Baz the Eagle

I'm reading Stephen Pressfield's new book, The Afghan Campaign. It's about Alexander the Great's military expedition into Afghanistan, following his defeat of Darius in Persia and before his campaign into India. Apparently, the Macedonians nicknamed the Afghans "Baz," so that got me thinking about the etymology of Baz's nickname.

We've always thought of it simply as a derivative short form of Baz's second name, Sebastian, and not coincidentally the nickname also of a well-regarded French director, Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge, among others). Google searches of "Baz" always pulled up Afghan references - apparently there's an Afghan warlord of the same name. But I haven't given it much thought until Pressfield's excellent book.

So after a little more searching, we find that Baz, in Pashtu, means "Eagle" (or "falcon," depending on which source you're reading). Not bad symbology for a nickname. In Pashtu it's written like this: باز

Gramps Nas visited the Khyber Pass about a year ago (the high mountain pass between Afghanistan and Pakistan), and he got the the two boys hats while there, one of which Baz is wearing in the picture above. Another Afghan connection is Malou's cousin-in-law Habib, who's married to Lally and who live in New Jersey. Malou stayed with them before and after Hadrien was born, so a big hello to cousin Ariana and Alex - Ariana is the ancient name for Afghanistan, I recall Habib saying; and Alexandra is the feminine of Alexander.