Babadaýhan District ( tk, Babadaýhan etraby, Бабадайхан этрабы) is a district of
Ahal Province
Ahal Region ( tk, Ahal welaýaty; from fa, آخال, Axāl) is one of five provinces of Turkmenistan. It is in the south-center of the country, bordering Iran and Afghanistan along the Kopet Dag Range. Its area is and population 939,700 (2005 ...
,
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the s ...
. From the Soviet period until 1992, the settlement was named in honor of
Sergei Kirov. On 26 June 1992, by Parliamentary Resolution No. 729-XII, Kirov District and its capital were renamed Babadaýhan.
The name Babadaýhan is the Turkmenized form of the
Persian name
Bābā-Dihqān (بابادهقان), which eans “Forefather Farmer”, a mythological and ritual character whose cult has been reported in agrarian communities of mountainous and lowland Tajikistan, North Afghanistan and adjacent rural areas of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. As an
Iranian mythological figure, Bābā-ye Dehqān is believed to be the first man and the first farmer who taught his profession to mankind through a chain of his successors.
[Krasnowolska, Anna]
BĀBĀ-YE DEHQĀN
in Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2009.
References
Districts of Turkmenistan
Ahal Region
{{Turkmenistan-geo-stub