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Ancient Iranian peoples
Iranian peoples

The Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in Iranian plateau and beyond in central-, southern-, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe....
 who settled Greater Iran
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, and conform to the historical understanding of the full territory of "Etymology of Iran."...
 in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyria
Assyria

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....
n records in the 9th century BC. They remain dominant throughout Classical Antiquity
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....
 in Scythia
Scythia

The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
 and Persia.

Iranian languages
Iranian languages

The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian languages. These languages are mainly spoken by the Iranian Peoples....
 form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European languages family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan languages , Iranian languages and Nuristani languages....
 sub-family, which is a branch of the family of Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
.






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Ancient Iranian peoples
Iranian peoples

The Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in Iranian plateau and beyond in central-, southern-, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe....
 who settled Greater Iran
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, and conform to the historical understanding of the full territory of "Etymology of Iran."...
 in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyria
Assyria

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....
n records in the 9th century BC. They remain dominant throughout Classical Antiquity
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....
 in Scythia
Scythia

The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
 and Persia.

Origins

Bmac
The Iranian languages
Iranian languages

The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian languages. These languages are mainly spoken by the Iranian Peoples....
 form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European languages family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan languages , Iranian languages and Nuristani languages....
 sub-family, which is a branch of the family of Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
. Having descended from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, the Proto-Iranians separated from the Indo-Aryans
Indo-Aryans

Indo-Aryan is an ethno-linguistic term referring to the wide collection of peoples united as native speakers of the Indo-Iranian languages of the family of Indo-European languages....
 around in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Proto-Iranians are traced to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex

The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia, dated to ca. 2200–1700 BC, located in present day Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centered on the upper Amu Darya ....
, a Bronze Age
Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistory, 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 artifact s....
 culture of Central Asia. The area between northern Afghanistan and the Aral Sea
Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is a landlocked endorheic basin in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south....
 is hypothesized to have been the region where the Proto-Iranians first emerged, following the separation of Indo-Iranian tribes.

By the 1st millennium BC, Medes
Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
, Persians
Persian people

Persian identity, at least in terms of language, is traced to the ancient Indo-Iranians , who arrived in parts of Greater Iran circa 2000-1500 BCE....
, Bactria
Bactria

Bactria is a historical region of Greater Iran. Known by the ancient Greeks as "Bactriana" the region is located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya ; in later times, the region became known as Tokharistan. The name of the region has survived to present time in the name of Afghan province "Balkh"....
ns and Parthia
Parthia

Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'....
ns populated the Iranian plateau
Iranian plateau

The Iranian plateau, also known as the Persian plateau is a geological formation in Southwest Asia, Southern Asia and the Caucasus region....
, while others such as the Scythians, Sarmatians
Sarmatians

The Sarmatians, Sarmat? or Sauromat? were a people of Ancient Iranian peoples origin. Mentioned by Classics authors, they migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains around fifth century B.C....
, Cimmerians
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 century BC and 7th century BC....
 and Alans
Alans

The Alans or Alani were a group among the Sarmatians people, Eurasian nomads of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian language and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian language....
 populated the steppes north of the Black Sea
Black Sea

The Black Sea is an inland sea sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolia and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Seas and various straits....
. The Saka
Saka

The Sakas or Sacae were a population of Central Asian nomadic tribes speaking an eastern Iranian languages language....
 and Scythia
Scythia

The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
n tribes remained mainly in the south and spread as far west as the Balkans
Balkans

The Balkans is the historical name of a geographic subregion of southeastern Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia....
 and as far east as Xinjiang
Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of China of the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area, spanning over 1.6 million sq....
.

The division of Proto-Iranian into an "Eastern" and a "Western" group is attested in the form of Avestan
Avestan language

Avestan is a Eastern Iranian language that was used to compose the sacred hymns and canon of the Zoroastrianism Avesta. Iranian languages are part of the hypothetical Indo-Iranian languages Language group....
 and Old Persian
Old Persian language

The Old Persian language is one of the two attested Iranian languages . Old Persian appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets, seal s of the Achaemenid dynasty era ....
, the two oldest known Iranian languages.

