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Greater Iran orGreater Persia (Persian:ایران بزرگIrān-e Bozorg), also called theIranosphere or thePersosphere orIranzamin (Persian:ایرانزمینIrān-zamin), is a term used to refer to a broader cultural sphere that has been influenced, at least to some degree, byIranian peoples andIranian languages, and primarily includes theIranian plateau, theSouth Caucasus,Central Asia, theIndian subcontinent, and historically stretched as far east as theTarim Basin.[1][2][3]
The regions which make up Greater Iran are defined by having long been under the rule of variousIranian empires and dynasties,[note 2][4][5][6] during which the local populacegradually absorbed Iranian influence and assimilated it into their cultural and linguistic traditions;[note 3] or those where a considerable Iranian population settled and retained their culture,[note 4] such as in the areas surrounding theIranian plateau.[7][8] It is referred to as the "Iranian Cultural Continent" byEncyclopædia Iranica.[9]
Many of the regions that were once part of Greater Iran were lost in conflicts to other powers. Throughout the 16th to 19th centuries, Iran lost many of the territories that had been conquered under theSafavids andQajars.[10][11] TheOttoman–Persian Wars resulted in the loss of present-dayIraq to theOttoman Empire, as outlined in theTreaty of Amasya in 1555 and theTreaty of Zuhab in 1639.[10][12] Simultaneously, theRusso-Persian Wars resulted in the loss of the Caucasus to theRussian Empire: theTreaty of Gulistan in 1813 saw Iran cede present-dayDagestan,Georgia, and most ofAzerbaijan;[13][10][14][15] theTreaty of Turkmenchay in 1828 saw Iran cede present-dayArmenia, the remainder of Azerbaijan, andIğdır, setting the northern boundary along theAras River.[10][16][17] Parts ofAfghanistan were lost to theBritish Empire through theTreaty of Paris in 1857 and theMcMahon Arbitration in 1905.[10][18][19][20]
The name "Iran" is theNew Persian continuation of the oldgenitive pluralaryānām (proto-Iranian, meaning "of theAryans"), first attested in theAvesta asairyānąm (the text of which is composed inAvestan, an oldIranian language spoken in northeastern Greater Iran, or in what are nowAfghanistan,Uzbekistan,Turkmenistan andTajikistan).[21][22][23][24]
The proto-Iranian termaryānām is present in the termAiryana Vaēǰah, the homeland ofZoroaster andZoroastrianism, near the provinces ofSogdiana,Margiana,Bactria, etc., listed in the first chapter of theVidēvdād.[25][26] The Avestan evidence is confirmed byGreek sources:Arianē is spoken of as being betweenPersia and theIndian subcontinent.[27]
However, this is aGreek pronunciation of the name Haroyum/Haraiva (Herat), which the Greeks called 'Aria'[28] (a land listed separately from the homeland of the Aryans).[29][30]
While up until the end of theParthian period in the 3rd century CE, the idea of "Irān" had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, it did not yet have a political import. The idea of an "Iranian" empire or kingdom in a political sense is a purelySasanian one. It was the result of a convergence of interests between the new dynasty and theZoroastrianclergy, as we can deduce from the available evidence.
This convergence gave rise to the idea of an Ērān-šahr "Kingdom of the Iranians", which was "ēr" (Middle Persian equivalent ofOld Persian "ariya" and Avestan "airya").[27]
Richard Nelson Frye defines Greater Iran as including "much of the Caucasus, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, with cultural influences extending to China and western India."
