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List of ancient Iranian peoples

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This list of ancient Iranian peoples includes the names of Indo-European peoples speaking Iranian languages or otherwise considered Iranian ethnically or linguistically in sources from the late 1st millennium BC to the early 2nd millennium AD.

Background

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Main articles: Indo-Iranians and Proto-Indo-Europeans

Ancient and modern Iranian peoples mostly descend from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, common ancestors respectively of the Proto-Iranians and Proto-Indo-Aryans, this people possibly was the same of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture. Proto-Iranians separated from the Proto-Indo-Aryans early in the 2nd-millennium BCE. These peoples probably called themselves by the name "Aryans", which was the basis for several ethnonyms of Iranian and Indo-Aryan peoples or for the entire group of peoples which shares kin and similar cultures.[1]

Iranian peoples first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BCE. In Classical Antiquity, they were found primarily in Scythia (in Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Northern Caucasus) and Persia (in Western Asia). They divided into "Western" and "Eastern" branches from an early period, roughly corresponding to the territories of Persia and Scythia, respectively. By the 1st millennium BCE, Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians populated the Iranian plateau, while others such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians and Alans populated the steppes north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, as far as the Great Hungarian Plain in the west. The Saka tribes remained mainly in the far-east, eventually spreading as far east as the Ordos Desert.[1]

Ancient Iranian peoples spoke languages that were the ancestors of modern Iranian languages, these languages form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian sub-family, which is a branch of the family of the wider Indo-European languages.[1]

Ancient Iranian peoples lived in many regions and, at about 200 BC, they had as farthest geographical points dwelt by them: to the west the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld), east of the Danube river (where they formed an enclave of Iranian peoples), Ponto-Caspian steppe in today's southern Ukraine, Russia and far western Kazakhstan, and to the east the Altay Mountains western and northwestern foothills and slopes and also western Gansu, Ordos Desert, and western Inner Mongolia, in northwestern China(Xinjiang), to the north southern West Siberia and southern Ural Mountains (Riphean Mountains?) and to the south the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.:[1][2]: 348  The geographical area dwelt by ancient Iranian peoples was therefore vast (at the end of the 1st Millennium BC they dwelt in an area of several million square kilometers or miles thus roughly corresponding to half or slightly less than half of the geographical area that all Indo-European peoples dwelt in Eurasia).[1]

During Late Antiquity, in a process that lasted until Middle Age, the Iranian populations of Scythia and Sarmatia, in the western (Ponto-Caspian) and central (Kazakh) Eurasian Steppe and most of Central Asia (that once formed a large geographic area dwelt by Iranian peoples), started to be conquered by other non-Iranian peoples and began to be marginalized, assimilated or expelled mainly as result of the Turkic peoples conquests and migrations that resulted in the Turkification of the remaining Iranian ethnic groups in Central Asia and the western Eurasian steppe. Germanic, Slavic and later Mongolian conquests and migrations also contributed to the decline of the Iranian peoples in these regions. By the 10th century, the Eastern Iranian languages were no longer spoken in many of the territories they were once spoken, with the exception of Pashto in Central Asia, Ossetic in the Northern Caucasus and Pamiri languages in Badakhshan. Most of Central Asia and the western Eurasian steppe was almost completely Turkified. However, in most of the southern regions, corresponding to the Iranian Plateau and mountains, more densely populated, Iranian peoples continued to be most of the population and remained so until modern times.[1]

Various Persian empires flourished throughout Antiquity, however, they fell to the Islamic conquest in the 7th century, although other Persian empires formed again later.

