Pahla In Parthian Regions
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''Pahla'' (
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
: پهله, arabized as ''Fahla'' فهله) or ''Pahlaw'' (پهلو) refers to the late antique and post-Islamic region of the
Parthians Parthia ( ''Parθava''; ''Parθaw''; ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemen ...
in central and western
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
, which corresponds to the early ancient regions of
Atropatene Atropatene (; ; ), also known as Media Atropatene, was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian kingdom established in by the Persian satrap Atropates (). The kingdom, centered in present-day Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan region in northwestern Ira ...
(Media Atropatene) and Media Magna.


Name and Usage

The name ''Pahla'' comes from the term Pahlav/Pahlaw and thus from Parthav ( ''Parθava''; ''Parθaw''; ''Pahlaw''). Over the centuries, the term evolved from a name for the province of Parthava and its population, not only to a name for a people and a culture, but also to an application for the area inhabited by this people. Thus, since the settlement of the Parthians in and the incorporation of Adurpadegan and
Media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...
, the migrated or mixed population, but also the area itself, was commonly referred to as Pahla/Pahlaw. The name "Pahla" as a neo-Iranian form remained relatively unknown to western peoples. Olshausen writes on this matter:Olshausen 1876: 22 The spread of Parthian identity went hand in hand with a strong loyalty to the order established by Parthian rule: The use of Pahla/Pahlaw as a testimony of belonging to a national entityOlshausen 1876: 21 or an administrative unit is proven by the fact that the name Pahla can be found in various forms in all settlement areas of the Parthians, such as Partav in Armenia, Parthougim, Pahlu in the Zaza area, Pahleh in Ilam, Barda in Azerbaijan or Bahleh in Urmia. However, the naming of districts in Chuzistan, Spahan, Ray, Hamadan, or Chorasan as Pahla or Pahlu is also evidence of the Parthian tradition, which reports the use of these names as a testimony of belonging to the Parthian administrative unit. Pahla also entered the usage of many Iranian or even Indo-Aryan and Turkish languages as a military or even legendary title, as Pahlawan. Through Iranian epics and myths, as well as folk legends, the formerly political and cultural title, which was used for the venerable historical Pahlav warriors and governors - probably based on the deeds of these Pahlavs - gained access to literature as Pahlawan. While in pre-Islamic times the name "Pahlawan" may have had a connotation as a member of the Parthian alliance of dynasts, governors, and warriors, it evolved as an epic narrative about these militaristic lords into a synonym for "hero" and an ideal image of a lonely, powerful wandering warrior. The epic narratives in the Shahname about the Pahlawans, as well as the use of the name for specific martial arts such as Zurchaneh and Pehlwani, and the Balochi wandering bards called Pahlawan - which are strikingly reminiscent of the Parthian Gosan culture - are the remnants of a strongly rooted Parthian culture.


