Dahae

The Dahae may have been the {{Transliteration|ae|Dāha-}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬛𐬁𐬵𐬀}}}}) or {{Transliteration|ae|Dåŋha-}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬛𐬂𐬢𐬵𐬀}}}}) people mentioned in the Yašts as one of the five peoples following the Zoroastrian religion, along with the {{Transliteration|ae|Aⁱriia-}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀}}}}), {{Transliteration|ae|Tūⁱriia-}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬙𐬏𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀}}}}), Sauromatian culture ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬯𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬨𐬀}}}}), and {{Transliteration|ae|Sāinu-}} ({{lang|ae|{{script|Avst|𐬯𐬁𐬌𐬥𐬎}}}}), although this identification is uncertain.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

The Iranologist János Harmatta has identified the Dahā with the Massagetae/Sakā tigraxaudā based on ancient Graeco-Roman authors' mention of the {{Transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} as living between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, where Arrian also located the Massagetae and the Dahae.{{cite journal |last=Harmatta |first=János |date=1999 |title=Alexander the Great in Central Asia |url=https://akjournals.com/view/journals/068/39/1-4/article-p129.xml |journal=Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |volume=39 |issue= 1–4|pages=129–136 |doi=10.1556/aant.39.1999.1-4.11 |s2cid=162246561 |access-date=July 4, 2022}} The scholars A. Abetekov and H. Yusupov have also suggested that the {{Transliteration|xsc|Dahā}} were a constituent tribe of the Massagetae.{{sfn|Abetekov|Yusupov|1994}}

The scholar Y. A. Zadneprovskiy has instead suggested that the Dahae were descendants of the Massagetae.{{cite book |editor-last1=Dani |editor-first1=Ahmad Hasan |editor-link1=Ahmad Hasan Dani |editor-last2=Harmatta |editor-first2=János |editor-link2=János Harmatta | editor-last3=Puri |editor-first3=Baij Nath |editor-link3=Baij Nath Puri |editor-last4=Etemadi |editor-first4=G. F. |editor-last5=Bosworth |editor-first5=Clifford Edmund |editor-link5=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |last=Zadneprovskiy |first=Y. A. |author-link= |date=1994 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |chapter=The Nomads of Northern Central Asia After the Invansion of Alexander |url= |location=Paris, France |publisher=UNESCO |pages=448–463 |isbn=978-9-231-02846-5 |quote=The middle of the third century b.c. saw the rise to power of a group of tribes consisting of the Parni (Aparni) and the Dahae, descendants of the Massagetae of the Aral Sea region. }}

The scholar Marek Jan Olbrycht, who has also identified the Massagetae with the {{Transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}},{{cite book |last=Olbrycht |first=Marek Jan |date=2000 |title=Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia |chapter=Remarks on the Presence of Iranian Peoples in Europe and Their Asiatic Relations |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/11934986 |location=Kraków |publisher=Księgarnia Akademicka |pages=101–104 |isbn=978-8-371-88337-8 }} however considers the {{Transliteration|peo|Dahā}} as being a separate group from the Saka to which the Massagetae/{{Transliteration|peo|Sakā tigraxaudā}} belonged.{{cite book |last=Olbrycht |first=Marek Jan |author-link= |date=2021 |title=Early Arsakid Parthia (ca. 250-165 B.C.): At the Crossroads of Iranian, Hellenistic, and Central Asian History |url= |location=Leiden, Netherlands ; Boston, United States |publisher=Brill |page=22 |isbn=978-9-004-46076-8 |quote=Apparently the Dahai represented an entity not identical with the other better known groups of the Sakai, i.e. the Sakai (Sakā) Tigrakhaudā (Massagetai, roaming in Turkmenistan), and Sakai (Sakā) Haumavargā (in Transoxania and beyond the Syr Daryā).}}

