Iranian peoples
From Freepedia
Iranian people are those who speak an Iranian language. There are an estimated 150 million native speakers of Iranian languages.
Iranian people in history included:
- Persians
- Medes-Azaris (speaking an ancient Median tongue), Amlash , Lurs
- Parthians
- Parni
- Cimmerians-ethnicity as Iranians specifically unknown
- Sigynnae-known only by obscure reports
- Scythians
- Sarmatians-including the Rhoxolani, Iazyges, Siraces, and some regard the Alans as a subset of the Sarmatians as well
- Bactrians
- Khwarezmians
- Alans
- Saka
- Sogdians
- Massagetae
- Kambojas
- Pallavas-descended from Persian invaders of India
Iranian peoples in modern times include:
- Persians
- Tajiks-Eastern Persians
- Pashtuns-Ethnic Afghans
- Kurds
- Baluchis
- Gilanis
- Mazandaranis
- Bakhtiaris
- Lur
- Tati
- Talyshi
- Zaza
- Ossetes
The Iranian peoples are the ethno-linguistic descendants of one of the branches of the ancient Indo-Iranian Aryans. The name Iran – in full Iran Shahr – itself means territory of the Aryans. Besides Iranian the Aryan or Indo-Iranian group includes Indo-Aryan, Nuristani, and the Dardic sub-groups. The Indo-Iranian group is itself a sub-branch of the Indo-European family, which was formerly, although inaccurately, also referred to as Aryan – a usage academically discredited.
Most of the Iranian peoples live today in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, western and northern Pakistan, the northern Caucasus, western China and the Kurdish areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
