Historically, Iran was commonly referred to as "Persia" in the Western world.[1] Likewise, the modern-day ethnonym "Persian" was typically used as a demonym for all Iranian nationals, regardless of whether or not they were ethnic Persians. This terminology prevailed until 1935, when, during an international gathering for Nowruz, the Iranian king Reza Shah Pahlavi officially requested that foreign delegates begin using the endonym "Iran" in formal correspondence. Subsequently, "Iran" and "Iranian" were standardized as the terms referring to the country and its citizens, respectively. Later, in 1959, Pahlavi's son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi announced that it was appropriate to use both "Persia" and "Iran" in formal correspondence.[2] However, the issue is still debated among Iranians.[3] A variety of scholars from the Middle Ages, such as the Persian polymath Al-Biruni, also used terms like "Xuniras" (Avestan: Xvaniraθa-, transl."self-made, not resting on anything else") to refer to Iran: "which is the center of the world, [...] and it is the one wherein we are, and the kings called it the Iranian realm."[4]
The Modern Persian word Īrān (ایران) derives immediately from Middle PersianĒrān (Pahlavi spelling: ʼyrʼn), attested in a third century AD inscription that accompanies the investiture relief of the first Sassanid king Ardashir I at Naqsh-e Rustam.[11] In this inscription, the king's Middle Persian appellation is ardašīr šāhān šāh ērān in the Parthian language inscription that accompanies the Middle Persian one. The king is also titled ardašīr šāhān šāh aryān (Pahlavi: ... ʼryʼn) both meaning king of kings of the Aryans. [11][12]
The gentilicēr- and ary- in ērān and aryān derives from Old Iranian*arya-[11] ([Old Persian] airya-, Avestanairiia-, etc.), meaning "Aryan",[11] in the sense of "of the Iranians".[11][13] This term is attested as an ethnic designator in Achaemenid inscriptions and in Zoroastrianism'sAvesta tradition,[14][n 1] and it seems "very likely"[11] that in Ardashir's inscription ērān still retained this meaning, denoting the people rather than the empire.
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".[15] 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.[15]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".[11]
Modern reconstruction of the ancient world map of Eratosthenes from c. 200 BC, using the names Ariana and Persis
The Greeks (who had previously tended to use names related to "Median") began to use adjectives such as Pérsēs (Πέρσης), Persikḗ (Περσική) or Persís (Περσίς) in the fifth century BC to refer to Cyrus the Great's empire (a word understood to mean "country").[17] Such words were taken from the Old PersianPārsa – the name of the people from whom Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty emerged and over whom he first ruled (before he inherited or conquered other Iranian Kingdoms). The Pars tribe gave its name to the region where they lived (the modern day province is called Fars/Pars), but the province in ancient times was smaller than its current area.[citation needed] In Latin, the name for the whole empire was Persia, while the Iranians knew it as Iran or Iranshahr.[citation needed]
In the later parts of the Bible, where this kingdom is frequently mentioned (Books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah), it is called Paras (Biblical Hebrew: פרס), or sometimes Paras u Madai (פרס ומדי), ("Persia and Media"). The Arabs likewise referred to Iran and the Persian (Sassanian) Empire as Bilād Fāris (Arabic: بلاد فارس), in other words "Lands of Persia", which would become the popular name for the region in Muslim literature. They also used Bilād Ajam (Arabic: بلاد عجم) as an equivalent or synonym to "Persia". The Turks also used this term, but adapted to Iranian (specifically, Persian) language form as "Bilad (Belaad) e Ajam".
A Greek folk etymology connected the name to Perseus, a legendary character in Greek mythology. Herodotus recounts this story,[18] devising a foreign son, Perses, from whom the Persians took the name. Apparently, the Persians themselves knew the story,[19] as Xerxes I tried to use it to suborn the Argives during his invasion of Greece, but ultimately failed to do so.
