Ethnic Groups

Iran’s current population is over 80 million people who are ethnically diverse (Poorolajal et al., 2017). The dominant population consists of Iranian Persians (Fars), who constitute 51% of Iran’s population. The rest of the population consists of Iranian Azeris (24%), Iranian Gilakis and Mazandaranis (8%), Iranian Kurds (7%), Iranian Arabs (3%), Iranian Lurs (2%), Iranian Balochs (2%), Iranian Turkmen (2%), and others (1%) (Ethnic_minorities_in_Iran Hassan et al., 2007).

Persians (Fars)

Iranian Persians, who make up 51% of Iran’s population, dominate the central government of Iran. Persians live in major provinces in Iran such as Tehran, Isfahan, Kerman, Yazd and Fars. A group of them also live in Mazandaran and Gilan, residing in the Caspian seaside villages separated from the Persians in Alborz by the northern climate conditions. Though they are originally Persian, their difference has resulted from their separation from Alborz and geographical climate conditions. Any differences present between Mazandarani and Gilaki people are not due to race, but entirely to environmental differences (Rashidvash et al., 2012).

Azeris

The Azeri people are among the oldest of the Aryan race (Rashidvash, 2013a). Northwest of Iran has been a passageway and a residential region from the age of primitive humans, meaning many tribes emigrated from here to other places and others immigrated here. Most of the Azeri people resided in an area between the Caspian Sea and Lake Urumia, and from the Republic of Azerbaijan in the north to the latitude of Tehran in the south.

Kurds

As an ethnic community, the Kurdish population is mainly spread across five countries in the Middle East: Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Armenia. The distribution of the Kurdish population through the five Middle Eastern countries is thought to consist of 45% in Turkey, 20% in Iraq, 20% in Iran, 5% in Syria, 5% in Armenia, and 5% in other countries, although exact numbers are not available and are a matter of some debate and controversy. A significant population of Kurdish immigrants, an estimated 500,000 Kurds, live in Western European countries, namely Germany, the Netherlands, France and Scandinavia (Sirkeci, 2000).

Historically, the Kurdish population has resided in the Zagros Mountains area along the western frontiers of Iran with Turkey and Iraq, beside the Kurdish population in both countries (Rashidvash et al., 2013). They are found mainly in the western regions of the Iranian plateau (Farhud et al., 1991), such as Kurdistan and Ilam.

There are approximately 3 to 4 million Kurds living in Iran, compared to 12 million living in Turkey and 6 million living in Iraq (Farhud et al., 1991). As of 2008, the Kurds represented around 7% of the total population of Iran.

Arabs

In 1986, there were around 530,000 Arabs in Iran. Today, they constitute around 2–3% of Iran’s population (Rashidvash, 2013b). The majority of this population live in Khuzestan, many along the Persian Gulf, and a number are scattered in central and eastern Iran. The Iranian Arab population has intermingled with Persians, Turks and Lurs who also live in those provinces, and so their population has been mixed with other ethnicities over time (Rashidvash, 2013b). Around 40% of the Arabs are urban, living in cities such as Abadan, Ahvaz and Khorramshahr (Rashidvash, 2013b). Iranian Arab communities have also been found in countries such as Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Lurs

The Iranian Lur people live in the mountainous areas in the southwest of Iran, occupying areas of northern Fars and southern Zagros (Rashidvash, 2013b). The territories occupied by Lurs are Lorestan, Bakhtiari and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad (Amanolahi, 2005). In addition, they also reside in other provinces such as Khuzestan, Fars, Ilam, Hamadan and Bushehr (Amanolahi, 2005).

In 2007, the total number of Lurs had been estimated to be close to 4 million people. As of 2008, the Lur population was reported to form 2–6% of the overall population of Iran (Rashidvash, 2013b).

Turkmen

Iranian Turkmen live in the Turkoman Sahra and in the Gorgan plains. This area is near Iran’s border with the Republic of Turkmenistan. It stretches from the Atrak river in the north, to the Caspian Sea in the west, the Quchan mountains in the east and Gorgan river in the south. Iranian Turkmen have been said to be living in Iran since 550 AD, with the first formed tribes from 750 AD (Rashidvash, 2013a; Iran Chamber Society).

The Turkman population has been reported to number 6 million people globally (Turkmen People). Almost one-third of that population, nearly 2 million Turkmen, live along the northern edges of Iran, close to the Turkmenistan border, while millions of others are found in other countries across the Middle East and central Asia.

Balochs

Balochistan, located at the crossroads of India, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Persian Gulf, became a point of intersection for the peoples and cultures of South Asia. Over the centuries, the Balochi people were scattered across a wide range of territories, from Bushehr to Bandar Abbas, India, Afghanistan and Southeastern Iran.

In 1908, John Gordon Lorimer noted that the Baluch numbered around 20,000, many of whom were in Oman and who were also the dominant population in Persia (Kashani-Sabet, 2013).

In 2013, the Balochi population was estimated as 10 million people worldwide (DaBell, 2013).

Persian Gulf Islanders

The Persian Gulf is home to many small islands, such as Qeshm Island, Tunb and Kish Islands. Iranian Arabs have been known to reside in this area of the Persian Gulf and Khuzestan, and who are pastoralists or fishermen on the Gulf (Rashidvash, 2012).