Ancestors

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Map 1: Indo-European migrations as described in The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David W. Anthony
Distribution of Central Asian Iranic peoples during the Iron Age.
Map 3: Map of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture (red), its expansion into the Andronovo culture (orange) during the 2nd millennium BC, showing the overlap with the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (chartreuse green) in the south and also with the Afanasievo culture in the east. The location of the earliest chariots is shown in magenta. Several scholars associate Proto-Indo-Iranians with Sintashta-Petrovka culture.[1] These scholars also may associate some mentions in the Avesta (sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism), like the Airyanəm Vaēǰō - "Aryans' Expanse", as distant memories that were retained by oral tradition of this old land of origin.[3] There are also mentions of Āryāvarta - "Aryans Abode" (in sacred Hindu scriptures such as Dharmashastras and Sutras), the Hindu counterpart of Airyanəm Vaēǰō, although it refers to Northern India and they are later.
Map 4: The extent of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC), according to the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. The BMAC culture and peoples influenced migrating Indo-Iranians that came from the north.

Ancient Iranian Peoples

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Mentioned in the Avesta[4]

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East Iranians

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Northeast Iranians (Northern East Iranians)

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Map 6: Asia in 323 BC, showing several Iranian peoples located in Central Asia and Europe.
Map 7: Scythian cultures of Scythian, Sarmatians and Saka Iranian peoples located in the Western Eurasian steppe (Central Asia and Europe) from ca. 900 BC - 200 AD
Map 8: Dahae tribal confederation
Map 9: Roxolani, Siraces and Aorsi in the 4th century BC.
Map 10: Alan migrations in the context of the Migration Period.
Map 11: Iazyges in AD 125 west of Roman Dacia, in the Eastern Pannonian Plain, today's Alföld, the Eastern Hungarian Plain.

Southeast Iranians (Southern East Iranians)

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Map 12: Persian Empire in Achaemenid era, 6th century BC, showing names of ancient Iranian peoples in the Iranian Plateau and southern Central Asia on the right side of the map
Map 13: Ancient regions of Iranian Plateau and part of South Central Asia showing ancient Iranian peoples and tribes; this map also shows ancient peoples of the Indus Valley in Northwest Ancient India.

West Iranians

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Northwest Iranians (Northern West Iranians)

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Southwest Iranians (Southern West Iranians)

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Ancient peoples of uncertain origin with possible Iranian background or partially Iranian

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Mainly Iranian Background

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Iranians mixed with other non-Iranian peoples

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Dacian-Iranian

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Greek-Iranian

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Northwest Caucasian-Iranian

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Slavic-Iranian

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  • Antes, may have been a Slavic people and not an Iranian one or a mixed Iranian and Slavic people.

Thracian-Iranian

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Mixed peoples that had some Iranian component

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Celtic-Germanic-Iranian

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Possible Iranian or Non-Iranian peoples

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Iranian or other Indo-European peoples

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Iranian or Anatolian (Indo-European)
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Iranian or Germanic
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Iranian or Indo-Aryan
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Iranian or Nuristani
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Iranian or Slavs
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Iranian or Thracian
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Iranian or Thracian-Iranian (Cimmerian) or Northwest Caucasian
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Iranian or Tocharian
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There are different or conflicting views among scholars regarding the ethnic and linguistic kinship of the peoples known by the Han Chinese as Wusun and Yuezhi and also other less known peoples (a minority of scholars argue that they were Tocharians, based, among other things, on the similarity of names like "Kushan" and the native name of "Kucha" (Kuśi) and the native name "Kuśi" and Chinese name "Gushi" or the name "Arsi" and "Asii",[55] however most scholars argue that they were possibly Northeastern Iranian peoples)[56][57]

Iranian, Tocharian or Turkic

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Iranian or Non-Indo-European peoples

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Iranian or Northeast Caucasian
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Iranian or Turkic
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  • Xiongnu (ruling class)[69] The Xiongnu could also be synonymous with the Huns, that are assumed to be a Turkic people, although there is not certainty or consensus about this matter.
Iranian or Ugric
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Semi-legendary peoples (inspired by real Iranian peoples)

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Amazons-Gargareans

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  • Amazons, a semi-legendary people or tribe of women warriors (an all-female tribe) that Greek authors such as Herodotus and Strabo said to be related to the Scythians and the Sarmatians, however, there could be some historical background for a real people with Iranian etymology (*ha-mazan- "warriors") that lived in Scythia and Sarmatia, but later became the subject of wild exaggerations and myths. Ancient authors said that they guaranteed their continuity through reproduction with the Gargareans (an all-male tribe).
  • Gargareans, a semi-legendary people or tribe only formed by men (an all-male tribe), however, there could be some historical background for a real people, but later became the subject of wild exaggerations and myths. Ancient authors said that they guaranteed their continuity through reproduction with the Amazons (an all-female tribe).

