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TheAmardians, widely referred to as theAmardi (and sometimesMardi), were an ancientIranian[1] tribe living along the mountainous region bordering theCaspian Sea to the north,[2] to whom theIron Age culture atMarlik is attributed.[3] They are said to be related to, or the same tribe as, theDahae andSacae. That is to say, they wereScythian.[4]Herodotus mentions a tribe with a similar name as one of the ten to fifteenPersian tribes inPersis.[1][5]
They lived in the valleys in between theSusis and Persis,[6] in what is now southwestern Iran. The southern Mardi are described byNearchus as one of the four predatory mountain peoples of the southwest, along with the Susians,Uxii, andElymaeans.[7] Of these four nomadic groups, they were the only tribelinguisticallyIranian.[8]
The termMardi comes from theOld Iranian word for "man"[6] (Old Persian:𐎶𐎼𐎫𐎡𐎹martiya; fromProto-Indo-European*mr̥tós, "mortal").
Richard N. Frye believe that the name of the city ofAmol is rooted in the wordAmard, which occurs asAmui inMiddle Persian.[9] According to historical literature, Amol was the capital ofTapuria (modern-dayMazanderan), at least in the period starting from theSasanian Empire to theIlkhanate of theMongol Empire.
Strabo mentions the nameMardi several times. He places their location to the south of the Caspian Sea in what is nowGilan andMazanderan, in northernIran.[3][7] On his map, he mentionsAmardos (and theAmardos river), the name attributed to the region ofSefidrud at the time.[3][10]
Herodotus mentions a tribe with a similar name as one of the ten to fifteenPersian tribes inPersis.[1][5] They lived in the valleys in between theSusis and Persis,[11] in what in now southwestern Iran. The southern Mardi are described byNearchus as one of the four predatory mountain peoples of the southwest, along with the Susians,Uxii, andElymaeans.[7] Of these four nomadic groups, they were the only tribelinguisticallyIranian.[12]
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town of Amul on the Amu Darya and the Amul in Mazanderan, Iran, both of which may be traced back to the migration of an Iranian tribe called Amardi or Mardi
mardi.