Xuniras
In the Iranian tradition, the world is divided into seven circular regions, or karshvars, separated from one another by forests, mountains, or water. Six of those regions flank a central one called Xvaniraθa- in Avesta and Xuniras in New Persian, which probably means ‘self-made, not resting on anything else’. It was equal in size to all the rest combined and surpassed them in prosperity and fortune. Originally, only Xuniras was inhabited by humans, which also hosted the "Iranian home" (Airyō.šayana- in the Avestan). But in the later tradition, that is, from about 620, Xuniras came to be the same as Iran itself, with known countries such as the Roman Empire and China surrounding it. The Abu-Mansuri Shahnameh describes Xuniras as such: "(and) the seventh, which is the center of the world, Xuniras-e bāmi (splendid Xuniras), and it is the one wherein we are, and the kings called it the Iranian realm/Ērānšahr." Another scheme of the seven regions of the world is reported by Abu Rayhan Biruni, who similarly arranges known nations into six connectedcircles surrounding the central Ērānšahr.[4]
Name in the Western world
The exonym Persia was the official name of Iran in the Western world before March 1935, but the Iranian peoples inside their country since the time of Zoroaster (probably circa 1000 BC), or even before, have called their country Arya, Iran, Iranshahr, Iranzamin (Land of Iran), Aryānām (the equivalent of Iran in the proto-Iranian language) or its equivalents. The term Arya has been used by the Iranian people, as well as by the rulers and emperors of Iran, from the time of the Avesta. Evidently from the time of the Sassanids (226–651 CE) Iranians have called it Iran, meaning the "Land of the Aryans" and Iranshahr. In Middle Persian sources, the name Arya and Iran is used for the pre-Sassanid Iranian empires as well as the Sassanid empire. As an example, the use of the name "Iran" for Achaemenids in the Middle Persian book of Arda Viraf refers to the invasion of Iran by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.[20] The Proto-Iranian term for Iran is reconstructed as *Aryānām (the genitive plural of the word *Arya); the Avestan equivalent is Airyanem (as in Airyanem Vaejah). The internal preference for "Iran" was noted in some Western reference books (e.g. the Harmsworth Encyclopaedia, circa 1907, entry for Iran: "The name is now the official designation of Persia.") but for international purposes, Persia was the norm.
On the 25th December [1934] the Persian Ministry for Foreign Affairs addressed a circular memorandum to the Foreign Diplomatic Missions in Tehran requesting that the terms "Iran" and "Iranian" might be used in official correspondence and conversation as from the next 21st March, instead of the words "Persia" and "Persian" hitherto in current use. His Majesty's Minister in Tehran has been instructed to accede to this request.
The decree of Reza Shah Pahlavi affecting nomenclature duly took effect on 21 March 1935.
To avoid confusion between the two neighboring countries of Iran and Iraq, which were both involved in WWII and occupied by the Allies, Winston Churchill requested from the Iranian government during the Tehran Conference for the old and distinct name "Persia to be used by the United Nations [i.e., the Allies] for the duration of the common War". His request was approved immediately by the Iranian Foreign Ministry. The Americans, however, continued using Iran as they then had little involvement in Iraq to cause any such confusion.
In the summer of 1959, following concerns that the native name had, as Mohammad Ali Foroughi[22] put it, "turned a known into an unknown", a committee was formed, led by noted scholar Ehsan Yarshater, to consider the issue again. They recommended a reversal of the 1935 decision, and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi approved this. However, the implementation of the proposal was weak, simply allowing Persia and Iran to be used interchangeably.[2] Today, both terms are common; Persia mostly in historical and cultural contexts, "Iran" mostly in political contexts.
In recent years most exhibitions of Persian history, culture and art in the world have used the exonym Persia (e.g., "Forgotten Empire; Ancient Persia", British Museum; "7000 Years of Persian Art", Vienna, Berlin; and "Persia; Thirty Centuries of Culture and Art", Amsterdam).[23] In 2006, the largest collection of historical maps of Iran, entitled Historical Maps of Persia, was published in the Netherlands.[24]
Modern debate in Iran
In the 1980s, Professor Ehsan Yarshater (editor of the Encyclopædia Iranica) started to publish articles on this matter (in both English and Persian) in Rahavard Quarterly, Pars Monthly, Iranian Studies Journal, etc. After him, a few Iranian scholars and researchers such as Prof. Kazem Abhary, and Prof. Jalal Matini followed the issue. Several times since then, Iranian magazines and websites have published articles from those who agree or disagree with usage of Persia and Persian in English.
There are many Iranians in the West who prefer Persia and Persian as the English names for the country and nationality, similar to the usage of La Perse/persan in French.[25] According to Hooman Majd, the popularity of the term Persia among the Iranian diaspora stems from the fact that "'Persia' connotes a glorious past they would like to be identified with, while 'Iran' since 1979 revolution… says nothing to the world but Islamic fundamentalism."[3]
Official names of Iranian states
Since 1 April 1979, the official name of the Iranian state is Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Irân (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران), which is generally translated as the Islamic Republic of Iran in English.
