Arya (Iran)

This article is about the ethnonym Arya within the early history of the Iranians. For other uses, see Aryan (disambiguation).

Arya (Avestan: 𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀, airiia; Old Persian: 𐎠𐎼𐎡𐎹, ariyaʰ; Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭩𐭫‎, er; Parthian: 𐭀𐭓𐭉‎, ary; Bactrian: αρια, aria) was the ethnonym used by Iranians during the early History of Iran.^[1] 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.^[2][3][4]

During Old Iranian times, the term was connected with one's lineage, with speaking an Iranian language and with the worship of Ahura Mazda.^[5] Being an Arya, therefore, had ethnic, linguistic and religious aspects.^[6] During the Middle Iranian period, it acquired a distinct political aspect through the concept of Eran Shahr (Aryas' dominion).^[7] Arya was also contrasted with Anarya (Avestan: 𐬀𐬥𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀, anairiia; Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭭𐭩𐭥‎, aner), denoting non-Iranian lands and peoples.^[8]

After the Islamic conquest of Iran, the ethnonym fell out of use, but the term Eran experienced a revival during the Iranian Renaissance, now as a toponym for Greater Iran.^[9] The modern ethnonym Iranian is a back-formation from the toponym Eran, itself a back-formation from the older Arya.^[10]

Origin and deliniation of the term

See also: Aryan and Indo-Iranians

The term Arya in different Iranian languages is assumed to derive from an unattested Proto-Iranian Áryah, itself derived from Proto-Indo-Iranian Áryas. As an ethnonym, it is also found in other Indo-Iranian peoples.^[11] In Ancient India, the term Arya (Sanskrit: आर्य, ārya) is found as a self designation of the people of the Vedas. On the other hand, no general ethnonym is found among the Iranic steppe nomads, but a derivation of Arya appears as a self designation of the Alans, which attest to the continued presence of the term in the steppe regions as well.^[12]

Archeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian migrations during the Old Avestan period (c. 1500-1000 BCE)

The Proto-Indo-Iranian people were mobile pastoralists who lived in the Eurasian steppe during the Middle Bronze Age.^[13] They are connected with the Andronovo and Sintashta archeological cultures.^[14] Already during the Late Bronze Age, the Indo-Iranian unity began to split and during antiquity a number of culturally distinct Indo-Iranian subgroups had emerged.^[15] There is no generally accepted terminology in modern scholarship that fully captures this situation, but those Indo-Iranian tribes that migrated into India are generally referred to as Indo-Aryans.^[16] However, subgroupings for the individual Iranophone groups vary in the literature. A common demarcation is based on the cultural and religious differences that developed between the groups which maintained their mobile, pastoral lifestyle in the Eurasian steppe and those groups which moved southward into Greater Iran and underwent a process of sedentarization and cultural change. The former are sometimes referred to as Iranic, i.e., speaking an Iranian language, while the term Iranian may be reserved for groups associated with Iran in a historical and cultural sense.^[17] The latter are sometimes further subdivided into Eastern and Western Iranians based on linguistic criteria.^[15]

A distinct identity of the Arya in Greater Iran is already present in the Avesta, i.e., the collection of sacred texts in Zoroastrianism. Jean Kellens for example notes, how the Avesta describes a common creation myth through the primordial man Gayomart, a shared history through the Pishdadian and Kayanian dynasties, a pronounced in-group and out-group dichotomy through the enmity between the Turyas and Aryas, as well as a shared religious practice through the worship of Ahura Mazda; elements which are not found in other Indo-Iranian groups.^[18] Likewise, Elton L. Daniel notes how "many customs of the Avestan people seem to have been almost deliberately designed to reinforce a sense of identity as a people apart from the non-Aryans and even other Aryans."^[19]

Avestan period

See also: Avestan period

The Avesta, i.e., the collection of canonical texts of Zoroastrianism, provides the single largest literary source on the Old Iranian period. As regards the geographical boundaries of the Avesta, the place names show that the Aryas lived in the eastern portions of Greater Iran.^[20] As regards its chronology, the different parts of the text are assumed to have been produced, revised and redacted over a long period of time and therefore reflect a large time span of possibly several centuries.^[21] There are no dateable events in the Avesta, but the complete lack of any discernible influence by the Persians or Medes makes a time frame after the 5th century BCE for most of the texts unlikely.^[22][23][24] Most scholars, therefore, assume that the bulk of the Old Avestan material reflects the end of the second millenium BCE and the Young Avestan portion reflects the first half of the first millenium BCE.^[25][26][27]

