Document Type : Original Article
Author
Phd student
Abstract
"Ardavan" consisting of two parts Arta+Pan in the meaning of guardian of order and truth, is the name of several Parthian kings. This name is recorded in the Greek sources, Middle Parthian Persian, Middle Sassanid Persian, and post-Islamic Iranian chronicles, as Artapan or Ardavan; However, there is evidence that in a number of historical sources of the Islamic period, this name was recorded as "Azorban", "Azoran" or "Adorban". In this article, we examined these evidences and found that the phonetic transformation of the name Ardavan into Azorban took place in the first two centuries after Islam and led to the transformation of the meaning and function of this name. These evidences are somehow related to Ibn Muqffa's Siyar-al-Muluk, and it can be said that the misreading of the name "Ardwan" as "Azerban", which is a word with a religious function, came from Ibn Muqfa's Siyar al-Muluk to other sources; However, this incorrect reading became obsolete in the first two centuries and was not used by historians in the sources after the third century.
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