Will Iran Be Called Persia Again

Historical fence over the usage of "Persia" or "Iran" to refer to the country

In the Western world, Persia (or i of its cognates) was historically the common name for Iran.^[1] On the Nowruz of 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates to use the Persian term Iran (meaning the land of Aryans in Persian),^[two] the endonym of the state, in formal correspondence. Subsequently, the common adjective for citizens of Iran changed from Persian to Iranian. In 1959, the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Reza Shah'south son, announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" can exist used interchangeably, in formal correspondence.^[3] However, the outcome is even so debated.^[four]

Etymology of "Islamic republic of iran" [edit]

The proper noun "Iran" is first attested in the Avesta as airyānąm (the text of which is composed in Avestan, an old Iranian language spoken in the northeastern part of Greater Islamic republic of iran, or in what are now Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan).^{[5] [6] [7] [8]}

It reappears in the Achaemenid flow where the Elamite version of the Behistun Inscription twice mentions Ahura Mazda as nap harriyanam "the god of the Iranians".^{[9] [10]}

The Modern Persian discussion Īrān ( ایران ) derives immediately from Center Persian Ērān (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.^[eleven] In this inscription, the king's Center Farsi appellation is ardašīr šāhān šāh ērān while in the Parthian language inscription that accompanies the Middle Persian i the king is titled ardašīr šāhān šāh aryān (Pahlavi: ... ʼryʼn) both meaning male monarch of kings of Iranians.^{[ citation needed ]}

The gentilic ēr- and ary- in ērān and aryān derives from Erstwhile Iranian *arya- ^[xi] (Erstwhile Persian airya-, Avestan airiia-, etc.), meaning "Aryan",^[11] in the sense of "of the Iranians".^{[11] [12]} This term is attested as an ethnic designator in Achaemenid inscriptions and in Zoroastrianism'due south Avesta tradition,^{[13] [n ane]} and it seems "very probable"^[11] that in Ardashir's inscription ērān still retained this meaning, cogent 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 as well attested past the early on Sassanid period. Both ērān and anērān announced in 3rd century calendrical text written past Mani. In an inscription of Ardashir'due south son and firsthand successor, Shapur I "apparently includes in Ērān regions such as Armenia and the Caucasus which were non inhabited predominantly by Iranians".^[xiv] In Kartir's inscriptions (written thirty years later on 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.^[14] 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]

Etymology of "Persia" [edit]

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 5th century BC to refer to Cyrus the Great'southward empire (a word understood to mean "land").^[15] Such words were taken from the Old Persian Pārsa – the name of the people from whom Cyrus the Dandy of the Achaemenid dynasty emerged and over whom he beginning ruled (before he inherited or conquered other Iranian Kingdoms). Thus, the term Farsi is an exonym, and Iranians never historically referred to Islamic republic of iran past that exonym.^{[ citation needed ]} The Pars tribe gave its proper noun to the region where they lived (the modern day province is called Fars/Pars), just the province in ancient times was smaller than its current surface area.^{[ citation needed ]} In Latin, the proper noun for the whole empire was Persia, while the Iranians knew it as Iran or Iranshahr.^{[ commendation needed ]}

In the after parts of the Bible, where this kingdom is oft mentioned (Books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah), information technology is called Paras (Biblical Hebrew: פרס), or sometimes Paras u Madai ( פרס ומדי ), ("Persia and Media"). according to the volume Documents on the Western farsi Gulf's proper noun pp 22-36 The Arabs also 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 also they were using Bilād Ajam (Arabic: بلاد عجم) as an equivalent or synonym to the Persia. The Turks besides were using bilad (Belaad) e Ajam an equivalent or synonym to the Persia and Iranian near from oldest text that remained in Standard arabic, in Quran and jaheliya likewise the word ajam were used to refer to Persian.

A Greek folk etymology continued the proper noun to Perseus, a legendary character in Greek mythology. Herodotus recounts this story,^[xvi] devising a foreign son, Perses, from whom the Persians took the proper name. Plainly, the Persians themselves knew the story,^[17] equally Xerxes I tried to use it to suborn the Argives during his invasion of Greece, but ultimately failed to do so.

