page_title: Iranian Azerbaijanis
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Iranian Azerbaijanis / Background / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: A figure showing relationship of ethnic groups of Iran and surrounding countries , based on the study of Levon Yepiskoposian, Аshot Margarian,Laris Andonian, Vahid Rashidvash , Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, Yerevan,Tehran University of Medical Sciences,Yerevan State University.2011
context_page_description: Iranian Azerbaijanis, also known as Iranian Azeris, Iranian Turks, Persian Turks or Persian Azerbaijanis, are Iranians of Azeri ethnicity who may speak the Azerbaijani language as their first language.
  Iranian Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people of Iranian origin. Due to their historical, genetic and cultural ties to the Iranians, Iranian Azerbaijanis are also often associated with the Iranian peoples.
  Iranian Azeris are mainly found in and are native to the Iranian Azerbaijan region including provinces of and in smaller numbers, in other provinces such as Kurdistan, Qazvin, Hamadan, Gilan, Markazi and Kermanshah. Iranian Azeris also constitute a significant minority in Tehran, Karaj and other regions.
context_section_description: A comparative study (2013) on the complete mitochondrial DNA diversity in Iranians has indicated that Iranian Azeris are more related to the people of Georgia, than they are to other Iranians, as well as to Armenians. However the same multidimensional scaling plot shows that Azeris from the Caucasus, despite their supposed common origin with Iranian Azeris, cluster closer with other Iranians (e.g. Persians, etc.) than they do with Iranian Azeris.
  Other studies support that present day Iranian main genetic stock comes from the ancient autochthonous people and a genetic input from eastern people would be a minor one. Thus, Iranian Azeris have the closest genetic distance to Iranian Kurds and there is no significant difference between these two populations and other major ethnic groups of Iran.
  According to the scholar of historical geography, Xavier de Planhol:  "Azeri material culture, a result of this multi-secular symbiosis, is thus a subtle combination of indigenous elements and nomadic contributions…. It is a Turkish language learned and spoken by Iranian peasants".  According to Richard Frye: "The Turkic speakers of Azerbaijan (q.v.) are descended from the earlier Iranian speakers, several pockets of whom still exist in the region.". According to Olivier Roy: "The mass of the Oghuz Turkic tribes who crossed the Amu Darya towards the west left the Iranian plateau, which remained Persian, and established themselves more to the west, in Anatolia. Here they divided into Ottomans, who were Sunni and settled, and Turkmens, who were nomads and in part Shiite (or, rather, Alevi). The latter were to keep the name "Turkmen"for a long time: from the thirteenth century onwards they "Turkised" the Iranian populations of Azerbaijan (who spoke west Iranian languages such as Caucasian Tat, which is still found in residual forms), thus creating a new identity based on Shiism and the use of Oghuz Turkic. These are the people today known as Azeris.". According to Rybakov: "Speaking of the Azerbaijan culture originating at that time, in the XIV-XV cc., one must bear in mind, first of all, literature and other parts of culture organically connected with the language. As for the material culture, it remained traditional even after the Turkicization of the local population. However, the presence of a massive layer of Iranians that took part in the formation of the Azeri ethnos, have imposed its imprint, primarily on the lexicon of the Azeri language which contains a great number of Iranian and Arabic words. The latter entered both the Azeri and Turkish language mainly through the Iranian intermediary. Having become independent, the Azeri culture retained close connections with the Iranian and Arab cultures. They were reinforced by common religion and common cultural-historical traditions.".
  The Iranian origins of the Azeris likely derive from ancient Iranian tribes, such as the Medes in Iranian Azerbaijan, and Scythian invaders who arrived during the 8th century BCE. It is believed that the Medes mixed with an indigenous population, the Mannai, a group related to the Urartians. Ancient written accounts, such as one written by Arab historian Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Masudi (896–956), attest to an Iranian presence in the region:
  The Persians are a people whose borders are the Mahat Mountains and Azerbaijan up to Armenia and Aran, and Bayleqan and Darband, and Ray and Tabaristan and Masqat and Shabaran and Jorjan and Abarshahr, and that is Nishabur, and Herat and Marv and other places in land of Khorasan, and Sejistan and Kerman and Fars and Ahvaz...All these lands were once one kingdom with one sovereign and one language...although the language differed slightly.  The language, however, is one, in that its letters are written the same way and used the same way in composition. There are, then, different languages such as Pahlavi, Dari, Azeri, as well as other Persian languages.
  Scholars see cultural similarities between modern Persians and Azeris as evidence of an ancient Iranian influence. Archaeological evidence indicates that the 
caption: Iranian Azeris have stronger genetic affinity with their immediate geographic neighbors than with populations from Central Asia.
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