Iran naming dispute
In
modernity,
Iran has been the subject of a naming dispute in common
English usage. The two possible names for this polity are
Iran and
Persia; their adjectives being
Iranian and
Persian, respectively.
|
A Persepolis sculpture dating back to the Achaemenid period, when the country was referred to as Aryanam. |
Serious argument on this matter began in the 1980s, when Professor
Ehsan Yarshater (editor of the
Encyclopædia Iranica) started to publish articles on this matter (in both
English and
Persian) in
Rahavard Quarterly,
Pars Monthly,
Iranian Studies Journal, etc. After him, a few Persian scholars and researchers such as Prof.
Kazem Abhary, Prof.
Jalal Matini and
Pejman Akbarzadeh followed the issue. Several times since then, Persian magazines and websites have published articles from those who agree or disagree with usage of 'Persia' and 'Persian' in English.
In view of many of these articles, it seems that the subject has not been explained sufficiently. Some think the name
Persia belongs to antiquity, and ought not to be used now. Others believe that "Persia" includes only one province within Iran, and should not be used for the whole country. There are also many Persians and non-Persians in the West who prefer "Persia" and "Persian" as the English names for the country and nationality, similar to the usage of
La Perse/Persane in
French, and
Persien/Perser/persisch in the
German. An English-speaking example would be "Persian rugs", which are specifically Iranian rugs.
Many countries and languages have different names in other languages. For example, Germans call their country
"Deutschland" but in English people call it "Germany", in French
"Allemagne", and in
Polish,
"Niemcy". People of
Greece,
Armenia,
Finland,
India,
Albania,
Egypt,
Algeria,
Japan and
China call their countries, respectively Ellas, Hayastan, Suomi, Bharat, Shqipëria, Mesr, al-Jaza'ir, Nippon or Nihon, and Zhōnggúo or Chung-kuo in their respective languages. Similarly, the native name of "Persia" is
"Iran".
|
Modern reconstruction of the ancient world map of Eratosthenes from c. 200 BC, using the names Ariana and Persis |
Starting from c. 600 BC, the
Greeks began to use the name
Persis for
Cyrus the Great's empire.
Persis was taken from
Old Persian Pars or
Pārsa - the name of the people whom
Cyrus the Great of the
Achaemenid dynasty first ruled (before he inherited or conquered other Iranian Kingdoms) and amongst whom he is counted. This tribe gave its name to the region where they (ethnic
Persians) lived (the modern day province is called
Fars/Pars).
In
Latin, the name for the land was
Persia. The name "Persia" until 1935 was the "official" name of Iran in the world, but Persian people inside their country since the
Sassanid period have called it "Iran" meaning "the land of Aryans", the older version of which had been "Aryānām" (the
genitive plural of the word
Aryan, a cognate form of which is seen in "
Airyanem Vaejah" ) as seen in ancient Persian texts.
In
1935,
Reza Pahlavi announced that all Western countries should use the name of "Iran" in their languages too. Opponents claim that this act brought cultural damage to the country and separated Iran from its past in the West, and caused many people to confuse it with
Iraq (an Arab state west of Iran). For many westerners, "Persia" became a dead empire that does not exist anymore. Members of the Persian intelligentsia were not happy with this decree either, because of the pro-Nazi incentive behind it. After Dr.
Hjalmar Schacht, the Nazi Economics minister, commented on the Aryan origin of Persians, Reza Shah's ambassador in Germany encouraged him to issue the above mentioned decree asking all foreign delegates to use the word "Iran" (meaning "Land of the Aryans") instead of "Persia" in formal correspondence.
(The History of Iran, Elton Daniel, p.3)The defenders of this name point out that the designation
Iran was used by the Greek historian
Eratosthenes and derives from the old Persian word
ariya, akin to the
Sanskrit Aryavarta. The Sassanids also called their empire
Iran-shahr ("empire of the Iranians") or
Iran-zameen ("land of the Iranians"). Subsequent and modern usage derives from this precedent.
(The Persians, Gene R. Garthwaite, p.2) |
Despite the name change order of Reza Pahlavi, the name "Iran" was used by Persians (Iranians) in the Persian language well before 1935, as this Qajar-era currency bill shows, with the phrase "Royal Bank of Iran" engraved on it. |
After some Persian scholars protested the name changing announcement, in
1959 Prof.
Ehsan Yarshater formed a committee to look into this matter. The committee announced that "changing the name is not justified", so
Mohammad Reza Shah announced that both 'Persia' and 'Iran' could be used interchangeably.
The Persian language is sometimes called "Farsi" by English speakers. Farsi is
another form of pronunciation of the original word (
Parsi) meaning Persian. Farsi has been the local (Persian) name for the language ever since the Arab invasion, whereby they were forced to speak Arabic for several centuries. In Arabic the letter "P" does not exist, hence the pronunciation being altered to an "F". The result is similar to the word "Deutsch" being the local name for German language, "suomi" for Finnish, "Ellinika" for Greek, and "Russkiy" for Russian.
The
Academy of Persian Language and Literature controls and dictates any changes or additions to the Persian language. Its control of the Persian language is similar to the
Académie française and its influence on the French language. The only difference is that in Iran, the Persian academy's decision is binding. Professors of the language frequently rebuke those who do not refer to the language as Persian in English.
Moreover, the word "Parsi" also refers to
Zoroastrians in India.
Parsis of India are from an Iranian origin who immigrated to India more than 1200 years ago; mostly fleeing persecution at the hands of Arab conquerors invading Persia. They were called Parsis - to denote the region from where they had come - Pars, (Persia).
*
Publication of General Maps of Persia (Iran) in The Netherlands*
Language naming dispute (Persian or Farsi?)''
*
Persian Not Farsi*
Akbarzadeh, Pejman: What is the English Name of Our Country? Iran or Persia?, Rahavard Quarterly, Los Angeles, Spring 2004
*
When Persia Became Iran by Prof.
Ehsan Yarshater*
Bring back Persia by G. Motamedi
*
Iran or Persia? Farsi or Persian? by Pejman Akbarzadeh
*
A Particular Iranian Identity Crisis by Amir Rostam Beigie
