Turcophone populated villages by Iranian counties and districts (SCI/MJC 1986, published by CNRS in 2012/2013)[1]
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 20 and 25% of the total population. Because of their large numbers in big cities, like Tabriz 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 is the result of a long history that began in the eleventh century with the invasion of Iran by the Saljuki Turks and lasted to the long ruling Turkic-speaking tribes such as the Safavids (1501-1736) who founded modern Iran in the sixteenth century and the Qajars (1786-1923).[2]
Among the Turkish-speaking population of Iran, Azerbaijanis are the least proficient in Persian.[3] The Turkish composition of Tehran is estimated from about one-third to over half of the citie's population.[4] This ratio, of around 6-7 million people, places Tehran in the first place among the densest Turkish habitation in Iran.[5] 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.[4]
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.[6] According to the 2015 census, the total number of the Qashqai ethnic group was given between 1.6 and 2.5 million.[7][8]
