Etymology of Iran

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term Iran derives immediately from Middle Persian Ērān, Pahlavi ʼyrʼn, first attested in the inscription that accompanies the investiture relief of Ardashir I at Naqsh-e Rustam.[1] In this inscription, the king's Middle Persian appellation is ardašīr šāhān šāh ērān while in the Parthian language inscription that accompanies the Middle Persian one the king is titled ardašīr šāhān šāh aryān (Pahlavi: ... ʼryʼn).

The gentilic ēr- and ary- in ērān/aryān derives from Old Iranian *arya-[1] (Old Persian ariya-, Avestan airiia-, etc.), meaning "Aryan,"[1] in the sense of "of the Iranians."[1][2]

In this ancestral form as Old Iranian ariya- and airiia-, ērān is attested as an ethnic designator in Achaemenid inscriptions and in Zoroastrianism's Avesta tradition,[3] and it seems "very likely"[1] that in Ardashir's time "ērān still retained this meaning, denoting the people rather than the state.

Notwithstanding this inscriptional use of ērān to refer to the Iranian peoples, the use of ērān to refer to the empire (and the antonymic anērān to refer to the Roman territories) is also attested by the early Sassanid period. Both ērān and anērān appear in 3rd century calendrical text written by Mani. In an inscription of Ardashir's son and immediate successor, Shapur I "apparently includes in Ērān regions such as Armenia and the Caucasus which were not inhabited predominantly by Iranians."[4] In Kartir's inscriptions (written thirty years after Shapur's), the high priest includes the same regions (together with Georgia, Albania, Syria and the Pontus) in his list of provinces of the antonymic Anērān.[4] Ērān also features in the names of the towns founded by Sassanid dynasts, for instance in Ērān-xwarrah-šābuhr "Glory of Ērān (of) Shapur". It also appears in the titles of government officers, such as in Ērān-āmārgar "Accountant-General (of) Ērān" or Ērān-dibirbed "Chief Scribe (of) Ērān".[1]

Shapur's trilingual inscription at Ka'ba-i Zartosht also introduces the term ērānšahr (), "kingdom of the Iranians", that is however not attested in any other texts of this period other than in royal inscriptions (it is however preserved in post-Sassanid-era Zoroastrian texts).[1] Because the term does does not appear in Old Iranian (where it would have been *aryānām xšaθra- or in Old Persian *- xšaça-, "rule, reign, sovereignty"), the concept is presumed[1] to have been a Sassanid-era development. In the Greek portion of Shapur's trilingual inscription the word šahr "kingdom" appears as ethnous "nation". For speakers of Greek, the idea of an Iranian ethnous was not new: In the 1st century BCE, Strabo had noted a relationship between the various Iranian peoples and their languages: "[From] beyond the Indus [...] Ariana is extended so as to include some part of Persia, Media, and the north of Bactria and Sogdiana; for these nations speak nearly the same language." (Geography, 15.2.1-15.2.8[5]).

Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the official name of the country is "Islamic Republic of Iran." For the pre-1935 use of "Persia" as the western name for Iran, see Iran naming dispute.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h MacKenzie, David Niel (1998). "Ērān, Ērānšahr". Encyclopedia Iranica 8. Cosa Mesa: Mazda. 
  2. ^ Schmitt, Rüdiger (1987). "Aryans". Encyclopedia Iranica 2. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 684-687. 
  3. ^ Bailey, Harold Walter (1987). "Arya". Encyclopedia Iranica 2. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 
  4. ^ a b Gignoux, Phillipe (1987). "Anērān". Encyclopedia Iranica 2. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 
  5. ^ Hamilton, H. C. & W. Falconer (1903). The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes 3. London: George Bell & Sons.  p. 125. (Geography 15.2)
Languages