According to him, "Iran means all lands and peoples where Iranian languages were and are spoken, and where in the past, multi-faceted Iranian cultures existed."[31]
Richard Foltz notes that while "A general assumption is often made that the various Iranian peoples of 'greater Iran'—a cultural area that stretched from Mesopotamia and the Caucasus intoKhwarizm,Transoxiana, Bactria, and thePamirs and included Persians,Medes, Parthians andSogdians among others—were all 'Zoroastrians' in pre-Islamic times... This view, even though common among serious scholars, is almost certainly overstated." He argues that "While the various Iranian peoples did indeed share a commonpantheon and pool of religious myths andsymbols, in actuality a variety ofdeities were worshipped—particularlyMitra, the god of covenants, andAnahita, the goddess of the waters, but also many others—depending on the time, place, and particular group concerned".[32]
To theAncient Greeks, Greater Iran ended at theIndus River located inPakistan.[33]
According toJ. P. Mallory andDouglas Q. Adams most of western "greater Iran" spoke Southwestern Iranian languages in the Achaemenid era while the Eastern territory spoke Eastern Iranian languages related to Avestan.[34]
George Lane also states that after the dissolution of theMongol Empire, theIlkhanids became rulers of greater Iran[35] andUljaytu, according to Judith G. Kolbas, was the ruler of this expanse between 1304 and 1317 A.D.[36]
Primary sources, including Timurid historianMir Khwand, define Iranshahr (Greater Iran) as extending from theEuphrates to theOxus.[37]
The Cambridge History of Iran takes a geographical approach in referring to the "historical and cultural" entity of "Greater Iran" as "areas of Iran, parts of Afghanistan, Chinese andSoviet Central Asia".[38]
Greater Iran is calledIranzamin (ایرانزمین) which means "Iranland" or "The Land of Iran".Iranzamin was in the mythical times as opposed to theTuranzamin, "The Land ofTuran", which was located in the upper part of Central Asia.[40][verification needed]
WithImperial Russia continuously advancing south in the course of two wars against Persia, and the treaties of Turkmenchay and Gulistan in the western frontiers, plus the unexpected death ofAbbas Mirza in 1833, and the murdering of Persia's GrandVizier (Mirza AbolQasem Qa'im Maqām), many Central Asian khanates began losing hope for any support from Persia against theTsarist armies.[10][41] The Russian armies occupied theAral coast in 1849,Tashkent in 1864,Bukhara in 1867,Samarkand in 1868, andKhiva andAmudarya in 1873.
Many Iranians consider their natural sphere of influence to extend beyond Iran's present borders. After all, Iran was once much larger. Portuguese forces seized islands and ports in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire wrested fromTehran's control what is today Armenia,Republic of Azerbaijan, and part of Georgia. Iranian elementary school texts teach about the Iranian roots not only of cities likeBaku, but also cities further north likeDerbent in southern Russia. TheShah lost much of his claim to western Afghanistan following the Anglo-Iranian war of 1856–1857. Only in 1970 did aUN sponsored consultation end Iranian claims tosuzerainty over thePersian Gulf island nation ofBahrain. In centuries past, Iranian rule once stretched westward into modern Iraq and beyond. When the western world complains of Iranian interference beyond its borders, the Iranian government often convinced itself that it is merely exerting its influence in lands that were once its own. Simultaneously, Iran's losses at the hands of outside powers have contributed to a sense of grievance that continues to the present day.
Iran today is just a rump of what it once was. At its height, Iranian rulers controlled Iraq, Afghanistan, Western Pakistan, much of Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Many Iranians today consider these areas part of a greater Iranian sphere of influence.
Since the days of theAchaemenids, the Iranians had the protection of geography. But high mountains and the vast emptiness of the Iranian plateau were no longer enough to shield Iran from the Russian army or British navy. Both literally, and figuratively, Iran shrank. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Afghanistan were Iranian, but by the end of the century, all this territory had been lost as a result of European military action.[44]
In the 8th century, Iran was conquered by theArabAbbasids who ruled fromBaghdad. The territory of Iran at that time was composed of two portions:Persian Iraq (western portion) andKhorasan (eastern portion). The dividing region was mostly the cities ofGurgan andDamaghan. TheGhaznavids,Seljuqs andTimurids divided their empires into Iraqi and Khorasani regions. This point can be observed in many books such asAbul Fazl Bayhqi's"Tārīkhi Baïhaqī",Al-Ghazali'sFaza'ilul al-anam min rasa'ili hujjat al-Islam and other books. Transoxiana andChorasmia were mostly included in the Khorasanian region.