The Old Avestan portion of the text, assumed to be authored by Zarathustra and his immediate followers, only contains a reference to Airyaman, which has an unclear connection to Arya.^[28] The Young Avestan portion of the text, however, frequently use the term Arya as the endonym of the Avestan people.^[18] Next to its singular nominative form (airiia), the word appears in the plural (aire, Aryas), in the locative singular (airiiene, place where the Arya), the locative plural (airiio, place where the Aryas), the genetive plural (airiianąm, Aryas' or of the Aryas)^{[note 1]} or as an adjective (airiianəm, Arya).^[29]

Geographical horizon of the Aryas of the Avesta vis-a-vis other Indo-Iranian groups during the Young Avestan period (c. 900-500 BCE).

In the Avesta, the ethnonym Arya qualifies a number of toponyms, most prominently Airyanem Vaejah (airiianəm vaēǰō, the Arya expanse). This place name appears in a number of mythical passages but may also refer to a real-world place depending on the context.^[30] The toponym Aryoshayana (airiio.shaiianem, place where the Aryas dwell) appears only one time in the Mihr Yasht. In this text, it is used as an umbrella term for a number of eastern regions centered on northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan.^[31] The Avesta also refers several times to the Airyanam Dahyunam (airiianąm dahyunąm, Aryas' lands). In the Fravardin Yasht, these lands are contrasted with the lands of the Turyas, Sairimas, Dahas and Sainus. The Turyas are the Turanians from later legends and are typically located beyond the Oxus river. The Sairimas have been connected to the Sarmatians and Sauromatians based on linguistic similarities.^[32] Likewise, the Dahas may be related to Dahaes or to the Dasas known from the Vedas.^[33] The identity of the Sainus, however, is unknown. In general, scholars assume that these ethnonyms refer to Iranic steppe nomads living in the Eurasian steppe to the north.^[34][35] An Iranic identity of these groups may be remembered in the legends surrounding the mythical king Thraetaona, who divided the world among his three sons: The oldest son Tur (Turya) was given the north and east, the second son Sarm (Sairima) was given the west, and the youngest son Iraj (Arya) was given the south.^[36]

The Avesta also conveys a clear dichotomy between the Aryas and their enemies, the Turyas, through a number of stories.^[37] They center around the attempts of the Turyas and their mythical King Franrasyan to acquire the Khvarenah of the Aryas (airiianąm xᵛarənō). The fighting between the two peoples stops for some time when Erekhsha (Ǝrəxša), described as the "most swift-arrowed of the Aryas" (xšviwi išvatəmō airiianąm), manages to shoot an arrow as far as the Oxus river, which from then on marks the border between Iran and Turan.^[29] Kavi Xosrau, described as the "hero of the Aryas" (arša airiianąm), eventually manages to kill Franrasyan with the help of "all the Aryas" at the "white forest" (vīspe.aire.razuraya.^[38] These stories and its characters occur prominently in many later Iranian texts like the Bahman-nameh, the Borzu Nama, the Darab-nama, and the Kush Nama. However, their most significant impact comes from forming the core the Iranian national epic, the Shahnameh, thus becoming a crucial element of Iranian identity.^[39]

Achaemenid period

Close up of the Behistun inscription by Darius the Great.

During the Achaemenid period, the first epigraphically attested references to the ethnonym Arya appear. By the late 6th–early 5th century BCE, the Achaemenid kings Darius the Great and his son Xerxes I produced a number of inscriptions in which they use the term. In those inscriptions, Arya has linguistic, ethnic and religious connotations.^[40]

In the trilingual (Old Persian, Akkadian, and Elamite) Behistun inscription, authored by Darius during his reign (522 – 486 BCE), Old Persian is called Arya, indicating it to be an umbrella term for Iranian languages.^[41] Furthermore the Elamite version of the inscription portrays the Zoroastrian supreme god Ahura Mazda as the "god of the Aryas" (ura-masda naap harriia-naum).^[42] In addition to this linguistic and religious use, Arya also appears on some inscriptions by Darius and Xerxes, where they describe themselves as "an Achaemenid, a Persian, son of a Persian, and an Arya, of Arya lineage". This expression has been interpreted as outward going circles of kinship, beginning with the inner clan (Achaemenids), then the tribe (Persians) and finally the outmost nation (Arya).^[43] However, Arya in this phrase has also been interpreted as expressing a connection to the cultural and religious traditions of the Aryas of the Avesta.^[44]

During the Acheamenid period, we also get the first outside perspective on the ethnonym. In his Histories, Herodotus provides a number of information on the Medes. Herodotus reports that, in the past, the Medes used to be called Arioi, i.e., Aryas. He also names the Arizantoi as one of the six tribes composing the Medes. This is interpreted as *arya-zantu ('of Arya lineage').^[45]

Hellenistic and Parthian period

See also: Ariana

Ariana according to Eratosthenes shown in yellow.