Mazanis

The Iranian Mazanderani or Mazani people, also known as the Tapuri or Tabari people, are indigenous to the Iran Caspian Sea region. They speak the Tabari language and their origin goes back to Tapuri and Amardi people (Nasidze et al., 2006; Dalb, 1998; The World Book Encyclopedia, 2000). They mostly live on the southeastern coast of the Caspian Sea and the area's southern border settled by the Mazani people is marked by the Alborz Mountains. They are closely related to the neighboring Gilaki people as well as South Caucasian peoples (e.g., the Armenians, Georgians, and Azerbaijanis) (Iran, Encarta Encyclopedia, 2009).

Mazanis are mainly inhabitants of Mazandaran province, but, in high numbers, they are scattered in Gilan, Golestan, Tehran, and also Semnan. It has been thought that their ancestors came from the Caucasus region, possibly dislocating an earlier group in the South Caspian. (Iran, Encarta Encyclopedia 2009) This scenario has been supported by their linguistic evidence that shares certain typological features with Caucasian languages (especially the non-Indo-European South Caucasian languages) (Nasidze et al., 2006; Iran, Encarta Encyclopedia, 2009; Borjian, 2004; Stilo, 1981).

Gilakis

One of the main ethnic groups located in the northern parts of Iran is Gilaks or Gilaki who are native to the south of the Caspian Sea. Along with their closely related Mazandarani people, who reside in the southern and southwestern coastal regions of the Caspian Sea, they form part of the Caspian people (Gilaki. Ethnologue, 2021; Pars Today, 2017; Nasidze et al., 2006; Bazin, 2001).

Like Mazandarani, they belong to the groups of Caucasus descent, such as Georgians, Armenians, and Azerbaijanis (Nasidze et al., 2006; Held et al., 2005). They have the Gilaki language, which is also closely related to Mazandarani, and shares certain typological features with Caucasian languages. (Nasidze et al., 2006; Bazin, 2001).

Gilan in the south region of the Caspian Sea, also referred to as Daylam is the primary settlement area for Gilakis. However, they extend from the west and east to Rezvanshahr and Amol, respectively, and cover the west of Gilan up to the border of the Talesh region (Iran Ethnic Groups, 2023).

They have many subdialects with progress to the east and gradually mix with Mazandaranis. Tonokabon and Kalardasht serve as transition areas between Gilaki and Mazani. They mainly live in the city of Ramsar and Tonekabon in Mazandaran province. They also are the inhabitant of Alamut in the northern parts of Qazvin province (Windfuhr, 1989).

Sistanis

A Persian ethnic group that primarily settles Sistan in the southeast of Iran is Sistanis or Sajestani, historically known as Sagzi (Barthold, 2014). They descend their name from Sakastan where the Sakas, a Scythian tribe, the last group of Aryans to come into Iran in 128 BC (Mashkur, 1992), migrated to the Iranian Plateau. Some findings support the stand of Sistanis among the Mediterranean and Europeans; however, they are far from the Eastern Asians (Aminikhah et al., 2018).

The Sistani ethnic group mostly lives in Zabul, a city situated in the southeast of Iran (Aminikhah et al., 2018). This city is located in the north of the Sistan and Baluchistan provinces, and it is near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan (Aminikhah et al., 2018). In present-day, the geographical region of the Sistani ethnic group extends from eastern Iran, Nimruz, Kandahar, and Zabul provinces in southern Afghanistan, to the western Pakistani Nok-Kundi district of Baluchistan. Although, this ethnic group was isolated and had limited relationships with other Iranian people due to their typical culture, over the past couple of years, some of these people have migrated to other places like Golestan and Tehran provinces (Aminikhah et al., 2018). The Sistani ethnic group speaks Zabuli or Sistani (Aminikhah et al., 2018) with some similar features and elements to those of Old, Middle, and Dari Persian as well as Avesta (Ahangar et al., 2021). It has been taught that there was a very strong connection between Sistan and Zoroastrianism.

Ancient Iranian ethnic group

Zoroastrianism evolved from an ancient Indo-Iranian religion shared by the ancestors of the nomadic tribes that settled in northern India and Iran (López et al., 2017). It has been thought that this ethno-religious minority who lives in Iran, arose between the 9th and 6th centuries BC (Afrand et al., 2015).

Zoroastrianism developed the state religion of three major Iranian empires: the Achaemenids (559-330 BCE) founded by King Cyrus the Great and ending with the conquest of Alexander the Great, the Parthians (c. 247 BCE-224 CE), and the Sasanians (224-651 CE) (López et al., 2017). After Arab conquests (633-654 CE), Zoroastrianism ended up being the state religion of Iran. Thereafter, in 900 AD, a small group of Zoroastrians migrated to Gujarat, India, where they became known as Parsis. Parsis later migrated from Gujarat to Mumbai in India and Karachi in Pakistan (Mohyuddin et al., 2005).

However, sea trade between Iranian ethnic groups, including Zoroastrians and Indian peoples, has existed for a long and in the following centuries, Indian Zoroastrians maintained contact with Iranian Zoroastrians. Zoroastrians lived in great isolation and endogamy, during the past millennium. Recent Zoroastrian communities have been mostly located in India, southern Pakistan, and Iran - mainly Tehran, Yazd, and Kerman. During the past 200 years, Zoroastrians, both Parsis and Iranians, have developed communities in Canada, North America, Australasia, Great Britain, and the Middle East (López et al., 2017).

References