Peoples by whom Ariana was inhabited, as enumerated by Strabo were:[17]
Arachoti;
Arii;
Bactrians;
Drangae;
Gedrosii;
Paropamisadae;
Parthians;
Persians
Sogdians.
Pliny (vi. 25) specifies the following ethnicities:
Angutturi;
Arii;
the inhabitants of Daritis;
Dorisci;
Drangae;
Evergetae;
Gedrussi;
Ichthyophagi;
Methorici;
Pasires;
Urbi;
Zarangae.
Rüdiger Schmitt, the German scholar of Iranian Studies, also believes that Ariana should have included other Iranian people. He writes in the Encyclopædia Iranica:
Eratosthenes’ use of this term (followed by Diodorus 2.37.6) is obviously due to a mistake, since, firstly, not all inhabitants of these lands belonged to the same tribe and, secondly, the term "Aryan" originally was an ethnical one and only later a political one as the name of the Iranian empire (for all North Indians and Iranians designated themselves as "Aryan"; See Aryan), thus comprising still other Iranian tribes outside of Ariana proper, like Medes, Persians or Sogdians (so possibly in Diodorus 1.94.2, where Zarathushtra is said to have preached Ahura Mazdā's laws "among the Arianoi").[3]
In Avesta and Persian literature
Unlike the several meanings connected with ārya- in Old Indo-Aryan, the Old Persian term only has an ethnic meaning.[42][43] That is in contrast to Indo-Aryan usage, in which several secondary meanings evolved, the meaning of ar- as a self-identifier is preserved in Iranian usage, hence the word "Iran". The airya meant "Iranian", and Iranian anairya [24][44] meant and means "non-Iranian". Arya may also be found as an ethnonym in Iranian languages, e.g., Alan and Persian Iran and Ossetian Ir/Iron[44] The name is itself equivalent to Aryan, where Iran means "land of the Aryans,"[24][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] and has been in use since Sassanid times.
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