Geographical Location

As historical evidence, various historians and contemporary witnesses are used to locate Pahla. It becomes apparent that Pahla appeared as a name for Media during Islamic times until the 12th century: *
Ibn al-Muqaffa' Abū Muhammad ʿAbd Allāh Rūzbih ibn Dādūya (), born Rōzbih pūr-i Dādōē (), more commonly known as Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (; ), was a Persian translator, philosopher, author and thinker who wrote in the Arabic language. He bore the name Rōz ...
:Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 110 Azerbaijan,
Nihawand Nahavand () is a city in the Central District of Nahavand County, Hamadan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is south of the city of Hamadan, west of Malayer and northwest of Borujerd. Inhabited ...
, Hamadan, Rey, Isfahan *
al-Khwārizmī Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi , or simply al-Khwarizmi, was a mathematician active during the Islamic Golden Age, who produced Arabic-language works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography. Around 820, he worked at the House of Wisdom in B ...
: Azerbaijan, Nihawand, Hamadan, Rey, Isfahan *
al-Dinawari Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd Dīnawarī (; died 895) was an Islamic Golden Age polymath: astronomer, agriculturist, botanist, metallurgist, geographer, mathematician, and historian. Life Of Persian stock, Dinawari was born in the (now ...
: Masabadhan, Mihrajangadhaq, Kermanshah,
Dinawar Dinavar (also spelled Dinawar and Daynavar; ) was a major town between the 7th and 10th centuries, located to the northeast of Kermanshah in western Iran. The ruins of the town is now located near Shir Khan, in Dinavar District, Sahneh County, ...
, Nihawand, Hamadan, Khanaqin, Mandali, Badra *
Ibn al-Faqih Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Faqih al-Hamadani () (fl. 902) was a 10th-century Persian historian and geographer, famous for his ''Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan'' ("Concise Book of Lands") written in Arabic. In the 1870s the Dutch orientalist Micha ...
: Masabadhan, Mihrajangadhaq, Kermanshah, Dinawar, Nihawand, Hamadan, Qom *
Ibn Khordadbeh Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh (; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking bureaucrat and geographer of Persian descent in the Abbasid Caliphate. He is the aut ...
: Masabadhan, Mihrajangadhaq, Dinawar, Nihawand, Hamadan, Qazvin, Rey, Isfahan *
al-Masʿūdī al-Masʿūdī (full name , ), –956, was a historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history (Islamic and universal), geo ...
: Azerbaijan, Masabadhan, Dinawar, Nihawand, Hamadan *
Hamza al-Isfahani Ḥamza ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Mū'addib al-Iṣbahānī Abū ‘Abd Allāh (; – after 961), commonly known as Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī or Hamza Esfahani (), was a Persian philologist and historian, who wrote in Arabic during the 'Abbasid and ...
: Azerbaijan, Nihawand, Hamadan, Rey, Isfahan *
al-Muqaddasi Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, commonly known by the '' nisba'' al-Maqdisi or al-Muqaddasī, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of ''The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions'' and ''Description of Syri ...
: Masabadhan, Mihrajangadhaq, Dinawar, Nihawand, Hamadan *
Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...
: Masabadhan, Mihrajangadhaq, Kermanshah, Dinawar, Nihawand, Hamadan, Qom * In the Burhan-i Qati (Persian dictionary from the 17th century):Olshausen 1876: 20 Rey, Isfahan, and Dinawar *
Biruni Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (; ; 973after 1050), known as al-Biruni, was a Khwarazmian Iranian scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age. He has been called variously "Father of Comparative Religion", "Father of modern ...
: Isfahan, Rey, and "the other countries of Fahla" * Shirāzī bin Shahrdār (according to Jāqūt): Hamadan, Masabadhan, Qom, Mah al-Bacra (Nihawand) and Qarmisin


Fahlawi / Pahlawi

Among the aforementioned historians, it is attested that in the region of Pahla (fahla) a common language called ''fahlawi'' or ''fahlavi'' prevailed: Under the term ''Fahlaviyat'', a collection of lyrical texts is understood today, which originate from the region of ''Pahla''. These show clear Parthian influences, but also Old Azerbaijani and Kurdish, or are written in the Persian dialects of the mentioned regions, which have a strong
Northwestern Iranian The Western Iranian languages or Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranian languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median. Languages The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southweste ...
character. Therefore, Fahlaviyat is to be understood as a collection of poems in the Fahlawi or Pahlawi language, as well as the only remaining example of Parthian language or Parthian dialects with a directly transmitted proper name. That is why Pahlaviyat refers to Parthian literary works from the 9th to the 18th century from the Pahla region. The following reports also testify to this, suggesting, along with the aforementioned historians, a separate language called ''Fahlawi'' or ''Pahlawi'' as a post-Islamic representative of the Parthian language or a Parthian language variant:Piroz 2021 For the city of Zanjan, located in the north of Pahla: For the city of
Maragha Maragheh () is a city in the Central District of Maragheh County, East Azerbaijan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Maragheh is on the bank of the river Sufi Chay. It is from Tabriz, the largest city ...
in the northwest of Pahla:


