Iran

name

Etymology: From Iranian Persian ایران (irân), from Classical Persian ایران (ērān), from Middle Persian 𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭 (ʾērān, “of the Aryans”), which see for word formation, further etymology and cognates. The name of the political entity is a 3rd-century development that derives from the indigenous ethnolinguistic name of the Iranian peoples, i.e. the great variety of Iranian tribes that spoke an Iranian language.

1. A country in West Asia in the Middle East. Official name: Islamic Republic of Iran. Capital: Tehran.

   “The Persians, in naming their country, make use of one word, which they indifferently pronounce Iroun, and Iran.”

   “Light was happiness; and the people of Iran, the land of light, were the favourites of heaven; while those of Turan, the gloomy region beyond the mountains to the north, were its enemies.”

2. The regions inhabited by the Iranian peoples.

   “"Kavi means a king, but it is particularly used of the kings belonging to the second and most celebrated of the two mythical dynasties of Iran." "One certain fact is the occurrence of geographical names [Bactria, Sogdiana, etc] in Vendidad I, which are obviously intended to describe the earliest homes of the Iranian races whose lore was the Avesta."”

   “"Zoroaster of Iran. — Zoroaster, it is believed, sprang up in the seventh century before the Christian era, somewhere in the land between the Indus and the Tigris."”