Caspian Sea - Etymology

Etymology

The word Caspian is derived from the name of the Caspi (Persian: کاسپی‎), ancient people who lived to the south-west of the sea in Transcaucasia. Strabo wrote that "to the country of the Albanians belongs also the territory called Caspiane, which was named after the Caspian tribe, as was also the sea; but the tribe has now disappeared". Moreover, the Caspian Gates, which is the name of a region in Tehran province of Iran, is another possible piece of evidence that they migrated to the south of the sea. The Iranian city Qazvin shares the root of its name with that of the sea. In fact, the traditional Arabic name for the sea itself is, Bahr al-Qazwin (Sea of Qazvin).

In classical antiquity among Greeks and Persians it was called the Hyrcanian Ocean. In Persian antiquity, as well as in modern Iran, it is known as the Mazandaran sea (Persian: دریای مازندران‎). In Iran, it is also referred as Daryā-i Xazar sometimes. Among Indians it was called Kashyap Sagar. In Turkic speaking countries it is known as the Khazar Sea. Old Russian sources call it the Khvalyn (Khvalynian) Sea (Хвалынское море / Хвалисское море) after the Khvalis, inhabitants of Khwarezmia. Ancient Arabic sources refer to it as Baḥr Gīlān (بحر جیلان) meaning "the Gilan Sea".

Turkic languages use a consistent nomenclature that is different from the Indo-European languages above. For instance, in Turkmen, the name is Hazar deňizi, in Azeri, it's Xəzər dənizi, and in modern Turkish, it's Hazar denizi. In all these cases, the second word simply means "sea", and the first word refers to the historical Khazars who had a large empire based to the North of the Caspian Sea between the 7th and 10th centuries.