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The Medes (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in Median Empire in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.

A few archaeological sites (discovered in the "Median triangle" in western Iran) and textual sources (from contemporary Assyrians and also Greeks in later centuries) provide a brief documentation of the history and culture of the Median state. These architectural sources, religions temples, and literary references show the importance of Median lasting contributions (such as the Safavid-Achaemenid-Median link of the tradition of "columned audience halls") to the Iranian culture. A number of words from the Median language are still in use and there are languages being geographically and comparatively traced to the northwestern Iranian language of Median. The Medes had an Ancient Iranian Religion (a form of pre-Zoroastrian Mazdaism or Mithra worshipping) with a priesthood named as "Magi". Later and during the reigns of last Median kings the reforms of Zarathustra spread in western Iran.

Besides Ecbatana (modern Hamedan), the other cities existing in Media were Laodicea, modern Nahavand and the mound that was the largest city of the Medes, Rhages (also called Rey), on the outskirts of Shahr Rey, south of Tehran. The fourth city of Media was Apamea, near Ecbatana which its precise location is not known. In later periods, Medes and especially Mede soldiers are identified and portrayed prominently in ancient Persian archaeological sites such as Persepolis, where they are shown to have a major role and presence in the military of the Persian Empire's Achaemenid dynasty.

According to the Histories of Herodotus, there were six Median tribes:

Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them alone. Now these are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi.

The six Median tribes resided in Media proper, the triangle between of Ecbatana, Rhagae and Aspadana in todays central Iran, the area between Tehran, Isfahan and Hamadan. Of the Median tribes, the Magi resided in Rhaga, modern Tehran.It was a sort of sacred caste, which ministered to the spiritual needs of the Medes. The Paretaceni tribe resided in and around Aspadana, modern Isfahan., the Arizanti lived in and around Kashan and the Busae tribe lived in and around the future Median capital of Ecbatana, modern Hamadan. The Struchates and the Budii lived in villages in the Median triangle.

Name

The original source for different words used to call the Median people, their language and homeland is a directly transmitted Old Iranian geographical name which is attested as the Old Persian Māda- (sing. masc.). The meaning of this word is not precisely established. The linguist W. Skalmowski proposes a relation with the Proto-Indo-European language word *medʰi̯o- meaning "central, situated in the middle" by referring to Old Indic madhya- and Avestan maidiia-, both carrying the same meaning.

They also appear in many ancient texts. According to the Histories of Herodotus,

The Medes were called anciently by all people Aryans; but when Medea, the Colchian, came to them from Athens, they changed their name. Such is the account which they themselves give.

Culture and society

In Greek references to "Median" people there is no clear distinction between the "Persians" and the "Medians"; in fact for a Greek to become "too closely associated with Iranian culture" was "to become medianized, not persianized". The Median kingdom was a short-lived Iranian state and the textual and archaeological sources of that period are rare and little could be known from the Median culture which nevertheless made a "profound, and lasting, contribu­tion to the greater world of Iranian culture".

Language

Median people spoke the Median language, which was an Old Iranian language. Strabo in his Geography (finished in the early 1st century AD) mentions the affinity of Median with other Iranian languages: "The name of Ariana is further extended to a part of Persia and of Media, as also to the Bactrians and Sogdians on the north; for these speak approximately the same language, but with slight variations".

No original deciphered text is proved to have been written in Median language. It is suggested that similar to later Iranian practice of keeping archives of written documents in Achaemenid Iran, there was also a maintenance of archives by Median government in their capital Ecbatana. There are examples of "Median literature" found in later records. One is according to Herdotus that the Median king Deioces, appearing as a judge, made judgement on causes submitted in writing. There is also a report by Dinon on existence of "Median court poets". Median literature is a part of the "Old Iranian literature" (including also Saka, Old Persian, Avestan) as this Iranian affiliation of them is explicit also in ancient texts, such as Herodotus's account that many peoples including Medes were "universally called Iranian".

