Are Modern Afghans and Iranians Related¿ Genetics of the Persian People

The Middle East was, and probably still is to this day, one of the most mysterious and exotic places in the world to most Americans and Europeans. Despite being directly at the doorstep of the Western world, the region remains one of the least studied places on the planet when it comes to genetics and anthropology. Although the exact boundaries for the region known to us in the United States and Europe as the Middle East varies quite considerably, in its loosest sense, it could be expanded to include North Africa, Turkey, Iran, the Caucasus region, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and the area of Pakistan that lies on the Iranian Plateau. I realize that people that actually live in the region do not use the term Middle East or Greater Middle East, but the term has just always made sense to me, seeing how it's in the middle of almost every old world civilization such as Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and South Asia. Because of this, the region has been influenced by many different cultures and has also influenced many foreign nations. To state that the people, cultures, religions, and languages of this region are all the same is an astronomically false statement, seeing how the area spans a distance of over 7,000 miles, has around 30 countries, and contains over 600 million people, or a little under 10% of the globe's population. As such, it's important to learn about the different countries and the people that inhabit them, especially considering that Middle Eastern migration to the United States is at an all-time high, and it seems that the region is in the news almost every day, and not for positive reasons. A couple of the more infamous places in the region would have to be the countries of Afghanistan and Iran, both of which lie on the Iranian Plateau and share many different aspects of culture and language, but do they share a common origin? To begin, let's take a look at some of the early history of both nations. The modern people of both Iran and Afghanistan are both believed to have been descended partially from an ancient population known as the Proto-Indo-Europeans, which probably originated somewhere around the Caucasus Mountain region and spread to the Iranian Plateau south around the Caspian Sea. As we discussed in our previous video on Central Asia, the Central Asians before the arrival of the Mongols were of Indo-European stock, most likely speaking a language that would be considered intermediate to that of the European and Iranian sub-families. This group, however, was largely wiped out or assimilated during the Mongol conquest, however the peoples directly south on the Plateau were comparatively spared, despite suffering enormous casualties. So, the modern Iranian languages today are actually more closely related to the European languages rather than neighboring Arabic, despite modern Persian being written in the Arabic script. Now, contrary to popular belief, the so-called Persian Empire was not a continuous dynasty, but rather a slew of different successions that have lasted millennia. It's important to realize in the modern world the terms Persian and Iranian are not synonymous. It is true that up until very recently in its history, the country of Iran was known as Persia, but the main difference is that Iranian is a nationality while Persian is an ethnicity. It can, however, be stated that all of the ethnicities of the Iranian Plateau that share a common origin can be classified as Iranian ethnic groups. Although Persians are by far the largest and dominant ethnic group in the Iranian family, they are by no means the only one. Modern Iran is currently dominated by Persian people, which is why the names used to be synonymous. They inhabit the bulk of the central and eastern portions of the country, including the capital of Tehran, and total anywhere from 50 to 70% of the country's population, with it being very difficult to pinpoint exact figures, seeing how the nation doesn't have an ethnic census, and many people speak more than one language fluently in the country. The largest ethnic minority in the country would definitely have to be ethnic Azeris, who are the same ethnic group as those from the neighboring country of Azerbaijan, a former Soviet territory. The Azeris are actually not an Iranian-speaking group but a Turkic one, being very closely related, both linguistically and genetically, to neighboring Turks from Turkey, although they are sometimes considered Iranian peoples because of their strong historic connection with the various Persian empires. They inhabit the northwest corner of the country, a region known locally as South Azerbaijan, and various estimates place them at 10% at the lowest to 30% at the highest, but the group is largely assimilated into Iranian society and almost all speak the Persian language. Other ethnic groups of Turkic origin would include the Kashkai and Afshar, two much smaller nomadic peoples in the region. One of the next largest and perhaps most well-known Iranian group would have to be the Kurdish people, who inhabit not only a few provinces in Iran but many of the surrounding countries, such as Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, and a region known unofficially as Kurdistan. Although there are actually a couple of dialects of the Kurdish branch considered separate languages, such as Zaza or Kurmanji, the Kurds are largely united in their common history and culture, and although