Dagestan remains the bastion ofPersian culture in theNorth Caucasus with fine examples of Iranian architecture like the Sassanid citadel inDerbent, the strong influence ofPersian cuisine, and common Persian names amongst the ethnic peoples of Dagestan. The ethnic Persian population of the North Caucasus, theTats, remain, despite strong assimilation over the years, still visible in several North Caucasian cities. Even today, after decades of partition, some of these regions retain Iranian influences, as seen in their old beliefs, traditions and customs (e.g.Norouz).[45]
According toTadeusz Swietochowski, the territories ofIran and the republic ofAzerbaijan usually shared the same history from the time of ancient Media (ninth to seventh centuries b.c.) and the Persian Empire (sixth to fourth centuries b.c.).[46][page needed]
Intimately and inseparably intertwined histories for millennia, Iran irrevocably lost the territory that is nowadays Azerbaijan in the course of the 19th century. With theTreaty of Gulistan of 1813 following theRusso-Persian War (1804–1813) Iran had to cede easternGeorgia, its possessions in theNorth Caucasus and many of those in what is today theAzerbaijan Republic, which included the khanates ofBaku,Shirvan,Karabakh,Ganja,Shaki,Quba,Derbent, and parts ofTalysh. These Khanates comprise most of what is today the Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan in Southern Russia. In theTreaty of Turkmenchay of 1828 following theRusso-Persian War (1826–1828), the result was even more disastrous, and resulted in Iran being forced to cede the remainder of theTalysh Khanate, the khanates ofNakhichevan andErivan, and theMughan region to Russia. All these territories together, lost in 1813 and 1828 combined, constitute all of the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan,Armenia, and southernDagestan. The area to the north of the riverAras, which includes the territory of the contemporary republic of Azerbaijan, was Iranian territory until it was occupied by Russia in the course of the 19th century.[47][48][10][49][50][51][52]
Many localities in this region bear Persian names or names derived from Iranian languages and Azerbaijan remains by far Iran's closest cultural, religious, ethnic, and historical neighbor.Azerbaijanis are by far the second-largest ethnicity in Iran, and comprise the largest community of ethnic Azerbaijanis in the world, vastly outnumbering the number in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Both nations are the only officially Shia majority in the world, with adherents of the religion comprising an absolute majority in both nations. The people of nowadays Iran and Azerbaijan wereconverted to Shiism during exactly the same time in history. Furthermore, the name of "Azerbaijan" is derived through the name of the Persiansatrap which ruled the contemporary region ofIranian Azerbaijan and minor parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan in ancient times.[53][54]
%2c_Temple_of_the_Oxus%2c_Takht-i-Sangin%2c_3rd-2nd_century_BCE_(left_side).jpg)
Khwarazm is one of the regions ofIran-zameen, and is the home of the ancient Iranians,Airyanem Vaejah, according to the ancient book of theAvesta. Modern scholars believe Khwarazm to be what ancient Avestic texts refer to as "Ariyaneh Waeje" or Īrānvīj.[56] These sources claim thatUrgandj, which was the capital of ancient Khwarazm for many years, was actually "Ourva": the eighth land ofAhura Mazda mentioned in thePahlavi text of Vendidad. Others such asUniversity of Hawaii historianElton L. Daniel believe Khwarazm to be the "most likely locale" corresponding to the original home of the Avestan people,[57][verification needed] while Dehkhoda calls Khwarazm "the cradle of theAryan people" (مهد قوم آریا). Today Khwarazm is split between several central Asian republics.
Superimposed on and overlapping with Chorasmia was Khorasan which roughly covered nearly the same geographical areas in Central Asia (starting fromSemnan eastward through northern Afghanistan roughly until the foothills ofPamir, ancientMount Imeon). Current day provinces such asSanjan inTurkmenia,Razavi Khorasan Province,North Khorasan Province, andSouthern Khorasan Province in Iran are all remnants of the old Khorasan. Until the 13th century and the devastating Mongol invasion of the region, Khorasan was considered the cultural capital of Greater Iran.[58][page needed]
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TheTashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County regions of China harbored a Tajik population and culture.[59] Chinese Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County was always counted as a part of the Iranian cultural & linguistic continent withKashgar,Yarkand, andHotan bound to the Iranian history.[60]
From the 6th century BC to the 3rd century BC, Bahrain was a prominent part of the Persian Empire under theAchaemenid dynasty. It was referred to by the Greeks as "Tylos", the centre ofpearl trading, whenNearchus discovered it while serving underAlexander the Great.[61] From the 3rd century BC to the arrival of Islam in the 7th century AD, the island was controlled by two other Iranian dynasties, theParthians and theSassanids.
