Author Xia Ran
The main hypothesis of historians, linguists, and archaeologists is about who was the first to use the word "Tajik" to refer to the Oriental peoples of the Persian-speaking world.
The name of the country , Tajikistan " — territory inhabited by Tajiks — is relatively young and appears on documents and maps only in the first half of the 20th century.
At the same time, the national name "Tajik" itself was formed in the early Middle Ages, nearly 1500 years ago.
But the origin and meaning of the word "Tajik" has been debated for more than 100 years — and researchers still don't have a clear answer as to where the name comes from. Some date back to the time of the mighty Kushan Empire, stretching from India to the Caspian Sea, some say that the Chinese literature of the Tang Dynasty is recorded, and some say that the Persian-speaking tribes that lived in the vast continent of Eurasia a thousand years ago.
But all in all, there are four main versions of the origins of "Tajik".
First version - Chinese
Vasily Bartod, a prominent Central Asian researcher, believes that the word "Tajik" is derived from the Arabic word "tai.".
Mahmoud of Kashgar, China, was a prominent scientist of the medieval Qarakhanid era who used the name of the nation to denote the Iranian-speaking population of East Turkistan, Central Asia, and parts of Iran. Also in Turkic literature, the word "tezik" clearly refers to the Sogdian-Tajik population of the region.
The name Tajik, however, may have been given Chinese. Thus, the famous archaeologist Alexander Bernstam claims that Chinese used the term "Great Eclipse" when referring to the Persian-speaking peoples on the western borders of their empire. And in the Tang Dynasty in the 7th-9th centuries. - The most prosperous era of the Great Silk Road - the word sounds like daidziek, complementing tajjik.
In describing the "Great Eaters", Chinese refers to both the local Tajiks and the Arabs. In the Tang Dynasty, Chinese also used tazie or tada to describe Tajiks. A writer who wrote nearly 50 years before the Arab conquest used for the first time the term for the local inhabitants of Iranian-speaking Tocharotstan (southern modern Tajikistan).
And already after the Islamization of the region, Arab conquerors of Chinese origin acquired their middle name here – "The Great Eclipse". Apparently, the authors of ancient Chinese history books did not see much difference between Muslims—whether they were Arab invaders or Indigenous Persian-speaking peoples. He was a foreigner, both foreigners.
Version two – Gui Cream
Another version of the national name "Tajik" is associated with the names of the Kushan people in the kingdom of the Middle Ages.
Chinese words "moon" and "great moon" translate as "moon" according to one version and "meat" according to another version, so these interpretations acquire a less logical meaning - "meat eater".
Going back to the Chinese phonetic alphabet, "Tajik" for daidziek, we can assume that the name "da-yueji" is actually the self-designation of the East Iranians of people living in western China, somewhat distorted by Chinese. The combination of words gives us the following sounds— "yes" or "ta" (the article), "yueji" (root), and "k" (suffix). Originally it was the following structure: "ta-yueji-k", which can be interpreted as the national name "Tajik".
The second Chinese name of Guishuang is meat, and "meaty" is not a native Chinese word. This is a distorted Indo-European pronunciation of "light" or "red" – from the Aryan root "ruhs" – "light", also found in ancient India as rohitas "red, with red" or in the modern Shugenan language as "rusht" – "red".
A Scythian tribe had a similar name—roxolans—or bright moon. Perhaps the word was introduced from the language of the people living in western China in the 2nd century BC Chinese and the language of the Kushan people. This hypothesis yielded Chinese description of the unusual appearance of "Moon-Tocharo-Gui Cream", namely red, hairy and green eyes. In the murals of the Buddhist caves in Xinjiang, the sculptures of the figures of the Guishuang Palace, and the faces of the kings of Guishuang on the coins, we all see the image of the Yueshi people in the appearance of the Caucasians. The Guishuang people are often depicted with bright eyes and a protruding eagle hook nose.
In this way, it is clear why Indian and Tibetan sources call the Kushan people "Tokhars", which means basically the same as "luzhi" - redhead, whitehead, blonde.
Version Three – Cypriots
Along with the "Chinese" version, Berrushtam proposes another, more logical version, the older origin of the national name "Tajik" from the Serb and Sanskrit ttaji – "taji", meaning "river".
Apparently, the name is related to the preferred place of residence of these tribes near the river , the "river", which indicates that they were engaged in irrigated agriculture, which is very typical of the agricultural peoples of the region.
This practice of deriving tribal names from geographical names was quite common in the history of Central Asia. Thus, according to Berushtam's conclusion, the national name "Tajik" comes from the "Taji" of the Saka ancient Iranian language, which appeared no earlier than the middle of the first millennium BC.
The fourth version , Sogdians
Tajikistani researcher Hazrat Sabokhi gave another version of the name "Tajik" in Dari and Sogdian - awj, which translates as "peak", "height".
Because of this combination, the word acquires the meaning of "mountain". In this regard, we can recall another name of the mentioned Sak, "tigrakhauda", which means "Cypriots wear hats in the shape of high arrows (such as mountain peaks)". Archaeological findings indirectly prove to support this version.
For example, a similar headdress adorns the head of the "Golden Prince" in the Issyk cemetery, which was tall and pointed in the 5th-4th centuries BC and was covered with gold plaques, animal statues, feathers and arrows.
If you ask almost any Tajik what the word "Tajik" means, everyone will unanimously say, "Tajiks are the bearers of the crown," because in Persian, "taj" or "to" means "crown," "crown."
However, these two words refer not only to the crown, but also to the aforementioned pointed hat, whose decoration rivals that of many rulers of the time. Perhaps this is why the origin version of the national name "Tajiks" circulates in the folk.
However, combined with the very popular Cypriot headdress, this version takes on a new meaning.
Of course, these are just some assumptions about the origin of the national name "Tajik" and the whole nation. It is still hoped that further research and archaeological discoveries will be able to conclusively confirm or refute these versions. (End)
Source: Satellite News Agency
Translation: OKIJOT