Words of Median origin appear in various other Iranian dialects, including Old Persian. A feature of Old Persian inscriptions is the large number of words and names from other languages and the Median language takes in this regard a special place for historical reasons. The Median words in Old Persian texts, whose Median origin can be established by "phonetic criteria", appear "more frequently among royal titles and among terms of the chancellery, military, and judicial affairs". Words of Median origin include:

• *čiθra-: "origin". The word appears in *čiθrabṛzana- (med.) "exalting his linage", *čiθramiθra- (med.) "having mithraic origin", *čiθraspāta- (med.) "having a brilliant army", etc.
• Farnah: Divine glory; (Template:Lang-ae)
• Paridaiza: Paradise, (as in Pardis پردیس)
• Spaka- : The word is Median and means "dog". Herodotus identifies "Spaka-" (Gk. "σπάχα" - female dog) as Median rather than Persian. The word is still used in modern Iranian languages including Talyshi.
• vazṛka-: "great" (as Modern Persian bozorg)
• vispa-: "all". (as in Avestan). The component appears in such words as vispafryā (Med. fem.) "dear to all", vispatarva- (med.) "vanquishing all", vispavada- (med. -op.) "leader of all", etc.
• Xshayathiya (royal, royalty): This Median word (∗xšaθra-pā-) is an example of words whose Greek form (known as romanized "satrap" from Gk. "satrápēs - σατράπης") mirrors, as opposed to the tradition, a Median rather than an Old Persian form of an Old Iranian word.
• zūra-: "evil" and zūrakara-: "evil-doer".

Religion

There are very limited sources concerning the religion of Median people. Primary sources pointing to religious affiliations of Medes and found so far include the archaeological discoveries in Tepe Nush-e Jan, personal names of Median individuals, and the Histories of Herodotus. The archaeological source gives the earliest of the temple structures in Iran and the "stepped fire altar" discovered there is linked to the common Indo-Iranian legacy of the "cult of fire". Herodotus mentions Median Magi as a Median tribe providing priests for both the Medes and the Persians. They had a "priestly caste" which passed their functions from father to son. They played a significant role in the court of the Median king Astyages who had in his court certain Medians as "advisers, dream interpreters, and soothsayers". Classical historians "unanimously" regarded the Magi as priests of the Zoroastrian faith. From the personal names of Medes as recorded by Assyrians (in 8th and 9th century BCE) there are examples of use of the Indo-Iranian word arta- (lit. "truth") which is familiar from both Avestan and Old Persian and also examples of theophoric names containing Maždakku and also the name "Ahura Mazdā". Scholars disagree whether these are indications of Zoroastrian religion of Medes. Diakonoff believes that "Astyages and perhaps even Cyaxares had already embraced a religion derived from the teachings of Zoroaster" which was not identical with doctrine of Zarathustra and Mary Boyce believes that "the existence of the Magi in Media with their own traditions and forms of worship was an obstacle to Zoroastrian proselytizing there". Boyce wrote that the Zoroastrian traditions in the Median city of Ray probably goes back to 8th century BCE. It is suggested that from 8th century BCE, a form of "Mazdaism with common Indo-Iranian traditions" existed in Media and the strict reforms of Zarathustra began to spread in western Iran during the reign of the last Median kings in 6th century BCE.

It is also suggested that "Mithra" has a Median name and Medes may have practised Mithraism and had Mithra as their supreme deity.

Kurdologists and Medes

The Russian historian and linguist Vladimir Minorsky suggested that the Medes, who widely inhabited the land where currently the Kurds form the majority, are likely to be the forefathers of the modern Kurds, also on the basis of historical and lingustic evidence that he gathered..

M. Chahin believes that ; the Medes were the ancestors of Xenophon's Carduchi and modern Kurds.

Wadie Jwaideh wrote that "The Medes were the ancestors of Xenophon's Carduchi and the modern Kurds..

Contemporary linguistic evidence has challenged the previously held view that the Kurds are descendants of the Medes. Gernot Windfuhr (professor of Iranian Studies) identified Kurdish dialects as Parthian, albeit with a Median substratum. Even though Kurdish is a northwestern iranian language, David Neil MacKenzie, an authority of Kurdish language, thought that the Medes spoke a northwestern Iranian language, while the Kurdish people speak a southwestern Iranian language. The Kurdologist Martin van Bruinessen argues against the attempt to take Medes as ancestors of the Kurds. Modern scholars who consider central Iranian dialects, mainly those of Kashan area, and Tati of Tehran area as the only direct offshoots of the Median language.

Notes

1. from OED's entry: "Mede < classical Latin Mēdus (usually as plural, Mēdī) < ancient Greek (Attic and Ionic) Μῆδος (Cypriot ma-to-i Μᾶδοι, plural) < Old Persian Māda"
2. A)"..and the Medes (Iranians of what is now north-west Iran).." EIEC (1997:30). B) "Archaeological evidence for the religion of the Iranian-speaking Medes of the .." (Diakonoff 1985, p. 140). C) ".. succeeded in uniting into a kingdom the many Iranian-speaking Median tribes" ( from Encyclopædia Britannica ). D) "Proto-Iranian split into Western (Median, ancient Persian, and others) and Eastern (Scythian, Ossetic, Saka, Pamir and others)..." (Kuz'mina, Elena E. (2007), The origin of the Indo-Iranians, J. P. Mallory (ed.), BRILL, p. 303, ISBN 9789004160545) ...
3. "..a great many Old Persian lexemes...are preserved in a borrowed form in non-Persian languages – the so-called “collateral” tradition of Old Persian (within or outside the Achaemenid Empire).... not every purported Old Iranian form attested in this manner is an actual lexeme of Old Persian."

