Some identifications of the Aparna have been tenta­tively made in Iranian sources. Markwart, quoting a passage in the Bundahišn (p. 233.14–15), concluded that the name Abāršahr (q.v., i.e., Nīšāpūr) meant “not the Upper Country but the country of the Aparnak, i.e., the Aparnoi” (Provincial Capitals, p. 52; see also E. Herz­feld, Zarathustra, AMI 1, 1929, p. 82 n. 1, p. 108 n. 1; Christensen, Iran Sass., p. 220; W. Eilers, De­mawend, Archiv Orientalni 22, 1954, p. 373).

But, besides a possible different reading of the key word ÷plnk (cf. Bundahišn, tr. p. 299), it should also be noted that the involved passage in the Bundahišn concerns a person and has little to do with the name of a long forgotten people. M. Sprengling (“Shahpuhr I the Great on the Kaabah of Zoroaster,” AJSLL 57, 1940, p. 399) identified the word Aparna in the inscription of Šāpūr I on the Ka^cba-ye Zardošt (Pers. 28, ÷plynk, Parth. 23, ÷prynk, Gk. Abrēnach, see also Eilers, ibid.; M. L. Chaumont, in Acta Iranica 4, 1975, pp. 118-19); but this has been rightly rejected (Henning, Mitteliran­isch, p. 95, n. 1; Ph. Gignoux, Glossaire des inscriptions Pehlevies et Parthes, London, 1972, s.v.; idem, in Stud. Ir. 5, 1976, p. 308).