Editing Balash (section)

== Name ==
''Balāsh'' ({{lang|fa|بلاش}}) is the [[New Persian]] form of the [[Middle Persian]] ''Wardākhsh/Walākhsh'' ([[Inscriptional Pahlavi]]: {{lang|pal|𐭥{{lrm}}𐭥{{lrm}}𐭣𐭠{{lrm}}𐭧𐭱𐭩}} wrdʾḥšy; late [[Book Pahlavi]] forms gwlḥš- ''Gulakhsh-'' and ''Gulāsh-'').<ref>{{cite book |first1=Rudolph|last1=Peters|first2= Laila |last2=Al-Zwaini|title=Handbuch Der Orientalistik |publisher=Brill Archive |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PBIVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA71 |language=de|year=1972}}</ref> The etymology of the name is unclear, although [[Ferdinand Justi]] proposes that ''Walagaš'', the first form of the name, is a compound of words "strength" (''varəda''), and "handsome" (''gaš'' or ''geš'' in Modern Persian).{{sfn|Chaumont|Schippmann|1988|pp=574–580}}

The Greek forms of his name are ''Blases'' ({{lang|grc|Βλάσης}}) and ''Balas'' ({{lang|grc|Βάλας}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yarshater |first1=Ehsan |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |date=1983 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521200929 |page=178 |language=en}}</ref>