many attempts have been made to secede and unite as an independent Kurdish country, the prospect has become quite unlikely in recent years. Although ever since the rise of ISIS and the new Iraqi civil war, the area of Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan in the north of their respective countries has become far more autonomous. What's important to note is that even though the Kurdish homelands is in the heart of the Middle East with around 30 million people, there is a sizable group of Kurds that live in Khorasan in the northeast corner of Iran that were brought to the region about 400 years ago when the Safavid Empire wished to use them as a buffer zone between the Persian homeland and the Central Asian tribes. There are many Iranian groups around the Caspian Sea, collectively known as Caspians, although they're actually comprised of many different smaller groups such as the Galaki, Talish, and Mazand Iranian. My grandfather was actually from the city of Rasht in the province of Gilan and was half Galaki, half Azeri, but not Persian, and it's hard for people to realize that those are all separate ethnic groups despite them all calling themselves Iranian. The country of Afghanistan is considerably more complicated than that of Iran, with there not really being any dominant ethnic group in the country since it's much more ethnically and linguistically diverse. The two major groups in Afghanistan are the Pashtuns and the various Persian-speaking groups, who it's actually hard to pinpoint their actual ethnic identification since in some parts of Afghanistan the concept of ethnicity is a very foreign concept. Although the Persian language can be understood across three nations of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, the dialects are known as Farsi, Dari, and Tajik, respectively. The Persian-speaking peoples of can be divided into the Amak, Hazara, and Tajiks, and the groups may or may not identify with the label of Persian depending on where they are. The Amaks are the western-most group lying on the border with Iran, and the Tajiks are located in the northeast around the border with Tajikistan and are predominant in the nation's capital of Kabul. The Hazaras are a bit different, being located in the region known as Hazarajat in the center of the country, and seeing how they're one the only groups in the country that has a large amount of East Asian admixture, and the average Hazara person has a gene pool more reminiscent of that of the Turkic Central Asians rather than that of the rest of Middle Eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. The Amaks and Tajiks have a very Middle Eastern appearance, although a small amount may have light-colored hair or perhaps even blue or green eyes, being reminiscent of the previous Indo-European population that lived there before the arrival of the Mongols or Persians. Right above Afghanistan is another former Soviet state of Tajikistan, which is much more ethnically homogenous, with Tajiks making up 85% of the country's population, and again, the identification of Tajiks is a bit tricky, as a Tajik in the United States may identify with other Persian groups, while a Tajik in Russia may identify more with Central Asian groups. What's very interesting is that there's a much smaller group known as the Pamiris on the edge of the Iranian plateau region who have long been classified with Tajiks, however they speak a language quite different from Persian. Not only do they live in southern Tajikistan and northeast Afghanistan, but a small part of the Chinese province of Xinjiang as well, making them the only Middle Eastern group native to China. The evidence of pre-Mongol Indo-European population in Central Asia is probably the strongest in this group, seeing how they live in a heavily mountainous region, mostly untouched by the Mongol invasion. The Pashtun are also an important group in the country of Afghanistan, making up around 40 to 50% of the population, being located in the southeast portion of the country, and also have a very large population in neighboring Pakistan to the south, which is more of a South Asian rather than Middle Eastern country. They are most certainly the second largest Iranian ethnic group, at perhaps over 50 million people in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, not to mention a very large diaspora in India, especially in regions such as Punjab, Gujarat, and other parts of India. Now, I used to think that all Middle Eastern people had a similar phenotype or look, but after studying many examples, there's certainly a distinct appearance for the average Persian, Arab, and North African. Although there's a large amount of bleed over from the various regions, it's still very difficult to tell exactly where someone is just by looking at them. The countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan all share a common heritage, culture, and language, and although it's highly improbable that they'll be uniting anytime soon to become a Neo-Persian empire, it's important to learn about their people groups and what makes them similar and different. I hope you learned something new today about this little slice of the region known as the Middle East, and I'll be releasing videos over the various other regions of the Middle East such as North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, and the Caucasus region soon. Thanks for watching everyone. Be sure to let me know your thoughts on the Iranian people. This has been Mason, and I'll see you next time.