Introduction



Since the name of this column is Iranology, it is only befitting to define the concepts of Iran, Iranians, and Iranian Languages. These definitions are not to promote any particular point of view or theory, rather to set-up a working frame for the rest of these chapters. All these definitions come from my readings and have no claim to be generally agreed upon.



Where is Iran?



Many of us, when hearing the term Iran, are reminded of the modern country with its established political boundaries and geographical limits. More than a few also know that until a short time ago, the political term “Iran” comprised of not only the modern day Iran, but also parts of Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, as well as Republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, and parts of the UAE. This extended political boundary pretty much defines Iran under the rule of Shah Abbas I (1588-1629 CE).



But was Iran always this size? Achaemenids ruled over a much larger land, was that all Iran too? Buyids had control of a fraction of modern day Iran, and the Transoxiana based Samanids barely reached modern day Iran at all; so, where Buyids and Samanids Iranian?



To answer these, we must first answer the question: what does Iran mean? Iran is a derivative of Middle Persian Iranshahr (alt. Ēranshahr), which in turn was developed from Old Persian *aeryan-xshathra: “The Realm of the Iranians/Aryans”. The term is not attested in the Achaemenid times, and is first referred to as a political term in the Sasanian governmental documents, where it was used to describe the core regions of the Sasanian Empire. It was set clearly apart from territories outside this core area: Yemen, Syria, parts of Anatolia, and the Kushan territories.



Until the Safavid time, the term Iran was used in mainly cultural means, denoting the people who shared a distinctive and identifiable Iranian culture. That is the reason for designation of the term “Iran” and “Iranian” to the people as distant as Uzbeks and Kurds, Isfahanis and Armenians, and other populations living in the “Iranian World”, not because they have ever necessarily lived under the same political regime. Generally, limiting the socio-cultural boundaries of a nation to a political entity is a distinctly 18th and 19th century European idea, and has a very short history in an entity like Iran whose varied population has always lived with the reality of similarity amid difference, and in which the Mowlana of “Balkh” considered himself a country man of Hafez of “Shirz”.



So, the application of the term Iran in historical times has largely been based on cultural measures, and that is the way the term would be treated in these chapters.



What are “Iranian Languages”?



One of the most common misconceptions of people about Iran, even Iranians themselves, is the definition of Iranian Languages, Persian, and various names of Persian in European languages. Iranian is often equated with Persian, while Farsi is by some considered to be a different language altogether! Other than the last matter, the fact that Farsi and Persian are the same language, Farsi being the Persian pronunciation of the term “Persian”, other issues involving the Iranian Languages would be treated with more detail below.



Iranian Languages is the name for a family of languages that is theoretically descended from an unattested language called Proto-Iranian. Respectively, this supposed language and by extension the whole Iranian Languages family belong to the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages which covers the languages of Europe (with the exception of Hungarian and Finnish), Iran, and non-Dravidian languages of India.



History of Iranian Languages is divided into three stages. First stage is the “Old Iranian” (ca. 1200-200 BCE) from which Avestan (one of the oldest attested Indo-European languages) and Old Persian are the only attested languages, but by no means are the only ones (Median and Saka are two other Old Iranian languages from which we have no reliable data). The “Middle Iranian” period (ca. 200 BCE-800 CE) includes many attested languages among which Parthian, Middle Persian, Sogdian, Khwarazmian, and Bactrian are the most commonly recognised ones. The “New Iranian” stage (800 CE-Present) is the period of our Modern Persian, Kurdish, Pashtu, Tati, Kumzari, Waxi, and many other attested and living languages.



So, as you can see, Persian is only one of the many different Iranian languages that have existed for at least the last 3,000 years.



And now, the Aryans!



This is a subject that will be discussed further in the future, but it begs a little attention in this stage as well. Aryan is the name of ancient tribes from whom many Iranians today claim descent. Regardless of the fact that the name Aryan was used in the past century for forging a national identity for Iranians, the claim of “pure” Aryan descent of Iranians leaves space for gaps. The Iranian Plateau was populated by many people before the arrival of Indo-European Aryans. Kassites, Gutis, and Elamites are just some of the most well known of these native Iranian population, and it is obvious that following their settlement in Iran, Aryans intermarried with the local population and in a few generation, a homogenous population was created that formed the basis of the historical “Iranian” society.

This is notwithstanding the later intermingling of this population with Greeks, Romans, Hephtalites, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols. Thus, the claim of Aryan racial descent for current population of Iran seems historically unfounded and objectively absurd. What connects Modern Iran to a distant Indo-European/Aryan past is the existence of Iranian languages as the language family of the majority of the population. In the forthcoming chapters, we will talk about Iran before the Aryans and Aryans before Iran in more detail.



Selected Sources
Savory, Roger. “Studies on the history of Safawid Iran.” London : Variorum Reprints, 1987
For more information regarding Iran and also the Sasanian geography of Iran, see the following:
Gnoli, Gherardo. “The Idea of Iran.” Roma : Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1989
Daryaee, Touraj. “Shahrestaniha-I Eranshahr.” Costa Mesa,Mazda Publishers, 2000
A great introduction to Indo-European studies in general is:
Mallory, J.P. “In Search of Indo-Europeans”. New York, N.Y. : Thames and Hudson, 1989
A quick survey of Iranian language family is provided in the following:
Oranskii, I. M. “Les langues iraniennes“, Paris, Klincksieck, 1977
http://www.iranologie.com/history/ilf.html