Other official names were Dowlat-e Aliyye-ye Irân (Persian: دولت علیّهٔ ایران) meaning the Sublime State of Persia and Kešvar-e Šâhanšâhi-ye Irân (Persian: کشور شاهنشاهی ایران) meaning Imperial State of Persia and the Imperial State of Iran after 1935.
The History of the Idea of Iran, A. Shapur Shahbazi in Birth of the Persian Empire by V. S. Curtis and S. Stewart, 2005, ISBN1-84511-062-5
Notes
↑ In the Avesta the airiia- are members of the ethnic group of the Avesta-reciters themselves, in contradistinction to the anairiia-, the "non-Aryas". The word also appears four times in Old Persian: One is in the Behistun inscription, where ariya- is the name of a language or script (DB 4.89). The other three instances occur in Darius I's inscription at Naqsh-e Rustam (DNa 14-15), in Darius I's inscription at Susa (DSe 13-14), and in the inscription of Xerxes I at Persepolis (XPh 12-13). In these, the two Achaemenid dynasts describe themselves as pārsa pārsahyā puça ariya ariyaciça "a Persian, son of a Persian, an Ariya, of Ariya origin". "The phrase with ciça, "origin, descendance", assures that it [i.e. ariya] is an ethnic name wider in meaning than pārsa and not a simple adjectival epithet."[14]
Related Research Articles
Persians are an Iranic ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
Turan is a historical region in Central Asia. The term is of Iranian origin and may refer to a particular prehistoric human settlement, a historic geographical region, or a culture. The original Turanians were an Iranian tribe of the Avestan age.
Hormizd-Ardashir, better known by his dynastic name of Hormizd I, was the third Sasanian King of Kings (shahanshah) of Iran, who ruled from May 270 to June 271. He was the third-born son of Shapur I, under whom he was governor-king of Armenia, and also took part in his father's wars against the Roman Empire. Hormizd I's brief time as ruler of Iran was largely uneventful. He built the city of Hormizd-Ardashir, which remains a major city today in Iran. He promoted the Zoroastrian priest Kartir to the rank of chief priest (mowbed) and gave the Manichaean prophet Mani permission to continue his preaching.
Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages and is the ancestor of Middle Persian. Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as ariya (Iranian). Old Persian is close to both Avestan and the language of the Rig Veda, the oldest form of the Sanskrit language. All three languages are highly inflected.
Naqsh-e Rostam is an ancient archeological site and necropolis located about 13 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars Province, Iran. A collection of ancient Iranian rock reliefs are cut into the face of the mountain and the mountain contains the final resting place of four Achaemenid kings, notably king Darius the Great and his son, Xerxes. This site is of great significance to the history of Iran and to Iranians, as it contains various archeological sites carved into the rock wall through time for more than a millennium from the Elamites and Achaemenids to Sassanians. It lies a few hundred meters from Naqsh-e Rajab, with a further four Sassanid rock reliefs, three celebrating kings and one a high priest.
Spāhbad is a Middle Persian title meaning "army chief" used chiefly in the Sasanian Empire. Originally there was a single spāhbad, called the Ērān-spāhbed, who functioned as the generalissimo of the Sasanian army. From the time of Khosrow I on, the office was split in four, with a spāhbad for each of the cardinal directions. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, the spāhbed of the East managed to retain his authority over the inaccessible mountainous region of Tabaristan on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, where the title, often in its Islamic form ispahbedh, survived as a regnal title until the Mongol conquests of the 13th century. An equivalent title of Persian origin, ispahsālār or sipahsālār, gained great currency across the Muslim world in the 10th–15th centuries.
Bānbishn was a Middle Persian title meaning "queen", and was held by royal women in Sasanian Iran who were the king's daughters and sisters, and also by the consorts of the Sasanian princes that ruled parts of the country as governors. The full version of the title was bānbishnān bānbishn.
The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
Anērān or Anīrân is an ethno-linguistic term that signifies "non-Iranian" or "non-Iran" (non-Aryan). Thus, in a general sense, 'Aniran' signifies lands where Iranian languages are not spoken. In a pejorative sense, it denotes "a political and religious enemy of Iran and Zoroastrianism."