List

  • West Iranian
    • Persians
    • Medes
      Medes

      The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
    • Parthians
      • Pallavas, descended from Parthian invaders of India
    • Sagarthians
      Sagarthians

      The Sagartians were an ancient Iranian peoples tribe, dwelling in the Iranian plateau. Their exact location is unknown; they were probably neighbors of the Parthians in northeastern Iran....
       (whose name survives in the name of the Zagros Mountains
      Zagros Mountains

      The Zagros , are the largest mountain range in Iran and Iraq. 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....
      ).
    • Corduchi
      Corduene

      Corduene was an ancient region located in northern Mesopotamia, present-day southeastern Turkey).According to the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Gordyene is the ancient name of the region of Bohtan ....
       
    • Cyrtii (mentioned by Strabo and possible ancestor of Kurds according to Muhammad Dandamayev)(See Carduchi in Encyclopedia Iranica)


  • East Iranian
    • Bactrians
      Bactrians

      The Bactrians were an Indo-European people originally of Bactria, situated in what is now Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.Several important trade routes from India and China passed through Bactria and, as early as the Bronze Age, this had allowed the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth by the mostly nomadic population....
    • Khwarezmian
      Khwarezmian

      The name Khwarezmian may refer to:* Khwarezm, a series of states in what is now known as Greater Iran.* Khwarezmian language, the extinct Iranian language....
      s
    • Sogdian
      Sogdian

      Sogdian may refer to* anything pertaining to Sogdiana, an ancient civilization of Iranian peoplesand in particular to* the Sogdian language...
      s
    • Scytho-Sarmatian
      • Sarmatians
        Sarmatians

        The Sarmatians, Sarmat? or Sauromat? were a people of Ancient Iranian peoples origin. Mentioned by Classics authors, they migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains around fifth century B.C....
        , including the Rhoxolani
        Rhoxolani

        The Rhoxolani were a Sarmatians people, who are believed to be an off-shoot of the Alans. Their first recorded homeland lay between the Don River, Russia and Dnieper rivers; they migrated in the 1st century BC toward the Danube, to what is now the Baragan Plain steppes in Romania....
        , Iazyges
        Iazyges

        The Iazyges were a nomadic tribe. Known also as Jaxamatae, Ixibatai, Iazygite, J?szok, ?szi. They were a branch of the Sarmatian people who, c....
        , Siraces
        Siraces

        The Siraces were a Sarmatian tribe. The Siraces are believed to be the same as the Serboi.In the late 5th century BC, the Siraces migrated from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea region....
      • Alans
        Alans

        The Alans or Alani were a group among the Sarmatians people, Eurasian nomads of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian language and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian language....
         (sometimes considered a branch of the Sarmatians)
      • Saka
        Saka

        The Sakas or Sacae were a population of Central Asian nomadic tribes speaking an eastern Iranian languages language....
        , some scholars note that Pashtuns are probable modern day descendants of the Saka
        Saka

        The Sakas or Sacae were a population of Central Asian nomadic tribes speaking an eastern Iranian languages language....
        .
      • Parama Kambojas, of the Allai valley/Allai mountains, north of Hindukush. In ancient Sanskrit
        Sanskrit

        Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
         texts, their territory was known as Kumudadvipa and it formed the southern tip of the Sakadvipa or Scythia
        Scythia

        The Scythians or Scyths were an Eastern Iranian languages of Equestrianism nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic steppe throughout Classical Antiquity....
        . In classical literature, this people are known as Komedes
        Komedes

        Komedes is the Classical antiquity name applied to the people, who, as the scholars believe, had followed Scythian culture. They were located around Mt Kumuda as well as within/and beyond the Mt Hemodos and were a widely spread tribe....
        . Indian epic Mahabharata
        Mahabharata

