Aryan - Simple English Wikipedia

# Aryan

### From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

Aryan is the name that an ancient people of Persia called themselves. Descendants of the Aryans include speakers of Farsi and Hindi. More than three thousand years ago, Persians and the Indians of the Indus Valley used the term Aryan to refer both to their common ancestors as well as to "nobles."

In the 19th century some Europeans began to apply the term to Nordic peoples of Europe as a "pure," "noble" and "superior" race descended from the original Aryans. The racist implications have been discounted by modern scientists, but in any case the theory is absurd on its face, since the closest descendants of the original Aryans would be Iranians and northern Indians – Not Germans or Danes. However, this Master Race theory became a central principle under the Nazis, some of whom even believed that the Aryan's could be traced back to the legendary civilization of Atlantis.

Due to the racist use of the term under the Nazis, the term Aryan is often avoided, except by linguists and historians.

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Category: People

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