Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. They remain dominant throughout Classical Antiquity in Scythia and Persia.
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Origins
The Iranian languages form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian sub-family, which is a branch of the family of Indo-European languages. Having descended from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, the Proto-Iranians separated from the Indo-Aryans around in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Proto-Iranians are traced to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia. The area between northern Afghanistan and the Aral Sea 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, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians populated the Iranian plateau, while others such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians and Alans populated the steppes north of the Black Sea. The Saka and Scythian tribes remained mainly in the south and spread as far west as the Balkans and as far east as Xinjiang.
The division of Proto-Iranian into an "Eastern" and a "Western" group is attested in the form of Avestan and Old Persian, the two oldest known Iranian languages.
List
- West Iranian
- Persians
- Medes
- Parthians
- Arians
- Sagarthians (whose name survives in the name of the Zagros Mountains[citation needed])
- Corduchi [3]
- Cyrtii (mentioned by Strabo and possible ancestor of Kurds according to Muhammad Dandamayev) (See Carduchi in Encyclopedia Iranica)
- Caspians[4]
- Cadusii[5]
- East Iranian
- Bactrians
- Arachosians
- Khwarezmians
- Sogdians
- Dahaes
- Zarangians
- Scytho-Sarmatian
- Sarmatians, including the Rhoxolani, Iazyges, Siraces
- Alans (sometimes considered a branch of the Sarmatians)
- Saka, some scholars note that Pashtuns are probable modern day descendants of the Saka
- Parama Kambojas, of the Allai valley or Allai mountains, north of Hindukush. In ancient Sanskrit texts, their territory was known as Kumudadvipa and it formed the southern tip of the Sakadvipa or Scythia. In classical literature, this people are known as Komedes. Indian epic Mahabharata designates them as Parama Kambojas[6]
- Parni
- Massagetae
- Kambojas (an Avestan speaking group of East Iranians living in what is now Afghanistan[7][8]; some scholars believe that Zoroastrianism originated in the land of Kamboja)[9]
- Ashvakas: Scholars link the historical Afghans (modern Pashtuns) to the Ashvakas (the Ashvakayanas and Ashvayanas of Panini or the Assakenoi and Aspasio of Arrian). The name Afghan is said to have derived from the Ashvakan of Sanskrit texts.[10][11][12] Ashvakas are identified as a branch of the Kambojas
Possible Ancient Iranian peoples whose designation is uncertain
- Cimmerians (ethnicity as Iranians specifically unknown)
- Sigynnae (uncertain, known only by obscure reports)
- Xionites (uncertain, known only by obscure reports)
- Hephthalites (uncertain, but highly probable)
- Xiongnu (mentioned by Iranologists such as Harold Walter Bailey and Janos Harmatta)
Mythical Iranian Peoples
See also
- Iranian peoples
- Iranian languages
- Demographics of Iran
- Demographics of Afghanistan
- Demographics of Tajikistan
- K.N.Sitaram
- Irani and Parsi
References
- ^ "The Paleolithic Indo-Europeans" — Panshin.com (retrieved 4 June 2006)
- ^ Venkayya 1907, p.219-220
- ^ [1]
- ^ Rüdiger Schmitt in Encyclopedia Iranica, s.v. "Caspians" [2]
- ^ Rüdiger Schmitt, "Cadusii" in Encyclopedia Iranica [3]
- ^ 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, v, pp. 681–683, Online-Edition, Link
- A. Shapur Shahbazi, "Iraj: the eponymous hero of the Iranians in their traditional history" in Encyclopaedia Iranica, 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
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