IranShahr
Demystifying Aryans

Ali Yadegaar
May 27, 2005
iranian.com

The recent article of Mr. Madadi had some factual and statistical errors ["Are Iranians really Aryans?"]. Thankfully the article by Mr. Jahanparvar has answered most of the inaccuracies of that article ["On the Aryan trail"]. For example Mr. Madadi first poses the question are we Aryans and then in the same article he responds to himself by saying that the majority of Iranians are not Aryans. This is while the name Iran itself means the land of the Arya. “Ari/Arya/Ir” in Iranian languages is equivalent to the term “Aryan” in the English language. It is an established fact that Aryan is an ethno-linguistic term, which designates the Indo-Iranian (Aryans) speaking people.

According to the The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:

It is one of the ironies of history that Aryan, a word nowadays referring to the blond-haired, blue-eyed physical ideal of Nazi Germany, originally referred to a people who looked vastly different. Its history starts with the ancient Indo-Iranians, Indo-European peoples who inhabited parts of what are now Iran, Afghanistan, and India. Their tribal self-designation was a word reconstructed as *arya- or * rya-. The first of these is the form found in Iranian, as ultimately in the name of Iran itself (from Middle Persian r n ( ahr), “(Land) of the Iranians,” from the genitive plural of r, “Iranian”). The variant * rya- is found unchanged in Sanskrit, where it referred to the upper crust of ancient Indian society. These words became known to European scholars in the 18th century.

As the dictionary correctly asserts Aryans means the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-Europeans.

Let us review some of the old sources that explicitly establish why Iran (the land of Arya) and Iranians are Aryans (Iranians) and why the Academia still uses this terms for the Indo-Iranians. Herodotus in his Histories remarks that: “These Medes were called anciently by all people Arians; “ (7.62). So here we have a foreign source that refers to part of the Iranians as Arya.

Native sources also describe Iranians by this ethnonym. Old Persian which is a testament to the antiquity of the Persian language and which is related to most of the languages/dialects spoken in Iran including modern Persian, Kurdish, Gilaki and Baluchi makes it clear that Iranians referred to themselves as Arya.

The term "Ariya" appears in the royal inscriptions in three different context: As the name of the language of the Old Persian version of the inscription of Darius the Great in Behistun; as the ethnic background of Darius in inscriptions at Naqsh-e-Rostam and Susa (Dna, Dse) and Xerxes in the inscription from Persepolis (Xph) and as the definition of the God of Arya people, Ahuramazda, in the Elamite version of the Behistun inscription. For example in the Dna and Dse Darius and Xerxes describe themselves as “An Achaemenian, A Persian son of a Persian and an Aryan, of Aryan stock”.

Note that first they describe their clan (Achaemenid) and then tribe/group (Persian) and then their ethnicity Arya. So here we have good references that both the Medes and Persians referred to themselves as Aryans. The Medes and Persians were people of western Iranian stock. Western Iranian languages and dialects including Kurdish, Persian, Baluchi have their roots in the Old Persian and Median languages and are prevalent languages of Iran today. The OP inscriptions date back approximately to 400-500 B.C. Concurrently, or even prior to Old Persian, the word Airya is abundant used in the Avesta and related Zoroastrian literature whose origin lies with the eastern Iranian people.

The Avestan airya always has an ethnic value. It appears in Yasht literature and in the Wideewdaad. The land of Aryans is described as Airyana Vaejah in Avesta and in the Pahlavi inscription as Eran-wez. The Avesta archer Arash (Arash-e-Kamangir) is called the hero of Airya people. Zoroaster himself is described from the Airya people. The examples of the ethnic name of Airya in Avesta are too many to enumerate here and the interested reader is referred to the following site: Avesta.org.

Let us now briefly touch upon some more pre-Islamic evidence. The ostraca (an inscribed potsherd) from Parthian Nisa time period (approx. 2100 years ago) provides us with numerous Parthian names related. Parthian, like Persian, is a Western Iranian language. Some of the names of the people at that time that begin with prefix Arya are given by:

Aryabaam-Aryabaanuk, Aryabarzan- Aryabozhan- Aryaxshahrak- Aryanistak- Aryafriyaanak- Aryasaaxt- Aryazan

The etymology of such names is fairly known. The documents from Nisa as well as other Parthian documents prove that the Parthians employed the Zoroastrian calendar. The names of the months back then is exactly what we use today with a slight modification in pronounciation:

Farwartin- Artewahisht- Harwataat- Tir- Hamuraat- Xshahrewar- Mihr- Aapaaxwini- Aatar- Dathush- Wahman - Sapndaarmard

Strabo, the Greek geographer and traveler of the Parthian times also mentions the unity of the various Iranian tribes and dialects:

...and the name of Ariana is further extended to a part of Persia and of Media, as also to the Bactrians and Sogdians on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, with but slight variations.

