Iranian People
The Iranian peoples or Aryans [1] [2] are a group of Indo-European peoples[1][3] who are identified by their
usage 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 around the mid-2nd millennium BC.[4][5] 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 Danubian
plains in the west to the Ordos Plateau in the east and the Iranian Plateau in the south.[6]
The ancient Iranian peoples who emerged after the 1st millennium BC include the Alans, the Bactrians,
the Dahae, the Khwarazmians, the Massagetae, the Medes, the Parthians, the Persians, the Sagartians,
the Sakas, the Sarmatians, the Scythians, the Sogdians, and likely the 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 the steppes and
deserts of Eurasia,[7] was significantly reduced as a result of Slavic, Germanic, Turkic,
and Mongolic expansions; many were subjected to Slavicization[8][9][10][11] and Turkification.[12][13] Modern
Iranian peoples include the Baloch, the Gilaks, the Kurds, the Lurs, the Mazanderanis, the Ossetians,
the Pamiris, the Pashtuns, the Persians, the Tats, the Tajiks, the Talysh, the Wakhis, the Yaghnobis, and
the 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 Anatolia in the west to western Xinjiang in
the east—a region that is sometimes called the Iranian Cultural Continent ,[14] representing the extent of
the Iranian-speakers and the significant influence of the Iranian peoples through the geopolitical and
cultural reach of Greater Iran.[15]
Name
The term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān / AEran (ୠୠୠୠୠ)
and Parthian Aryān .[16] The Middle Iranian terms ērān and aryān are oblique plural forms
of gentilic ēr - (in Middle Persian) and ary- (in Parthian), both deriving from Old
Persian ariya- ( ), Avestan airiia- (ୠୠୠୠୠୠ) and Proto-Iranian *arya-.[16][17]
There have been many attempts to qualify the verbal root of ar- in Old Iranian arya-. The following
are according to 1957 and later linguists:
Emmanuel Laroche (1957): ara- "to fit" ("fitting", "proper").
Old Iranian arya- being descended from Proto-Indo-European ar-yo-, meaning "(skillfully)
assembler".[18]
Georges Dumézil (1958): ar- "to share" (as a union).
Harold Walter Bailey (1959): ar- "to beget" ("born", "nurturing").
Émil Benveniste (1969): ar- "to fit" ("companionable").Unlike the Sanskrit ārya - (Aryan), the Old Iranian term has solely an ethnic meaning.[19][20] Today, the
Old Iranian arya- remains in ethno-linguistic names such as Iran, Alan, Ir, and Iron.[21][16][22][23]