User talk:Nepaheshgar/Khuzestan

Note I became aware of this excellent article after I wrote this:

Origin_of_the_name_Khuzestan

This article is written to show where the name Khuzestan came from and how it has been used since its earliest attestation. The reason to write this article is that recently I came upon a forgification in Wikipedia from a UNPO site which stated: "When the (Ahwaz) emirate was dissolved by Reza Khan in 1936 it was renamed Khuzestan"!

We shall show some maps and historical sources in order to show that such an assertion is baseless.

Sassanid era
The Old Persian word Hūjiya "Elam" appears abundantly in many texts and on Achaemenid inscriptions at Naqsh-e Rustam, and on Darius's epigraphs at Persepolis and Susa among others Hūjiya, or its Greek counterpart Uxi , were names used to refer to the land or the peoples inhabiting Susiana. In Middle Persian, Hūjiya "Elam, Susiana Province" became Huź "Susiana", and the modern form of this word is Xuz. As with Sistan, the common Persian ending -stan "land, region" was added at some point. The Old Persian: Grammar, Texts, Lexicon by Roland G. Kent of The American Oriental Society, lists the following chains of derivation:

Ūvja &rarr; Awaz &rarr; Xuz Ūvja &rarr; Ux &rarr; Xuz Ūvja &rarr; Xuz &rarr; Hobuj Ūvja &rarr; Hobuj &rarr; Xuz &rarr; Hoz Ūvja &rarr; Hobuj &rarr; Xuz &rarr; Hoz &rarr; Ahvaz

Whereas in some Iranian dialects such as Luri and Bakhtiari (also based in and around Khuzestan), the sound "h" is sometimes used for pronouncing Kh, the words oo, hoo and Khuz have in the process of time been added to the suffix -estan, and the word oojestan has gradually changed to Hujestan, forming the word Khuzestan. Such conversions derive from the fact that in ancient Persian dialects and in Pahlavi language, the sound "oo" was changeable to "hoo" as in such words like Oormazd --> Hoormazd or Ooshmand --> Hooshmand. And Hoordad has also been pronounced Khordad and Khoortat.

Proably the oldest source using the name Khuzistan is the Parthian form of the Sassanid inscriptions of Kartir and Shapur. In it, the Parthian text uses the term Hwzstan obviously the forerunner of modern Khuzistan. Note Ahvaz is is the Arabic plural of the New Persian Khuz, a cognate of Old Persian Huzziya, which denoted the inhabitans of Elam.

Kartir Naqsh-e Rajab inscription states : And I, Kartir, from the beginning have been at great trouble and pains for the sake of the gods and the lords and my own soul. And many fires and magians in the empire of Eran- Persia, Parthia, [Khuzestan], Asurestan, Meshan, Nodshiragan, Adurbaigan, Spahan, Ray, Kirman, Sagestan, Gurgan, Mar v, Hera, Abarshahr, Turestan, Makuran, the Kushan country up to Peshawar- I have made prosperous.

Similarly, Shapur I states  : the Mazda worshipping lord Shapur, king of kings of Iran and non-Iran, whose lineage is from the Gods, son of the Mazda worshipping divinity Ardashir, king of kings of Iran, whose lineage is from the Gods, grandson of king Papak, am ruler of Iranshahr, [and I hold ?] the lands: Persis, Parthia, Khuzistan, Mesene, Assyria, Adiabene, Arabia, Azerbaijan, Armenia,... And these many lands, and rulers and governors, all have become tributary and subject to us.

According to Professor. Peter Christensen, after the first Sassanid-Roman wars : In his inscription at Naqsh-e Rustam Shapur I boasts that he had the prisoners from the Roman Empire and "Non-Iran" brought to Fars, Parthia, Khuzistan and Mesopotamia and settled in areas under direct loyal administrations.

Islamic Era
The Hodud al-Alam, finished in 982, states under: Khuzestan states: It is a place where its eastern border are Fars and Sepahan, the souther border is the Sea...

Similarly Al-Muqaddasi under Khuzestan writes : "Ahvaz is its center and its cities are Shush, JundiShapur, Shushtar, ‘Askar, Duraq, Ramhormoz"

Among famous Persian poets, one can mention Sa'adi, Nezami and Attar who have mentioned Khuzestan.

Among the many other books, one can mention the Al-Kamil of Ibn Kathir and the Surat al-Ard of Ibn Hawqal who uniformly use Khuzestan centuries before political issues of today.

Qajar Era
During the Safavid era, the name Arabistan gained usage in parallel with Khuzestan. Nevertheless, during the Qajar era, the term Khuzestan had wide currency. For example the D'arcy agreement of 1908. It has also been used by the Lebanese Encyclopedia of 1878 under Khuzestan which it mentions as a province of Iran.

Here are some examples. Barnard Shipp in 1897 sates in chapter XXXVII of his book:"The Indian and Antiquities" : The country of Chus (Khuz), beyond the lower Tigris, to the east of the mouth in the Gulf of Persia, is still called Chusistan (Khuzistan)

George French Angas in the appendix of his book published in 1847 states: Amongst the Persians, most of their temples were caverns in rocks; either formed by nature or artificially produced. In Chusistan (Khuzistan) there are, at this day, many remains of such sacred caverns, and in front of them are representations of various characters

Ebenezer Cobham Brewer in his book: The Reader's Handbook of Allusions, References, Plots and Stories writes under the word Ben'demeer: Ben'demeer: A river that flows near the ruin of Chil'minar' or Istachar', in the province of Chusistan in Persia.

Butrus al-Bustani, the Lebanese scholar in his Arabic Encyclopedia states under Khuzestan writes: : It is one of the provinces of Iran whose ancient name was shushiana, to the north is confied byLuristan, and it lies below the South East of Fars, and to its South is the Persian Gulf, and to its west is the province of Baghdad

Ibn Howqal


We note that this 10th century map by an Arabian traveller directly states the area as Khuzestan.

1748
1748 map of Persia with Chusistan(Khuzistan) clearly spelled out



1907
Note Khuzestan and Arabistan are both used with Arabistan in paranthesis denoting the area of Khuzestan which has no paranthesis.



We note that this 10th century map by an Arabian traveller directly states the area as Khuzestan.

Conclusion
The governement of Iran chose the ancient name Khuzestan which was used continously from the Sassanid/Parthian era (and has its root in the Old Persian Huziya) till the Qajar era as the standard name for Khuzistan. During the Safavid and Qajar era, the area was also called Arabistan, but Khuzistan was still used as shown by the maps and Qajar era documents. Given that Khuzistan was the older name, it became the standard name during the Pahlavid era. But the argument that the name Arabistan or Ahwaz (which is really a city originally) was changed to Khuzistan is invalid, since the name Khuzistan has always been used and it predates Arabistan by at least 1400 years.