What is the difference between Persian and Iranian?

Answer 1

Persians are an Indo-European people who developed a civilization in what is now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The Persian Empire is known for a vast expansion, characterized by a tolerant attitude towards minorities and gifts of autonomy to local regions, governed by an absolutist king. Their historic religion is Zoroastrianism, but after the conquest of Persia by the Islamic Caliphate, the majority religion of the Persians (as well as the ethnic minorities of Iran) has become Shiite Islam.

The Turks are composed of two historical groups that intermarried and created a unified culture. Oghuz Türk nomads, an Altaic people from Central Asia, conquered Anatolia and brought it under their rule. During that period, those former Byzantine citizens who converted to Islam began to take on the same mannerisms as the foreign Türks who had conquered them. They began to speak the same language, dress in the same clothes, and believe in the same general ideologies. This process is well-documented by Turks and is called Turkification or Türkleşme. Turks primarily exist in Turkey and Cyprus with a significant diaspora in the USA and Germany. The historic Turkish State was the absolute monarchy of the Ottomans and the modern Turkish State is the Secular Turkish Republic. Sunni Islam has always been a central part of Turkish identification and culture and was one of the earliest markers of "Turkishness". With the advent of the Secular Turkish Republic, there has been a push to determine Turkishness based on forms of identity other than religion, to make Jewish, Christian, and Alevi citizens of Turkey into Turks as well.

Answer 2

Persians are an Indo-European people who developed a civilization in what is now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The Persian Empire is known for a vast expansion, characterized by a tolerant attitude towards minorities and gifts of autonomy to local regions, governed by an absolutist king. Their historic religion is Zoroastrianism, but after the conquest of Persia by the Islamic Caliphate, the majority religion of the Persians (as well as the ethnic minorities of Iran) has become Shiite Islam.

Assyrians are a Semitic people who developed a civilization in what is now Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The Assyrian Empire is known for a vast expansion, characterized by a untold violence, slaughter, and desecration of their adversaries' civilizations and deportation of those citizens who resisted their brutality. They were governed by a warrior-king who would organize similar punitive raids. Their historic religion is the Babylonian Pantheon, but after the conquest of Assyria by the Byzantine Empire, the majority religion of the Assyrian people (who number fewer than 3 million worldwide) has become Christianity. Some Assyrians practice a form of Eastern Orthodoxy while others practice Syriac Catholicism.

Answer 3

Iran is a country and the nationals of that country are Iranians. Persian is an ethnicity of 70 million people of whom only 50 million are Iranian Persians and the remaining 20 million live in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and numerous other countries like France, Germany, the USA, and Israel. (It is worth noting that Tajiks and Persians are the same ethnic group.) Conversely, there are nearly 30 million Iranian Non-Persians such as Iranian Azeris, Iranian Kurds, Iranian Balochis, Iranian Arabs, Iranian Qashqai, and Iranian Mazandarani, among others.

Answer 4

The difference here is a little problematic because you are comparing apples to Oranges. Persian is an ethnic group, whereas Pakistani is a nationality. There are around 80,000 or so Pakistani Persians (i.e. Persians with Pakistani permanent residency or citizenship).

A Pakistani is any person who has Pakistani nationality (i.e. they could get a Pakistani passport). Currently the vast majority of Pakistanis (187 million) live in Pakistan and 7 million live in the diaspora, primarily the UK, US, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States.

Persians are an Indo-European people who developed a civilization in what is now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The Persian Empire is known for a vast expansion, characterized by a tolerant attitude towards minorities and gifts of autonomy to local regions, governed by an absolutist king. Their historic religion is Zoroastrianism, but after the conquest of Persia by the Islamic Caliphate, the majority religion of the Persians (as well as the ethnic minorities of Iran) has become Shiite Islam.