Iranian
The Iranian group gathers the Iranian-speaking peoples of the Iranian plateau and its borders: the Persians, Afghans, Baluch, Kurds, Tajiks, Lurs and the Caspian peoples. In 1337 Persia was breaking up after the Mongol Ilkhanate collapsed, and Timur conquered it from 1380.
Shah Ismail I founded the Safavid dynasty in 1501 and made Twelver Shia Islam the state religion, setting Persia apart from its Sunni neighbours. Nader Shah rose in 1736, and after his death in 1747 the Afghan Durrani Empire emerged in the east. The Qajars took the Persian throne in 1796.
Members
- Farsi
- Lur
- Adhari
- Afghan
- Achomi
- Kurdish
- Mazanderani
- Baloch
- Khorasani
- Tajik
- Talysh
- Hazara
- Gilak
- Semnani
- Pamiri
- Dehwar
- Ormur