See also

• Median Empire

References

1. OED Online "entry Mede, n.".:
2. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Media (ancient region, Iran)
3. http://books.google.com/books?id=Al0jpyRDGe8C&pg=PA93&dq=Laodicea+nahavand&hl=en&ei=YF6UTdPcGsmEOtrL-KQH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Laodicea%20nahavand&f=false
4. Herodotus 1.101
5. ^ http://books.google.no/books?id=kMLKgzj5afMC&pg=PA75&dq=paretaceni+isfahan&hl=no&ei=8ArZTtywPMjQ4QS-u9XGDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=paretaceni%20isfahan&f=false
6. http://books.google.com/books?id=RCDsV41k8A0C&pg=PA204&dq=%22media+in+central+iran%22&hl=en&ei=TwfZTvjRH-P34QTip5H8DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22media%20in%20central%20iran%22&f=false
7. http://books.google.com/books?id=XNZ4KA3GNW8C&pg=PA479&dq=%22medes+of+central+iran%22&hl=en&ei=7gbZTszRKYbd4QTBw53WDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22medes%20of%20central%20iran%22&f=false
8. http://books.google.com/books?id=Y3sfAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA9&dq=medes+magi+raga&hl=en&ei=lQjZTrabBsb-4QTHypCIDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=medes%20magi%20raga&f=false
9. http://books.google.no/books?id=IBKoUXrF5p0C&pg=PR99&lpg=PR99&dq=%22rhagae+modern%22&source=bl&ots=RIwUtgx1J8&sig=h5DlbCSq0Y3QD90nV3UOYHOtM0g&hl=no&ei=4QjZTtStConO4QSI99ygDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22rhagae%20modern%22&f=false
10. http://books.google.com/books?id=S883AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA28&dq=%22it+was+a+sort+of+sacred+caste+ministered+to+the+spiritual+needs%22&hl=en&ei=TQnZTv39M6b64QTB9-HaDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
11. http://books.google.no/books?id=-IEPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA312&dq=paraetacena+isfahan&hl=no&ei=lwrZTv3WPOfi4QSLyJCRDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=paraetacena%20isfahan&f=false
12. http://books.google.no/books?id=ebB_ac13v3UC&pg=PA131&dq=paraetacena+isfahan&hl=no&ei=lwrZTv3WPOfi4QSLyJCRDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=paraetacena%20isfahan&f=false
13. http://books.google.no/books?id=rQipbjusDyQC&pg=PA292&dq=%22villages+in+media%22&hl=no&ei=Jg3ZToSBI8T74QTD-tj5DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22villages%20in%20media%22&f=false
14. ^ (Tavernier 2007, p. 27)
15. (Diakonoff 1985, p. 57)
16. ^ (Herodotus 7.62.1)
17. (Young 1997, p. 449)
18. (Young 1997, p. 450)
19. Geography, Strab. 15.2.8
20. (Gershevitch 1968, p. 2)
21. (Gershevitch 1968, p. 1)
22. ^ (Schmitt 2008, p. 98)
23. (Tavernier 2007, p. 619)
24. (Tavernier 2007, pp. 157–8)
25. (Tavernier 2007, p. 312)
26. (Hawkins 2010, "Greek and the Languages of Asia Minor to the Classical Period", p. 226)
27. (Tavernier 2007, p. 627)
28. (Tavernier 2007, pp. 352–3)
29. ^ (Schmitt 2008, p. 99)
30. ^ (Dandamayev & Medvedskaya 2006, Median Religion) harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFDandamayevMedvedskaya2006 (help)
31. (Boyce & Grenet 1991, p. 81)
32. (Soudavar 2003, p. 84)
33. ^ M. Gunter, Michael. Historical dictionary of the Kurds.
34. ^ Hakan Özoğlu, Kurdish notables and the Ottoman state: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries, SUNY Press, 2004, p. 25.
35. Before the Greeks, chapter 10, the Persian empire
36. The empire of the Medes one of the reputed ancestors of the Kurdish people, was the only great national state that maybe said to have been established by Kurds.
37. http://books.google.com/books?id=cxr_vqpwVUkC&pg=PA61&dq=%22kurds+are+descendants%22&hl=en&ei=2hTVTrrnIMzT4QSmponTAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CFkQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22kurds%20are%20descendants%22&f=false
38. http://books.google.com/books?id=EzzYk_gzpJ0C&pg=PA59&dq=%22kurds+are+descendants%22&hl=en&ei=BBbVTpTgGKnf4QTqx-D0AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CF8Q6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=%22kurds%20are%20descendants%22&f=false
39. Windfuhr, Gernot (1975), “Isoglosses: A Sketch on Persians and Parthians, Kurds and Medes”, Monumentum H.S. Nyberg II (Acta Iranica-5), Leiden: 457-471
40. G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp.1-58, 2009.(p.21)

