At present, there are 197 countries in the world, carefully look at these country names, you will find very interesting places, for example, some countries are called "Lan", such as the Netherlands, Finland, Poland, New Zealand; some countries are called "Nia", such as Romania, Estonia, Armenia, Slovenia; some countries are called "Libya", such as Bulgaria, Nigeria, Australia; and some countries are called "Stan", there are currently 7 countries called "Stan" in the world, including the five Central Asian countries and Afghanistan Pakistan, so what language does "Stan" come from? What does it mean? Why was China also called "Stan"?
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > 7 "stans" in the world</h1>
1. Central Asian Five Stans
In 1843, a German geographer named Alexander von Humboldt was the first to propose the concept of "Central Asia".
There has been controversy over several countries in the Central Asian region, and the most widely accepted definition of the Central Asian region is currently the "Five Central Asian States", including Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.
The common feature of these five countries is that they are all called "Stan", and the word "Stan" originates from the Ancient Persian language.
Speaking of Ancient Persian, it is necessary to mention Persia. Speaking of Persia, that is, today's Iran, everyone may not sound too much feeling, but for the ancients, hearing Persia may have to shiver, because the Persian Empire was the world's first country with territory spanning three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, and its heyday was larger than the later Roman Empire.
However, Persia was only a small tribe at first, until 559 BC, Cyrus became the tribal leader of Persia, he led the people to the south to fight the northern war, and he also formed an "undead army", which was a powerful heavy infantry unit, generally acting as Cyrus's Janissary army, fighting bravely, it is said that if anyone in this army is hung, immediately let the new people replenish, the number of troops will always remain at 10,000 people. The enemy saw that the number of them fighting was unchanged, forever maintained at ten thousand, and thought that these people were all monsters that could not be killed, and when they saw them, they hid far away.
Soon, Persia defeated other tribes, such as the Medes and Lydia, one by one, and became the local overlords.
After that, Persia began to expand again, in 539 BC, Persia destroyed ancient Babylon; 16 years later, Persia attacked the capital of ancient Egypt, and two of the four ancient kingdoms were destroyed.
Persia became a big empire, when China was still in the spring and autumn war and chaos era, and the Persian Empire was a well-deserved world hegemon.
At that time, the Persian Empire ruled from the Aegean Sea to the Indus, from the Indus to the Mediterranean, and from the Nile to the Caucasus. Cyrus became the first emperor of Persia, and he proudly said, "I, Cyrus, am the King of the world, the great King!" ”
In addition to barbaric aggression, the Persians also had an advanced civilization. They built ornate palaces, as well as elaborate reliefs, invented a unit of measurement called the Tarrant, and, of course, invented their language, which is "Ancient Persian".
On the one hand, the Persian Empire continued to expand its territory, and on the other hand, it also spread its own civilization to the occupied countries, and the surrounding countries were all named "Stan".
And with the continuous expansion of the Persian empire and the outward radiation of Persian culture, the use of the word "Stan" has become more and more extensive.
Even after the decline of Persia, the Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and Russians ruled the territory, but the name "Stan" has always been passed down.
So what does "Stan" mean?
In Old Persian, "stan" (-stan) is the root of the suffix of a place name, meaning "region, place", used to denote the area inhabited by a certain ethnic group.
Today," the countries with "Stan" in their names, mostly in Central Asia, West Asia, and South Asia, are concentrated around Iran and are inextricably linked to Iran, that is, they are basically in the area ruled by the ancient Persian Empire.
Since the five peoples of Central Asia were more or less influenced by ancient Persians in the process of development, and some of them had ancient Persian ancestry, it was inevitable that the names they gave to their areas of life were also influenced by the ancient Persian language.
In today's five Central Asian countries, the name of the country bears "Stan", which is this ethnic-Stan structure:
"Uzbekistan" refers to areas inhabited by Uzbeks and "Tajikistan" refers to areas inhabited by Tajiks, as does Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
2. Afghanistan, Pakistan
At present, there are 7 countries called "Stan" in the world, in addition to the five Central Asian countries, there are Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Afghanistan: "Stan" (-stan) is equivalent to an affix for "place". The appearance of "Stan" alone is meaningless, it needs to be followed by other place nouns to form a complete place name.
Therefore, when our country first translated Afghanistan to the country, it may not have translated "Stan", and the earliest translator may think that Afghanistan is a place called Afghani, so it was directly translated into Afghanistan.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was already a translation of Afghanistan, and at that time, there was no other country in the world with the suffix "Stan" except "Afghanistan". Therefore, when translating, there is no other example to refer to, and the translator translates to Afghanistan without Stan.
