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The name of Iran derives immediately from 3rd-century Sassanian Middle Persian , Pahlavi ''ʼyrʼn'', where it initially meant "of the Iranians",〔 but soon also acquired a geographical connotation in the sense of "(lands inhabited by) Iranians".〔 In both geographic and demonymic senses, ''ērān'' is distinguished from its antonymic ''anērān'', meaning "non-Iran(ian)".〔.〕〔.〕 In the geographic sense, ''ērān'' was also distinguished from ''ērānšahr'', the Sassanians' own name for their empire, and which also included territories that were not primarily inhabited by Iranians.〔 ==In pre-Islamic usage== The word ''ērān'' is first attested in the inscriptions that accompany the investiture relief of Ardashir I (''r.'' 224–242) at Naqsh-e Rustam.〔 In this bilingual inscription, the king calls himself ''ardašīr šāhān šāh ērān'' in Middle Persian, and ''ardašīr šāhān šāh aryān'' in Parthian. Both mean "Ardashir, king of kings of the Iranians".〔 The Middle Iranian ''ērān''/''aryān'' are oblique plural forms of gentilic ''ēr-'' (Middle Persian) and ''ary-'' (Parthian), which in turn both derive from Old Iranian '' *arya-'', meaning "'Aryan,' i.e., 'of the Iranians.'"〔〔.〕 This Old Iranian '' *arya-'' is attested as an ethnic designator in Achaemenid inscriptions as Old Persian ''ariya-'', and in Zoroastrianism's Avesta tradition as Avestan ''airiia-''/''airya'', etc.〔.〕 It is "very likely"〔 that Ardashir I's use of Middle Iranian ''ērān''/''aryān'' still retained the same meaning as did in Old Iranian, i.e. denoting the people rather than the empire.〔 The expression "king of kings of the Iranians" found in Ardashir's inscription remained a stock epithet of all the Sassanid kings. Similarly, the inscription "the Mazda-worshipping (''mazdayesn'') lord Ardashir, king of kings of the Iranians" that appears on Ardashir's coins was likewise adopted by Ardashir's successors. Ardashir's son and immediate successor, Shapur I (''r.'' 240/42–270/72) appended ''ud anērān'' "and non-Iranians" to these titles, thus extending his intent to rule non-Iranians as well.〔 In his trilingual inscription at the Ka'ba-i Zartosht, Shapur I also introduces the term '' *ērānšahr''. Shapur's inscription includes a list of provinces in his empire, and these include regions in the Caucasus that were not inhabited predominantly by Iranians.〔 An antonymic ''anērānšahr'' is attested from thirty years later in the inscriptions of Kartir, a high priest under several Sassanian kings. Kartir's inscription also includes a lists of provinces, but unlike Shapur's considers the provinces in the Caucasus ''anērānšahr''.〔 These two uses may be contrasted with ''ērānšahr'' as undestood by the late Sassanid ''Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr'', which is a description of various provincial capitals of the ''ērānšahr'', and includes Africa and Arabia as well.〔.〕〔.〕 Notwithstanding this inscriptional use of ''ērān'' to refer to the Iranian peoples, the use of ''ērān'' to refer to the empire (and the antonymic ''anērān'' to refer to the Roman territories) is also attested by the early Sassanid period. Both ''ērān'' and ''anērān'' appear in 3rd century calendrical text written by Mani. The same short form reappears in the names of the towns founded by Sassanid dynasts, for instance in ''Ērān-xwarrah-šābuhr'' "Glory of Ērān (of) Shapur". It also appears in the titles of government officers, such as in ''Ērān-āmārgar'' "Accountant-General (of) Ērān" or ''Ērān-dibirbed'' "Chief Scribe (of) Ērān".〔〔.〕 Because an equivalent of ''ērānšahr'' does not appear in Old Iranian (where it would have been '' *aryānām xšaθra-'' or in Old Persian '' *- xšaça-'', "rule, reign, sovereignty"), the term is presumed〔 to have been a Sassanid-era development. In the Greek portion of Shapur's trilingual inscription the word ''šahr'' "kingdom" appears as ''ethnous'' "nation". For speakers of Greek, the idea of an Iranian ''ethnous'' was not new: The mid-5th-century BCE Herodotus (7.62) mentions that the Medes once called themselves ''Arioi''.〔 The 1st century BCE Strabo cites the 3rd-century BCE Eratosthenes for having noted a relationship between the various Iranian peoples and their languages: "() beyond the Indus () Ariana is extended so as to include some part of Persia, Media, and the north of Bactria and Sogdiana; for these nations speak nearly the same language." (''Geography'', 15.2.1-15.2.8).〔 Damascius (''Dubitationes et solutiones in Platonis Parmenidem'', 125ff) quotes the mid-4th-century BCE Eudemus of Rhodes for "the Magi and all those of Iranian (''áreion'') lineage".〔 The 1st-century BCE Diodorus Siculus (1.94.2) describes Zoroaster as one of the ''Arianoi''.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Iran (word)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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