The Acheamenid empire ended with the conquest of Alexander the Great, after which Greater Iran became part of the Hellenistic world. This substantially increased the knowledge of Greek authors of those eastern regions. The Greek polymath Eratosthenes describes those regions in a his Гεωγραϕικά (Geographika). The work is now lost but cited by the historian and geographer Strabo in his Geographica.^[46] In those books, Erasthothenes and Strabo (Strab. 15.2.8) identify the country of Ariana, i.e., the country of the Aryas. Ariana covers most of eastern Greater Iran and coincides to a significant degree with the area delineated in the Avesta.^[47] In his Bibliotheca historica, the ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus names Zarathustra as one of the Arianoi.^[41]

The Parthian period saw the Iranian Parthians gain control over most of Greater Iran. This did, however, only lead to a limited revival of Iranian culture, as the Arsacid ruling dynasty had an overall cosmopolitan approach and patronized both Iranian and Hellenistic elements. Consequently, the main reference to the ethnonym Arya during the Parthian period is found in Bactria, which was not part of their empire. In the Rabatak inscription, Arya is used as the name of the Bactrian language, showing its continued use as an umbrella term for Iranian languages. This linguistic aspect of Arya, therefore, parallels the one described in Behistun inscription by Darius the Great several centuries earlier.^[41] Likewise, Strabo quotes in his Geographika (Strab. 15.2.8) Erasthothenes, who observed that the people of Persia, Media, Sogdia and Bactria all speak nearly the same language.

Sassanian period

See also: Iran (word)

Parthian version of the trilingual inscription at Ka'ba-ye Zartosht by Shapur I.

The Sassanian period saw a pronounced resurgence of Iranian culture and religion and its close interaction with political power under the influential Zoroastrian high priest Kartir on one side and a number of Sassanian kings on the other side.^[48] Arya appears in Middle Persian as 𐭠𐭩𐭫‎ (er) and in Parthian as 𐭀𐭓𐭉‎ (ary), most prominently in Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht.^[49] In this inscription and on a number of coins by Bahram II, Arya appears jointly with the term Mazdayasna, indicating a close connection between the political and religious sphere.^[50]

The Sassanian period also saw the emergence of Arya as a political term in the form of Eran (𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭‎, ērān) and Eran Shahr (𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭𐭱𐭲𐭥𐭩‎, ērān šahr). Here, Shahr (𐭱𐭲𐭥𐭩‎, šahr) goes back to Avestan Kshatra (𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬚𐬭𐬀, xšaθra) with the meaning rule, dominion or control.^[51] Eran already appears under Ardashir I as Shahan Shah Eran (King of Kings of the Aryas), whereas Shahan Shah Eran Shahr (King of Kings of the Dominion of the Aryas) appears in Kartir's inscription at Naqsh-e Rajab and several royal inscriptions starting with Shapur I and continuing with his successors.^[52][53] Initially, the term Eran was still understood to be the genetive plural of ēr with the case ending -ān.^[54] However, Middle Persian saw the gradual loss of case endings and their replacement with particles. As a result, the qualifier Eran became increasingly interpreted as an actual place name, i.e., expressions like Shahan Shah Eran and Shahan Shah Eran Shahr became King of Kings of Eran and King of Kings of the Dominion of Eran, respectively.^{[9][note 2]}

Islamic period

See also: Shu'ubiyya and Iranian Intermezzo

After the Islamic conquest of Iran, Arya and its derivatives fell out of use, possibly due to their perceived connotation with the Zoroastrian religion.^[55] However, the 9th century saw a revival of Iranian national sentiment, with a number of local Iranian dynasties coming to power.^[56] During this time, both Eran and Eran Shahr saw a resurgence, but were now generally understood as purely geographical terms. This can be seen above all in the emergence of Persian ایرانی‎ (irâni, Iranian), as a back formation from ایران‎ (irân, Iran).^[57] Persian irâni, therefore, replaced the Pre-Islamic Arya and its derivatives as the ethnonym of the Iranian peoples and became the origin of English Iranian and its cognates in other Western languages.