Sources

• Boyce, Mary; Grenet, Frantz (1991), Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman rule, BRILL, ISBN 9789004092716
• Dandamayev, M.; Medvedskaya, I. (2006), "Media", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online Edition
• Henrickson, R. C. (1988), "Baba Jan Teppe", Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 2, Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 9780933273672
• 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 9042918330
• Dandamaev, M. A.; Lukonin, V. G.; Kohl, Philip L.; Dadson, D. J. (2004), The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, p. 480, ISBN 9780521611916
• Diakonoff, I. M. (1985), "Media", The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2 (Edited by Ilya Gershevitch ed.), Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 36–148, ISBN 0521200911
• Gershevitch, I. (1968), "Old Iranian Literature", Iranian Studies, Hanbuch Der Orientalistik - Abeteilung - Der Nahe Und Der Mittlere Osten, vol. 1, 1-30: Brill, ISBN 9789004008571{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
• Levine, Louis D. (1 January 1973), "Geographical Studies in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros: I", Iran, 11: 1–27, doi:10.2307/4300482, ISSN 0578-6967, JSTOR 4300482
• Levine, Louis D. (1 January 1974), "Geographical Studies in the Neo-Assyrian Zagros-II", Iran, 12: 99–124, doi:10.2307/4300506, ISSN 0578-6967, JSTOR 4300506
• Soudavar, Abolala (2003), The aura of kings: legitimacy and divine sanction in Iranian kingship, Mazda Publishers, ISBN 9781568591094
• Young, T. Cuyler, Jr. (1988), "The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses", in Boardman, M.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Lewis, D. M.; Ostwald. (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 4, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–52, doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521228046.002 {{citation}}: More than one of |editor1-first= and |editor-first= specified (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Young, T. Cuyler (1997), "Medes", in Meyers, Eric M. (ed.), The Oxford encyclopedia of archaeology in the Near East, vol. 3, Oxford University Press, pp. 448–450, ISBN 9780195112177
• Zadok, Ran (2002), "The Ethno-Linguistic Character of Northwestern Iran and Kurdistan in the Neo-Assyrian Period", Iran, 40: 89–151, doi:10.2307/4300620, ISSN 0578-6967, JSTOR 4300620
• Schmitt, Rüdiger (2008), "Old Persian", in Woodard, Roger D. (ed.), The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas, Cambridge University Press, pp. 76–100, ISBN 9780521684941
• Stronach, David (1968), "Tepe Nush-i Jan: A Mound in Media", The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, 27 (3): 177–186, doi:10.2307/3258384, ISSN 0026-1521, JSTOR 3258384
• Stronach, David (1982), "Archeology ii. Median and Achaemenid", in Yarshater, E. (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 2, Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 288–96, ISBN 9780933273672
• Windfuhr, Gernot L. (1991), "Central dialects", in Yarshater, E. (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica, pp. 242–51, ISBN 9780939214792

Further reading

• "Mede." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 January 2008.
• Dandamayev, M.; Medvedskaya, I. (2006), "Media", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online Edition
• Gershevitch, Ilya (1985), The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521200911
• Dandamaev, M. A.; Lukonin, V. G.; Kohl, Philip L.; Dadson, D. J. (2004), The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, p. 480, ISBN 9780521611916
• Young, T. Cuyler, Jr. (1988), "The early history of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid empire to the death of Cambyses", in Boardman, M.; Hammond, N. G. L.; Lewis, D. M.; Ostwald. (eds.), Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean C. 525 to 479 B.C (Cambridge Histories Online ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–52, doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521228046.002 {{citation}}: More than one of |editor1-first= and |editor-first= specified (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

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• Medes
• Ancient Persia
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