The Dahae initially lived in the north-eastern part of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, in the arid steppes of the Karakum Desert near Margiana, alongside the Saka groups and the Sogdians and Chorasmians,{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}} and immediately to the north of Hyrcania.{{cite book |editor-last1=Boardman |editor-first1=John |editor-link1=John Boardman (art historian) |editor-last2=Hammond |editor-first2=N. G. L. |editor-link2=N. G. L. Hammond |editor-last3=Lewis |editor-first3=D. M. |editor-link3=David Malcolm Lewis |editor-last4=Ostwald |editor-first4=M. |editor-link4=Martin Ostwald |last=Francfort |first=Henri-Paul |author-link=Henri-Paul Francfort |date=1988 |title=The Cambridge Ancient History |volume=4 |chapter=Central Asia and Eastern Iran |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=173 |isbn=978-0-521-22804-6 |quote=The Dahas of Xerxes' 'Daiva' inscription (XPh) are perhaps to be situated to the north of Hyrcania where the Dahas mentioned by more recent writers are later to be found }}

During late 4th and early 3rd centuries BCE, the Dahae, and especially their constituent tribe of the Parni, had settled along the southern and southwestern fringes of the Karakum desert, and by the mid-3rd century BCE they had moved west and had settled along the southeastern shores of the Caspian Sea, in the lands to the north of Hyrcania. Two other Dahae tribes, the Xanthioi and the Pissouroi, lived further east till the regions to the north of Areia.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

The name of the Dahae, attested in the Old Persian form {{Transliteration|peo|Dahā}}, is derived from a Saka language name meaning "man", based on the common practice among various peoples of calling themselves "man" in their own languages. This term is attested in the Khotanese form {{Transliteration|kho|daha}}.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}} The Dahae were a nomadic people, and no known sedentary settlement can be attributed to them.{{cite book |last=Bivar |first=A. D. H. |author-link=David Bivar |date=1983 |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |volume=3.1. |chapter=The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids |url= |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=27 |isbn=978-0-521-20092-9 }}

The scholar David Gordon White has instead suggested that the name of the Dahae meant "stranglers," and was derived from the Proto-Indo-European root {{lang|ine-x-proto|dʰau}}, from which he also derived the name of the Dacians.{{cite book |last=White |first=David Gordon |author-link=David Gordon White |date=1991 |title=Myths of the Dog-Man |url= |location= |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=239 |isbn=}}

A splinter {{Transliteration|peo|Dahā}} might possibly have migrated at an early date across the Iranian plateau and joined the Persian people who lived in its southwestern part, with the Greek historian Herodotus later referring to the {{Transliteration|grc|Daoi}} as one of the nomadic Persian tribes, along with the Mardians, Dropicans, and Sagartians, although this identification is uncertain.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

The {{Transliteration|peo|Dahā}} were in control of the traffic between Chorasmia in the north and Parthia and Hyrcania in the south.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

According to the Babylonian historian Berossus, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Cyrus, died fighting against the Dahae.{{cite book |last=Dandamaev |first=M. A. |author-link=Muhammad Dandamayev |date=1989 |title=A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire |url= |location=Leiden, Netherlands ; New York City, United States |publisher=Brill |page=67 |isbn=978-9-004-09172-6 }} According to the Iranologist Muhammad Dandamayev, Berossus identified the Dahae rather than the Massagetae as Cyrus's killers because they had replaced the Massagetae as the most famous nomadic tribe of Central Asia long before Berossus's time,{{sfn|Dandamayev|1994}} although some scholars identified the Dahae as being identical with the Massagetae or as one of their sub-groups.{{sfn|Abetekov|Yusupov|1994}}

The oldest certain recorded mention of the {{Transliteration|peo|Dahā}} is in the Daiva Inscription of the Achaemenid king Xerxes I along with the {{Transliteration|peo|Sakā Haumavargā}} and the {{Transliteration|sa|Sakā tigraxaudā}}.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

The {{Transliteration|peo|Dahā}} fought within the left wing of the Achaemenid army along with the Bactrians and the Saka against Alexander the Great at Gaugamela in 331 BCE.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

The Dahae may have invaded Margiana and Areia around 300 BCE, and during this invasion they destroyed the towns of Alexandreia and Heracleia located in these respective two countries.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

