Ancient Iranian peoples The Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly on the Iranian plateau and beyond in central, southern, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. As a group of people, they are predominantly defined along linguistic lines as speaking the Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European who settled Greater Iran Greater Iran refers to the regions that have significant Iranian cultural influence. It roughly corresponds to the territory surrounding the Iranian plateau, stretching from the Caucasus to the Indus River in modern day Pakistan, and conform to the historical understanding of the full territory of "Iran." in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian Assyria was a political state centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur (Akkadian: Aššur; Arabic: أشور Aššûr; Hebrew: אַשּׁוּר Aššûr, Aramaic: ܐܫܘܪ Ašur, ܐܬܘܪ Atur). The term records in the 9th century BC The 9th century BC was a period of great changes in civilizations. In Africa, Carthage is founded by the Phoenicians. In Egypt, a severe flood covers the floor of Luxor temple, and years later, a civil war starts. They remain dominant throughout Classical Antiquity Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world in Scythia In Classical Antiquity, Scythia was the area in Eurasia inhabited by the Scythians, from the 8th century BC to the 2nd century AD. Its location and extent varied over time but usually extended farther to the west than is indicated on this map. The area known to classical authors as Scythia included: and Persia Iran (pronounced /ɪˈrɑːn/; Persian: ايران [ʔiˈɾɒn] ), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persia until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used.
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Origins
Main article: Indo-Iranians Indo-Iranian people consist of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani people, that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages The extent of the BMAC (according to the EIEC The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture is an encyclopedia of Indo-European studies and the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The encyclopedia was edited by J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams and published in 1997 by Fitzroy Dearborn. Archaeological articles are written by Mallory, linguistic articles are written by Adams, and includes a distinguished Who's).The Iranian languages The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian. These languages are mainly spoken by the people of Iran. Avestan is the oldest recorded Iranian language form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan , Iranian and Nuristani. The term Aryan languages is occasionally still used to refer to the Indo-Iranian languages . The speakers of the Proto-Indo-Iranian language, the sub-family, which is a branch of the family of Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is composed of 449 languages and dialects, according to the 2005 Ethnologue estimate, about half belonging to the Indo-Aryan sub-branch. "Indo&. Having descended from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, the Proto-Iranians separated from the Indo-Aryans Indo-Aryan is an ethno-linguistic term referring to the wide collection of peoples united as native speakers of the Indo-Aryan branch of the family of Indo-European languages. Today, there are over one billion native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages, most of them native to South Asia, where they form the majority. They trace their ancestry to a around in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Proto-Iranians are traced to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a Bronze Age The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistoric society, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifacts. The Bronze Age also included culture of Central Asia. The area between northern Afghanistan and the Aral Sea The Aral Sea is a landlocked endorheic basin in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda provinces) in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to more than 1,500 islands of one hectare or more that once dotted its is hypothesized to have been the region where the Proto-Iranians first emerged, following the separation of Indo-Iranian tribes.[1]
By the 1st millennium BC, Medes The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area is known as Media (also Medea; Greek Μηδία, Old Persian Māda; the English adjective is Median, antiquated also Medean). They entered this region with the first wave of Iranian tribes, in the late second millennium BC (the Bronze Age, Persians The Persian people are defined by the use of the Persian language as their mother tongue. However, the term Persian has also a supra-ethnic significance and has been historically referred to a part of Iranian peoples. The origin of the Persian people, at least in terms of language, is traced to the ancient Indo-Iranians , who arrived in parts of, Bactrians Bactria (Bactriana , Bākhtar in Persian, بـلـخ (spelled: Bhalakh) and Daxia in Chinese) is a historical region of Greater Iran which includes Afghanistan. Known by the ancient Greeks as "Bactriana", the region is located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya (Oxus); in later times, the region became known as and Parthians Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasts, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire' populated the Iranian plateau The Iranian plateau, also known as the Persian plateau is a geological formation in Southwest Asia, Southern Asia and the Caucasus region. It is the part of the Eurasian Plate wedged between the Arabian