Arimaspae

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Mallory, J.P.; Douglas Q. Adams (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5.
  2. ^ Harmatta, János (1992). "The Emergence of the Indo-Iranians: The Indo-Iranian Languages" (PDF). In Dani, A. H.; Masson, V. M. (eds.). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Dawn of Civilization: Earliest Times to 700 B. C. UNESCO. pp. 346–370. ISBN 978-92-3-102719-2. Retrieved 29 May 2015. 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 region in northern China.
  3. ^ Anthony, David W. (2007). The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-05887-0
  4. ^ Gnoli, Gherardo (1980). Zoroaster's Time and Homeland. Naples: Instituto Univ. Orientale. OCLC 07307436. Iranian tribes that also keep on recurring in the Yasht, Airyas, Tuiryas, Sairimas, Sainus and Dahis
  5. ^ Allworth, Edward A. (1994). Central Asia: A Historical Overview. Duke University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-8223-1521-6.
  6. ^ Diakonoff, I. M. (1999). The Paths of History. Cambridge University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-521-64348-1. Turan was one of the nomadic Iranian tribes mentioned in the Avesta. However, in Firdousi's poem, and in the later Iranian tradition generally, the term Turan is perceived as denoting 'lands inhabited by Turkic speaking tribes.
  7. ^ Gnoli, Gherardo (1980). Zoroaster's Time and Homeland. Naples: Instituto Univ. Orientale. OCLC 07307436. Iranian tribes that also keep on recurring in the Yasht, Airyas, Tuiryas, Sairimas, Sainus and Dahis
  8. ^ Diakonoff, I. M. (1999). The Paths of History. Cambridge University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-521-64348-1. Turan was one of the nomadic Iranian tribes mentioned in the Avesta. However, in Firdousi's poem, and in the later Iranian tradition generally, the term Turan is perceived as denoting 'lands inhabited by Turkic speaking tribes.
  9. ^ Simpson, St John (2017). "The Scythians. Discovering the Nomad-Warriors of Siberia". Current World Archaeology. 84: 16–21. "nomadic people made up of many different tribes thrived across a vast region that stretched from the borders of northern China and Mongolia, through southern Siberia and northern Kazakhstan, as far as the northern reaches of the Black Sea. Collectively they were known by their Greek name: the Scythians. They spoke Iranian languages..."
  10. ^ Royal Museums of Art and History (2000). Ancient Nomads of the Altai Mountains: Belgian-Russian Multidisciplinary Archaeological Research on the Scytho-Siberian Culture. "The Achaemenids called the Scythians " Saka " which sometimes leads to confusion in the literature. The term " Scythians " is particularly used for the representatives of this culture who lived in the European part of the steppe zone. Those who lived in Central Asia are often called Sauromates or Saka and in the Altai area, they are generally known as Scytho-Siberians."
  11. ^ Dandamayev 1994, p. 37 "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan to distinguish them from the related Massagetae of the Aral region and the Scythians of the Pontic steppes. These tribes spoke Iranian languages, and their chief occupation was nomadic pastoralism."
  12. ^ Golden 2009.
  13. ^ Abaev & Bailey 1985, pp. 801–803.
  14. ^ Alemany 2000, p. 3.
  15. ^ Mayer, Antun (April 1935). "Iasi". Journal of the Zagreb Archaeological Museum. 16 (1). Zagreb, Croatia: Archaeological Museum. ISSN 0350-7165.
  16. ^ Schejbal, Berislav (2004). "Municipium Iasorum (Aquae Balissae)". Situla - Dissertationes Musei Nationalis Sloveniae. 2. Ljubljana, Slovenia: National Museum of Slovenia: 99–129. ISSN 0583-4554.
  17. ^ Ammianus XVII.13.1
  18. ^ Minns, Ellis Hovell (2011-01-13). Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus. ISBN 9781108024877.
