The stem airya- also appears in Airyanəm Waēǰō (the 'stretch of the
Aryas' or the 'Aryan plain'), which is described in the Avesta as the
mythical homeland of the early Iranians, said to have been created as
"the first and best of places and habitations" by the god Ahura Mazdā.
It was referred to in Manichean Sogdian as ʾryʾn wyžn ( Aryān Wēžan ),
and in Old Persian as Aryānām Waiǰah , which gave the Middle
Persian Ērān-wēž , said to be the region where the first cattle were
created and where Zaraθuštra first revealed the Good
Religion.[59][66] The Sasanian Empire, officially named Ērān-
šahr ('Kingdom of the Iranians'; from Old Persian Aryānām
Xšaθram),[67] could also be referred to by the abbreviated form Ērān , as
distinguished from the Roman West known as Anērān. The western
variant Īrān , abbreviated from Īrān-šahr , is at the origin of the English
country name Iran .[20][59][68]
Alania , the name of the medieval kingdom of the Alans, derives from a
dialectal variant of the Old Iranian stem Aryāna- , which is also linked
to the mythical Airyanem Waēǰō .[69][7][61] Besides the ala -
development, air-y - may have turned into the stem ir-y- via an i-
mutation in modern Ossetian languages, as in the place
name Iryston (Ossetia), here attached to the Iranian suffix * - stān .[59][70]
Other place names mentioned in the Avesta include airyō šayana , a
movable term corresponding to the 'territory of the Aryas', airyanąm
dahyunąm , the 'lands of the Aryas', Airyō-xšuθa , a mountain in eastern
Iran associated with Ǝrəxša, and vīspe aire razuraya, the forest where
Kavi Haosravō slew the god Vāyu.[59][66]