In the 3rd century AD, the Sassanids succeeded the Parthians and controlled the area for four centuries until the Arab conquest.[62]Ardashir, the first ruler of the Iranian Sassanid dynasty marched to Oman and Bahrain and defeated Sanatruq[63] (or Satiran[64]), probably the Parthian governor of Bahrain.[65] He appointed his sonShapur I as governor. Shapur constructed a new city there and named it Batan Ardashir after his father.[64] At this time, it incorporated the southern Sassanid province covering the Persian Gulf's southern shore plus the archipelago of Bahrain.[65] The southern province of the Sassanids was subdivided into three districts; Haggar (now al-Hafuf province, Saudi Arabia), Batan Ardashir (nowal-Qatif province, Saudi Arabia), andMishmahig (now Bahrain Island)[64] (InMiddle-Persian/Pahlavi it means "ewe-fish").[66]
.PNG)
By about 130 BC, the Parthian dynasty brought the Persian Gulf under their control and extended their influence as far asOman. Because they needed to control the Persian Gulf trade route, the Parthians established garrisons along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf.[62] through warfare and economic distress, been reduced to only 60.[67] The influence of Iran was further undermined at the end of the 18th century when the ideological power struggle between the Akhbari-Usuli strands culminated in victory for the Usulis in Bahrain.[68]
An Afghan uprising led by Hotakis of Kandahar at the beginning of the 18th century resulted in the near-collapse of the Safavid state.[citation needed] In the resultant power vacuum,Oman invaded Bahrain in 1717, ending over one hundred years of Persian hegemony in Bahrain. The Omani invasion began a period of political instability and a quick succession of outside rulers took power with consequent destruction. According to a contemporary account by theologian, SheikhYusuf Al Bahrani, in an unsuccessful attempt by the Persians and their Bedouin allies to take back Bahrain from theKharijite Omanis, much of the country was burnt to the ground.[69] Bahrain was eventually sold back to the Persians by the Omanis, but the weakness of the Safavid empire sawHuwala tribes seize control.[70]
In 1730, the new Shah ofPersia,Nadir Shah, sought to re-assert Persian sovereignty in Bahrain. He ordered Latif Khan, the admiral of the Persian navy in the Persian Gulf, to prepare an invasion fleet inBushehr.[citation needed] The Persians invaded in March or early April 1736 when the ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Jubayr, was away onhajj.[citation needed] The invasion brought the island back under central rule and to challenge Oman in the Persian Gulf. He sought help from the British and Dutch, and he eventually recaptured Bahrain in 1736.[71] During theQajar era, Persian control over Bahrain waned[citation needed] and in 1753, Bahrain was occupied by the Sunni Persians of theBushire-based Al Madhkur family,[72] who ruled Bahrain in the name of Persia and paid allegiance toKarim Khan Zand.
During most of the second half of the eighteenth century, Bahrain was ruled byNasr Al-Madhkur, the ruler ofBushehr. The Bani Utibah tribe from Zubarah exceeded in taking over Bahrain after war broke out in 1782. Persian attempts to reconquer the island in 1783 and in 1785 failed; the 1783 expedition was a joint Persian-Qawasim invasion force that never left Bushehr. The 1785 invasion fleet, composed of forces from Bushehr, Rig, andShiraz was called off after the death of the ruler of Shiraz,Ali Murad Khan. Due to internal difficulties, the Persians could not attempt another invasion.[citation needed] In 1799, Bahrain came under threat from theexpansionist policies ofSayyid Sultan, theSultan of Oman, when he invaded the island under the pretext that Bahrain did not pay taxes owed.[citation needed] The Bani Utbah solicited the aid of Bushire to expel the Omanis on the condition that Bahrain would become atributary state of Persia. In 1800, Sayyid Sultan invaded Bahrain again in retaliation and deployed a garrison atArad Fort, inMuharraq island and had appointed his twelve-year-old son Salim, as Governor of the island.[73]
Many names of villages in Bahrain are derived from thePersian language.[74] These names were thought to have been as a result influences during theSafavid rule of Bahrain (1501–1722) and previous Persian rule. Village names such asKarbabad,Salmabad,Karzakan,Duraz,Barbar were originally derived from the Persian language, suggesting that Persians had a substantial effect on the island's history.[74] The localBahrani Arabic dialect has also borrowed many words from the Persian language.[74] Bahrain's capital city,Manama is derived from two Persian words meaning 'I' and 'speech'.[74][contradictory]