  19. ^ Sinor, Denis (1 March 1990). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 153. ISBN 0-521-24304-1. Retrieved 29 May 2015. ... the K'ang-chii who were perhaps the Sogdians of Iranian stock...
  20. ^ Macdonell, A.A. and Keith, A.B. 1912. The Vedic Index of Names and Subjects.
  21. ^ Map of the Median Empire, showing Pactyans territory in what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan...Link
  22. ^ "The History of Herodotus Chapter 7, Written 440 B.C.E, Translated by George Rawlinson". Piney.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2012-09-21.
  23. ^ "Introduction to Old Iranian". Archived from the original on 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2006-11-18.
  24. ^ "Persis | ancient region, Iran".
  25. ^ "Persis | ancient region, Iran".
  26. ^ "Persis | ancient region, Iran".
  27. ^ "Persis | ancient region, Iran". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
  28. ^ "Persis | ancient region, Iran".
  29. ^ "GÖBL, ROBERT". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  30. ^ Turko-Persia in Historical Perspective, Robert L. Canfield, Cambridge University Press, 2002 p.49
  31. ^ Macartney, C. A. (1944). "On the Greek Sources for the History of the Turks in the Sixth Century". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies. 11 (2): 266–75. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00072451. ISSN 1474-0699. JSTOR 609313. "the name "Chyon", originally that of an unrelated people, was "transferred later to the Huns owing to the similarity of sound".
  32. ^ Richard Nelson Frye, "Pre-Islamic and early Islamic cultures in Central Asia" in "Turko-Persia in historical perspective", edited by Robert L. Canfield, Cambridge University Press, 1991. pg 49. "Just as later nomadic empires were confederations of many peoples, we may tentatively propose that the ruling groups of these invaders were, or at least included, Turkic-speaking tribesmen from the east and north, although most probably the bulk of the people in the confederation of Chionites... spoke an Iranian language.... This was the last time in the history of Central Asia that Iranian-speaking nomads played any role; hereafter all nomads would speak Turkic languages".
  33. ^ Sinor, Denis (1 March 1990). The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 300. ISBN 0-521-24304-1. Retrieved 29 May 2015. There is no consensus concerning the Hephthalite language, though most scholars seem to think that it was Iranian.
  34. ^ Felix, Wolfgang. "CHIONITES". Encyclopædia Iranica. Bibliotheca Persica Press. Retrieved 29 May 2015. CHIONITES... a tribe of probable Iranian origin that was prominent in Bactria and Transoxania in late antiquity.
  35. ^ Macartney, C. A. (1944). "On the Greek Sources for the History of the Turks in the Sixth Century". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies. 11 (2): 266–75. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00072451. ISSN 1474-0699. JSTOR 609313. "the name "Chyon", originally that of an unrelated people, was "transferred later to the Huns owing to the similarity of sound".
  36. ^ Richard Nelson Frye, "Pre-Islamic and early Islamic cultures in Central Asia" in "Turko-Persia in historical perspective", edited by Robert L. Canfield, Cambridge University Press, 1991. pg 49. "Just as later nomadic empires were confederations of many peoples, we may tentatively propose that the ruling groups of these invaders were, or at least included, Turkic-speaking tribesmen from the east and north, although most probably the bulk of the people in the confederation of Chionites... spoke an Iranian language.... This was the last time in the history of Central Asia that Iranian-speaking nomads played any role; hereafter all nomads would speak Turkic languages".
