Ahriyan

Ahriyan is the name of a people from Tonya and Beshikdüzü (Trabzon). The name was given by Salpazarı Turkomans. It means "native" (Anatolian, Greek origin) or "not Turkoman". It also means “oppressive, heartless” when used as an adjective. In the Turkish language, ahriyan means “valuable, beautiful clothe”.

The ‘ahriyan’ name (Pomak) for Muslims who live in the Balkans and speak Bulgarian, was given by Turkmens because they are not of Turkish ancestry. There is a place called Ahriyan in İskeçe city in West Thrace (Greece).

Word anthropology

The word "ahriyan" derives from the Persian word Ahura Mazda. Ahura Mazda is a twin soul to Angra Mainyu, who consciously chooses badness, and so creates death. The main theme is the war between Angra Mainyu and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrian theology which is an antique Iran religion. In Sasanies times the common language was mid-term Persian (Pahlavi) and Angra Mainyu was called "ahriman" in this language. At least after a thousand-year oral tradition, in twenty one-part Avesta which was probably written in B.C. 6, ‘angra’ means enemy, sin, bad and ‘mainyu’ (mainyêush, mainyô, mainyush, mainyû) means soul, invisibility, spiritual. Although it is used common ahriman forms in Anatolia, there appear to be uncommon ahriman forms in Salpazarı which has Alevilik (partisan of the caliph Ali) features.

References

*Özhan Öztürk (Black Sea: Enyclopedic Dictionary). Karadeniz: Ansiklopedik Sözlük. 2. Cilt. Heyamola Publishing. Istanbul. 2005. ISBN 975-6121-00-9.