Modern period

See also: Iranian nationalism

The modern period in the history of Iran saw the rise of Iranian nationalism and with it a renewed focus on the ancient national past of the pre-Islamic Iran.^[58] This became institutionalized when in 1935 Reza Shah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, issued a decree that changed the name, used for international correspondance, from Persia to Iran. His successor Mohammad Reza Pahlavi officially used of the title of Aryamehr (Persian: آریامهر, light of the Aryas), making it the first time since the Sassanian period that the ethnonym Arya was used.

References

Notes

1. English no longer has a proper genetive case. As a result, an Avestan genitive construction like airyanąm dahyunąm can be rendered either as the Aryas' lands (using the Saxon genetive) or the lands of the Aryas (using the preposition of).
2. An analogous phenomenon in English would be place names formed through the Saxon genetive. Thus, a term like Moe's Tavern is usually shortened to Moe's.

Citations

1. Bailey 1987, "ARYA, an ethnic epithet in the Achaemenid inscriptions and in the Zoroastrian Avestan tradition".
2. Hambartsumian 2022, p. 1: "The Iranian identity emerges as the set of traits, which distinguishes Iranians from Indo-Aryans as well as other Iranian-speaking groups. Thus, it is not only a linguistic identity but cultural, [...]".
3. Gnoli 2006, p. 504: "The inscriptions of Darius I [...] and Xerxes, in which the different provinces of the empire are listed, make it clear that, between the end of the 6th century and the middle of the 5th century B.C.E., the Persians were already aware of belonging to the ariya "Iranian" nation".
4. Gershevitch 1968, p. 1: "Aryana means 'Iranian'".
5. Gnoli 1987, p. 20.
6. Kellens 2005, pp. 233-251.
7. Gnoli 1987, Chapter V. The Sassanians and the Birth of Iran.
8. Bailey 1987, "Over against the Arya lands stand those which are anairya- "non-Arya" (as in anairyǡ diŋhāvō, Yt. 19.68); this dichotomy was continued later in Persian tradition.".
9. MacKenzie 2011.
10. Schmitt 2000, p. 2.
11. Schmitt 1987.
12. Alemany 2000, pp. 3–4.
13. Witzel 2000, pp. 1-4.
14. Anthony 2007, Chapter Fifteen: Chariot Warriors of the Northern Steppes.
15. Witzel 2001, p. 3.
16. Kuzmina 2007, Part Three: The Genesis of Different Branches of Indo-Iranians.
17. Perry 1998, p. 517.
18. Kellens 2005.
19. Daniel 2012, p.10.
20. Witzel 2000, p.48:"The Vīdẽvdåδ list obviously was composed or redacted by someone who regarded Afghanistan and the lands surrounding it as the home of all Aryans (airiia), that is of all (eastern) Iranians".
21. Skjaervø 1995, pp. 160-161: "There is therefore no reason to believe that the texts contained in the younger Avesta belong to even the same century".
22. Gnoli 2011a, "It seems likely that this geographical part of the Avesta was intended to show the extent of the territory that had been acquired in a period that can not be well defined but that must at any rate have been between Zoroaster’s reforms and the beginning of the Achaemenian empire. The likely dating is therefore between the ninth and seventh centuries B.C.".
23. Skjaervø 1995, p. 166: "The fact that the oldest Young Avestan texts apparently contain no reference to western Iran, including Media, would seem to indicate that they were composed in eastern Iran before the Median domination reached the area.".
24. Boyce 1996, p. 191: "Had it been otherwise, and had Zoroastrianism been carried in its infancy to the Medes and Persians, these imperial people must inevitable have found mention in its religious works.".
25. Grenet 2005, p. 44: "It is difficult to imagine that the text was composed anywhere other than in South Afghanistan and later than the middle of the 6th century BC".
26. Vogelsang 2000, p. 62: "All of the above observations would indicate a date for the composition of the Videvdat list which would antedate, for a considerable time, the arrival in Eastern Iran of the Persian Acheamenids (ca. 550 B.C.)".
