maydān
maydān
Arabic / Persian
“Maidan means an open public space — and the word traveled from Persian horse grounds to British colonial parade grounds to the 2013-2014 Kyiv protests that helped change history.”
Arabic and Persian maydān meant an open space, a public square, or a field for exercise and horses. The word appears in Persian texts from the 10th century describing open grounds around cities used for royal processions, polo (which the Persians invented), and military displays. The Mughal emperor Akbar played polo on the maidan. In the classical Persian poem tradition, maidan also described the field of battle and the field of love — any open space where something decisive would happen.
The British colonial administration in India used maidan for the large open spaces they maintained at the center of major cities. The Maidan of Calcutta — a 1,000-acre green space in the heart of the city, created in the 18th century by clearing forest around Fort William — is the largest urban park in the world by some measures. The Bombay Maidan, the Madras Maidan: each presidency town had its open space for military parade, cricket, and official gatherings.
The word spread through Persian's influence in Central Asia and the Caucasus. In Ukraine, Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv takes its name from the same Persian root through Turkish and Polish intermediaries. The 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protests that removed President Yanukovych were both centered on this square.
The Euromaidan protests of 2013-2014 gave the word global recognition as a symbol of public resistance. Maidan — simply an open space — had accumulated enough political weight over centuries that it named a revolution.
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Today
The maidan is where power displays itself and where people challenge power. The Calcutta Maidan was created to give British troops a clear field of fire around their fort — a military space that became a civilian park. Kyiv's Maidan was a Soviet-era square that became the site of two revolutions.
Open spaces accumulate meaning. The Persian word for a horse ground has been in Kyiv's center for over a century, gathering the weight of every gathering that happened there. By 2013 it was ready to name something more than a square.
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