  37. ^ Prichard Cowles, James (1841). "Ethnography of Europe. 3d ed. p433.1841". 17 January 2015. Houlston & Stoneman, 1841. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  38. ^ "Cimmerian". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 29 May 2015. The origin of the Cimmerians is obscure. Linguistically they are usually regarded as Thracian or as Iranian, or at least to have had an Iranian ruling class.
  39. ^ Jayarava Attwood, Possible Iranian Origins for the Śākyas and Aspects of Buddhism. Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 2012 (3): 47-69
  40. ^ Christopher I. Beckwith, "Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia", 2016, pp 1-21
  41. ^ See also: Indian Antiquaries, 52, part 2, 1923; Indian Antiquaries, 203, 1923, p 54.
  42. ^ Prācīna Kamboja, Jana aura Janapada Ancient Kamboja, people and country, 1981, pp 44, Dr Jiyālāla Kāmboja, Dr Satyavrat Śāstrī; cf also: Dr J. W. McCrindle, Ptolemy, p 268.
  43. ^ Scholars like V. S. Aggarwala etc locate the Kamboja country in Pamirs and Badakshan (Ref: A Grammatical Dictionary of Sanskrit (Vedic): 700 Complete Reviews.., 1953, p 48, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala, Surya Kanta, Jacob Wackernagel, Arthur Anthony Macdonell, Peggy Melcher – India; India as Known to Pāṇini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashṭādhyāyī, 1963, p 38, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala – India; The North-west India of the Second Century B.C., 1974, p 40, Mehta Vasishtha Dev Mohan – Greeks in India; The Greco-Shunga period of Indian history, or, the North-West India of the second century B.C, 1973, p 40, India) and the Parama Kamboja further north, in the Trans-Pamirian territories (See: The Deeds of Harsha: Being a Cultural Study of Bāṇa's Harshacharita, 1969, p 199, Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala).
  44. ^ Dr Michael Witzel also extends Kamboja including Kapisa/Kabul valleys to Arachosia/Kandahar (See: Persica-9, p 92, fn 81. Michael Witzel).
  45. ^ Cf: "Zoroastrian religion had probably originated in Kamboja-land (Bacteria-Badakshan)....and the Kambojas spoke Avestan language" (Ref: Bharatiya Itihaas Ki Rup Rekha, p 229-231, Jaychandra Vidyalankar; Bhartrya Itihaas ki Mimansa, p 229-301, J. C. Vidyalankar; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, p 217, 221, J. L. Kamboj)
  46. ^ The Greeks in Bactria and India 1966 p 170, 461, Dr William Woodthorpe Tarn.
  47. ^ The Indian Historical Quarterly, 1963, p 291; Indian historical quarterly, Vol XXV-3, 1949, pp 190-92.
  48. ^ Prācīna Kamboja, Jana aura Janapada Ancient Kamboja, people and country, 1981, p 44, 147, 155, Dr Jiyālāla Kāmboja, Dr Satyavrat Śāstrī.
  49. ^ "The name Afghan has evidently been derived from Asvakan, the Assakenoi of Arrian..." (Megasthenes and Arrian, p 180. See also: Alexander's Invasion of India, p 38; J. W. McCrindle)
  50. ^ "Even the name Afghan is Aryan being derived from Asvakayana, an important clan of the Asvakas or horsemen who must have derived this title from their handling of celebrated breeds of horses" (See: Imprints of Indian Thought and Culture abroad, p 124, Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan)
  51. ^ "Afghans are Assakani of the Greeks; this word being the Sanskrit Ashvaka meaning 'horsemen" (Ref: Sva, 1915, p 113, Christopher Molesworth Birdwood)
  52. ^ Mahabharata 2.27.25.
  53. ^ Ammianus XVII.13.1
  54. ^ Vernadsky 1959, p. 24.
  55. ^ Žhivko Voynikov (Bulgaria). SOME ANCIENT CHINESE NAMES IN EAST TURKESTAN AND CENTRAL ASIA AND THE TOCHARIAN QUESTION [1]
  56. ^ Wei Lan-Hai; Li Hui; Xu Wenkan (2013). "The separate origins of the Tocharians and the Yuezhi: Results from recent advances in archaeology and genetics" in Research Gate
  57. ^ A dictionary of Tocharian B by Douglas Q. Adams (Leiden Studies in Indo-European 10), xxxiv, 830 pp., Rodopi: Amsterdam – Atlanta, 1999. [2]
