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Iranian peoples

This article is about an ethno-linguistic group of peoples. For citizens of the country of Iran see Demographics of Iran.

Iranian peoples are an ethno-linguistic group of interrelated peoples [1] [2] mainly living in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and other parts of the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus and parts of South Asia. They speak various Iranian languages, which were once found in a much larger area throughout Eurasia from the Balkans to the borders of China, also referred to as Greater Iran.

Etymology

The term Iranian is derived from the etymological term Iran (lit: Land of the Aryans).[3][4] From a linguistic standpoint, the term Iranian or Iranian people is similar, in its usage, to the term Germanic, for example, which includes various peoples who happen to share related Germanic languages such as German, English, and Dutch. Thus, along these lines the Iranian peoples include not only the Persians/Tajiks of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, but also the Pashtuns, Kurds, Ossetians, Baloch, and other smaller groups.

History

Having descended from the Aryans (Proto-Indo-Iranians), the ancient Iranian peoples were separated from the Indo-Aryans in the early 2nd millennium BC [5]. The Iranian languages form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian sub-family, which is in turn a branch of the Indo-European language family. Ancient Iranian peoples populated the Iranian plateau (Medes, Persians, Parthians) , and the steppes north of the Black Sea (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans) from the early 1st millennium BC.

Although most of the Iranian peoples are found in the Iranian plateau region, many are also found in the periphery, ranging from the Caucasus and Turkey to the Indus and western China. The Iranian peoples have often mingled with other populations with the notable example being the Hazaras who display a distinct Turkic-Mongol background that contrasts with most other Iranian peoples. Similarly, the Baloch have mingled to a small degree with Indian populations such as the Brahui, while the Ossetians have invariably mixed with Georgians, Russians, and other peoples with whom they live. The Kurds are an example of an eclectic Iranian people who, although displaying some ethnolinguistic ties to other Iranian peoples (in particular their Iranian language and some cultural traits), have substantial genetic ties to the Caucasus and Europe as well as showing some genetic links to Semitic peoples such as Jews and Palestinians.[6][7][8]

Modern Persians themselves are also a heterogenous group of peoples descended from various ancient Iranian and indigenous peoples of the Iranian plateau, including the Elamites. Thus, not unlike the previous example of Germanic peoples involving the English, who are of mixed Germanic and Celtic origin, Iranian is an ethno-linguistic group and the Iranian peoples display varying degrees of common ancestry and/or cultural traits that denote their respective identities.

Geography

File:Iranische Sprachen.jpg

Geographic distribution of the Iranian languages

There are an estimated 150 million native speakers of Iranian languages. Currently, most of these Iranian peoples live in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, western Pakistan, the Kurdish areas (sometimes referred to as Kurdistan) of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, as well as in parts of Uzbekistan (especially Samarkand and Bukhara), the Caucasus (Ossetia and Azerbaijan). Smaller groups of Iranian peoples can also be found in western China and India (home to the Parsis).

Religion

Speakers of Iranian languages mainly follow Abrahamic religions including Islam, Judaism, and Christianity in addition to the Bahai faith, with an unknown number showing no religious affiliation. The historical religion of the Persian Empire was Zoroastrianism.

Genetics

Genetic testing of Iranian peoples has revealed many common origins for most of the Iranian peoples, but with regional variations as to be expected. Nonetheless the preliminary genetic evidence suggests a common relationship amongst most of the Iranian peoples:

Populations located west of the Indus basin, including those from Iran, Anatolia and the Caucasus, exhibit a common mtDNA lineage composition, consisting mainly of western Eurasian lineages, with a very limited contribution from South Asia and eastern Eurasia (fig. 1). Indeed, the different Iranian populations show a striking degree of homogeneity. This is revealed not only by the nonsignificant FST values and the PC plot (fig. 6) but also by the SAMOVA results, in which a significant genetic barrier separates populations west of Pakistan from those east and north of the Indus Valley (results not shown). These observations suggest either a common origin of modern Iranian populations and/or extensive levels of gene flow amongst them.[9]

Basically, the findings of this study reveal many common genetic markers found amongst the Iranian peoples from the Tigris to the areas west of the Indus. This correlates with the Iranian languages spoken in the areas that span from the Caucasus to Kurdish areas in the Zagros region and eastwards to western Pakistan and Tajikistan and parts of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. The extensive gene flow is perhaps an indication of the spread of Iranian-speaking peoples whose languages are now spoken mainly upon the Iranian plateau and adjacent regions. These results relate the relationships of Iranian peoples with each other, while other comparative testing reveals some varied origins for Iranian peoples such as the Kurds, who show genetic ties to the Caucasus at considerably higher levels than any other Iranian peoples except the Ossetians as well as links to Semitic populations that live in close proximity such as Jews and Arabs. An inclusive new study that combined all of the previous studies regarding comparative tests showing the relationship of the Kurds with Georgians, Europeans, and Jews was incorporated into a 2005 study that conducted further comparative tests amongst Kurdish groups from various regions. This study entitled 'MtDNA and Y-chromosome Variation in Kurdish Groups' concluded the following:

Kurdish languages belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. What is the genetic relationship between Indo-European speaking Kurdish groups and other West Asian Indo-European and non-Indo-European speaking groups? For both mtDNA and the Y-chromosome, all Kurdish groups are more similar to West Asians than to Central Asian, Caucasian, or European groups, and these differences are significant in most cases. However, for mtDNA, Kurdish groups are all most similar to European groups (after West Asians), whereas for the Y-chromosome Kurds are more similar to Caucasians and Central Asians (after West Asians) than to Europeans. Richards et al. (2000) suggested that some Near Eastern mtDNA haplotypes, among them Kurdish ones from east Turkey, presumably originated in Europe and were associated with back-migrations from Europe to the Near East, which may explain the close relationship of Kurdish and European groups with respect to mtDNA. Subsequent migrations involving the Caucasus and Central Asia, that were largely male-mediated, could explain the closer relationship of Kurdish Y-chromosomes to Caucasian/Central Asian Ychromosomes than to European Y-chromosomes.[10] In another study, Kurdish Jews were found to be close to some Muslim Kurds, but so were Ashkenazim and Sephardim, suggesting that much if not most of the genetic similarity between Jewish and Muslim Kurds is from ancient times.[11]

Ultimately, genetic tests reveal that while the Iranian peoples show numerous common genetic markers overall, there are also indications of interaction with other groups and regional variations. In addition, indigenous populations may have survived the waves of early Aryan invasions as cultural assimilation led to large-scale language replacement (as with some Kurds). Further testing will ultimately be required and may further elucidate the relationship of the Iranian peoples with each other and various neighboring populations.

List of Iranian peoples

Speakers of Iranian languages in modern times include:

External links

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 :''This article is about an ethno-linguistic group of peoples. For citizens of the country of [[Iran]] see [[Demographics of Iran]].''