During late 4th and early 3rd centuries BCE, the Dahae, and especially their constituent tribe of the Parni, had settled along the southern and southwestern fringes of the Karakum desert, and by the mid-3rd century BCE they had moved west and had settled along the southeastern shores of the Caspian Sea, in the lands to the north of Hyrcania. Two other Dahae tribes, the Xanthioi and the Pissouroi, lived further east till the regions to the north of Areia.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

During the middle of the 3rd century itself, the Parni had moved into Hyrcania, where they lived along the Ochus river. Their leader, Arsaces, would found the Parthian Empire.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

During the 2nd century BCE, both the Dahae ({{lang|zh|大益}} {{Transliteration|zh|Dayi}}) who still lived in the steppes and the Parthian Empire ({{lang|zh|安息}} {{Transliteration|zh|Anxi}}), as well as the Chorasmians ({{lang|zh|驩潛}} {{Transliteration|zh|Huanqian}}), and Sogdians ({{lang|zh|蘇薤}} {{Transliteration|zh|Suxie}}) sent embassies to the Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty which was ruling China.{{sfn|Yu|2004|p=19}}

Interesting fact that currently lands of ancient Dahae are known as Mangystau Region of Kazakhstan and are inhabited by Adai- one of Kazakh tribes (Jüz).

The lands to the north of Hyrcania where the Dahae had settled in the 3rd century BCE became known as Dehestan (disambiguation) ({{lang|fa|{{script|fa-Arab|دَهستان}}}}) and {{Transliteration|fa|Dahistān}} ({{lang|fa|{{script|fa-Arab|داهستان}}}}) after them.{{sfn|de Blois|Vogelsang|1993}}

• Massagetae
• Parthian Empire
• Saka
• Scythian cultures

{{reflist|3}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |editor-last1=Dani |editor-first1=Ahmad Hasan |editor-link1=Ahmad Hasan Dani |editor-last2=Harmatta |editor-first2=János |editor-link2=János Harmatta | editor-last3=Puri |editor-first3=Baij Nath |editor-link3=Baij Nath Puri |editor-last4=Etemadi |editor-first4=G. F. |editor-last5=Bosworth |editor-first5=Clifford Edmund |editor-link5=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |last1=Abetekov |first1=A. |author-link1=:ky:Абетеков, Асан Кемелович |last2=Yusupov |first2=H. |date=1994 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |chapter=Ancient Iranian Nomads in Western Central Asia |url= |location=Paris, France |publisher=UNESCO |pages=24–34 |isbn=978-9-231-02846-5 }}
• {{cite book |editor-last1=Dani |editor-first1=Ahmad Hasan |editor-link1=Ahmad Hasan Dani |editor-last2=Harmatta |editor-first2=János |editor-link2=János Harmatta |editor-last3=Puri |editor-first3=Baij Nath |editor-link3=Baij Nath Puri |editor-last4=Etemadi |editor-first4=G. F. |editor-last5=Bosworth |editor-first5=Clifford Edmund |editor-link5=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |last=Dandamayev |first=M. A. |author-link=Muhammad Dandamayev |date=1994 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |chapter=Media and Achaemenid Iran |volume=2 |location=Paris |publisher=UNESCO |pages=35–64 |isbn=978-9-231-02846-5 }}
• {{cite encyclopedia |title=Dahae |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |date=1993 |last1=de Blois |first1=François |last2=Vogelsang |first2=Willem |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation; Brill Publishers |location=New York City, United States |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/dahae |url-access= }}
• {{cite book |last=Yu |first=Taishan |date=2004 |title=A History of the Relationship Between the Western & Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern & Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions |url=http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp131_chinese_dynasties_western_region.pdf |series=Sino-Platonic Papers |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |location=Philadelphia, United States |volume=131 |access-date=2022-07-05 }}

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{{Achaemenid Provinces}}

{{Sassanid Provinces}}

{{Parthian Empire}}

Category:Iranian nomads

Category:Historical Iranian peoples

Category:History of Turkmenistan