What is the meaning of Stan in Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine and Tajikistan, and what is the connection between them?

The word "Stan" originally comes from Persian, and "-Stan" is its Roman transliteration. The original meaning is very simple, that is, "place" and "region", generally referring to a relatively large area. Later, with the expansion of the political influence of ancient Persia, the spread of Persian culture, the proliferation of Iranian nationalities and the close contact with other nationalities, the word entered Hindi, Urdu, Turkic and other languages, and its meaning expanded and its content gradually enriched, resulting in a number of similar but different extended meanings. For example, since modern times, some provinces and regions have built districts in the name of "……", which leads to the identical form of traditional place names, historical place names and political district nouns, but the scope they refer to is inconsistent. For example, Balochistan was originally a regional name, but politically it belongs to Pakistan and stan, and both countries have provinces named after or containing this name. Another example is Kurdistan. As a traditional place name, it refers to part of the territories of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Armenia, but Iran has established Kurdistan Province on its own side. This happens within a country, and the problem is not big. If it happens between two or three countries, we should pay attention to the differences (including its spelling) to avoid confusion. Because some country names contain the word "Stan", such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, they have the extended meaning of "country". In the 1990s, with the rise of five Central Asian countries, all of them adopted "..." Stan "as the word-formation component of the country name, and this extended meaning became more prominent and attracted more attention. Some people even think that the so-called "Stan" means "country".

In a word, the meaning of "Stan" is generally nothing more than "region", "province (region)" and "country". In the past, it usually referred to a large geographical entity, which was rarely used by others. However, the situation is always changing. Over time, the name of the city also contains this ingredient. For example, there is a city in south-central Sakhak called Turkestan (in South Kazakhstan); In addition, there is a small town called Gulistan in Iran, Kazakhstan and Pakistan, but there are few such examples.

Generally speaking, place names with "Stan" as the word-formation component have a long history. Such place names frequently appear in ancient Persian classics, and even have been repeatedly reflected in the chronicles of our country. But some of them are newly born, such as "Pakistan", which was born with the birth of a new country in 1947. It's only been half a century, and the rest can't be said to be ancient place names, such as the west coast of the Caspian Sea. Dagger Stan in the European part of the Russian Federation didn't have this name until17th century, but before that, it was never lightly read.

As a generic name of place names, "Stan" is often combined with national names, so the meaning of place names is very obvious. Baluchistan means "Baluchistan region", Kurdistan means "Kurdish region" and so on. But it can't be absolute. We can't turn this situation into a formula and put it on all the place names that contain "Stan", otherwise it will be a joke. For example, a Pakistani national name does not matter. According to Islamic teachings, it takes the word "Bak" (meaning "pure and unpolluted" and "pure and true", which was originally the respect and praise of Islam for Allah) and adds "Stan" to form the country name, which means "the country of Muslims" and "the country of Allah". Another example is Dagerstam, which is a combination of the Turkish word "Dage" (meaning "mountain") and the Persian word "Stan". The full name means "mountain country" and "mountain area", which reflects the outstanding characteristics of the local geographical environment, but has nothing to do with the ethnic names of the residents.