Two names in the Due west [edit]

The exonym Persia was the official name of Iran in the Western world before March 1935, but the Iranian people inside their country since the fourth dimension of Zoroaster (probably circa 1000 BC), or fifty-fifty before, have called their country Arya, Islamic republic of iran, Iranshahr, Iranzamin (Land of Islamic republic of iran), Aryānām (the equivalent of Islamic republic of iran in the proto-Iranian linguistic communication) or its equivalents. The term Arya has been used by the Iranian people, likewise as past the rulers and emperors of Iran, from the fourth dimension of the Avesta. Evidently from the time of the Sassanids (226–651 CE) Iranians have called it Islamic republic of iran, significant the "Land of the Aryans" and Iranshahr. In Eye Farsi sources, the proper name Arya and Iran is used for the pre-Sassanid Iranian empires as well as the Sassanid empire. As an example, the employ of the name "Iran" for Achaemenids in the Middle Persian book of Arda Viraf refers to the invasion of Iran past Alexander the Great in 330 BC.^[18] The Proto-Iranian term for Iran is reconstructed as *Aryānām (the genitive plural of the word *Arya); the Avestan equivalent is Airyanem (every bit in Airyanem Vaejah). The internal preference for "Iran" was noted in some Western reference books (e.thou. the Harmsworth Encyclopaedia, circa 1907, entry for Iran: "The name is at present the official designation of Persia.") merely for international purposes, Persia was the norm.

In the mid 1930s, the ruler of the country, Reza Shah Pahlavi, moved towards formalising the proper noun Islamic republic of iran instead of Persia for all purposes. In the British House of Commons the motion was reported upon by the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs equally follows:^[xix]

On the 25th December [1934] the Persian Ministry building for Foreign Diplomacy addressed a round memorandum to the Foreign Diplomatic Missions in Tehran requesting that the terms "Iran" and "Iranian" might be used in official correspondence and conversation equally from the adjacent 21st March, instead of the words "Persia" and "Farsi" hitherto in current employ. His Majesty'due south Minister in Tehran has been instructed to accede to this asking.

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 regime during the Tehran Conference for the old and distinct name "Persia to be used by the United Nations [i.e., the Allies] for the elapsing of the common War". His asking was approved immediately past the Iranian Foreign Ministry. The Americans, all the same, continued using Islamic republic of iran equally they then had little interest in Iraq to cause whatsoever such confusion.

In the summer of 1959, post-obit concerns that the native proper name had, as one politician^{[ who? ]} put it, "turned a known into an unknown", a committee was formed, led by noted scholar Ehsan Yarshater, to consider the result over 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 exist used interchangeably.^[3] Today, both terms are common; Persia mostly in historical and cultural contexts, "Iran" by and large in political contexts.

In recent years well-nigh exhibitions of Western farsi history, culture and fine art in the earth have used the exonym Persia (east.g., "Forgotten Empire; Ancient Persia", British Museum; "7000 Years of Persian Art", Vienna, Berlin; and "Persia; Thirty Centuries of Culture and Art", Amsterdam).^[20] In 2006, the largest drove of historical maps of Iran, entitled Historical Maps of Persia, was published in the Netherlands.^[21]

Recent debate [edit]

In the 1980s, Professor Ehsan Yarshater (editor of the Encyclopædia Iranica) started to publish manufactures on this thing (in both English language and Persian) in Rahavard Quarterly, Pars Monthly, Iranian Studies Journal, etc. After him, a few Iranian scholars and researchers such equally Prof. Kazem Abhary, and Prof. Jalal Matini followed the issue. Several times since so, Iranian magazines and websites have published manufactures from those who concord or disagree with usage of Persia and Persian in English language.

There are many Iranians in the W who prefer Persia and Persian as the English names for the country and nationality, similar to the usage of La Perse/persan in French. According to Hooman Majd, the popularity of the term Persia amongst the Iranian diaspora stems from the fact that "'Persia' connotes a glorious by they would like to exist identified with, while 'Islamic republic of iran' since 1979 revolution… says cipher to the world merely Islamic fundamentalism."^[4]

Official names [edit]

Since 1 April 1979, the official name of the Iranian state is Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران), which is generally translated every bit the Islamic Democracy of Islamic republic of iran in English.

Other official names were Dowlat-eastward Aliyye-ye Irân (Western farsi: دولت علیّه ایران) pregnant the Sublime State of Persia and Kešvare Šâhanšâhiye Irân (Persian: کشور شاهنشاهی ایران) meaning Imperial State of Persia and the Purple Land of Iran after 1935.

