CHORASMIA (Gk. Chorasmiē < OPers. (H)uwārazmiš, Av. Xᵛāirizəm, later Ḵᵛārazm [Khwārazm], generally derived from *hwāra-zam/zmī-, either “nourishing land” [Burnouf, p. cviii; Sachau, p. 473; Geiger, p. 29; Pauly-Wissowa III/2, cols. 2406-08] or “lowland” [Lerch, p. 447; Veselovskiĭ, p. v; Kiepert, no. 60; MacKenzie, Camb. Hist. Iran III/2, p. 1244; Bogolyubov, p. 370, has suggested “land with good cattle enclosures,” but this interpretation has not found wide acceptance), region on the lower reaches of the Oxus (Amu Darya) in western Central Asia.
i. Archeology and pre-Islamic history
General Bibliography:
M. N. Bogolyubov, “Drevnepersidskie ètimologii” (Old Persian etymologies), in Drevniĭ mir. Sbornik stateĭ Akademiku Vasiliyu Vasil’evichu Struve, Moscow, 1962, pp. 367-70.
E. Burnouf, Commentaire sur le Yaçna, Paris, 1833.
E. Sachau, “Zur Geschichte und Chronologie von Khwârizm,” Sb. der philosophisch-historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vienna) 73, 1873, pp. 471-506.
W. Geiger, Ostiranische Kultur im Altertum, Erlangen, 1882.
H. Kiepert, Lehrbuch der alten Geographie, Berlin, 1878.
P. Lerch, “Khiva oder Khârezm. Seine historischen und geographischen Verhältnisse,” Russische revue 2, 1873, pp. 445-84, 565-79.
D. N. MacKenzie, “Khwarazmian Language and Literature,” in Camb. Hist. IranIII/2, pp. 1244-49.
N. I. Veselovskiĭ, Ocherk istoriko- geograficheskikh svedeniĭ o Khivinskom khanstve ot drevneĭshikh vremen do nastoyashchego vremeni (An outline of historical-geographical data on the Khivan khanate from the earliest times to the present), St. Petersburg, 1877.
(Multiple Authors)
Originally Published: December 15, 1991
Last Updated: October 18, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. V, Fasc. 5, pp. 511-520