Later, Chinese's translations of foreign place names were mostly pure transliterations. Therefore, the later Pakistan and the five Central Asian stans all took Stan with them.
Pakistan: The word "stan" here is not derived from the old Persian language, but is a compound of the Islamic concept of "halal" (paki) and "place" (stan), which is a halal-stan structure, which translates to "halal land".
After saying 7 "real stans", there is also a "fake stan", which means that it is not one of the 7 countries called "stan", but when translated, it is translated as Stan. This country is the most confusing Palestine.
Palestine: The word is not derived from the ancient Persian language, but from the ancient Semitic word "Palestine", which we can see ended not with Stan "stan", but with "tine". The correct pronunciation should be "Philistine", but due to translation problems, the word has also become "Stan".
We mentioned above that "Stan" often appears in some country names, but the meaning of "Stan" is still relatively rich, and it has some other usages.
In addition to being often used as a country name, "Stan" has some other meanings.
Due to the spread of Persian culture, close contact with other ethnic groups, and the penetration of Persian into other Turkic, Mongolian and other languages, the content of "stan" (-stan) has gradually enriched, and there are currently many regions with "stan" in Central Asia, West Asia, Eastern Europe and South Asia.
Some of them are the names of countries, that is, the 7 Stan countries we mentioned above; some are the names of provinces and districts, such as Balochistan, Kurdistan, and Lodstan; with the development and evolution of history, some are still city names, such as Turkestan, Dagestan, Kyrgyzstan, and even some street communities are also named after "Stan".
Therefore, "Stan" not only refers to the country, but also refers to the province (district), city name, street community, etc. With the development of the times, the meaning of the concept of "Stan" is also constantly extended, constantly enriched, and more meanings and usages are derived.
The state with "Stan" and Islam
The countries with "Stan" in the name of these countries are basically Muslim countries or Muslim populations account for the majority, so many people have thought that the places called "Stan" believe in Islam, and when they say "Stan", they think of Islam and make the two equal, but in fact, the two are not necessarily related.
There is a chronological sequence here, starting with the Persian Empire in the 6th century BC, "stan" (-stan) in the ancient Persian language, and then the Rise of the Arabs, the victory over the Persians, and the spread of their Islam to the land of Central Asia.
That is to say, there was actually "stan" (-stan) in Ancient Persian first, followed by Islamization in Places like Central Asia.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Why is China also called "Stan"? </h1>
There is a country in the world that also calls China "Stan", and this country is Armenia.
Armenia is located in the Transcaucasia region of Western Asia, bordering Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and other countries, the history can be traced back to 2500 years ago, the traditional territory of Armenia in history is far more than the present, its territory once included the contemporary Caucasus region and the vast area of eastern Turkey, and it was also a flourishing moment.
Ancient Armenian called China "Cinastan", which translates to "Qinnastan", and in Armenian, China is called "Stan", which means the same thing as the "Stan" in Pakistan and other countries, which literally translates as: a place called China, or Qindi (Cina translation for Qin is still controversial in academic circles).
So where did the Armenian "Cinastan" come from? This word was born out of the Sanskrit word "Cīnasthāna", Chinese may be unfamiliar with this Sanskrit, but it is almost unknown when translated into Chinese, that is, "Aurora", the full name is "Maha Aurora".
So, what does Aurora mean?
The Buddhist dictionary "Translation of Nominal Collection Volume III" records: "The East belongs to the earthquake, is the party of the sunrise, so the cloud aurora." ”
This means that China is east of India ("Aurora"), the land of sunrise ("Dan"), so it is called "Aurora".
In the eyes of Indians, the land of China is located in the east, which is the place where the sun rises, so the ancient Indians have this very vivid title for China - Aurora.
"Aurora" has also become the earliest foreign name for China.
The name "Aurora" can be said to be a transliteration and a very good translation. So until modern times, we can still see the use of the word "Aurora" in some places, including Shanghai. For example, the former Aurora University, and now the Aurora International Building.
The famous priest Ma Xiangbo, founded on February 27, 1903 at the former site of the Xujiahui Observatory in Shanghai, the first private university in modern China, called Aurora College. Later, due to the contradiction between Ma Xiangbo and the Catholic Church, he moved to Lujiawan in 1908. In 1928, it was renamed Aurora University.
In the autumn of 1952, in the adjustment of colleges and universities across the country, Aurora University was abolished, and some departments were merged into Fudan University.
Now when you go to Shanghai Pudong New Area, you can also see a building with the word Aurora written on it, which is the closest to the Huangpu River, called the Aurora International Building, and this building can also see a beautiful view of the Huangpu River. In addition, I believe that when you see this building at night, you should have seen the light show "I ♡SH (I love Shanghai)" on the outer wall of the building.