18 Facts About Iranian peoples

At their peak of expansion in the mid-1st millennium BCE, 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 and the Iranian Plateau in the south.

Ancient Iranian peoples who emerged after the 1st millennium BCE 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.

Today, the Old Iranian peoples arya- remains in ethno-linguistic names such as Iran, Alan, Ir, and Iron.

All this evidence shows that the name Arya was a collective definition, denoting Iranian peoples who were aware of belonging to the one ethnic stock, speaking a common language, and having a religious tradition that centered on the cult of Ohrmazd.

Academic usage of the term Iranian is distinct from the state of Iran and its various citizens, in the same way that the term Germanic peoples is distinct from Germans.

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Iranian peoples uses the same analogue as in differentiating German from Germanic or differentiating Turkish and Turkic.

Remnants of the Median language and Old Persian show their common Proto-Iranian peoples roots, emphasized in Strabo and Herodotus' description of their languages as very similar to the languages spoken by the Bactrians and Sogdians in the east.

The Baloch who speak a west Iranian peoples language relate an oral tradition regarding their migration from Aleppo, Syria around the year 1000 CE, whereas linguistic evidence links Balochi to Kurmanji, Sorani, Gorani and Zazaki language.

Main migration of Turkic Iranian peoples occurred between the 6th and 10th centuries, when they spread across most of Central Asia.

The Turkic peoples slowly replaced and assimilated the previous Iranian-speaking locals, turning the population of Central Asia from largely Iranian, into primarily of East Asian descent.

Ultimately, the various Iranian peoples, including the Persians, Pashtuns, Kurds and Balochis, converted to Islam, while the Alans converted to Christianity, thus laying the foundation for the fact that the modern-day Ossetians are Christian.

Iranian peoples influence spread to the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, where Persian was often spoken at court as well to the court of the Mughal Empire.

All of the major Iranian peoples reasserted their use of Iranian languages following the decline of Arab rule, but would not begin to form modern national identities until the 19th and early 20th centuries .

Iranian peoples culture is today considered to be centered in what is called the Iranian peoples Plateau, and has its origins tracing back to the Andronovo culture of the late Bronze Age, which is associated with other cultures of the Eurasian Steppe.

Early Iranian peoples practiced the ancient Iranian religion, which, like that of other Indo-European peoples, embraced various male and female deities.

The various religions of the Iranian peoples are believed by some scholars to have been significant early philosophical influences on Christianity and Judaism.

Nowadays, most Iranian peoples people follow Islam, with minorities following Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism, Iranian peoples religions and various levels of irreligion.

Iranian peoples languages were and, to a lesser extent, still are spoken in a wide area comprising regions around the Black Sea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia and the northwest of China.