Gabr ( fa, گبر) (also ''geuber'', ''geubre'', ''gabrak'', ''gawr'', ''gaur'', ''gyaur'', ''gabre'') is a

New Persian New Persian ( fa, فارسی نو), also known as Modern Persian () and Dari (), is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It is conventionally divided into thr ...

term originally used to denote a

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

. Historically, ''gabr'' was a technical term synonymous with ''mōg'', " magus", denoting a follower of

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

, and it is with this meaning that the term is attested in very early New Persian texts such as the ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 5 ...

''. In time, ''gabr'' came to have a

pejorative A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...

implication and was superseded in literature by the respectable ''Zardoshti'', "Zoroastrian". By the 13th century the word had come to be applied to a follower of any religion other than

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

, and it has "also been used by the Muslim

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

, Turks, and some other ethnic groups in modified forms to denote various religious communities other than Zoroastrians, sometimes even in the sense of

unbeliever An infidel (literally "unfaithful") is a person accused of disbelief in the central tenets of one's own religion, such as members of another religion, or the irreligious. Infidel is an ecclesiastical term in Christianity around which the Churc ...

." As a consequence of the curtailment of social rights, non-Muslims were compelled to live in restricted areas, which the Muslim populace referred to as ''Gabristan''s. In the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish version ''gâvur'', borrowed into English via French as "

giaour Giaour or Gawur (; tr, gâvur, ; from fa, گور ''gâvor'' an obsolete variant of modern گبر '' gaur'', originally derived from arc, 𐡂𐡁𐡓𐡀, ''gaḇrā'', man; person; ro, ghiaur; al, kaur; gr, γκιαούρης, gkiaoúris, ...

", was used to refer to Christians. This is sometimes still used today in former Ottoman territories and carries a strong pejorative meaning. The etymology of the term is uncertain. "In all likelihood," ''gabr'' derives from the

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...

''gabrā'', spelt ''GBRʼ'', which – in written

Middle Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are grouped ...

– serves as an ideogram that would be read as an Iranian language word meaning "man." (for the use of ideograms in Middle Iranian languages, see ''

Pahlavi scripts Pahlavi is a particular, exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are: *the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script; *the incidence of Aramaic words used as heterograms (called '' ...

''). During the

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

(226-651), the ideogram signified a free (i.e. non-slave) peasant of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

. Following the collapse of the empire and the subsequent rise of Islam, it "seems likely that ''gabr'' used already in Sassanian times in reference to a section of Zoroastrian community in Mesopotamia, had been employed by the converted

Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...

in the Islamic period to indicate their Zoroastrian compatriots, a practice that later spread throughout the country." It has also been suggested that ''gabr'' might be a mispronunciation of Arabic ''

kafir Kafir ( ar, كافر '; plural ', ' or '; feminine '; feminine plural ' or ') is an Arabic and Islamic term which, in the Islamic tradition, refers to a person who disbelieves in God as per Islam, or denies his authority, or reject ...

'' "unbeliever," but this theory has been rejected on linguistic grounds both phonetic and semantic: "there is no unusual sound in ''kafir'' that would require phonetic modification", and ''kafir'' as a generic word probably would not refer to a specific revealed religion such as Zoroastrianism.

See also

Bibliography

Further reading