In 1910, the Persian community funded and opened aprivate school, Al-Ittihad school, that taughtFarsi amongst other subjects.[75] According to the 1905 census, there were 1650 Bahraini citizens of Persian origin.[76]
Historian Nasser Hussain says that many Iranians fled their native country in the early 20th century due to a law kingReza Shah issued which banned women from wearing thehijab, or because they feared for their lives after fighting the English or to find jobs. They were coming to Bahrain from Bushehr and theFars province between 1920 and 1940. In the 1920s, local Persian merchants were prominently involved in the consolidation of Bahrain's first powerful lobby with connections to the municipality in an effort to contest the municipal legislation of British control.[76]
TheShah of Iran at the time, more or less dismissed Bahrain due to what he perceived to be its "Arab Identity",[77] At 12:50 p.m. on March 26, 1970, the London Radio announced that bothBritain and ImperialistIran had submitted a request to theSecretary-General of the United Nations to send a representative from the international organization tosurvey the opinion of thepeople of Bahrain as to whether they wish to "remain under British Protectorate or to have Independence or be part of Iran."[78]: 48, 52 This concluded with theindependence of Bahrain and the officialization of themonarchist rule of theAl-Khalifa family, ruling Bahrain til present day.
Bahrain's local Persian community has heavily influenced the country's local food dishes. One of the most notable local delicacies of the people in Bahrain ismahyawa, which is consumed in Southern Iran as well. It is a watery, earth-brick-coloured sauce made from sardines, and consumed with bread or other food. Bahrain's Persians are also famous in Bahrain for bread-making. Another local delicacy ispishoo made fromrose water (golab) andagar agar. Other food items consumed are similar toPersian cuisine.
Throughout history, Iran always had strong cultural ties with the region of present-dayIraq.Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization and the place where the first empires in history were established. These empires, namely theSumerian,Akkadian,Babylonian, andAssyrian, dominated the ancient middle east for millennia, which explains the great influence of Mesopotamia on the Iranian culture and history, and it is also the reason why the later Iranian and Greek dynasties chose Mesopotamia to be the political center of their rule. For a period of around 500 years, what is now Iraq formed the core of Iran, with the IranianParthian andSasanian empires having their capital in what is modern-day Iraq for the same centuries-long time span. (Ctesiphon)
Of the four residences of theAchaemenids named byHerodotus—Ecbatana,Pasargadae orPersepolis,Susa andBabylon—the last [situated in Iraq] was maintained as their most important capital, the fixed winter quarters, the central office of bureaucracy, exchanged only in the heat of summer for some cool spot in the highlands.[79]Under theSeleucids and theParthians the site of the Mesopotamian capital moved a little to the north on theTigris—toSeleucia andCtesiphon. It is indeed symbolic that these new foundations were built from the bricks of ancientBabylon, just as laterBaghdad, a little further upstream, was built out of the ruins of theSassanian double city ofSeleucia-Ctesiphon.[79]
— IranologistEhsan Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran,[79]
According toIranologistRichard N. Frye:[80][81]
Throughout Iran's history the western part of the land has been frequently more closely connected with thelowlands of Mesopotamia (Iraq) than with the rest of theplateau to the east of the central deserts [theDasht-e Kavir andDasht-e Lut].
— Richard N. Frye,The Golden Age of Persia: The Arabs in the East
Between the coming of the Abbasids [in 750] and the Mongol onslaught [in 1258], Iraq and western Iran shared a closer history than did eastern Iran and its western counterpart.
— Neguin Yavari,Iranian Perspectives on the Iran–Iraq War[81]
Testimony to the close relationship shared by Iraq and western Iran during theAbbasid era and later centuries, is the fact that the two regions came to share the same name. The western region ofIran (ancient Media) was called'Irāq-e 'Ajamī ("Persian Iraq"), while central-southernIraq (Babylonia) was called 'Irāq al-'Arabī ("Arabic Iraq") or Bābil ("Babylon").
