Arya (Iran)
[1] In contrast to cognates of Arya used by the Vedic people and Iranic steppe nomads, the term is commonly translated using the modern ethnonym Iranian.
[6] During the Middle Iranian period, it acquired a distinct political aspect through the concept of Eran Shahr (Aryas' dominion).
[7] Arya was also contrasted with Anarya (Avestan: 𐬀𐬥𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀, anairiia; Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭭𐭩𐭥, aner), denoting non-Iranian lands and peoples.
[15] A distinct identity of the Arya in Greater Iran is already present in the Avesta, i.e., the collection of sacred texts in Zoroastrianism.
Jean Kellens for example notes, how the Avesta describes a common creation myth through the primordial man Gayomart, a shared history through the Pishdadian and Kayanian dynasties, a pronounced in-group and out-group dichotomy through the enmity between the Turyas and Aryas, as well as a shared religious practice through the worship of Ahura Mazda; elements which are not found in other Indo-Iranian groups.
"[19] The Avesta, i.e., the collection of canonical texts of Zoroastrianism, provides the single largest literary source on the Old Iranian period.
As regards the geographical boundaries of the Avesta, the place names show that the Aryas lived in the eastern portions of Greater Iran.
[21] There are no dateable events in the Avesta, but the complete lack of any discernible influence by the Persians or Medes makes a time frame after the 5th century BCE for most of the texts unlikely.
[25][26][27] The Old Avestan portion of the text, assumed to be authored by Zarathustra and his immediate followers, only contains a reference to Airyaman, which has an unclear connection to Arya.
[37] They center around the attempts of the Turyas and their mythical King Franrasyan to acquire the Khvarenah of the Aryas (airiianąm xᵛarənō).
The fighting between the two peoples stops for some time when Erekhsha (Ǝrəxša), described as the "most swift-arrowed of the Aryas" (xšviwi išvatəmō airiianąm), manages to shoot an arrow as far as the Oxus river, which from then on marks the border between Iran and Turan.
By the late 6th–early 5th century BCE, the Achaemenid kings Darius the Great and his son Xerxes I produced a number of inscriptions in which they use the term.
This expression has been interpreted as outward going circles of kinship, beginning with the inner clan (Achaemenids), then the tribe (Persians) and finally the outmost nation (Arya).
This linguistic aspect of Arya, therefore, parallels the one described in Behistun inscription by Darius the Great several centuries earlier.
[48] Arya appears in Middle Persian as 𐭠𐭩𐭫 (er) and in Parthian as 𐭀𐭓𐭉 (ary), most prominently in Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht.
[49] In this inscription and on a number of coins by Bahram II, Arya appears jointly with the term Mazdayasna, indicating a close connection between the political and religious sphere.
[9][note 2] After the Islamic conquest of Iran, Arya and its derivatives fell out of use, possibly due to their perceived connection with the Zoroastrian religion.
[58] This became institutionalized when in 1935 Reza Shah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, issued a decree that changed the name, used for international correspondence, from Persia to Iran.