27. Skjaervø 2009, p. 43: "Young Avestan must have been quite close to Old Persian, which suggests it was spoken in the first half of the first millennium BC.".
28. Bailey 1959, p. 75.
29. Bailey 1987.
30. Boyce 1996, p. 144: "Another local name which is evidently traditional, and is also used at times with mythical connections, is Airyanem Vaejah, in Pahlavi Eranvej.".
31. Gershevitch 1967, p. 79.
32. Bailey 1987, p. 65: "In the Scythian field there are two names to be mentioned. The Sarmatai are in the Avesta Sairima-, and there are also the Sauromatai. The etyma of these two names are somewhat complex. The Sarmatai survived in the Zor. Pahl. slm *salm (the -l- is marked for -l-, not -r-, Bundashin TD 2, 106.15).".
33. Bailey 1959, p. 109: "A people called by the ethnic name Iran. daha-, now found in Old Persian daha placed before saka in an inscription of Xerxes (Persopolis h 26) has long been known. The Akkadian form is da-a-an for *daha-. The Avestan *daha- attested in the fem. dahi;- is an epithet of lands. Yasht 13.143-4 has the list airyanam ... tūiryanam ... sairimanam ... saininam ... dahinam ... From this we get : Arya-, Turiya-, Sarima-, Saini-, Daha-, as names of peoples known to the early litany of Yasht 13.".
34. Boyce 1996, p. 104: "In the Farvadin Yasht, 143-4, five divisions are recognized among the Iranians, namely the Airya (a term which the Avestan people appear to use of themselves), Tuirya, Sairima, Sainu and Dahi".
35. Daniel 2012, p. 52: "They also included tales of the Kayanian kings, culminating in the reign of Kavi Vishtaspa (Goshtasp) and the warfare between the Iranians and their natural enemies, the Turanians (probably nomadic peoples to the north of Iran, later identified with the Turks).".
36. Kuzmina 2007, p. 174 "In Iranian texts, the idea about the kinship of all Iranian-speaking languages is reflected in a legend of how the ancestor of the Iranians divided the land between three sons: Sairima, the forefather of Sauromatians (who dwelt in the historic period from the Don to the Urals), Tur, from whom the Turians originated (the northern part of Central Asia was called Turan), and the younger son Iraj, the ancestor of the Iranian population (Christensen 1934).".
37. Daniel 2012, p. 52.
38. Irannejad 2009.
39. Daniel 2012, p. 47: "[The Avestan] stories were so rich, detailed, coherent, and meaningful that they came to be accepted as records of actual events - so much so that they almost totally supplanted in collective memory the genuine history of ancient Iran.".
40. Stausberg 2011, pp.320-321.
41. Gnoli 2002.
42. Gnoli 2006.
43. Stausberg 2011, p. 321: "Seine Abstammung bestimmt er in drei Graden, Kreisen oder Stufen: Er bezeichnet sich als Achaimeniden, Perser, Sohn eines Persers, und als Arier, aus arischem Geschlecht".
44. Gnoli 1987, p. 16.
45. Brunner 1986.
46. Roller 2014.
47. Schmitt 2011.
48. Sprengling 1940.
49. Gnoli 2011b.
50. Stausberg 2011, p. 325: "Der Titel, und damit die Person des Königs, stellt somit eine Verbindung zwischen Königreich und Religion her, die für das Sasanidenreich zumindest in ideologischer Hinsicht kennzeichnend war".
51. Martínez & de Vaan 2014, p. 125.
52. Bailey 1959, p. 99.
53. Back 1978.
54. MacKenzie 2011, "This formulation, following his title "king of kings of the Aryans," makes it seem very likely that ērānšahr properly denoted the empire, while ērān was still understood, in agreement with its etymology (< OIr. *aryānām), as the (oblique) plural of the gentilic ēr (Parth. ary < Old Ir. arya-) "Aryan," i.e., "of the Iranians." ".
55. Stausberg 2011, p. 327: "Während das Land Iran in frühislamischer Zeit als al-‘ajam und al-furs firmierte, der sasanidische Landesname ērānšāhr also, vielleicht aufgrund seiner religiösen Implikationen, keine Verwendung mehr fand [...]".
56. Ashraf 2012.
57. MacKenzie 2011, "Nevertheless, the fact that Ērān was also generally understood geographically is shown by the formation of the adjective ērānag “Iranian,” which is first attested in the Bundahišn and contemporary works.".
58. Ashraf 2006.

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