What is "khosrow"

Khosrow is a word of Iranian origin meaning "king" and also a given name held by various rulers and people. In Turkish, its transliterated as Hüsrev.

Khosrow is a name of Iranian origin, most notably held by several Persian rulers, but also by other people in various locations and languages. In some times and places, the word has come to mean "king" or "ruler".

The word ultimately comes from Proto-Iranian *Hu-sravah ("with good reputation"), itself ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁su- ("good") + *ḱléwos ("fame").

Khosrow is the Modern Persian variant.

As the name of the legendary Iranian king Kay Khosrow, the name has been attested in Avesta as and Haosrauuah. This is the oldest attestation.

A number of rulers of Persia, Armenia and the Middle East either took Khosrow as their dynastic name or are known by this name.

The name was used by various rulers of Parthian Empire. It has been attested in Parthian-language inscriptions as "hwsrw" , which may be variously transliterated and pronounced. The Latin form was or . The Old Armenian form was Khosrov , derived from Parthian, and was held by several rulers of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia. The name is still used in modern Armenian language.

Notable as to the use of Khosrow as a title is the father of Mirian III of Iberia who was known as k'asre. This led to confusion, as some historians thought that Mirian III must therefore be the son of a Sasanian ruler, and not a Parthian one.

The name was notably used by several rulers of Sassanian Empire. In their native language, Middle Persian, the name has been spelt variously as hwslwb ( Book Pahlavi script: ), hwsrwb, hwslwd, hwsrwd', or hwsrwb' in Pahlavi scripts. The name has been variously transliterated as follows: Husrō, Husrōy, Xusro, Khusro, Husrav, Husraw, Khusrau, Khusraw, Khusrav, Xusraw, Xusrow, Xosrow, Xosro.* The Greek form was Khosróēs and the Latin form was and . The Middle Persian word also means "famous" or "of good repute".

The New Persian variant is , which can be transliterated as Khusraw, Khusrau, Khusrav, Khusru (based on the Classical Persian pronunciation ), or Khosrow, Khosro (based on the modern Iranian Persian pronunciations and ).

In Arabic it was Kisrā or Kasrā , a variant which is also used in Modern Persian . In Islamic Persia, kisrā became a strong byword for tyrannical pagan kingship, and is used as a general shorthand for Sassanian rulers (hence also " Taq-i Kasra"), as pharaoh is used for pre-Islamic Egyptian rulers.

The Turkish variant is , derived from Ottoman Turkish , itself from New Persian.