Airyanem Vaejah

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Airyanəm Vaējah , which roughly means "The wide [land] of the Aryans" in German, is one of the 16 perfect lands from the holy book of the Avesta . It is considered the original home of the Indo-Iranians (" Aryans ") who, according to linguistic, religious and cultural-historical indications, split into an Indo-Aryan and an Iranian branch at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC . Although Airyanəm Vaējah is described as a “perfect land”, according to the Avesta Vendidad, winter lasts ten months. At the end of winter, the country is regularly threatened by flooding.

Etymology and Related Words

In the Avestan language , Airyanəm Vaējah is formed from the plural genitive of the words Airya and Vaējah . The meaning of the word Vaējah is uncertain. It can be related to the Vedic word vej / vij . Vej / vij, on the other hand, can mean a fast flowing river , germ or seed in the German region .

Airya (dt. "Aryans") was the self-designation of a group of the earliest speakers of Indo-Iranian languages and can be found in ancient Iranian sources in Achaemenid inscriptions as well as in the Zoroastrian traditions of the Avesta and (in the form āˊrya- ) in ancient Indian . According to linguistic, religious and cultural-historical indications, the Indo-Iranians must have been a unified group, which in the early phase experienced a common linguistic and cultural development independently of other Indo-European groups.

Historical concepts

The historical location of Airyanəm Vaējah is still uncertain. In the first chapter of the Vendidad 16 countries are listed and some researchers think that Airyanəm Vaējah is north of these countries. Some experts like Bahram Farahvashi and Nasser Takmil Homayoun claim that it was in Khorezmia . This view is shared by historian Elton L. Daniel ( University of Hawaii System ). Ali Akbar Dehchoda called Khorezmia the cradle of the Aryan tribe . However, because of the long winter, Michael Witzel assumes that Airyanəm Vaējah is a pastureland in the mountains of central Afghanistan.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ P. Oktor Skjærvø: The Avesta as source for the early history of the Iranians. In: George Erdosy (Ed.): The Indo-Aryans of ancient South Asia. Language, material culture and ethnicity (= Indian Philology and South Asian Studies. Vol. 1). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1995, ISBN 3-11-014447-6 , pp. 164-176.
  2. ↑ James Darmesteter : The Zend-Avesta (= Sacred Books of the East . American edition. Vol. 3). Christian Literature, New York NY 1898, Joseph H. Peterson: Avesta. Vendidad (English): Fargard 1. (online) .
  3. ↑ a b Rüdiger Schmitt : Aryans. In: Encyclopædia Iranica . online edition, 2011: "[...] The linguistic history and the history of their religion and culture indicate that the Aryans (Indo-Iranians) must originally have formed one single people. Only about the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC did their unity split up, when Indo-Aryans and Iranians went separate ways. [...] ".
  4. ↑ Richard Frye : Persia. (Translated from English by Paul Baudisch). Kindler, Zurich 1963, p. 48 ff.
  5. ^ Richard N. Frye: The Heritage of Central Asia. From Antiquity to the Turkish Expansion. Markus Wiener, Princeton NJ 1996, ISBN 1-55876-111-X , p. 34.
  6. ^ Edwin Bryant: The Quest for the origins of Vedic culture. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2001, ISBN 0-19-513777-9 , p. 327.
  7. ↑ Harold W. Bailey: Arya . In: Encyclopædia Iranica . online edition, 2009.
  8. ↑ Gherardo Gnoli: Zoroaster's Time and Homeland. A Study on the Origins of Mazdeism and Related Problems (= Seminario di Studi Asiatici. Istituto Universitario Orientale. Series minor. Vol. 7, ZDB -ID 780159-2 ). Instituto Universitario Orientale - Seminario di Studi Asiatici, Naples 1980.
  9. ↑ Nasir Takmīl Humayun: Khvarzam. = Kharazm (= Az Īrān či mīdānam? 50). Daftar-i Pažūhišhā-i Farhangī, Tihrān 1383 h.š. (= 2004), ISBN 964-379-023-1 (In Persian language and Arabic script).
  10. ^ Elton L. Daniel: The History of Iran. Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. 2001, ISBN 0-313-30731-8 .
  11. ↑ Michael Witzel : The Home Of The Aryans. In: Almut Hintze, Eva Tichy (ed.): Anusantatyai. Festschrift for Johanna Narten on her 70th birthday (= Munich Studies in Linguistics. Supplement NF Vol. 19). JH Röll, Dettelbach 2000, ISBN 3-89754-181-5 , pp. 283–338 ( online version ; PDF; 282 kB).