Image: Persian art. Artist Alireza Aghmiri
Contents
Iran & Persia
Are They The Same?
The Difference Between Persia and Iran
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| Map of Iran and Central Asia |
The names Iran and Persia are often used interchangeably to mean the same country.
Iran is the name we use today. It is the legal and international recognized name. Persia is an older historical name whose origins we owe to the Greeks and the West in their classical writings and maps.
The name Persia comes from Pars, an area that is a province of Iran today (see the map at the bottom of this page). 2,500 years ago, when the present provinces of Iran were kingdoms, Pars was known as Parsa, and the kings of Parsa established an empire that came to be known in the West as the Persian empire - the largest empire the world have ever known to that point. In those days, Parsa was the dominant kingdom of all the Iranian or Aryan kingdoms. Today, to call all of Iran 'Persia', would be like calling all of Britain 'England'.
Ancient Iran
Iran is a relatively modern contraction of the name Airyana Vaeja (Land of the Airya or Aryans).
Over time, Airyana Vaeja became Airan-Vej, then Eran-Vej, then Eran, and finally Iran.
The borders of Iran have moved since the name was Airyana Vaeja. While we do not know the precise location of the original Airyana Vaeja, the Central Asian lands that are today part of Tajikistan, north-eastern Afghanistan, and southern Uzbekistan - all east of the northeast corner of present day Iran - are strong candidates.
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| Map showing Iran and Central Asia |
The Formation of Persia
Migration of Ancient Iranians
From the original people that inhabited Airyana Vaeja, the Aryan homeland (possibly quite small in size and extent originally), the Aryans migrated west and south to surrounding lands. In doing so, they formed fifteen additional kingdoms listed in the Zoroastrian scriptures in a book called the Vendidad. We therefore call these kingdoms the Vendidad nations. The migrations extended along the Aryan Trade Roads known commonly as the Silk Roads.
Iranian legends such as those contained in poet Ferdowsi's epic: the Shahnameh or Book of Kings, also talk about Airanian military campaigns west of the middle Aryan kingdom, Airan, centred around Balkh, in the north of Afghanistan. [As we have noted above the name Airyana Vaeja evolved into Airan Vej, Airan and finally Iran.] These campaigns extended west along the southern Caspian Sea and Elburz mountains into the Azerbaijan region, which is today in the northwest of Iran (see map above). In the legends, the first Airanian empire (consisting of the sixteen Vendidad nations) was established by King Feridoon and was ruled from the kingdom of Balkh (in northern Afghanistan today). The empire became large enough for it to be divided and administered by his three sons. Click here for a map of the sixteen Aryan nations.
After the chapter in the Vendidad had been written and closed, two Aryans groups emerged as kingdoms. These groups were the Medes (called Madai in the Old Persian language) and Persians (called Parsa in the Old Persian language).
The Persians appear to have been part of the western migration to the Azerbaijan region (in the west regions of the sixteen Vendidad nations) and from there southeast along the Zagros mountains (today along Iran's western border with Iraq) to the present-day province of Pars. The Medes appear to have stayed behind not moving as far west as Azerbaijan. They became the Persian's northern neighbours.
Persia
The Persians eventually settled in a region that forms the modern province of Pars (also called Fars) in south-central present-day Iran.
About 3,000 years ago, around the time when the Persians were settling into their new lands, the Medes rose to power amongst the various Aryan (Iranian) groups. Their empire which included most of the various Iranian / Aryan kingdoms including the original sixteen Vendidad nations, formed the second Aryan empire.
Then about 2,500 years ago, the Persians rose to power and became the dominant Aryan kingdom. Dominance amongst the Aryans groups passed from the Medes to the Persians when the Achaemenian king Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II) established the Persian empire (the third Aryan empire) in the sixth century BCE by bringing the nations within the Median empire under Persian rule. Cyrus then added surrounding non-Aryan countries to his Persian empire - especially countries to the west of Persia and Media. In this manner, the Persian empire grew to include lands that extended from the lower Indus valley in the southeast corner, to Central Asia in the northeast, to Babylon in the centre, Egypt and Ethiopia in the southwest, and Greece in the northwest. By the time Cyrus had finished putting together the Persian Empire, it had become the largest empire the world had ever known to that point in history. Because the Persian king ruled over other kings, he was called a king of kings - the Aryan title for emperor.
When the classical Greek writers began to write their histories, Parsa was the dominant Aryan nation. The Greek writer and historian Herodotus (485 - 420 BCE ) referred to the Persian empire as Persis or Persica, a name that became Persia in the west - a name which would define the entire Aryan nation for the next 2,000 years.
The Persian empire first came to a close at the hands of Alexander of Macedonia in 330 BCE. A general of Alexander's established the Seleucid empire which ruled over the previous Persian empire until the Seleucids were overthrown by the Aryan Parthians in 248 BCE. Parthia was a kingdom located in the northeast of present day Iran (around today's Khorasan province). Parthian rule lasted until it was replaced by the Persian Sassanian dynasty in 226 ACE.
First Use of the Name Iran
We find the first use of the name Eran as a name for the Aryan nation in the rock inscriptions of the Persian Sassanian kings (who ruled from 226 to 651 ACE). These inscription can still be seen at Naqsh-e-Rustam, a historical site containing royal tombs, and some 12 km northwest of the ancient Persian capital city of Persepolis in Pars. In the inscriptions, King Ardeshir I (226-241 ACE) is referred to as king of kings of Eran.
Ardeshir's son and successor King Shahpur (241-272 ACE) began to establish a second Persian empire and is referred to as king of kings of Eran and An-eran i.e. Aryan and non-Aryan kingdoms such as Syria, Cappadocia, and Cilicia. The words Eran-shahr meaning 'place of the Aryans' and a modern version of Airyana Vaeja, was also used by the Sassanians in describing the Iranian nation. These words would evolve to Iran-shahr.
The west continued to call Eran 'Persia', presumably out of habit and because the rulers were Persian, a tradition that continued until the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi. In 1935 CE, Reza Shah asked those countries with whom Iran had diplomatic relations, to stop using the name Persia and formally refer to the country as Iran. Some map-makers and authors were slow to change and the name Persia continued to be used as an informal name in place of the more formal name, Iran.
Pars (Arabized as Fars - see below), the ancient seat of the Persian empire, was now a province within Iran. Pars was no longer used as the location of the country's capital. In the years following the Arab invasion of Iran, a 17th century CE king of the Safavid dynasty made his residence in the north-central Iranian town of Tehran. Later, in 1795 CE, the Qajar kings formally made Tehran Iran's capital, a position Tehran has held since then.
Pars and Fars
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| Map of Modern Iran showing Pars / Fars |
In the 7th century ACE, the Arabs conquered Iran and converted the mainly Zoroastrian population to Islam. The Arabs pronounced the name Pars as Fars and this version of the name has persisted even after the departure of the Arabs.
In the map of modern Iran at the right, the province of Fars (old Pars or Parsa) can be seen in the bottom-centre or southern Iran.
Parsi and Farsi
The word Parsi (mispronounced by the Arabs as Farsi) means 'of Pars' or Persian. It can mean the language of Pars, or a person from Pars (it is used as a last name), or for that matter, anything from Pars.
While the words Parsi and Farsi are synonymous, today Farsi is used to mean the Persian language, while Parsi is the name given to the initial Zoroastrians refugees who fled to India after the Arab invasion of Iran.
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• © Author: K. E. Eduljee, Zoroastrian Heritage, 2007-12 • Contact • Page validated by W3C.org