BĀZRANGĪ, the family name of a dynasty of petty rulers in Fārs from whom Sāsān, the eponymous ancestor of the Sasanians, took a wife called Rāmbehešt, according to Ṭabarī (I, p. 814). At that time, he continues, the king of Eṣṭaḵr was a man of the Bāzrangīs (Bāzranjī) called Jūzehr (or Jozehr; Pers. Gōčehr). Ṭabarī further says that Gōčehr, who lived in the town of Bayżāʾ in Fārs had a eunuch Tīrī whom he made argbed, the chief official, of Dārābgerd and later, at the request of Pāpak, the son of the latter, Ardašīr, was sent to Tīrī to be educated and then Ardašīr succeeded Tīrī in his office. After a number of local conquests Ardašīr wrote to his father to revolt against Gōčehr, which Pāpak did, killing Gōčehr and taking his throne (ibid., pp. 815-16). This is the last we hear of Gōčehr or the Bāzrangī family. Other notices of Bāzrangī in later Arabic or Persian sources are all taken from Ṭabarī. No coins with either the name Gōčehr or Bāzrangī have been found and no additional information about this dynasty is found in other sources. Wikander’s suggestion that Bāzrang is a title rather than a name, with an etymology meaning “holding a mace,” or “possessing miraculous power,” is unproven. Other occurrences of the word Bāzrang refer to a geographical district in the mountainous Boir Aḥmadī area where the Šīrīn and Šāḏkān rivers have their origin (Eṣṭaḵrī, pp. 112, 119, 136; Ebn Ḥawqal, pp. 275, 288, tr. Kramers, pp. 271, 282; Moqaddasī, p. 448). This district may be the one in the Pahlavi text Xusraw ud rēdag (par. 58) from which excellent wine or must comes (wāzrangīk). Today, in the Behbahān district of the province of Ḵūzestān, the villages upper Bāzrang and lower Bāzrang exist. According to Bahār (p. 135 n. 2) in popular folktales of Iran the word bāzrangī means wild person. Whether there is any connection between the place name and other occurrences of the word is uncertain.
Bibliography:
Given in the text. See also M.-T. Bahār, Sabkšenāsī I, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1337 Š./1958, p. 137 n. 2.
A. Christensen, Iran Sass., p. 86.
Ebn Balḵī, pp. 144, 152.
H. Gaube, Die südpersische Provinz Arrağān/Kūh-Gīlūyeh von der arabischen Eroberung bis zur Safawidenzeit, Vienna, 1973, pp. 49-50.
Mostawfī, Nozhat al-qolūb, pp. 128, 225.
Nöldeke, Geschichte der Perser, p. 4 n. 1.
S. Wikander, Der arische Männerbund, Lund, 1938, pp. 105-06.
(Richard N. Frye)
Originally Published: December 15, 1989
Last Updated: December 15, 1989
This article is available in print.
Vol. IV, Fasc. 1, p. 66
Richard N. Frye, “BĀZRANGĪ,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, IIV/1, p. 66, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bazrangi (accessed on 30 December 2012).