iii. The Name

The area’s ancient name is not known. Its later name Badaḵšān is derived from the Sasanian official title bēdaxš or badaxš, Pahlavi bythš in Parthian inscriptions, bthšy in Middle Persian inscriptions; Greek bidix, pitiaxou/pituaxou (genitive); Armenian bdeašx</em>; Syriac pəṭaḥšā, afṭaḥšā, from the root of which the Arabic mofatteš, meaning “inspector,” probably stems. This could well have been the original meaning of a likely etymon *pati-axša (see also bidaxš.)

The patronymic suffix –ān indicates that the country belonged, or had been assigned as a fief, to a person holding the high rank of a badaxš. In this respect, Badaḵšān resembles other names of countries (or later of cities) based on a personal name or an official title or function, such as Azarbaijan, Isfahan, Kermānšāhān, Tehran, etc. (for details, see W. Eilers, Onoma 21, 1977, p. 286).

Badaḵšān was from early ancient times onward the source of the Near Eastern world’s supply of lapis lazuli (Sumerian za-gìn, Akkadian uqnûm, in the Islamic languages lājvard). This beautiful blue stone was highly valued, the beards of gods were often carved from it, and the chips hewn away in the carving were made into a paste for decorative painting of stone and ceramic objects (Wulff, Crafts, pp. 147-48). Since the only lapis lazuli deposits in the ancient world were those in Badaḵšān, the finds of lapis lazuli artifacts give positive evidence of the great antiquity of east-west caravan traffic (along the later “silk road”).

Badaḵšān was also famous as a source of rubies. The French “balais” and English “balas,” specifying a variety of ruby (spinel), are traceable to badaxš, d being changed to l in some East Iranian languages.

It has been suggested that Bałasakan, the Armenian name of a district in Caucasia, might correspond to Badaḵšān (J. Markwart, Ērānšahr, pp. 17, 279); but the name given to this district in the Sasanian inscriptions on the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt is Balāsakān. In the trilingual inscription of Šāpūr at the same site, Bythškn (Parth. = Mid. Pers. Bthškn = Greek Pitixigan) appears as the patronymic of a certain Ardašīr, no doubt taken from his father’s or grandfather’s official title.