in-depth exam- ination of sacrifice within Avestan traditions. Through a consideration of sacrifice and its status within pre-Islamic religious traditions of Iran, and comparing their basic features with findings of ethnographical observations, it is shown that there is a tight match between the observed cult and pre-Islamic doctrines on animal sacrifice. As a relevant theoretical framework, syncretism is adapted here to dis- cuss the hybrid nature of the Esfanjān event, which is composed of both Islamic and non-Islamic features. Although the exact origin of the Esfanjān bull sacrifice remains unknown, something is clear: it is not a passive remnant of something lost forever, but an active product of a creative process, through which some new and hybrid creature comes out of a successful interbreeding of two different belief systems. Keywords: Zoroastrianism; Islam; Bull sacrificing; Syncretism; Fertility; Esfanjān Introduction One of the local rituals are still practiced in rural areas of Iran is called Öküz Ghorbāni that takes place in Esfanjān village of East Azerbaijan, Iran. Occurring on the first Thursday after 36 days of spring pass, this ritual consists of sacrificing a bull and the beliefs surrounding it. Although it happens within a local and Islamic context, we cannot consider it as an