Are Iranians of Persian Descent?

[JANOSIK007]

I have read just recently that Iranians have different roots from those of Persia. They were a steppe people, descendants of Scythians. Perhaps they are direct descendants of Persians.

So which one is it?

I would apprieciate if you could provide a link to support your argument.

[Aelwyn]

Sorry can't provide a link, but my friend is Iranian, his dad is directly from Iran, and they speak Persian, so I believe a large part of Iranians are from a Persian descent. Not sure about all of them, but I know for sure that there's at least two Iranians with Persian heritage

[Herodotus]

The Iranians came from the Aryans, they split up into two groups along time ago, one migrated into Germany and the other to Iran.

[Dimeola]

I believe there were very long ago a split to two groups, one to the mountains and one to the plains. Try a websearch. www.about.com
Dimeolas

[Gaius Julius]

I have an Iranian employee, and he refers to himself as Persian.
The language modern day Iranians speak is known as Farsi.

[Shahed]

The word Iran stems from Aryana.

[Casca]

Up until the 1920's (or was it the 1930's) Iran was still called Persia. Mohammed Reza Shah's (the last King of Iran, deposed by the Ayatolah Khomeni in 1979) father changed the countery's name (not sure why though)

[Casca]

Up until the 1920's (or was it the 1930's) Iran was still called Persia. Mohammed Reza Shah's (the last King of Iran, deposed by the Ayatolah Khomeni in 1979) father changed the country's name (not sure why though)

[rasoforos]

The Iranians consider themselves Persians and they probably are as well. They are not Arabs so i guess they are descendants of the people living in Persian and thus persians themselves.

[Shahed]

Quote[/b] (Casca @ Mar. 26 2003,02:55)](not sure why though)

The word Iran stems from Aryana.

Aryana means the domain of the Aryans.
Another super race

[kataphraktoi]

Persia is a misleading term, its a western appellation, especially a Greek one.

Who can really trace their ancestry, we only have language, culture and religion to go by but even then that is an uncertain indicator, after all identity may be passed down but it is also a constructed concept which modifies itself generation after generation, with multiculturalism this will breakdown even further as intermarriage and cultural adoption takes a part.

Iranians are a fascinating mix of tradition and inter-related cultural and ethnic interaction, i mean how many Iranians are of possible Turkish, Arabian and Mongolian descent????????? Its greatest strength is Shia Islam and its language???

SHould we include the Parsees of India and the remaining Zoroastarians in Iran????

[Shahed]

Yeah quite true Kata, Persians do come from various ethnic roots. Actually most Iranians I know call themsleves Persian, and freqeuntly use the term Persian to denote their language as well.

[kataphraktoi]

I can;t believe how widespread western perspectives are entrenched in our languages when an Iranian designates himself with a Greek word, its funny how Iran hasn;t reverted to Persia

Again I pose the question what do you call the Zoroastarians in India and Iran???

Do Zoroastarians consider themselves authentically Iranian?

I doubt that these Zoroastarians intermarry widely with other ethnic groups, to do so means often the loss of religion after one generation.

Eg. The Quranic junction that a Muslim man who marries a non-Muslim woman must raise their children as Muslims.

If this is the case then does this not mean that Zoroastarians have kept their genetic pool with slight conformity? By marrying amongst themselves they keep their ancestral religion and identity.

But then there may be one or two examples that buck this trend, Seljuk Sinan can correct me on one of these points if they are in error.

The Quranic injunction is only an indicator of social and cultural influences in constructing identity, Shia Islam is a factor that is deeply rooted in the Iranian psyche.

What therefore constitutes an Iranian and on what basis is their claim for descent from the Persians of old.

[rory_20_uk]

Persia was renamed Iran after the first world war. Thus geopolitically, there is a direct descent. Ethnically, I am not so sure though. Middle eastern countries tend to have more than one ethnic group (for example the kurds being in about 4 other countries).

[Gregoshi]

Welcome to the Org rory. Thanks for joining the discussion.

[rory_20_uk]

Thanks for the welcome I was unaware that there was so much additional rescourses to the game available - it has certainly added to by appreciation of the game