Aniran
Anīrān or Anērān is an ethno-linguistic term that means non-Iranian or non-Iran and is in contrast to Ērān . In general, Anīrān denotes countries where no Iranian language is spoken. In a pejorative sense it stood for a political and religious enemy of Iran and Zoroastrianism .
The Sassanid term anīrān
The term Anīrān comes from the Middle Persian Anērān (In Pahlavi script ˀnyrˀn ) and is the antonym to Ērān, which meant either the people or the state of the Sassanids . In the religious context, the term Aner derived designated a person who is not the religion of Zoroaster belonged. Anēr were people who worshiped the dēws (demons) or were of other religions. In the Persian texts of the 9th to 12th centuries, Arabs and Turks and Muslims in general were referred to as Anēr.
In inscriptions
In official usage, the term Anīrān is mentioned for the first time in an inscription of Shapur (ruled from 241 to 272). In it Shapur referred to himself as king of the kings of Ērān and Anērān . By Anērān, Shapur meant the Roman Empire , which was an enemy of the Sassanids. In another inscription at Naqsch-e Rostam, Shapur lists Syria , Cappadocia and Cilicia , which he conquered after defeating the Roman emperors Valerian and Philip Arab , as lands of Anīrān.
The title of King of the Kings of Ērān and Anērān was retained as an epithet for subsequent Sassanid rulers. Thirty years after Shapur, the high priest Kartir also listed Asia Minor , Armenia , Albania and the Caucasus in another inscription near Naqsch-e Rostam in the list of countries in Anērān. However, Armenia and the Caucasus were previously viewed by Shapur as the countries of Ērān.
The term anīrān in the Avesta
Although the terms anērān and Ērān were first mentioned by the Sassanids, they are in principle centuries older. In the Avesta the term appears as Anairya and describes the Turanians . These Turanians Anīrāns, who were the traditional enemies of the Avestan-speaking people, appear in Zoroastic cosmogony and cosmology as the harmful people of the sixteen lands created by the evil god Angra Mainyu . These countries lie across the world river Anahita , which flows around the sixteen countries of the good god Ahura Mazda . One of these countries is Airyanem Vaejah , where the Iranians live.
In the Zoroastic texts of the 9th to 12th centuries, the legendary king and general of the Turanians Afrasiab is, alongside Azhi Dahaka and Alexander the Great, the most hated enemy that Ahriman (the Avestan Angra Mainyu) sent against the Iranians.
The term anīrān in the shāhnāme
The shāhnāme of the poet Firdausi takes up the association Anīrān with the Turanians again. The poet locates the land of Turan across the Oxus River and identifies it with the land of the Turks. Apart from that, however, the term Turan seems to have been taken up in the Sassanid Empire as early as the end of late antiquity to denote the land of hostile nomads ( Iranian Huns , Gök Turks ) on the other side of the Oxus River.
According to Firdausi, Anīrān is north of his homeland - Khorasan - and almost coincides with the location of Anīrān from the Avesta. An exception to this is Sogdia , which after Firdausi is also Anīrān, although it appears in the Avesta as one of the countries of Ahura Mazda.
According to tradition in the Shahnameh, the legendary Iranian king Fereydūn divided the world among his three sons. The western countries went to the eldest son Selm, the northern countries to Tur and the middle countries to Iradsch . According to tradition, this division led to a family conflict in which the two older sons Tur and Selm ally against Iradsch. Iradsch is killed by his brothers. With this fratricide begins a campaign of revenge by Manutscher , the son of Iradsch, at the end of which Selm and Tur die.
For Firdausi, the Turanians / Anirans (he often uses the words alternately) are undeniably the enemies of peace. Their conflict with the Iranians is the main theme of the shahnameh and takes up more than half of the text. The great heroes and admirable people of the Iranians are often killed by the Turanians. After the Shahnameh, a Turan robber named Tur-Baratur killed the 77-year-old prophet Zarathustra in the city of Balkh .
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d Phillipe Gignoux: Article Anērān in the Encyclopedia Iranica .
- ↑ David Niel MacKenzie: Article Ērān, Ērānšahr in the Encyclopedia Iranica
- ↑ a b Ehsan Yarshater: Article Afrāsīāb in the Encyclopedia Iranica
- ^ Richard Payne: The Making of Turan. The Fall and Transformation of the Iranian East in Late Antiquity. In: Journal of Late Antiquity 9, 2016, pp. 4–41.
- ↑ Maneckji N. Dhalla: Zoroastrian Civilization , OUP-Verlag, New York 1922, pp. 5-6
- ^ AV Williams Jackson: Zoroaster, the prophet of ancient Iran , Columbia UP, New York 1899, pp. 130-131