The Origin of the Word "Tarjumān" in Iranian Languages and Its Usage and Meaning in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh

According to the Shahnameh, the Iranians faced foreign countries from the time of Fereydoun's reign onwards. From this legendary period of the first kings to Yazdegerd III, they encountered other nations apart from the Turanians, having had to communicate verbally with them. The Shahnameh sometimes mentions a person called "Tajomān", who is assigned to translate words of two sides for each other. However, some dictionaries refer the "Tajomān" as an Arabicized word of the Persian "Tarzaban" or "Tarzafan". In the Middle Iranian languages, this term has been written as “Tarkumān” or “Targumān” as seen in the Middle Persian, Parthian and Sogdian writings. The presence of this term in Iranian texts from the early Sassanid to the Ferdowsi era, covering a millennium period, represents a career with a history and a word of long usage. Regarding its Aramaic origin, it can be noted that during the Achaemenid era, the term was entered into languages of countries under the authority of Achaemenids by Aramaic secretaries, and then found way into the works of Zoroastrians and Manicheans through the Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian languages. After the spread of Islam, this word used in Persian texts such as the Shahnameh.