Greater Iran or Greater Persia, also called the Iranosphere or the Persosphere, is an expression that denotes a wide socio-cultural region comprising parts of West Asia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, and East Asia —all of which have been affected, to some degree, by the Iranian peoples and the Iranian languages. It is defined by having been long ruled by the dynasties of various Iranian empires, under whom the local populaces gradually incorporated some degree of Iranian influence into their cultural and/or linguistic traditions; or alternatively as where a considerable number of Iranians settled to still maintain communities who patronize their respective cultures, geographically corresponding to the areas surrounding the Iranian plateau. It is referred to as the "Iranian Cultural Continent" by Encyclopædia Iranica.
Sasan, considered the eponymous ancestor of the Sasanian Dynasty in Persia, was "a great warrior and hunter" and a Zoroastrian high priest in Pars. He lived sometime near the fall of the Arsacid (Parthian) Empire in the early 3rd century.
The Sasanian Empire or Sassanid Empire, officially known as Ērānšahr, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th to 8th centuries. Named after the House of Sasan, it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651, making it the second longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty after the Arsacids of the Parthian Empire.
The modern Persian name of Iran (ایران) derives from the 3rd-century Sasanian Middle Persian ērān, where it initially meant "of the Aryans," and acquired a geographical connotation in the sense of "(lands inhabited by) Aryans." In both geographic and demonymic senses, ērān is distinguished from its antonymic anērān, meaning "non-Iran(ian)".
The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities.
Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr is a surviving Middle Persian text on geography, which was completed in the late eighth or early ninth centuries AD. The text gives a numbered list of the cities of Eranshahr and their history and importance for Persian history. The text itself has indication that it was also redacted at the time of Khosrow II in 7th century as it mentions several places in Africa and Persian Gulf conquered by the Sasanians.
Aryan or Arya is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan'. In Ancient India, the term ā́rya was used by the Indo-Aryans of the Vedic period as an endonym (self-designation) and in reference to a region known as Aryavarta, where the Indo-Aryan culture emerged. In the Avesta scriptures, ancient Iranian peoples similarly used the term airya to designate themselves as an ethnic group, and in reference to their mythical homeland, Airyanem Vaejah. The stem also forms the etymological source of place names such as Alania and Iran.
Avestan geography refers to the investigation of place names in the Avesta and the attempt to connect them to real-world geographical sites. It is connected to but different from the cosmogony expressed in the Avesta, where place names primarily refer to mythical events or a cosmological order.
The Azadan were a class of Iranian nobles. They are probably identical to the eleutheroi mentioned in Greek sources to refer to a group of Parthian nobles. According to the 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian Josephus, the Parthian army led by prince Pacorus I during the invasion of Judea consisted of members of the eleutheroi. The Kingdom of Armenia adopted the same hierarchy as that of the Parthians, which included the azadan class, which was used to label the Armenian middle and lower nobility. The name of the Georgian nobility, Aznauri, also corresponded to that of azadan. A class of azadan are also attested in Sogdia, an Iranian civilization located in Central Asia.
Arya was the ethnonym used by Iranians during the early History of Iran. In contrast to cognates of Arya used by the Vedic people and Iranic steppe nomads, the term is commonly translated using the modern ethnonym Iranian.
Turya or Turanian is the ethnonym of a group mentioned in the Avesta, i.e., the collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism. In those texts, the Turyas closely interact with the Aryas, i.e. the early Iranians. Their identity is unknown but they are assumed to have been Iranic horse nomads from the Eurasian steppe.
References
↑ Fishman, Joshua A. (2010). Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: Disciplinary and Regional Perspectives. Vol.1 (2nded.). Oxford University Press. p.266. ISBN978-0195374926. 'Iran' and 'Persia' are synonymous. The former has always been used by the Iranian speaking peoples themselves, while the latter has served as the international name of the country in various languages.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 MacKenzie, David Niel (1998). "Ērān, Ērānšahr". Encyclopedia Iranica. Vol.8. Costa Mesa: Mazda. Archived from the original on 13 March 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
1 2 Bailey, Harold Walter (1987). "Arya". Encyclopedia Iranica. Vol.2. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp.681–683. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
↑ Brill (20 September 2006). "General Maps of Persia 1477 - 1925". Brill website. Brill. Archived from the original on 21 April 2006. Retrieved 3 May 2006. Iran, or Persia as it was known in the West for most of its long history, has been mapped extensively for centuries but the absence of a good cartobibliography has often deterred scholars of its history and geography from making use of the many detailed maps that were produced. This is now available, prepared by Cyrus Alai who embarked on a lengthy investigation into the old maps of Persia, and visited major map collections and libraries in many countries...
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
