Western Historian found that the phrase Aryan race is sometimes used to translate Old Persian inscriptions and other Persian sources from c. 500 BC onwards that refer to an Aryan lineage or nation. The word Iran itself means "the Land of Aryans" and South East Asian Indians and Iranians consider their ethnicity and stock as being Aryan. Persia is a old name of Iran. It has been suggested since the mid 19th century that certain Aryan tribes migrated into India, around 1800 BC-1500 BC, possibly waging war against the declining Indus Valley Civilization. Other speakers of Indo-Aryan appear in Mesopotamia as the Mitanni rulers around 1500 B.C. Mitanni a locate and was a kingdom in northern Syria. The indigenous (and modern) name for Persia, "Iran", is a variant of "Aryan" (in fact it is Ayr + -an, "land of Aryans", where -an is a suffix of location in Persian). Furthermore, the leaders of Persia called themselves Aryans. From Indo-Persian history.