The name Armenia is an exonym, the Armenian language name for the country being Hayk‘ (see Haik for a discussion of that name). Its first unambiguous application as the ethnonym of the Armenians is in a late 6th century BC Old Persian inscription, as Armina, and a few decades later, Herodotus, in his review of the troops opposing the Greeks, wrote that “the Armenians were armed like the Phrygians, being Phrygian settlers" [1]. Some more decades later, Xenophon, a Greek general waging war against the Persians, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality. He relates that the people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians.[2].
There are, however, surprisingly early (Bronze Age) attestations of what appears to be the same name as a geographical term in both Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources. The earliest is from an inscription which mentions Armânum (also read Armani[3]) together with Ibla (Ebla) as territories conquered by Naram-Sin (23rd century BC)[4] identified with an Akkadian colony in the Diarbekr region[5]
A Babylonian inventory of the Akkadian Empire locates the land Armanî next to Lullubi[6] Another mention by pharoah Thutmose III in the 33rd year of his reign (1446 BC) as the people of Ermenen, and says in their land "heaven rests upon its four pillars".[7]
Minni (מנּי) is also a Biblical name of the region, appearing in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 51:27) alongside Ararat and Ashchenaz, probably the same as the Minnai of Assyrian inscriptions,[8] perhaps corresponding to the Minyans.[9] Armenia is interpreted by some as ḪARMinni, that is, "the mountainous region of the Minni".[10]
It has been suggested that Old Persian Armina and the Greek Armenoi are continuations of the Assyrian toponym.[11]
There have been further speculations as to the existence Bronze Age tribe (of an ethnonym, as opposed to a toponym) of the Armens (Armans, Armani; Armenian: Արմեններ Armenner, Առամեններ Aṙamenner), either identical to or forming a subset of the Hayasa-Azzi[12][13] Etymological speculation inspired by the Armenian hypothesis of Indo-European origins connects the name with the Ar- root found in Aryan, Arta etc.[14] Alternatively, the name has been claimed as a "variant" of Urmani, a e living near Lake Van and near Lake Urmia according to an inscription of Menousas.[15]
Armenian tradition makes Armenak or Aram the great-grandson of Haik. Other authors[16] connect the Parsi name Armin.[17]
Modern terms for Armenians and Armenia in Armenian and neighboring languages:
| Armenians | Armenia | |
| Armenian | Հայեր Hayer | Հայաստան Hayastan, Հայք Hayk‘ |
| Arabic | أرمن Armin, singular أرماني Armānī | أرمينيا Armīniyā |
| Assyrian (Syriac) | ܐܪܡܐܢܥ Armānī | ܐܪܡܝܢܝܐ Armīniyā |
| Azerbaijani | Ermənilər | Ermənistan |
| Persian | ارمنیان Arminiyān | ارمنستان Arministān |
| Georgian | სომხები Somkhebi | სომხეთი Somkhet'i |
| Greek | Αρμενικό | Αρμενία |
| Kurdish | Ermeni | Ermenistan |
| Russian | Армяне | Армения |
| Turkish | Ermeniler | Ermenistan |
References
- ^ Herodotus, History, 7.73.
- ^ Xenophon, Anabasis, IV.v.2-9.
- ^ Artak Movsisyan, "Aratta: The ancient Kindgom of Armenia," Yerevan, 1992, p. 184
- ^ surviving in an early Babylonian copy, ca. 2200 BC, URI 275, lines I.7, 13; II.4; III.3, 30.
- ^ Horace Abram Rigg, Jr., A Note on the Names Armânum and Urartu, Journal of the American Oriental Society (1937).
- ^ no. 92 of Schroeder's 1920 Keilschrifttexte aus Assur; W. F. Albright, A Babylonian Geographical Treatise on Sargon of Akkad's Empire, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 45. (1925), p. 212.
- ^ International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1915[1]; Eric H. Cline and David O'Connor (eds.) Thutmose III, University of Michigan, 2006, ISBN 978-0472114672.[page # needed]
- ^ International Standard Bible Encyclopedia s.v. Minni
- ^ Smith's Bible Dictionary[2]
- ^ Easton’s Bible Dictionary
- ^ H. A. Rigg (1937).
- ^ Rafael Ishkhanyan, "Illustrated History of Armenia," Yerevan, 1989
- ^ Elisabeth Bauer. Armenia: Past and Present (1981), p. 49
- ^ T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov, The Early History of Indo-European (aka Aryan) Languages, Scientific American, March 1990; James P. Mallory, "Kuro-Araxes Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
- ^ Vahan Kurkjian, History of Armenia, Michigan 1968[3]
- ^ Hovick Nersessian, Highlands of Armenia, 1998, Los Angeles
- ^ Parsiana, Book of Iranian Names[4]: a dweller of the Garden of Eden, a son of king Kobad
See also
External links
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