Moses of Khorenat’si the Armenian historian of 5th century A.D. also denotes the Parthians, Medes and Persians collectively as Aryans. So ancient neighboring people have consistently referred to Iranians as Aryans. Both Armenian and Greeks are Indo-Europeans but only Indo-Iranians have been known as Aryans throughout history.

From the Parthian epoch we transition into the Sassanid era. Ardeshir the first, the founder of the Sassanid dynasty, on the coins minted during his era describes himself as "Shahan shah Aryan" (Iran). Where Aryan exactly means the “land of the Arya” which is synonymous with land of Iranians. His son Shapur, whose triumphs over his enemies are the stuff of legends minted coins with the inscription: “Shahan shah aryan ud anaryan” (The king of Kings of Iran and Non-Iran). The reason for anaryan is that he expanded the empire beyond the Aryan lands.

The trilingual inscription erected by his command gives us a more clear description. The languages used are Parthian, Middle Persian and Greek. In Greek the inscription says: “ego ... tou Arianon ethnous despotes eimi” which translates to “I am the king of the Aryans”. In the Middle Persian Shapour says: “I am the Lord of the EranShahr” and in Parthian he says: “I am the Lord of AryanShahr”. Both AryanShahr/EranShahr here denote the country of Iran.

The name IranShahr has been widely referenced after the Arab conquest by many authors including Tabari the great historian and Abu Rayhan Biruni the great scholar. So the word Eran actually is derived from Arayanam of the Avesta and it means the place Ary/Er (Parthian and Middle Persian respectively). As the suffix “an” denotes a place holding for example Gil+an means the land of the Gil (Gilak) who are an Aryan ethnic group of modern Iran. It was mentioned that Darius the Great referred to his language as Aryan.

The Bactrian inscription of Kanishka the founder of the Kushan empire at Rabatak, which was discovered in 1993 in an unexcavated site in the Afghanistan province of Baghlan clearly refers to this Eastern Iranian language as Arya. Interestingly enough, Bactrian (Bakhtari) was written using Greek alphabets.In the post-Islamic era one can see a clear usage of the term Aryan (Iran) in the work of the 10th century historian Hamzeh Esfahani. In his famous book “the history of Prophets and Kings” he writes: “Aryan which is also called Pars is in the middle of these countries and these six countries surround it because the South East is in the hands China, the North of the Turks, the middle South is India, the middle North is Rome, and the South West and the North West is the Sudan and Berber lands”.

What has been touched upon so far is just some of the evidence that clearly establishes that Iran and Aryan are the same and furthermore that Iranians have always referred to themselves as Arya in history. The term "Arya" has never been applied to other branches of Indo-European people. This term exclusively denotes the Iranians and Indians. The eminent linguist Emile Benviste asserts that the Old Iranian Arya is documented solely as an ethnic name. Aryan denotes a cultural-linguistic community. Racial anthropology on the other hand points to the fact that Iranians as well as many other Aryan speakers like Kurds and Afghans are part of Caucasoid Mediterranean subtype commonly referred to as Irano-Afghan.

Now let me point for the sake of brevity some of the other claims of Ben Madadi which were made without any sole reference. He indirectly calls Egypt and Babylon an empire. These political states are not considered an empire whereas the Roman and Persian Empire are considered a true empire. The Persian Empire founded by Cyrus the Great is indeed a source of pride for Iranians because of its tolerance for other faiths and religions. Indeed without the cooperation of many different groups, such an empire at that time would not be possible.

Ben Madadi claims: “The fact is that, even as official statistics show (which are by a great probability irrelevant) those Iranians who speak Farsi, and who are most probable to be the descendants of the ancient Persians, are less than half of the whole population of Iran. But the whole national identity was supposed to be based on the Aryan origins rather than Persia.”

It is very well known fact that Aryan languages (Indo-Iranian) predominate the Iranian plateau but, what is not well known is that, Persian is just one of the Aryan languages. For example languages and dialects like Baluchi, Kurdish, Talyshi, Gilaki, Laki, Gurani and Luri are also Aryan languages linguistically grouped under Iranian languages and are closely tied to Persian.

Furthermore Persian speakers actually are a slim majority in Iran, but speakers of other languages related to Persian and which are also Aryan languages make another 20-25% of the population (Encyclopedia Britannica, National Geographic, CIA fact book, World Almanac and official government statistic of 1991). But the term Persian in the western literature is equivalent to Iranian and has a more geographical denotation.

