A Historical Brief on the Kurds and the Assyrians and the Relationship Between Them (17) – Ancestors of the Kurds: The Medes
1. Naming of the Medes
Introduction
As a result of the Kurdish people’s lack of a political entity from the fall of the Median Empire until now due to the occupation of their homeland, Kurdistan, Kurdish history has been subjected to cancellation, obfuscation, theft, falsification, and alteration by the occupiers of Kurdistan. Kurdistan is the cradle of civilizations and abounds with many archaeological landmarks belonging to the ancestors of the Kurds; however, a portion of them was destroyed by the occupiers of Kurdistan to efface Kurdish history and Kurdistani civilization, and another portion is neglected and left at its sites. Furthermore, there must be many antiquities retained within the land of Kurdistan that remain undiscovered, waiting for the liberation of Kurdistan so that Kurdistanis can conduct a general survey of archaeological areas to find the relics of their great ancestors’ civilization. Thus we see that there is little information about the Median Empire, despite it being a large and powerful empire that lasted for about 150 years and was able, in alliance with the Babylonians, to bring down the Assyrian Empire. For this reason, the records and writings of this great empire disappeared, and it is not possible to learn about the history and civilization of the Median people through sources belonging to them. There is little information about the Median people and their state in Assyrian, Armenian, and Persian sources, as well as through some Greeks, such as the commander of the Ten Thousand mercenaries, (Xenophon), the traveler and historian (Herodotus), and the physician and historian (Ctesias).
The peoples of the region bestowed various names upon the Medes, as the name of the (Medes) in Neo-Elamite was (Mata-pe), in Akkadian (Madai), in Assyrian (Medai), (Amadai), and (Matai), in Ancient Greek (Madoi/Medoi), in Ancient Hebrew (Madai), in Old Persian (Mada), in Modern Persian (Madi), in Old Armenian (Mar-k), in Parthian (Mat), in Greek {Media Μηδία}, in English (Mede), and in Kurdish (Mad or Mîdî).
The Greek historian (Herodotus) states that the Median people were mentioned by this name in many ancient texts, as in ancient times, the name (Aryans) was used for the Medes by all people; however, after the arrival of a woman named “Medea” from Athens to the Medes, the inhabitants of the region changed their name from (Aryans) to (Medes) (Source a). (“Medea” was a woman in Greek religious beliefs and was among the inhabitants of Media). This woman was the daughter of “Aeetes”, king of the Caucasus region, the niece of (Circe), the granddaughter of the sun goddess (Helios), and the new wife of the hero (Jason), with whom she had two children, (Mermeros) and (Pheres).
(Diakonoff) considers that there is a closeness in meaning between the word (Amadi) or (Madai) and the two words (Maroudi) and (Amaroudi), as he states that both (Mardoi) and (Amardoi) in Ancient Greek, and (Marta) in the holy book of Zoroaster (Middle Avesta), mean (warrior), (combatant), (rebel), or (mountain rebel) (Source b), while (Tavernier) states that the words (Mada) and (Masa) mean (great or large) (Source c).
(Arshak Safrastian) points out that some lexicographical Sumerian texts published by Professor (Chirac. E) indicate that the word (Media) is synonymous with the phrase (land) or (country), such as (Mada-Gutium), meaning (land of the Gutians). However, the Babylonians, who were influenced by Sumerian literature, overlooked the original meaning of the word and considered it a name for a region or a people without specifying the location of this region or this people (Source 1). When the name (Medes) was applied to this people residing in the Zagros mountain range, (Herodotus) transmitted the name to the Greeks, and from them it subsequently moved to European sources as a name for the ancestor of the current Kurdish people. Although names such as (Mahi, Masi, Mada) were applied to the Median people, these names have the same meaning or closely related meanings.
On the other hand, researchers (Skalmowski) and (Van Tongerloo) mention that the original source of the various names given to the Median people, their language, and their homeland was taken from the Old Indo-European word (Mãda), as this word is linked to the Old Indo-European word “Med(h)” which means (center or “located in the middle”) based on the Old Indic word (Madhya) and the Old Iranian word (Maidiia), both of which have the same meaning and belong to linguistic lineages, including the Latin word (Medium), the Greek (mėso), and the German (Mittel) (Source d).