and Indian plates, situated between the Zagros mountains to the west, the Caspian Sea and the Kopet Dag to the north, the Hormuz Strait and, while others such as the Scythians The Scythians or Scyths were an Ancient Iranian people of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe throughout Classical Antiquity, at the time known as Scythia. By Late Antiquity the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scyths in this area. Much of the surviving information about the Scyths comes from, Sarmatians The Sarmatians, Sarmatæ or Sauromatæ were a people of Ancient Iranian origin. Mentioned by classical authors, they migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains around fifth century B.C. and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia, Ukraine, and the eastern Balkans, Cimmerians The Cimmerians or Kimmerians were ancient equestrian nomads who, according to Herodotus, originally inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, in what is now Ukraine and Russia, in the 8th and 7th centuries BC and Alans The various forms of Alan — Greek: Αλανοί, Αλαννοί; Chinese: 阿蘭聊 Alanliao in the 2nd century , 阿蘭 Alan (Pinyin) in the 3rd century — and Iron (a self-designation of the Alans' modern Ossetian descendants, indicating early tribal self-designation) are Iranian dialectical forms of Aryan. These and other variants of Aryan ( populated the steppes north of the Black Sea The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosporus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects it to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean. These waters. The Saka The Sakas resided in and migrated over the plains of Eurasia from Eastern Europe to Xinjiang Province, China. The Sakas were Iranian speaking from the Old Persian Period to the Middle Persian Period but later (only after 1000 AD) they were displaced or integrated with Turkic language speakers during the Turkic migration.[citation needed] and Scythian In Classical Antiquity, Scythia was the area in Eurasia inhabited by the Scythians, from the 8th century BC to the 2nd century AD. Its location and extent varied over time but usually extended farther to the west than is indicated on this map. The area known to classical authors as Scythia included: tribes remained mainly in the south and spread as far west as the Balkans The Balkans is a geographic region of southeastern Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia. The region has a combined area of 550,000 km2 (212,000 sq mi) and a population of about 55 million people and as far east as Xinjiang Xinjiang is an autonomous region (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) of the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area, spanning over 1.6 million km2 (larger than the combined area of all the European states from Germany to Spain), which takes up about one sixth of the country's territory. Xinjiang borders the Tibet.
The division of Proto-Iranian into an "Eastern" and a "Western" group is attested in the form of Avestan Avestan is a Eastern Iranian language that was used to compose the sacred hymns and canon of the Zoroastrian Avesta. Iranian languages are part of the Indo-Iranian Language group. The Indo-Iranian language group is a branch of the Indo-European language family and Old Persian Categories: Ancient languages | Persian language | Achaemenid Empire | Cuneiform, the two oldest known Iranian languages.
List
- West Iranian
- Persians The Persian people are defined by the use of the Persian language as their mother tongue. However, the term Persian has also a supra-ethnic significance and has been historically referred to a part of Iranian peoples. The origin of the Persian people, at least in terms of language, is traced to the ancient Indo-Iranians , who arrived in parts of
- Medes The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area is known as Media (also Medea; Greek Μηδία, Old Persian Māda; the English adjective is Median, antiquated also Medean). They entered this region with the first wave of Iranian tribes, in the late second millennium BC (the Bronze Age
- Parthians Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasts, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'
- Pallavas The Pallava dynasty was a Tamil dynasty that ruled northern Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with their capital at Kanchipuram. They rose in power during the reign of Mahendravarman I (571 – 630 CE) and Narasimhavarman I (630 – 668 CE) and dominated the Telugu and northern parts of the Tamil region for about six hundred years until the end of the, descended from Parthian invaders of India[2]
- Sagarthians (whose name survives in the name of the Zagros Mountains The Zagros , (Kurdish: Zincîreçiyay Zagros- زنجیرهچیای زاگرۆس)(Lurish language: کو یه لی زاگروس ) are the largest mountain range in Iran. They have a total length of 1 500 km from western Iran, on the border with Iraq to the southern parts of the Persian Gulf. The mountain range ends at the Straits of Hormuz. The[citation needed])
- Corduchi [3]
- Cyrtii (mentioned by Strabo and possible ancestor of Kurds according to Muhammad Dandamayev) (See Carduchi in Encyclopedia Iranica)
- East Iranian
- Bactrians
- Khwarezmians
- Sogdians
- Dahaes
- Scytho-Sarmatian The Scythians or Scyths were an Ancient Iranian people of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe throughout Classical Antiquity, at the time known as Scythia. By Late Antiquity the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scyths in this area. Much of the surviving information about the Scyths comes from