So both the Aryan origin of Iranians as well as the Persian Empire are historical facts that are part of our heritage. The area of the major non-Aryan language in Iran, which is Azarbaijan, was a center of the Medes who spoke Aryan languages. The people there today are not different culturally from the rest of Iranians. The language replacement in that area is a recent phenomenon due to the invasion by Altaic Turco-Mongol speaking tribes. Such language replacements are common as is the case of English in Ireland and Spanish in Mexico and Turkish in Turkey.

Most of the writers and poets from that area have historically written their work in Persian. Despite the prevalence of the non-Aryan language, the numerous fire-temples, common culture, common history and common religion and Zoroastrian evidence including the name Azarbaijan (meaning Land of Fire in Persian) itself has tied the destiny of this important region of Iran with the rest of Iran.

Ben Madadi also claims: “Iran can be a prosperous and very strong country but first it should solve and settle the dilemma of identity.”Iran’s ability to be prosperous has been proven many times in its history. There is no dilemma in Iranian identity because this identity has been formed even prior to Islam and has continuously evolved to its presence state. This identity was not made overnight. The best evidence towards this is the Shua’biya movement after the Islamic invasion, which is nothing but pure and albeit extreme Iranian nationalism. The Shua’biya movement was a major force that was responsible for persevering and saving our Iranian culture against the Arab onslaught.

Iranian nationalism has been the key in preserving the Iranian identity despite the massive pressure forced by the Babylonians, Greek, Arab, Turkic, Mongolian, Portuguese, Russian and British. A notable example of Iranian nationalism is the Shahnameh, the common history and myth of all Iranian people. It has outlasted many dynasties and events and is still cherished by the Iranian people. In it the myths, philosophies and the morals of the ancient Iranians are preserved.

This majestic book of Iranians is permeated with moral themes such righteousness, purity of heart, benevolence, justice and patriotism. It is the Iranian history, culture and myths known by our ancestors. Indeed it is a bible unto itself. Even outside the current boundaries of the Iranian state, the Kurds for example recite the Shahnameh in their own Kurdish language and their stories and myths are drawn from the same common Aryan sources. If there is a dilemma in Iranian identity today it is between the balance of religious ecumenism and Iranian nationalism.

How old is this common Iranian identity, which has continuously evolved in its present state? In my opinion an identity starts with its oldest common substantial heritage that is shared by its people and continuously preserved. Archeology has shown that the recently excavated Jiroft civilization of Iran could be at least five thousand years old, and all Iranians and indeed all mankind are proud to share this common heritage. But the discovery of this civilization and similar civilizations are endeavors of recent times.

The Avesta on the other hand has been preserved continuously amongst Iranians since Zoroaster. The dating of Avesta has been problematic and scholars give a date of around 3700-3000 years for the Old Avesta and about 500-1000 years later for the Young Avesta. So it is clear that Iranians have at least 3000 years of continuity in language and literature and culture. The name Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism permeates in the Shahnameh and other folkloric stories of Iranian people. The Gathas of Zoroaster is indeed a remarkable part of our Iranian heritage and even as a non-Zoroastrian; all Iranians can appreciate the timelessness of its divine message.

Indeed all humans appreciate it as part of their common heritage. Iranians have also contributed a great deal to the common Islamic heritage and this part our heritage is equally important. There has always been a cultural dualism between the pre-Islamic and post-Islamic past, but this was no problem for Ferdowsi who was both a Muslim and Iranian. Based on the solid foundation of one of mankind’s ancient heritage, Iranians of the new millennium should integrate new values and adapt to new ideals while passing down their ancient heritage to the next generation.

Finally it needs to be pointed out again and again that the term Aryan exclusively refers to Indo-Iranians. So the Germans, Greeks, etc. cannot be referred to as Aryan and no one in the academic communities uses these terms for them.

References
-- MacKenzie D.N. Corpus inscriptionum Iranicarum Part. 2., inscription of the Seleucid and Parthian periods of Eastern Iran and Central Asia. Vol. 2. Parthian, London, P. Lund, Humphries 1976-2001

-- N. Sims-Williams. “Further notes on the Bactrian inscription of Rabatak, with an Appendix on the names of Kujula Kadphises and Vima Taktu in Chinese” Proceedings of the Third European Conference of Iranian Studies (Cambridge, September 1995), Part 1: Old and Middle Iranian Studies, N. Sim-Williams, ed. Wiesbaden, pp. 79-92.

-- R.G. Kent. Old Persian. Grammer, texts, lexicon. 2nd ed., New Haven, Conn.

-- R.W. Thomson. History of Armenians by Moses Khorenat’si. Harvard University Press, 1978.

Published Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 11: