Ancient Iranian peoples

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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.

Contents 1 Origins 2 List 3 See also 4 References 5 Literature

[edit] Origins

Main article: Indo-Iranians

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 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.

[edit] List

• West Iranian
  • Persians
    • Pallavas, descended from Persian invaders of India
  • Medes
  • Parthians
  • Sagarthians (whose name survives in the name of the Zagros Mountains).
  • Corduchi [1]
  • Azaris

• East Iranian
  • Bactrians
  • Khwarezmians
  • Sogdians
  • Scytho-Sarmatian
    • Sarmatians, including the Rhoxolani, Iazyges, Siraces
    • Alans (sometimes considered a branch of the Sarmatians)
    • Saka
    • Parama Kambojas, of the Allai valley/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 (2.27.25) designates them as Parama Kambojas.
    • Parni
    • Massagetae

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

• Kambojas

• Parasika Kingdom

• Ashvakas: some scholars link the Pashtuns (traditionally known as Afghans) to the Ashvakas (the Ashvakayanas and Ashvayanas of Panini or the Assakenois and Aspasios of Arrian). The name Afghan is said to have derived from the Ashvakan of Sanskrit texts (Dr J. W. McCrindle etc). Scholars identify Ashvakas as a branch of the Kambojas (Historie du Bouddhisme Indien, p 110, E. Lamotte).

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 possible)

[edit] See also

• Iranian peoples
• Iranian languages
• Demographics of Iran
• Demographics of Afghanistan
• Demographics of Tajikistan

[edit] References

[edit] 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