- Sarmatians The Sarmatians, Sarmatæ or Sauromatæ were a people of Ancient Iranian origin. Mentioned by classical authors, they migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains around fifth century B.C. and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia, Ukraine, and the eastern Balkans, including the Rhoxolani, Iazyges The Iazyges were a nomadic tribe. Known also as Jaxamatae, Ixibatai, Iazygite, Jászok, Ászi. They were a branch of the Sarmatian people who, c. 200 BC, swept westward from central Asia onto the steppes of what is now Ukraine. Little is known about their language, but it was one of the Iranian languages, Siraces
- Alans The various forms of Alan — Greek: Αλανοί, Αλαννοί; Chinese: 阿蘭聊 Alanliao in the 2nd century , 阿蘭 Alan (Pinyin) in the 3rd century — and Iron (a self-designation of the Alans' modern Ossetian descendants, indicating early tribal self-designation) are Iranian dialectical forms of Aryan. These and other variants of Aryan ( (sometimes considered a branch of the Sarmatians)
- Saka The Sakas resided in and migrated over the plains of Eurasia from Eastern Europe to Xinjiang Province, China. The Sakas were Iranian speaking from the Old Persian Period to the Middle Persian Period but later (only after 1000 AD) they were displaced or integrated with Turkic language speakers during the Turkic migration.[citation needed], some scholars note that Pashtuns Pashtuns , also called Pathans (Urdu: پٹھان, Hindi: पठान Paṭhān) or ethnic Afghans, are an Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistic group with populations primarily in Afghanistan and in the North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. The Pashtuns are typically characterized by are probable modern day descendants of the Saka The Sakas resided in and migrated over the plains of Eurasia from Eastern Europe to Xinjiang Province, China. The Sakas were Iranian speaking from the Old Persian Period to the Middle Persian Period but later (only after 1000 AD) they were displaced or integrated with Turkic language speakers during the Turkic migration.[citation needed]
- Parama Kambojas, of the Allai valley or Allai mountains, north of Hindukush The Hindu Kush is a mountain range in eastern and central Afghanistan, northwestern Pakistan, and northwestern India. In ancient Sanskrit Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the 4th century BCE. Its position in the cultures of South and Southeast Asia is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe and it has significantly influenced most modern languages of Nepal and India texts, their territory was known as Kumudadvipa and it formed the southern tip of the Sakadvipa or Scythia In Classical Antiquity, Scythia was the area in Eurasia inhabited by the Scythians, from the 8th century BC to the 2nd century AD. Its location and extent varied over time but usually extended farther to the west than is indicated on this map. The area known to classical authors as Scythia included:. In classical literature, this people are known as Komedes. Indian epic Mahabharata The Mahābhārata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsa (literally "history"), and forms an important part of Hindu mythology designates them as Parama Kambojas[4]
- Parni
- Massagetae
- Kambojas Articles related to Historic Kambojas, or their modern representatives, like Kamboj or Kamboh, also Former Muslim Kambohs of Meerut, etc (an Avestan Avestan is a Eastern Iranian language that was used to compose the sacred hymns and canon of the Zoroastrian Avesta. Iranian languages are part of the Indo-Iranian Language group. The Indo-Iranian language group is a branch of the Indo-European language family speaking group of East Iranians living in what is now Afghanistan[5][6]; some scholars believe that Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster, after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is, in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e. the worship of Ahura Mazda, exalted by Zoroaster as the supreme divine authority originated in the land of Kamboja)[7]
- Ashvakas: Scholars link the historical Afghans (modern Pashtuns Pashtuns , also called Pathans (Urdu: پٹھان, Hindi: पठान Paṭhān) or ethnic Afghans, are an Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistic group with populations primarily in Afghanistan and in the North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. The Pashtuns are typically characterized by) to the Ashvakas (the Ashvakayanas and Ashvayanas The Aśvakas or Aśvakayanas, classically called the Assacenii/Assacani, is the Sanskrit name of a people who supposedly lived in northeastern Afghanistan and the Peshawar Valley. They are/were believed to be a sub-group of the Greater Kamboja tribe profusely referenced in ancient Sanskrit/Pali literature and were partitioned into eastern and of Panini Pāṇini was an Ancient Indian Sanskrit grammarian from Pushkalavati, Gandhara (fl. 4th century BCE) or the Assakenoi and Aspasio of Arrian Lucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon' , known in English as Arrian (Ἀρριανός), and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Roman historian (of Greek ethnicity), a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman period. As with other authors of the Second Sophistic, Arrian wrote primarily in Attic. His works preserve the philosophy of). The name Afghan is said to have derived from the Ashvakan of Sanskrit Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the 4th century BCE. Its position in the cultures of South and Southeast Asia is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe and it has significantly influenced most modern languages of Nepal and India texts.[8][9][10] Ashvakas are identified as a branch of the Kambojas
Possible Ancient Iranian peoples whose designation is uncertain