Come across also [edit]

• Iran (discussion)

Bibliography [edit]

• The History of the Idea of Iran, A. Shapur Shahbazi in Birth of the Persian Empire by 5. South. Curtis and Southward. Stewart, 2005, ISBN i-84511-062-5

Notes [edit]

1. ^ 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 besides appears 4 times in Onetime Persian: One is in the Behistun inscription, where ariya- is the name of a language or script (DB four.89). The other three instances occur in Darius I'southward inscription at Naqsh-e Rustam (DNa 14-xv), in Darius I's inscription at Susa (DSe 13-xiv), and in the inscription of Xerxes I at Persepolis (XPh 12-xiii). In these, the two Achaemenid dynasts draw themselves as pārsa pārsahyā puça ariya ariyaciça "a Persian, son of a Western farsi, an Ariya, of Ariya origin". "The phrase with ciça, "origin, descendance", assures that information technology [i.e. ariya] is an indigenous name wider in meaning than pārsa and not a simple adjectival epithet."^[13]

References [edit]

1. ^ A. Fishman, Joshua (2010). Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: Disciplinary and Regional Perspectives (Volume one). 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 state in diverse languages
2. ^ Mallory 1991, p. 125. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMallory1991 (help)
3. ^ ^{a b} Yarshater, Ehsan Persia or Iran, Western farsi or Farsi Archived 2010-10-24 at the Wayback Auto, Iranian Studies, vol. XXII no. 1 (1989)
4. ^ ^{a b} Majd, Hooman, The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Mod Iran, past Hooman Majd, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Grouping, 23 September 2008, ISBN 0385528426, 9780385528429. p. 161
5. ^ William Westward. Malandra (twenty July 2005). "ZOROASTRIANISM i. HISTORICAL REVIEW". Retrieved 14 January 2011.
6. ^ Nicholas Sims-Williams. "EASTERN IRANIAN LANGUAGES". Retrieved xiv January 2011.
7. ^ "Islamic republic of iran". Retrieved 14 Jan 2011.
8. ^ Thou. Hoffmann. "AVESTAN LANGUAGE I-Iii". Retrieved 14 January 2011.
9. ^ Pierre., Briant (2006). From Cyrus to Alexander : a history of the Western farsi Empire. Eisenbrauns. ISBN978-1-57506-120-seven. OCLC 733090738.
10. ^ Hutter, Manfred (12 Dec 2015). "Probleme iranischer Literatur und Organized religion unter den Achämeniden". Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 127 (4): 547–564. doi:x.1515/zaw-2015-0034. ISSN 1613-0103. S2CID 171378786.
11. ^ ^{a b c d e f} MacKenzie, David Niel (1998). "Ērān, Ērānšahr". Encyclopedia Iranica. Vol. 8. Costa Mesa: Mazda. Archived from the original on xiii March 2017. Retrieved xiv Jan 2012.
12. ^ Schmitt, Rüdiger (1987). "Aryans". Encyclopedia Iranica. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 684–687.
13. ^ ^{a b} Bailey, Harold Walter (1987). "Arya". Encyclopedia Iranica. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 681–683. Archived from the original on three March 2016. Retrieved fourteen Jan 2012.
14. ^ ^{a b} Gignoux, Phillipe (1987). "Anērān". Encyclopedia Iranica. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 30–31.
15. ^ Liddell & Scott (1882). Henry George Liddell; Robert Scott (eds.). Lexicon of the Greek Language. Oxford. p. 1205.
16. ^ Herodotus. "61". Histories. Vol. Book 7.
17. ^ Herodotus. "150". Histories. Vol. Book 7.
18. ^ Arda Viraf (one:4; one:five; 1:nine; ane:x; ane:12; etc.)
19. ^ HC Deb twenty February 1935 vol 298 cc350-1 351
20. ^ Hermitage (twenty September 2007). ""Persia", Hermitage Amsterdam". Hermitage. Hermitage. Archived from the original on 28 April 2007. Retrieved three May 2007. Persian objects at Hermitage
21. ^ Brill (20 September 2006). "Full general Maps of Persia 1477 - 1925". Brill website. Brill. Archived from the original on 21 April 2006. Retrieved three May 2006. Iran, or Persia equally it was known in the West for nearly of its long history, has been mapped extensively for centuries only the absence of a skilful cartobibliography has ofttimes deterred scholars of its history and geography from making utilise 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 ...

External links [edit]

• Publication of Full general Maps of Persia (Iran) in The netherlands at payvand.com
• The names of Iran in the grade of history at hamshahrionline.ir
• Iran and Persia- Are they the same? at heritageinstitute.com

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Iran

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