Why are the Central Asian countries all "stans" and what does it mean?Why China is also called "Stan".
In Central Asia, there are five world-famous "stan" countries, such as Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Why do these countries have "Stan" in their names?What does this mean?And in addition to these "stan" countries, China itself is also called "stan" in the eyes of a certain country, what is the ins and outs of this?
First of all, let's look at Armenia's name for China - Chinistan. In ancient history, how did foreigners call China?During the Greek and Roman periods, they called China Seris, which means the land of silk, or "cin". The Arabs called it "sin", and the Romans called it "sinae". Although these names may seem very different, they are actually close to the Chinese "Qin".
With the influence of the Turkic language, "kitay" became another term for China, which actually originated from the Khitan, a nomadic people who lived in the north of our country. Because the Khitan is a people of Chinese origin in the eyes of foreigners, many countries call China "Khitan", and even today Russia still retains this tradition of calling China.
And in Armenia, they refer to China as "cīnasthāna" or "cinastan", i.e., Qinastan. Does the word "stan" here sound familiar to you?In Central Asia, there are many countries that end in "stan", but Armenia is the only one who refers to China as "stan".
And the word "cinastan" is derived from the Sanskrit word "cīnasthāna". In Sanskrit, "cīnasthāna" actually refers to Maha Aurora, and the word "Aurora" is more familiar to us Chinese. The predecessor of Fudan University was Aurora University.
According to Buddhist scriptures, "the east belongs to the earthquake, which is the party of the rising sun", which explains the origin of "aurora". This word became the first impression of foreign countries on this large eastern country. So in Armenia, they would call China "cinastan", that is, Qinastan, or Qinastan.
Speaking of "stan", we cannot but mention the various "stan" countries in Central Asia. However, the word "stan" in these countries does not come from Aurora's translation. So, why do these countries have "Stan" in their names?
2. What is the meaning of "stan" in Central Asia?Central Asia consists of five countries that end in "stan": Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, and their ethnic composition and types are also very similar. Around them, there is even Tatarstan inside the Russian Federation.
So, what exactly does "Stan" mean?In fact, it is a toponymic suffix of Persian origin, which has the Roman alphabet form "-stan". While "-stan" itself means a certain place, and is usually used to refer to a relatively large area or a specific place.
This is mainly due to the influence of Persian culture. During the period when the ancient Persian Empire was strong, Persian culture gradually spread to several regions. Many ethnic languages, including Iranian, have been influenced by Persian culture, and Persian has also infiltrated language systems such as Hindi and Turkic. As a result, these languages gradually become richer, bringing with them more lexical meanings.
As a result, more and more countries or regions have begun to use "so-and-so stan" to refer to themselves or each other, and some places have even borrowed "stan" as the name of their provinces and regions. This is evident in the five Central Asian countries today, which are heavily influenced by Persian culture, many of which are inhabitants of Persian ancestry.
In their initial stage of development, no real state was created, which was associated with the long-term wars in Central Asia. As a result, some countries have chosen to add "stan" to their ethnic names, such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which represent the Kazakh and Uzbek ethnic groups, respectively.
Some countries have officially adopted "stan" as their country name, while others are only used locally. For example, although Kurdistan is a province of Iran, the term "Kurdistan" actually originally referred to several regions such as Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Armenia.
Although in Persian, "stan" means region, with the rise of the five Central Asian states, some people have come to think that "stan" actually represents a country, and even evolved into a derivative meaning of "country". However, it is important to note that not all names ending in "stan" represent countries, and many are still the appellations of specific regions or provinces.
Today, Tajikistan is the only one of the five Central Asian countries that is not influenced by Turkic culture, but is of pure Persian descent. During the retreat of the ancient Persians to the Ferghana Basin and their evolution into the Tajiks, the formation of Tajikistan did not undergo Turkization.
Almost all of the other four countries were profoundly influenced by Turkic culture. With the rise of the Arab Empire, the Tang Dynasty succeeded in preventing its eastward advance. Subsequently, the Arab Empire spread Islam to Turkic tribes, which were not united at the time. After the Anshi Rebellion, the Turks established Islamized dynasties and annexed Central Asia.
Since then, Islam has covered almost all of Central Asia, including the five countries of present-day Central Asia, which still practice Islam today. Central Asia was Turkicized until it was ruled by the Mongols. However, with the collapse of Mongol rule, the local Mongol khanate was influenced by Turkic culture and began to believe in Islam.
Subsequently, Tsarist Russia invaded these regions until the collapse of the Soviet Union, and these regions became independent one after another, becoming the five Central Asian countries we know as well.
In addition to the Five States of Stan and Chinastani, there is also a country called Stan, which is Palestine. Some people may mistakenly think that Palestine is also a type of place name, but in fact, it is not derived from Persian, but from the Old Semitic language, the full name is "palestine", where "tine" does not have the meaning of region or country.
The name has a long history, dating back to the 12th century BC, when people from Egypt and the Mediterranean region came to Palestine. At that time, people from Egypt used Hebrew to refer to other people as "filishtim", which actually translates to "outsider" and does not refer to a specific region.
Subsequently, the Greeks adopted the term, the ancient Romans rewrote it as "philistin" and "palestine" according to Latin, and "philistine" and "palestine" in English. Therefore, when translated into Chinese, it becomes Palestine. With the times, the name Palestine has endured despite the constant changes in the inhabitants.
As a result, it gradually evolved into a place name, the State of Palestine. However, there are significant differences in the suffix compared to the "stan" suffix in the five Central Asian countries.