Ahvaz - Etymology

Etymology

The Dehkhoda Dictionary specifically defines the Market of the Khuzis", where "Suq" is Persian word "chahar-suy/sugh" for market, and "Ahwaz" is a plural (اسم جمع) of the form "af'āl" (افعال) of the word "Huz" which comes from the Persian Huz, from Achaemenid inscriptions from where the term first appears. Thus, which refers to the non-Arabic original inhabitants of Khūzestān. The word Houz or khouzh are the same as it means Raw sugar usually produced locally from sugar cane field north of Ahwaz up to shoush where the people of Khouzistan were known for this raw sugar produce since Elamite period. The addition of A in many old Persian names were a clear indication of its origin like Hurmazd or Ahuramazda. The language of Khouzi is non-Arabic and is one of the oldest dialect still being used in and around Ahwaz. The Arabs were migrants from old ages when the entire Iraq belonged to the Persia and their culture is much persianised rather than looking like present day Arabs of the Persian Gulf states. It is regarded as one of the oldest cities of ancient Persia.

The name of the region appears in medieval Syriac sources as ܒܝܬ ܗܘܙܝܐ Beṯ Huzáyé, literally meaning "land of the Huzis".

The term "Huz", meanwhile, is the Old Persian rendition of Suz (Susa-Susiana), the native Elamite name of the region. Old Persian commonly changed the initial "s" in a foreign word into an "h," most famously, in its rendition of the name the river and the people Sindh/Sindhi into Hind/Hindi, which was then Hellenized into Indus, whence India.