- Cimmerians The Cimmerians or Kimmerians were ancient equestrian nomads who, according to Herodotus, originally inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, in what is now Ukraine and Russia, in the 8th and 7th centuries BC (ethnicity as Iranians specifically unknown)
- Sigynnae (uncertain, known only by obscure reports)
- Xionites (uncertain, known only by obscure reports)
- Hephthalites The Hephthalites or White Huns were a Central Asian nomadic confederation whose precise origins and composition remain obscure. They were called Ephthalites by the Huns, and Hunas by the Indians. According to Chinese chronicles they were originally a tribe living to the north of the Great Wall and were known as Hoa or Hoa-tun. Elsewhere they were (uncertain, but highly probable)
See also
- Iranian peoples The Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly on the Iranian plateau and beyond in central, southern, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. As a group of people, they are predominantly defined along linguistic lines as speaking the Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European
- Iranian languages The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian. These languages are mainly spoken by the people of Iran. Avestan is the oldest recorded Iranian language
- Demographics of Iran Iran's population was declared 70,049,262 in the 2006 census, with nearly one quarter of its people being 15 years of age or younger.[citation needed] Iran is also ethnically and linguistically diverse, with some cities, such as Tehran, bringing various ethnic groups together
- Demographics of Afghanistan The Demographics of Afghanistan are ethnically and linguistically mixed. This reflects its location astride historic trade and invasion routes leading from Central Asia into South Asia and Southwest Asia. The Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group followed by Tajiks. The Hazaras are the third largest ethnic group, then the Uzbeks, Aimak, Turkmen,
- Demographics of Tajikistan
- Irani The Iranis are an ethno-religious community of the Indian subcontinent; descendants of Zoroastrians who emigrated from Greater Iran to the Indian subcontinent within the last few centuries. They are culturally, linguistically and socially distinct from the Parsis, who - although also Zoroastrians - arrived on the subcontinent over 1000 years ago and Parsi A Parsi or Parsee is an Iranian of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities of the Indian subcontinent
References
- ^ "The Paleolithic Indo-Europeans" — Panshin.com (retrieved 4 June June 4 is the 155th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 210 days remaining until the end of the year 2006 2006 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar)
- ^ Venkayya 1907, p.219-220
- ^ [1]
- ^ Mahabharata 2.27.25.
- ^ Scholars like V. S. Aggarwala etc locate the Kamboja country in Pamirs and Badakshan (Ref: A Grammatical Dictionary of Sanskrit (Vedic): 700 Complete Reviews.., 1953, p 48, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala, Surya Kanta, Jacob Wackernagel, Arthur Anthony Macdonell, Peggy Melcher - India; India as Known to Pāṇini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashṭādhyāyī, 1963, p 38, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala - India; The North-west India of the Second Century B.C., 1974, p 40, Mehta Vasishtha Dev Mohan - Greeks in India; The Greco-Sunga period of Indian history, or, the North-West India of the second century B.C, 1973, p 40, India) and the Parama Kamboja further north, in the Trans-Pamirian territories (See: The Deeds of Harsha: Being a Cultural Study of Bāṇa's Harshacharita, 1969, p 199, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala).
- ^ Dr Michael Witzel also extends Kamboja including Kapisa/Kabul valleys to Arachosia/Kandahar (See: Persica-9, p 92, fn 81. Michael Witzel).
- ^ Cf: "Zoroastrian religion had probably originated in Kamboja-land (Bacteria-Badakshan)....and the Kambojas spoke Avestan language" (Ref: Bharatiya Itihaas Ki Rup Rekha, p 229-231, Jaychandra Vidyalankar; Bhartrya Itihaas ki Mimansa, p 229-301, J. C. Vidyalankar; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, p 217, 221, J. L. Kamboj)
- ^ "The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian..." (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J. W. McCrindle)
- ^ "Even the name Afghan is Aryan being derived from Asvakayana, an important clan of the Asvakas or horsemen who must have derived this title from their handling of celebrated breeds of horses" (See: Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture abroad, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan)
- ^ "Afghans are Assakani of the Greeks; this word being the Sanskrit Ashvaka meaning 'horsemen" (Ref: Sva, 1915, p 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood)
Literature
- H. Bailey, "ARYA: Philology of ethnic epithet of Iranian people", in Encyclopaedia Iranica Encyclopædia Iranica is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. It is a project of Columbia University, started in 1973 at its Center for Iranian Studies, and is considered the standard, v, pp. 681–683, Online-Edition, Link
- A. Shapur Shahbazi, "Iraj: the eponymous hero of the Iranians in their traditional history" in Encyclopaedia Iranica Encyclopædia Iranica is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. It is a project of Columbia University, started in 1973 at its Center for Iranian Studies, and is considered the standard, Online-Edition, Link
- R. Curzon, "The Iranian Peoples of the Caucasus", ISBN 0-7007-0649-6
- Jahanshah Derakhshani, "Die Arier in den nahöstlichen Quellen des 3. und 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr.", 2nd edition, 1999, ISBN 964-90368-6-5
- Richard Frye, "Persia", Zurich, 1963
Categories: Ancient Iranian peoples