"kínai források A-pa területén Nyugat-Turkesztánt értik. Az európai avarok 558-ig, Nyugatra történt menekülésük időpontjáig a Khoraszán északi részén laktak, az örmény forrásokban Apr ahrnak, a perzsa forrásokban Abar ahrnak nevezett területen. Theophüalktosz szerint is az avarok a perzsák szomszédságában laktak. Szebéosz ezt az egykori vidéket Aprxharnak, Avar Birodalomnak nevezi"
H. Gaube, Abarsahr, Encyclopædia Iranica, I/1, p. 67
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abarsahr
ABARAHR, name of Nīāpūr province in western Khorasan. From the early Sasanian period, Nīāpūr, which was founded or rebuilt by āpūr I in the first years of his reign, was the administrative center of the province. On a Sasanian clay sealing, the names of Abarahr and Nīāpūr appear together. In the inscription of āpūr I at Naq-e Rostam and in Manichean texts, Abarahr is mentioned in various spellings. On Sasanian coins the Pahlavi form of Abarahr appears abbreviated asʾpr, and on Arab-Sasanian coins we find the form ʾpr, ʾpr(t). Post-reform Omayyad coins bear the Arabic mint signature ʾbrhr, which can also be found on ʿAbbasid coins until about A.D. 825. But as early as about 772, the mint name nysʾbwrappears on Islamic coins, and it was used up to later Middle Ages. In Arabic texts, besides the common form of Abarahr, Barahr occurs; and the Persian geography of Ḥamdallāh Mostawfī mentions Abarahra (variet. Abū-ahr, etc.) as the old name of Hamahra near the Caspian Sea. The Arab geographers of the Middle Ages explained the meaning of the word Abraahr/Abarahr as cloud city. The older western interpretation of the name, upper country, which has been brought back into discussion recently, was rejected by E. Herzfeld and J. Markwart. Markwart concluded that Abarahr means the country of the Aparak (one of the three Dahae tribes who founded the Parthian empire) an opinion widely shared.
Bibliography:
Markwart, Ērānahr, p. 74. Idem, Provincial Capitals, p. 52.
E. Herzfeld in AMI 1, 1929, pp. 82, 108. Andreas and Henning, Mir. Man. II, p. 12 (separate pagination).
E. Honigmann and A. Maricq, Recherches sur les Res gestae divi Saporis,Mémoires de lAcadémie royale de Belgique (Classe des lettres), ser. 2, 47/4, 1952, p. 107).
W. Sundermann in AOASH 24/1, 1971, p. 86.
R. Göbl, Sasanidische Numismatik, Braunschweig, 1968, pl. XVI/2.
R. N. Frye in Iranica Antiqua 3, 1968, p. 122. Le Strange, Lands, p. 383.
Mostawfī, Nozhat al-qolūb I, p. 91.
Yāqūt, I, p. 566.
J. Walker, Catalogue of the Arab-Byzantine and Post-Reform Umaiyad Coins, London, 1956, pp. 104f.
H. Gaube, Arabo-sasanidische Numismatik, Braunschweig, 1973, pl. 9.
E. von Zambaur, Die Münzprägungen des Islam, Wiesbaden, 1968, pp. 36, 259-62.
(H. Gaube)
Originally Published: December 15, 1982
Last Updated: July 13, 2011
This article is available in print. Vol. I, Fasc. 1, p. 67 |