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Ahriyan
Found in: Turkish folklore Turkish culture
Ahriyan is the name of a people from Tonya and Beshikduzu (Trabzon). The name was given by Salpazari Turkomans. It means "native" or "not Turkoman". It also means oppressive, heartless when used as an adjective. In the Turkish language, ahriyan means valuable, beautiful clothe.
The ahriyan name (Pomak) for Muslims who live in the Balkans and speak Bulgarian, was given by Turkmens because they are not of Turkish ancestry. There is a place called Ahriyan in Iskece city in West Thrace (Greece).
Word anthropology
The word ahriyan derives from the Persian word Ahura Mazda. Ahura Mazda is a twin soul to Angra Mainyu, who consciously chooses badness, and so creates death. The main theme is the war between Angra Mainyu and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrian theology which is an antique Iran religion. In Sasanies times the common language was mid-term Persian (Pahlavi) and Angra Mainyu was called "ahriman" in this language. At least after a thousand-year oral tradition, in twenty one-part Avesta which was probably written in B.C. 6, angra means enemy, sin, bad and mainyu means soul, invisibility, spiritual. Although it is used common ahriman forms in Anatolia, there appear to be uncommon ahriman forms in Salpazari which has Alevilik (partisan of the caliph Ali) features.
References
Ozhan Ozturk . Karadeniz: Ansiklopedik Sozluk. 2. Cilt. Heyamola Publishing. Istanbul. 2005. ISBN 975-6121-00-9.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Ahriyan