  58. ^ Sinor, Denis (1997). Aspects of Altaic Civilization III. Psychology Press. p. 237. ISBN 0-7007-0380-2. Retrieved 29 May 2015. ...it seems likely, the Wu-sun were an Indo-European, perhaps Iranian people...
  59. ^ Fan Ye, Chronicle on the 'Western Regions' from the Hou Hanshu. (transl. John E. Hill), 2011] "Based on a report by General Ban Yong to Emperor An (107–125 CE) near the end of his reign, with a few later additions." (20 December 2015)
  60. ^ "History of Central Asia: Early Eastern Peoples". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 1 June 2015. ... in the second half of the 2nd century bce the Xiongnu, at the height of their power, had expelled from their homeland in western Gansu (China) a people probably of Iranian stock, known to the Chinese as the Yuezhi and called Tokharians in Greek sources.
  61. ^ "Ancient Iran: The movement of Iranian peoples". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 29 May 2015. At the end of the 3rd century, there began in Chinese Turkistan a long migration of the Yuezhi, an Iranian people who invaded Bactria about 130 bc, putting an end to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom there. (In the 1st century bc they created the Kushān dynasty, whose rule extended from Afghanistan to the Ganges River and from Russian Turkistan to the estuary of the Indus.)
  62. ^ Wei Lan-Hai; Li Hui; Xu Wenkan (2013). "The separate origins of the Tocharians and the Yuezhi: Results from recent advances in archaeology and genetics" in Research Gate [3]
  63. ^ Lebedynsky, Yaroslav (2007). Les nomades. Éditions Errance. p. 131. ISBN 9782877723466.
  64. ^ Macmillan Education (2016). Macmillan Dictionary of Archaeology. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 369. ISBN 978-1349075898.[permanent dead link] "From that time until the HAN dynasty the Ordos steppe was the home of semi-nomadic Indo-European peoples whose culture can be regarded as an eastern province of a vast Eurasian continuum of Scytho-Siberian cultures."
  65. ^ Harmatta 1992, p. 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."
  66. ^ https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/silkroad/files/knowledge-bank-article/4%20Indo-European%20indications%20of%20Turkic%20ancestral%20home%20-%20Copy.pdf [dead link]
  67. ^ "IRAN v. PEOPLES OF IRAN (2) Pre-Islamic – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  68. ^ üdiger Schmitt in Encyclopædia Iranica, s.v. "Caspians"
  69. ^ Harmatta, János (January 1, 1994). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations, 700 B. C. to A.D 250: Conclusion. UNESCO. p. 488. ISBN 9231028464. Retrieved 29 May 2015. Their royal tribes and kings (shan-yii) bore Iranian names and all the Hsiung-nu words noted by the Chinese can be explained from an Iranian language of Saka type. It is therefore clear that the majority of Hsiung-nu tribes spoke an Eastern Iranian language.

Literature

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  • H. Bailey, "ARYA: Philology of ethnic epithet of Iranian people", in Encyclopædia Iranica, v, pp. 681–683, Online-Edition, Link Archived 2008-12-16 at the Wayback Machine
  • A. Shapur Shahbazi, "Iraj: the eponymous hero of the Iranians in their traditional history" in Encyclopædia Iranica, Online-Edition, Link Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
  • R. Curzon, "The Iranian Peoples of the Caucasus", ISBN 0-7007-0649-6
  • Jahanshah Derakhshani, "Die Arier in den nahöstlichen Quellen des 3. und 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr.", 2nd edition, 1999, ISBN 964-90368-6-5 ("The Arians in the Middle Eastern sources of the 3rd and 2nd Millennia BC")
  • Richard Frye, "Persia", Zurich, 1963
  • Wei Lan-Hai; Li Hui; Xu Wenkan (2013). "The separate origins of the Tocharians and the Yuezhi: Results from recent advances in archaeology and genetics" in Research Gate [4]
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