        The is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetrys of History of India, the other being the '. The epic is part of the Hindu itihasa , and forms an important part of Hindu mythology....
         designates them as Parama Kambojas .
      • Parni
        Parni

        The Parni were an "Eastern Iranian language people" of the Ochos/Ochus River valley, south-east of the Caspian Sea. The Parni were one of the three tribes of the Dahae confederacy....
      • Massagetae
        Massagetae

        The Massageteans or Massagetaeans were an Ancient Iranian peoples of antiquity known primarily from the writings of Herodotus. Their name was probably akin to Getae and Thyssagetae....


Ancient Indo-Iranian group having Iranian as well as Indian affinities
  • Kambojas
    Kambojas

    The Kambojas were a Kshatriya tribe of Iron Age India, frequently mentioned in Sanskrit and Pali literature, making their first appearance Kambojas in the Mahabharata and contemporary Vedanga literature ....
    • Parasika Kingdom
      Parasika Kingdom

      Parasikas were a tribe mentioned in the epic Mahabharata. Unfortunately, there is only one reference to Parasikas in the poem; it is mentioned as a tribe in the north....
    • Ashvakas
      Ashvakas

      The Asvakas or Asvakayanas, classically called the Assacenii/Assacani, is the Sanskrit name of a people who supposedly lived in northeastern Afghanistan and the Peshawar Valley....
      : Scholars link the historical Afghans (modern Pashtuns) to the Ashvakas (the Ashvakayanas and Ashvayanas of Panini or the Assakenoi and Aspasio of Arrian
      Arrian

      File:Flavius_Arrianus.jpgLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Ancient Rome historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman and Byzantine Greece period....
      ). The name Afghan is said to have derived from the Ashvakan of Sanskrit
      Sanskrit

      Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
       texts. Scholars identify Ashvakas as a branch of the Kambojas.


Possible Ancient Iranian peoples whose designation is uncertain
  • Cimmerians
    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 century BC and 7th century BC....
     (ethnicity as Iranians specifically unknown)
  • Sigynnae
    Sigynnae

    The Sigynnae were an obscure people of antiquity. They are variously located by ancient authors.According to Herodotus , they dwelt beyond the Danube, and their frontiers extended almost as far as the Adriatic Veneti on the Adriatic....
     (uncertain, known only by obscure reports)
  • Xionites
    Xionites

    File:Tianxia_zh-hant.svgChionites, Chionitae or Xionites were a nomadic tribe prominent in Transoxania and Bactria.Chionites had arrived in the mid-4th century with the wave of immigration from Central Asia into Iran in late antiquity....
     (uncertain, known only by obscure reports)
  • Hephthalites (uncertain, but highly probable)


See also

  • Iranian peoples
    Iranian peoples

    The Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in Iranian plateau and beyond in central-, southern-, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe....
  • Iranian languages
    Iranian languages

    The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian languages. These languages are mainly spoken by the Iranian Peoples....
  • Demographics of Iran
    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. Iran is also ethnically and linguistically diverse, with some cities, such as Tehran, bringing various ethnic groups together....
  • Demographics of Afghanistan
    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....
  • Demographics of Tajikistan
    Demographics of Tajikistan

    The Demographics of Tajikistan is about the demographics features of the population of Tajikistan, including population growth, population density, Ethnic group, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population....
  • Irani
    Irani

    The Iranis are an ethno-religious community of the Indian subcontinent; descendants of Zoroastrianism who emigrated from Greater Iran to the Indian subcontinent within the last few centuries....
     and Parsi


Literature

  • H. Bailey, "ARYA: Philology of ethnic epithet of Iranian people", in Encyclopaedia Iranica, v, pp. 681-683, Online-Edition,
  • A. Shapur Shahbazi, "Iraj: the eponymous hero of the Iranians in their traditional history" in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online-Edition,
  • 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