For centuries the two neighbouring regions were known as "The Two Iraqs" ("al-'Iraqain"). The 12th century Persian poetKhāqāni wrote a famous poemTohfat-ul Iraqein ("The Gift of the Two Iraqs"). The city ofArāk in western Iran still bears the region's old name, and Iranians still traditionally call the region betweenTehran,Isfahan andĪlām "ʿErāq".
During the medieval ages, Mesopotamian and Iranian peoples knew each other's languages because of trade, and because Arabic was the language of religion and science at that time. TheTimurid historianḤāfeẓ-e Abru (d. 1430) wrote of Iraq:[82]
The majority of inhabitants of Iraq knowPersian andArabic, and from the time of the domination ofTurkic people theTurkish language has also found currency.
— Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru
Iraqis share religious and certain cultural ties withIranians. The majority of Iranians are TwelverShia (an Islamic sect).
Iraqi culture has commonalities with theculture of Iran. TheMesopotamian cuisine also has similarities to thePersian cuisine, including common dishes and cooking techniques. TheIraqi dialect has absorbed many words from thePersian language.[83]
Kurds speak a Northwestern Iranian language known asKurdish.Vladimir Minorsky suggested that theMedes, an Iranian people who inhabited much of western Iran, including Azerbaijan and Kurdistan, might have been forefathers of modern Kurds.[84] Minorsky's view was subsequently accepted by manyKurdish nationalists in the 20th century.[85] However Gernot Windfuhr (1975) identifiedKurdish dialects as closer toParthian, albeit with aMedian substratum.[86] The hypothesis of having Median ancestors is rejected byMartin van Bruinessen.[85] Bruinessen states: "Though some Kurdish intellectuals claim that their people are descended from the Medes, there is not enough evidence to permit such connection across the considerable gap in time between the political dominance of the Medes, and the first attestation of the Kurds.[85]Garnik Asatrian (2009) stated that "The Central Iranian dialects, and primarily those of the Kashan area in the first place, as well as the Azari dialects (otherwise called Southern Tati) are probably the only Iranian dialects, which can pretend to be the direct offshoots of Median ... In general, the relationship between Kurdish and Median are not closer than the affinities between the latter and other North Western dialects — Baluchi, Talishi, South Caspian, Zaza, Gurani, etc."[87]
Covering a multi-lingual and multi-ethnic cultural continent, the Encyclopædia Iranica's scope encompasses all aspects of the life, history, and civilization of all the peoples who speak or once spoke an Iranian language.
treaty of gulistan.
Persia lost all its territories to the north of the Aras River, which included all of Georgia, and parts of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In 1813 Iran signed the Treaty of Gulistan, ceding Georgia to Russia.
Macmahon arbitration persia.
Of the four residences of the Achaemenids named byHerodotus—Ecbatana,Pasargadae orPersepolis,Susa andBabylon—the last [situated in Iraq] was maintained as their most important capital, the fixed winter quarters, the central office of bureaucracy, exchanged only in the heat of summer for some cool spot in the highlands. Under theSeleucids and theParthians the site of the Mesopotamian capital moved a little to the north on theTigris—toSeleucia andCtesiphon. It is indeed symbolic that these new foundations were built from the bricks of ancientBabylon, just as laterBaghdad, a little further upstream, was built out of the ruins of theSassanian double city ofSeleucia-Ctesiphon.
[..] throughout Iran's history the western part of the land has been frequently more closely connected with the lowlands of Mesopotamia than with the rest of the plateau to the east of the central deserts.
Between the coming of the 'Abbasids and the Mongol onslaught, Iraq and western Iran shared a closer history than did eastern Iran and its western counterpart.
Persian remained the language of most of the sedentary people as well as that of the chancery until the 15th century and thereafter, as attested by Ḥāfeẓ-e Abru (d. 1430) who said, "The majority of inhabitants of Iraq know Persian and Arabic, and from the time of the domination of Turkic people the Turkish language has also found currency: as the city people and those engaged in trade and crafts are Persophone, the Bedouins are Arabophone, and the governing classes are Turkophone. But, all three peoples (qawms) know each other's languages due to the mixture and amalgamation."
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