PARASANG (4 rapao-d-ryns), a Persian measure of length, which, according to Herodotus (ii. 6; v. 53; vi. 42), was equal to 30 stadia and if we reckon eight stadia as equal to one English mile, the parasang was consequently equal to nearly four English miles. Hesychius and Suidas also give the length of the parasang at 30 stadia ; and Xenophon must have calculated it at the same length, as he says (' Anab., ii. 2, P. 6) that 16,050 stadia are equal to 535 parasangs (16,0504585=30). I'liny (` Hist. Nat.,' vi. 30), however, informs us that the length of the parasang was reckoned differently by different authors; and Strabo states (xi., p. 518, Cassaubon) that some reckoned it at 60, others at 40, and others st 30 stadia. The Arable geographers (see Freytag, Lex Arab.,' hub Farsakh) reckon it equal to three miles. The Rev. G. Rawlinson remarks (in a note in his edition of Herodotus, 1859), that the paraaang, like the farsakh, was originally a measure of time, not of distance, and consequently varied according to the nature of the country passed over. He agrees, however, in the general conclusion
that it averaged about three and a half to four English miles.
Parasang is a Persian word, and is derived from the ancient farsang, which is pronounced in modern Permian, ferseng. It has been changed in Arabic into farsakh. Various etymologies of this word have been proposed. The latter part of the word is supposed to be the Persian seng, a stone, and the word might thus be derived from the stones which were placed to mark the distances in the road. Bohlen (quoted by Rodiger) supposes the first part of the word to be the preposition fera. and compares the word with the Latin ad lapidem.