13 hours ago7 points(+0/-0/+7Score on mirror)1 child
They changed their name because they never called themselves Persia and they wanted to emphasize their independence from European powers by using their domestic name internationally. "Iran" and "Aryan" do have related etymologies but Iran doesn't mean "land of Aryans".
It may not necessarily mean "land of the Aryans" in the direct sense but that's the connotation for why Iran was chosen as the name.
>Evidently from the time of the Sassanids (226–651 CE) Iranians have called it Iran, meaning the "Land of the Aryans" and Iranshahr. In Middle Persian sources, the name Arya and Iran is used for the pre-Sassanid Iranian empires as well as the Sassanid empire. As an example, the use of the name "Iran" for Achaemenids in the Middle Persian book of Arda Viraf refers to the invasion of Iran by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.[22]
>The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Persian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis.
Source doesn't work anymore but I find no reason not to believe this source didn't say this from the person who quoted it from this source. http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-article5.htm
Here come the genetic purity warriors in the comments with claims about iranians having arab ancestry.
Firstly: a minority of iranians have significant arab ancestry. Most of these are concentrated in southern Iran, which is also inhabited by actual Arabs, so the data on that is skewed.
Secondly: the original arab invasion of iran was in the 600s AD. This was before Arabs themselves were even mixed and was during the time when they, themselves, were in fact still relatively pure ishamelites
Thirdly: most Persians are broadly mediterannid in appearance and would fit in quite well with other mediteranneans in general. This phenotype has existed since before Arabs even existed. It has never been proof of any "mixing". Even the yamnaya culture started out with a phenotype that would today be considered mediterannean (but mixing with other european hunter gatherers, and certain sexual selections, has given us modern Europeans. This was not the case for every group of indo Europeans everywhere on earth, as they were quite expansive). So the appearance of iranians tells us precisely nothing of their ancestry. But the genetics shows us a pretty high level of steppe admixture, greater than in southern and core central Europe and roughly analogous to north-central Europe, less than northern and eastern europe.
Fourthly: the iranian people are still overwhelmingly descended from the empires that have always existed in Iran. As such, they have all right to claim those civilizations.
Edit: fifthly: iran has an average iq (around 105) that blows Arabs out of the fucking water. If they had a high level of arab admixture, their iq would naturally be lower (probably around rhe high 90s), but Iran's iq is proof of their heritage.
Furthermore, I consider that Israel must be destroyed
>Evidently from the time of the Sassanids (226–651 CE) Iranians have called it Iran, meaning the "Land of the Aryans" and Iranshahr. In Middle Persian sources, the name Arya and Iran is used for the pre-Sassanid Iranian empires as well as the Sassanid empire. As an example, the use of the name "Iran" for Achaemenids in the Middle Persian book of Arda Viraf refers to the invasion of Iran by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.[22]
https://www.farhorizons.com/when-was-persia-renamed-iran-and-why/
>The suggestion for the change is said to have come from the Persian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of the Nazis.
Source doesn't work anymore but I find no reason not to believe this source didn't say this from the person who quoted it from this source. http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-article5.htm