In modern Avarian, three words retain the ancient basis of . They include , meaning "envoy, prophet, messiah"; , meaning "pommel of a saddle"; and , meaning "obstacle, opposition". means "to make an obstacle, to resist." There is also an Avarian river called in Avarian and in Russian. All three listed words are found in ancient lexicons of the
Iranian languages. The
Parthian word and the
Middle Persian word both mean "up, on, over" and "higher, superior." The Middle Persian word means "acclivity," or uphill slope. Similar Middle Persian words include , meaning "superior"; , meaning "god, divinity"; , meaning "noble"; , meaning "to surpass", and , meaning "to attack". At the same time, according to the
morphology of the Middle Persian language, the word , meaning "superior" can also be translated as "Aβarian", "Khurasanian", and "Parthian" as seen, for example, in a Middle Persian word, , meaning "Iranian". The first known use of the term "Avar" was in the 10th century. According to
Persian author
Ibn Rustah, a so-called governor of
Sarir,
Johannes de Galonifontibus was the first person to write about Avars under the name "Avar." He wrote in 1404 that "
Circassians,
Leks, Yasses,
Alans, Avars, [and] Kazikumukhs" live in the Caucasus. According to Vladimir Minorsky, one account from 1424 called the Daghestanian Avars the Auhar. Azerbaijani writer
Abbasgulu Bakikhanov wrote that the "inhabitants of vicinities of Agran have been moved here from
Khurasan. A residence of this emir also was Agran". The editor of this book, an academician of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, Z.M. Buniyatov, confirms that this "Agran" corresponds to the
Avar Khanate. The word "Agran" is unknown to modern Avars. According to the
Altiranisches Wörterbuch, written by Christian Bartholomae, "agra" means in his language, German. This corresponds to "first, upper, beginning, tip" in English. He also wrote that "agra'va" meant in German, which translates to "from the top, coming from the upper side." Nöldeke, Hübschmann, Frye, Christensen and Enoki identify Aparshahr/Abarshahr/Abharshahr/Abrashahr with
Khurasan, a historical region of Iran, or with
Nishapur, an Iranian city. The Khurasan () in Iranian studies is known as "rise of Sun." The Parthian word (
Middle Persian , meaning "up, on, over") and Parthian/Middle Persian are cognate with
Old Iranian , which means "empire, power, the sovereign house.") In summary, Aparšahr/Aβaršahr is very similar to the German word . According to historian H.W. Haussig, Aβaršahr means ("Kingdom of the Abar") and should be sought in the south-western territory of the
Western Turkic Khaganate. A
Dahae tribe, the Aparnak (
Parni) moved from the south-eastern shore of the Caspian Sea (part of modern
Turkmenistan), into the territory of Khurasan, where they founded a confederation of Dahae tribes that Avestani texts referred to as "barbarians" and "enemies of Aryans," according to Christian Bartholomae. On the border of Khurasan, the
Sassanid Persians built a strong wall, named the "
Great Wall of Gorgan" or "The Red Snake." The wall was built to protect Iran from invasion by the
White Huns (
Hepthalites; called Khionites, X'iiaona and Xyôn in
Zoroastrian texts). Later another wave of White Huns conquered Khurasan and occupied it for a long time. According to Richard Helli: "By such reasoning, the Ephthalites are thought to have originated at Hsi-mo-ta-lo (southwest of
Badakhshan and near the
Hindu Kush), which tantalizingly, stands for Himtala, 'snow plain', which may be the
Sanskritized form of Hephthal." In 484, the Hephthalite chief
Akhshunwar led his army to attack the Sassanian King
Peroz I, who was defeated and killed in Khurasan. After the victory, the Hephthalite empire extended to
Merv and
Herat. Some of the White Huns drew up a peace treaty with Iran and the two became allies, both fighting against the
Byzantine Empire. Thus, Hephthalites lived in the Khurasan/Khorasan area. According to the Chinese classic
Liang chih-kung-t'u, (
pinyin: ) was the name the Hephthalites used for themselves, and that is probably a Chinese transfer of a similar-sounding word, war/Uar. Mehmed Tezcan writes that according to a Chinese record, the Hephthalites descended from a
Rouran tribe called Hua in the Qeshi region (near
Turpan). This tribe came to
Tokharistan and soon settled also in eastern regions of Khorasan at the beginning of the 5th century. About the same time, the name Avars/Awards appears in the sources. Again, in his well-known Atlas of China, A. Herrmann shows the eastern regions of Khorasan, Tokharistan, etc. as the dominions of Afu/Hua/Awards/Hephthalites between ca. 440 and 500 A.D., relying on the identification Hua = Uar = Awar. Supporters of the so-called old
Turanian nomad horde "infiltrate" point of view (with various clauses) include the following scientists:
Josef Markwart,
Omeljan Pritsak,
Vladimir Minorsky,
Vladimir Baileys,
Harald Haarmann,
Murad Gadjievich Magomedov,
Alikber Alikberov, and
Timur Aytberov. == Language ==