“Freemen” and “Nobles” in Iranian and Semitic Languages

Abstract

It has been recognized for a long time that the Iranian wordāzāta-covers what would seem to us to be two distinct ideas: “free” (not a slave) and “noble” (not a commoner). Avestan hasāzāta-, “noble”hvāzāta-, “very noble”; Old Persian *āzāta-is attested by the phrase ’zt šbqtky bmwty, “I free you (a slave girl) at my death”, in an Aramaic document from Elephantine dated in the 38th year of Artaxerxes (427 B.C.). Early Middle Iranian forms are reflected by Hesychius' glosses, i.e. *āzāt-īh, =“freedom”, andi.e. *āzāta-with the Greek plural suffix“the intimates of the (Persian) king”. That the Arsacid Parthians used one and the same word for “free” and “noble” is evident from two passages where Josephus refers to the Parthian élite troops as“free men”. In Middle Persian and Sasanian Parthian textsāzādis extensively attested in both senses, “free” and “noble”, as are numerous derivatives. From Parthian come Armenianazat, “free, noble” and Georgianazat'i, “free”. Sogdian ”z't means “noble”, “free”, and “clear”. Khotanese hasāysāta-, “well born” and “free born”. In Neo-Persian, however,āzādhas become restricted to “free”, whileāzādais used for “noble”; Persianāzād(ozod, etc.) has been borrowed into most other Neo-Iranian languages, but an independent form has survived in Kurdishaza, “brave”; Osseticazat, “free”, is perhaps borrowed from Georgian.