Iranian peoples
 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Western Asia, Anatolia, Caucasus, Ossetia, Central Asia, Western South Asia and Western Xinjiang (Historically also: Eastern Europe) | |
| Languages | |
| Iranian languages, a branch of the Indo-European languages | |
| Religion | |
| Predominately: Islam (Sunni and Shia) Minorities: Christianity (Eastern Orthodox, Nestorian, Protestant and Catholic), Irreligion, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Baháʼís, Uatsdin, Kurdish Alevism, Yarsanism, Atheism, and Yazidism (Historically also: Manichaeism and Buddhism) |
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| Indo-European topics |
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The Iranian peoples[1] or the Iranic peoples,[2][3] are a diverse Indo-European ethno-linguistic group[1][4] identified by their use of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities.
The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separate branch of the Indo-Iranians in Central Asia in the mid-2nd millennium BC.[5][6] At their peak of expansion in the mid-1st millennium BC, the territory of the Iranian peoples stretched across the entire Eurasian Steppe from the Great Hungarian Plain in the west to the Ordos Plateau in the east, to the Iranian Plateau in the south.[7] The Western Iranian empires of the south came to dominate much of the ancient world from the 6th century BC, leaving an important cultural legacy; and the Eastern Iranians of the steppe played a decisive role in the development of Eurasian nomadism and the Silk Road.[8][5]
The ancient Iranian peoples who emerged after the 1st millennium BC include the Alans, Bactrians, Dahae, Khwarazmians, Massagetae, Medes, Parthians, Persians, Sagartians, Sakas, Sarmatians, Scythians, Sogdians, and probably Cimmerians, among other Iranian-speaking peoples of Western Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Eastern Steppe.
In the 1st millennium AD, their area of settlement, which was mainly concentrated in steppes and deserts of Eurasia,[9] was reduced as a result of Slavic, Germanic, Turkic, and Mongolic expansions and many were subjected to Slavicisation[10][11][12][13] and Turkification.[14][15] Modern Iranian peoples include the Baloch, Gilaks, Kurds, Lurs, Mazanderanis, Ossetians, Pamiris, Pashtuns, Persians, Tats, Tajiks, Talysh, Wakhis, Yaghnobis, and Zazas. Their current distribution spreads across the Iranian Plateau, stretching from the Caucasus in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south and from Eastern Turkey in the west to Western Xinjiang in the east[16]—a region that is sometimes called the Iranian Cultural Continent, representing the extent of the Iranian-speakers and the significant influence of the Iranian peoples through the geopolitical reach of Greater Iran.[17]
Name[]
The term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān / AEran (