Οι Ιρανοί ή Ιρανικοί λαοί[1][2][3][4] είναι μια εκτεταμένη Ινδο-Ευρωπαϊκή εθνογλωσσική ομάδα που αποτελείται από ομιλητές των Ιρανικών γλωσσών.[5][6]
Πιστεύεται οι Πρωτοϊρανοί ότι έχουν αναδειχθεί ως ένας ξεχωριστός κλάδος των Ινδοϊρανών στην Κεντρική Ασία στα μέσα της 2ης π.Χ. χιλιετίας.[7][8] Στο αποκορύφωμα της επέκτασής τους στα μέσα της 1ης χιλιετίας π.Χ., η επικράτεια των ιρανικών λαών απλωνόταν κατά μήκος του Ιρανικού υψιπέδου και σε ολόκληρη την Ευρασιατική Στέπα από τη Μεγάλη Ουγγρική Πεδιάδα στα δυτικά μέχρι το Οροπέδιο Όρντος στα ανατολικά.[9] Οι δυτικές ιρανικές Περσικές Αυτοκρατορίες ήρθαν για να κυριαρχήσουν σε ένα μεγάλο μέρος του αρχαίου κόσμου τότε, αφήνοντας μια σημαντική πολιτιστική κληρονομιά, ενώ οι ανατολικοί ιρανικοί νομάδες της στέπας έπαιξαν καθοριστικό ρόλο στην ανάπτυξη του ευρασιατικού νομαδισμού και το Δρόμο του Μεταξιού.[7]
↑R.N Frye, "IRAN v. PEOPLE OF IRAN in Encycloapedia Iranica. "In the following discussion of "Iranian peoples," the term "Iranian" may be understood in two ways. It is, first of all, a linguistic classification, intended to designate any society which inherited or adopted, and transmitted, an Iranian language. The set of Iranian-speaking peoples is thus considered a kind of unity, in spite of their distinct lineage identities plus all the factors which may have further differentiated any one group’s sense of self."
↑The Kurds: A Concise Handbook
by Mehrdad R. Izady
↑Historical Dictionary of the Kurds
by Michael M. Gunter
↑The Encyclopedia Americana: The International Reference Work, Volume 15
↑Harmatta 1992, σελ. 348: "From the first millennium b.c., we have abundant historical, archaeological and linguistic sources for the location of the territory inhabited by the Iranian peoples. In this period the territory of the northern Iranians, they being equestrian nomads, extended over the whole zone of the steppes and the wooded steppes and even the semi-deserts from the Great Hungarian Plain to the Ordos in northern China."
↑Brzezinski, Richard· Mielczarek, Mariusz (2002). The Sarmatians, 600 BC-AD 450. Osprey Publishing. σελ. 39. (..) Indeed, it is now accepted that the Sarmatians merged in with pre-Slavic populations.
↑Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. σελ. 523. (..) In their Ukrainian and Polish homeland the Slavs were intermixed and at times overlain by Germanic speakers (the Goths) and by Iranian speakers (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans) in a shifting array of tribal and national configurations.
↑Dorothy Atkinson· Alexander Dallin· Gail Warshofsky Lapidus (1977). Women in Russia. Stanford University Press. σελ. 3. (..) Ancient accounts link the Amazons with the Scythians and the Sarmatians, who successively dominated the south of Russia for a millennium extending back to the seventh century B.C. The descendants of these peoples were absorbed by the Slavs who came to be known as Russians.
↑Slovene Studies. 9–11. Society for Slovene Studies. 1987. σελ. 36. (..) For example, the ancient Scythians, Sarmatians (amongst others), and many other attested but now extinct peoples were assimilated in the course of history by Proto-Slavs.
↑Frye, Richard Nelson, Greater Iran, ISBN 1-56859-177-2 p.xi: "... Iran means all lands and people where Iranian languages were and are spoken, and where in the past, multi-faceted Iranian cultures existed. ..."