History

The main settlement area of the Parthians in the early antiquity was the province of Parthava, but with the political and territorial changes during the
Arsacid The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe ...
and later the
Sasanian The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...
period, the demographic situation of ancient Iran changed drastically. Since the Arsacids and the successive conquest of western territories under Mithridates I and Mithridates II, as well as the shift of the main administration to the west, the settlement of Parthians in western Iran is attested. The expansion of the Parthian people and the Arsacid dynasty to Mesopotamia and the Caucasus required prior settlement of adjacent areas, particularly Media Atropatene and Media Magna. This westward migration of the Parthians was so strong that the history and provincial titles speak of a veritable westward shift of the province of Pahlaw/Parthava. Therefore, it is noteworthy that the history mentions two different provinces called Pahlaw/Parthava. * Classically attested eastern province Parthava: This province existed since the Achaemenids and was bordered by Gorgan to the northwest, Khwarazm to the north, Sogdiana to the northeast, Balch to the east, Herat to the southeast, and Kerman to the south. Later Sasanian sources no longer mention a province called Parthava in the east, but instead speak of the province of Abarshahr, which means ''city of the Aparni''. Perhaps the original province of the Parthians had become a settlement area of the Aparni due to political events and the proximity to the Dahae-Scythian areas. However, the Arsacids themselves never lost their connection to their original province, as evidenced by the royal tombs in Parthaunisa/Mithradatkert. * Pahla/Pahlaw in Late Antiquity and Post-Islamic Period: During the Sassanid era, the province of Parthia was newly located in central Iran as a neighboring province of Pars and Khuzistan. As is known, this region was considered the last bastion of the Arsacids. In Shapur's inscriptions, Parthia even shares second place in the list of provinces, indicating its importance for the empire.Ghodrat-Dizaji 2012: 109 The Abnun inscriptions also attest to a further westward shift of Parthia, recounting Roman attacks against Pars and Parthia, although these were not directed against eastern Iran. Finally, it is post-Islamic sources that give us a clear picture of the immense spread of the Parthians during the Sassanid era in the northwestern regions of the Sassanid empire. At its greatest extent, Pahla included Tabriz and Ardabil in the north, Masabadhan (Ilam) and Mihrajangadhaq in the southwest, Spahan (Isfahan) in the southeast, and Ray in the northeast, or excluding Ray and Spahan, it encompassed Qumis, Tabaristan, Khorasan, Sistan, Kerman, Makran, Qazwin, Dailam, and Talaqan. Ghodrat-Dizaji summarizes the historical shift of the province as follows: The correspondence of Pahla with the Median provinces can be traced on the one hand to the identification of the governors of these regions with the Parthians. Thus, the regions and governors who were subject to or incorporated into the Parthian Arsacids called themselves subordinate to the Arsacid royal house and Parthians,Olshausen 1876: 21 "Since all kings in this area were called Arsacids equally .. belonged to the Parthian royal house and were called Pahlav .. which, in addition to the political component, also encompasses an identity-cultural component and thus also explains the Parthianization of western territories. On the other hand, the migration of the earlier Parthians to the region played a decisive role in the ethnogenesis of the middle and late Parthians, which is why, in addition to the political component, a strong ethnocultural component is identified by historians. In Pahla, the rule was not only limited to the Parthian Arsacid dynasty. Moses of Chorene also includes the Karen,
Suran The Survivable Radio Network (SURAN) project was sponsored by DARPA in the 1980s to develop a set of mobile ad hoc network (MANET) radio-routers, then known as "packet radios". It was a follow-on to DARPA's earlier PRNET project. The program began ...
, and Aspahbat (Ispahbad) houses as sub-rulers of Pahla. According to Tabari, the Karenids had their seat in Mah Nihavand, the Aspahbad (Ispahbad) in Ray, and the Surenids in Sigistan, while the last Arsacid, Ardawan IV, ruled over the entire
Jibal Jibāl (), also al-Jabal (), was the name given by the Arabs to a region and province located in western Iran, under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates. Its name means "the Mountains", being the plural of ''jabal'' ("mountain, hill"), highlight ...
(meaning Media).


References


Sources

* Alireza Shapur Shahbazi
''Sasanian Dynasty.''
In: ''
Encyclopædia Iranica ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English-language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encyc ...
.'' online edition, Juli 2005. * Justus Olshausen: ''Parthava und Pahlav, Mâda und Mâh'', Buchdruckerei der Königl. Akademi der Wissenschaften (G. Vogt), Berlin 1876, Forgotten Books, {{ISBN, 978-1-332-49193-3. * Mary Boyce: ''GŌSĀN'', in ''Encyclopædia Iranica'', Vol. Xi, Fasc. 2, pp. 167–170; available online at https://iranicaonline.org/articles/gosan (accessed online at 1 May 2023), 2012. * Mehrdad Ghodrat-Dizaji: ''Remarks on the Location of the Province of Parthia'', in Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, Elizbaeth J. Pendleton, Michael Alram, Touraj Daryaee: ''The Parthian and Early Sasanian Empires: Adaptation and Expansion'', British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS), Oxbow books, Oxford & Philadelphia, 2012. Parthian Empire Parthia Sasanian Empire Historical geography of Iran Iranian languages Parthian language