Aryans

Aryans 

a term which has various usages in literature. The concept “Aryans” was already used in the mid-19th century to designate peoples belonging to the Indo-European linguistic community. This use of the term was developed in racist literature (especially in fascist Germany), which added to it a tendentious and antiscientific meaning. The only justifiable and scientifically acceptable use of the term “Aryan” at the present time is in reference to the tribes and peoples which spoke Indo-Iranian languages. In the oldest writings of the Indo-Iranian peoples they called themselves Aryans, which meant people with full rights, as distinguished from neighboring or subjugated peoples. A whole group of geographic and ethnic names derives from the word “Aryan.” An example is the modern name Iran (from Aryanam, “the country of the Aryans”) and others. In a number of instances, “Aryan” was the name used by a tribe to refer to itself—for example, the tribe of Medes known as the Arizanteans (“the tribe of Aryans”); the Sarmatian tribe of Aryans called the Alans; and the term “Allen,” used by the Ossets in folklore when referring to themselves (derived from the Old Iranian aryana).

E. A. GRANTOVSKII