Turcophone Iran

The term **Turcophone Iran** or **Turks of Iran** typically applies to Iranian Azerbaijan, Fars Province (Qashqai nomads) and northern Khorasan. The Azerbaijanis, who inhabit the Âzerbâyjân provinces, form the vast majority of these Turkish-speaking Iranians: between 35 and 40% of the total population. Because of their large numbers in big cities, like Tabriz , urmia , khoy , ardabil and especially in Tehran and its surrounding region, these languages are dominant in only 12% of the rural cantons (dehestân). Turkish-speaking areas are often very homogeneous (more than 90% of Turkish-speaking villages in the same dehestân) in Âzerbâyjân and in the Turkmen steppe. Because of the great dispersion of Turkish villages in the Zagros mountains, Fars region and northern Khorasan since the mid-nineteenth century, the Turkish-speaking population gradually mixed with Kurdish and Persian-speakers, especially in Tehran and suburban cities such as Karaj, Eslâmshahr and Qarchak. The Turkish-speaking population in Iran From the Sumerian period (the pro-Turkic peoples and close to the Turks in terms of language, culture, religion and genetics of the haplogroup ja2m170), the Khattians of Azerbaijan, who in the book of Diodorus Siculus (Book 15, Section 30) said that this Turkic people rose up to fight and revolt against the oppression and famine imposed on them by the Achaemenids, the Khazars and Huns who were in Azerbaijan and allied with the Sassanids, who called the Sassanid king from the Turkic queen of the Huns Hormuz Turkzad, the time of the Seljuk domination, which united the Iranian Turkic peoples until the Afshar period, then the Safavid and finally the Qajar period, the Turkic governments and peoples ruled Iran and had many influences on the political formation and development of the Dari or Persian language as the language of poetry and court of these governments.).

Among the Turkish-speaking population of Iran, Azerbaijanis are the least proficient in Persian. The Turkish composition of Tehran is estimated from about one-third to over half of the citie's population. This ratio, of around 8-10 million people, places Tehran in the first place among the densest Turkish habitation in Iran. Azerbaijanis alone comprised at least one-third of Iran's population in 1850. It is likely that this proportion has continued to increase as Iranian Azerbaijanis exhibit greater fertility in rural areas.

## List of Turkish-speaking tribes in Iran

|Turkic peoples of Iran|Language|Religion and Sub-ethnic groups|
| --- | --- | --- |
|Iranian Azerbaijanis|Azerbaijani language (and its dialects)|Muslim (Shia) :* Shahsevan :* Karadaghis :* Bichaghchi :* Terkeme :* Padars :* Tribes of Karadagh :** Tokhmaqlu, Beghdillu, Illyaskhanlu, Bayburdlu, Qaradaghlu|
|Khorasani Turks|Khorasani Turkic language|Muslim (Shia)|
|Iranian Turkmen|Turkmen language|Muslim (Sunni)|
|Qizilbash people|Turkic language|Muslim (Shia) •Afshars •Nafar •Qajar •Bayat •Qarapaqs •Aynallu •Ayrum|
|Khalaj people|Khalaj language|Muslim (Shia)|
|Qashqai people|Qashqai language|Muslim (Shia) :* Aghajari tribe|

### Turkish nomads in Iran (Qashqai)

The Qashqai is one of the largest and most famous tribal confederacies in Iran, composed of settled, semi-settled, and pastoral nomadic communities. In the 1982 census, around 200,000 members of the Qashqai were recorded. According to other sources, the Qashqai consisted of 30,000 families in 1980, which corresponded to about 400,000 people. The international linguistic compendium of the _Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) "Ethnologue"_ estimated their number at 1.5 million in 1997.  According to the 2015 census, the total number of the Qashqai ethnic group was given between 1.6 and 2.5 million.

## Related pages

- Turkic peoples