Khuda

Khuda or Khoda (Persian: خدا‎) is the Persian word for "Lord" or "God". Originally, it was used in reference to Ahura Mazda (the name of the God in Zoroastrianism). Other Iranian languages also use it.

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Etymology
The word Khuda in Nastaʿlīq script

The term derives from Middle Iranian terms xvatay, xwadag meaning "lord", "ruler", "master", appearing in written form in Parthian kwdy, in Middle Persian kwdy, and in Sogdian kwdy. It is the Middle Persian reflex of older Iranian forms such as Avestan xva-dhata- "self-defined; autocrat", an epithet of Ahura Mazda. The Pashto term Xdāi (خدۍ).

Prosaic usage is found for example in the Sassanid title katak-xvatay to denote the head of a clan or extended household or in the title of the 6th century Khwaday-Namag "Book of Lords", from which the tales of Kayanian dynasty as found in the Shahnameh derive.

In the Hurrian texts from northern Mesopotamia, we find the verb *xud, ḫud <ḫu-u-tu->, which means ‘to praise, to magnify’, which may be a borrowing of Indo-European origin; if is the case, it would be related to khoda.[1] Like the modern Iranic term, it is used in theophoric names: Ḫuti-b-Teššub, Ḫut-Teššub, Ḫudena and Ḫudellurra (< Ḫude-lluri-na).

Zoroastrianism

Semi-religious usage appears, for example, in the epithet zaman-i derang xvatay "time of the long dominion", as found in the Menog-i Khrad. The fourth and eighty-sixth entry of the Pazend prayer titled 101 Names of God, Harvesp-Khoda "Lord of All" and Khudawand "Lord of the Universe", respectively, are compounds involving Khuda.[2] Application of khuda as "the Lord" (Ahura Mazda) is represented in the first entry in the medieval Frahang-i Pahlavig.

Islamic usage

In Islamic times, the term came to be used for God in Islam, paralleling the Arabic name of God Al-Malik "Owner, King, Lord, Master".

The phrase Khuda Hafiz (meaning May God be your Guardian) is a parting phrase commonly used in Persian, Kurdish, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Pashto, as well as Punjabi among South Asian Muslims.

It also exists as a loanword, used for God in Turkish (Hüdâ)[3] Tatar (Ходай) and other Turkic Languages.

See also

References
  1. Arnaud Fournet, Bomhard Allan (2010). The Indo-European Elements In Hurrian. LA GARENNE COLOMBES / CHARLESTON. p. 89.
  2. Edalji Kersâspji Antiâ, Pazend texts, Bombay 1909, pp. 335–337.
  3. Zorlu, Tuncay (2008). Innovation and Empire in Turkey: Sultan Selim III and the Modernisation of the Ottoman Navy. I.B.Tauris. p. 116. ISBN 978-0857713599.
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