آریان

Persian

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Arya (Iran)

Etymology

Borrowed from French aryen or English Aryan by Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani in the late 19th century.^[1] Ultimately from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Áryas. Doublet of (ir, “Iranian”), which was inherited, and (âriyâ, “Aryan”), which is a learned borrowing.

Pronunciation

(Iran, formal) IPA^(key): ,

Readings
Iranian reading^?	âryân, âriyân

Noun

آریان • (âryân or âriyân) (plural آریان‌ها (âryân-hâ) or آریانان (âryânân))

Aryan
Synonym: آریا (âriyâ)
- 1890s, Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, در بیان ملت آریانا [dar bayân-e mellat-e âryânâ]‎:
  خوشا قوم آریان نیکوتبار
  که ایران از آنان بود یادگار
  xošâ qowm-e âryân-e niku-tabâr
  ke irân az ânân bovad yâdegâr
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 20th century, Mohammad-Taqi Bahar, جزر و مد سعادت [jazr o madd-e sa'âdat]‎:
  ناگه به فر ایزدی از بیشه شد پدید
  یعقوب لیث‌، شیر بیابان سیستان
  آزادی عجم را بنیان نهاد و کرد
  سهم عرب برون ز دل قوم آریان
  nâgah be farr-e izadi az biše šod padid
  ya'qub-e leys, šir-e biyâbân-e sistân
  âzâdi-ye ajam râ bonyân nehâd o kard
  sahm-e arab borun ze del-e qowm-e âryân
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Related terms

آریانا (âryânâ, “Ariana”)
ایران‌ویج (êrânvêj, “Realm of Aryans, Airyanem Vaejah”)

Proper noun

آریان • (âryân or âriyân)

a male given name, Aryan

References

^ Zia-Ebrahimi R. (2011) “Self-Orientalization and Dislocation: The Uses and Abuses of the “Aryan” Discourse in Iran”, in Iranian Studies‎, volume 44, number 4, →DOI, pages 445-472:
In the entire corpus of Iranian literature there is no trace of the today ubiquitous Aryan race (nezhàd-e àriyàyi), until the twentieth century. There are ancient occurrences of ariya in the Achaemenid and Sasanian periods, there is the Greek (and later Latin) arioi, and Hamza al-Isfahani used ariya as an alternative to Iran in the tenth century AD. But as we will see ariya had a more restrictive nature and was never attached to anything even remotely resembling “race.” (...) It was Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, a radical nationalist author, who in several undated books probably all written in the 1890s came up with the first mention of the term Aryan in modern Iranian writing. (...) When it comes to his pioneering references to the Aryan race, it is interesting to note that Kermani wrote àriyàn, which is a transliteration into Persian of Aryan in English or aryen in French, as Iranian authors had then not yet merged the European neologism with the Avestic and Old Persian term ariya. Sadeq Rezazadeh Shafaq (1897–1971) (...) was the first Iranian author to translate the European term Aryan into àriyà (adj. àriyàyi), rather than transliterate it as àriyàn like Kermani. (...) When Kermani, Rezazadeh-Shafaq and Pirniya introduced the term Aryan (àriyàn, later àriyàyi), the original meaning of ariya as Iranian was lost. It is safe to assert that in modern Iran, àriyàyi is not invoked as meaning Iran or Iranian or to denote a community of language and culture, but exclusively as evidence of Iranians’ alleged racial bond with Europeans.

[1] Zia-Ebrahimi R. (2011) “Self-Orientalization and Dislocation: The Uses and Abuses of the “Aryan” Discourse in Iran”, in Iranian Studies‎, volume 44, number 4, →DOI, pages 445-472:
In the entire corpus of Iranian literature there is no trace of the today ubiquitous Aryan race (nezhàd-e àriyàyi), until the twentieth century. There are ancient occurrences of ariya in the Achaemenid and Sasanian periods, there is the Greek (and later Latin) arioi, and Hamza al-Isfahani used ariya as an alternative to Iran in the tenth century AD. But as we will see ariya had a more restrictive nature and was never attached to anything even remotely resembling “race.” (...) It was Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani, a radical nationalist author, who in several undated books probably all written in the 1890s came up with the first mention of the term Aryan in modern Iranian writing. (...) When it comes to his pioneering references to the Aryan race, it is interesting to note that Kermani wrote àriyàn, which is a transliteration into Persian of Aryan in English or aryen in French, as Iranian authors had then not yet merged the European neologism with the Avestic and Old Persian term ariya. Sadeq Rezazadeh Shafaq (1897–1971) (...) was the first Iranian author to translate the European term Aryan into àriyà (adj. àriyàyi), rather than transliterate it as àriyàn like Kermani. (...) When Kermani, Rezazadeh-Shafaq and Pirniya introduced the term Aryan (àriyàn, later àriyàyi), the original meaning of ariya as Iranian was lost. It is safe to assert that in modern Iran, àriyàyi is not invoked as meaning Iran or Iranian or to denote a community of language and culture, but exclusively as evidence of Iranians’ alleged racial bond with Europeans.

[1]