| The term Persia was adopted by
all western languages through the Greeks and was
used as an official name for Iran by the West until
1935. Due to that label, all Iranians were considered
Persian. Therefore, many Western sources, when regarding
Iran's history, will label many non-Persian Iranians
as Persians, which distinguishes nationality, not
necessarily the Persian ethnic group. Also, many
others who embraced the Persian language and culture
are also often referred to as Persian, not necessarily
meaning ethnic group, but rather as a part of Persian
civilization (culturally and linguistically).
The
first known written record about them is from
an Assyrian inscription of the 834 BC, which mentions
both Parsua (Persians) and Muddai (Medes). The
term used by Assyrians 'Parsua' was a general
designation to refer to southwestern Iranian tribes
(who referred to themselves as Aryans). Greeks
rendered this word as 'Persis' which is where
the word Persian in English comes from. In Arabic
as there is no letter "P", they referred
to Persia and Persians as 'Fars' ('Faras') and
'Farsis'.
In
its modern definition, the term “Persians” refers
to the people speaking the Western dialect of
Persian language and living in the modern country
of Iran, as well as the descendants of the people
who emigrated from the territory of modern-day
Iran to neighboring countries, such as the UAE,
Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, and more recently,
to the West (notably USA, Turkey, United Kingdom,
Germany, Canada…).
Related groups
Ethnic Persians are closely related to the Tajiks
and Farsiwan who can be found in Afghanistan,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Xinjiang province
of China. Closely related to the Farsiwan are
the Qizilbash of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Another
group called the Tats lives mainly in the Caucasus
region concentrated in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and
Russian Dagestan. Parsis, a Zoroastrian sect of
western India, centred around Gujarat and Bombay,
are also largely descended from Persians Zoroastrians.
The Iranis, another small community in western
India, are descended from more recent Persian
Zoroastrian immigrants to the subcontinent. In
addition, the Hazara are an ethnic group of Persianized
Mongol origin.
|
