Iranian Turks

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This article is about Turkic-speaking Iranians. For Turkish citizens living in Iran, see Turkish diaspora.

Iranian Turks are Iranians who speak a Turkic language, or are of Turkic origin^{[citation needed]}.

1 History
- 1.1 Turkic dynasties of Iran*
2 References
3 Turkic groups in Iran
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

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The origin of Iranian Turks is disputed. Some scholars believe that Turkic speaking Iranians, with the exception of Turkmens, are the descendant of the Aryan Medes and migrated to the Iranian plateau with the Persians and adopted the Turkic language amidst the Turkic invasion and settlement of the region in the 10th and 11th centuries.

Others, mainly Turkish historians, suggest that they are basically Central Asian Turks who had migrated to Iran after the Aryan settlements in Iran. However, this does not explain the fact that many of these people do not have a Turkic genetic marker similar to that of Central Asian Turks. It also does not account for the physical characteristics of Turks west of Central Asia, which is Caucasoid rather than Mongoloid. DNA testing has also shown Iranian Azeri's to be an Iranic people.^[1]

The first Turkic speaking dynasty of Iran were the Ghaznavids. There have been others at various times, while Persian was also an official language of their territories and they considered themselves as rulers of Persian empire or parts of the Greater Iran while following the Persian culture. This is also evident from Persian poems writings in their times (e.g. Shahnameh of Ferdowsi praises Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznavids as king of Iran).

[edit] Turkic dynasties of Iran*

It must be noted that Persian was the official language of these dynasties.

(**) Most historians believe Khwarezmids were Turkic speaking peoples. However, there are few historians dispute they were Persians.

[edit] References

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Clifford Edmund Bosworth. The Ghaznavids: their empire in Afghanistan and eastern Iran 994-1040. Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1973
Clifford Edmund Bosworth. The later Ghaznavids: splendour and decay: the dynasty in Afghanistan and northern India, 1040-1186. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977
Gherardo Gnoli. The Idea of Iran: An Essay on Its Origin. Leiden: Brill, 1989.
Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi. Refashioning Iran: Orientalism, Occidentalism, and historiography. New York : Palgrave, 2001.

[edit] Turkic groups in Iran

Azeris
Qashqai tribes
Shahsavans and other tribes of Tehran and Central Province.
Turkmen

Iran has many variants of Turkic people. Azerbaijanis are the largest group of Iranian Turks. Furthermore, Turkmen living primarily in Golestan and North Khorasan Provinces account for around 2,000,000 people.