It is likely that the Medes used to call themselves (Masa), which means in the Median language (great, noble) (Source c). In the Sumerian language, the word (Massu) means (leader) and the word (Mes) means (hero); in the Luwian language, the word (Masana) means (god) and the word (Mashani) means (magnification or glorification); in the Avestan language, the word (Masan) means (great); and in Modern Kurdish, the word (mes, mezn) also means (big or great). Here we see the continuity of the languages of the Kurds’ ancestors with one another and their Kurdish descendants’ retention of the language of their ancestors despite the long time interval between them.
When the Arabs occupied Kurdistan, the name (Mahat) was given to the center of Median power by the Arabs, as (Mah) is the name of the Medes (Source e) and the suffix (at) is the plural suffix in the Arabic language. (Al-Baladhuri) mentions that upon the occupation of Kurdistan by the Arabs in the Islamic era, a portion of the occupied regions of Kurdistan was divided into several sections, where the taxes (Jizya) taken from each region were sent to the Muslims living in a specific area (Source 2). Therefore, the Arabs called the city of (Dinawar) and its surroundings (Mah al-Kufa) because the Jizya collected from the inhabitants of the city of (Dinawar) and its dependencies was distributed to the new Muslim inhabitants living in the city of Kufa. Likewise, for the same reason, the name (Mah al-Basra) was given to the city of (Nihavand), as the Jizya obtained from the inhabitants of (Nihavand) was given to the inhabitants of the city of Basra who became Muslims after the Arab-Islamic occupation. Thus, the center of the land of Media was divided by the Arab occupiers into (Mah al-Kufa) and (Mah al-Basra).
It is evident from the above that the Medes used to call themselves (Masa), while their name is referred to in the records belonging to the Sasanian king (Ardashir Papagan) written in the Pahlavi language as (Masi). The Median letter (S) becomes the letter (H) in the Pahlavi language; however, it appears that the Sasanians used the Median name employed by the Medes themselves. Likewise, the Sumerian and Kurdish letter (S) converts to the letter (H) in the Pahlavi language. For example, the Kurdish word (masi), which means (fish), becomes (Mahig) in the Pahlavi language, and the Kurdish word (asen), which means (iron), becomes (Ahan) in the Pahlavi language.
Thus, the (land of the Medes) is referred to as (Mah) in Islamic sources until the twelfth century AD, and the Arabs pluralized the word (Mah), thereby making it (Mahat). The name (Mah) is a Pahlavi word, and the Arabs took this name from the Pahlavi language to refer to the land of the Medes (Media), as during the Arab-Islamic occupation of the region, texts written in the Pahlavi language were still prevalent in the region, and the Pahlavi language was used as the written language there (Sources 3, 4). Therefore, the inhabitants of the region might not have used the same Pahlavi name for (Media) in their daily conversations; however, as a result of using the Pahlavi language in writing at that time, the Pahlavi name for (Media) was used by the occupying Arabs. It is worth noting that the Sumerian and Kurdish word (Masa), which means (great) and was the name of the (Medes), becomes (Meh) in the Pahlavi language, and this supports the above-mentioned analysis regarding the name of the land of Media (Source 5).
3. Kew Mukriyani (1961). Ferhenga Mahabad. First Edition, Erbil, Kurdistan Press.
4. Muhammad Mardokhi Kurdistani (1991). History of the Kurds and Kurdistan. Translated by Mr. Abdul Karim Muhammad Said, As’ad Press, Baghdad.
5. Soran Hamarash (2013). Who are the Kurds? The History of the Kurds and the Origin of Their Language from the Beginning of Civilization until the Tenth Century AD. First Edition, London, YPS-Publishing, page 11, footnote 4).
References
a. Rawlinson, George, Rawlinson, Henry and Wilkison, J. C. (1861). The History of Herodotus. New York, D. Appleton & Company 443 & 445 Broadway.
b. Diakonoff, I. M. (1985). The Cambridge History of Iran: Media, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
c. Tavernier, Jan (2007), Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550-330 B.C.): Linguistic Study of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts, Peeters Publishers, ISBN 90-429-1833-0, page 558.
d. W. Skalmowski and A. van Tongerloo eds., Medioiranica (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 48), Louvain, 1993, pp. 29-44.
e. Browne, Edward G. (1919). A literary history of Persia: A literary history of Persia from the earliest times until Firdawsi. T. Fisher Unwin Ltd, London, page 19.
3 / 12 / 2014
Note: This text is translated from the original Arabic version. Read the Arabic version:Click here
