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The term Iranians can refer to:
- inhabitants or citizens of the modern nation of Iran,
- Iranian peoples are a group of peoples speaking Iranian languages, decending from ancient Aryan tribes, and inhabiting a part of Central Asia on and near the Iranian plateau. The Iranians are also known as Persians, although the "Persians" originally referred to one of many Aryan tribes that rose to dominate others in Central Asia such as the Medes, under the leadership of Cyrus II of Persia, establishing the Persian Empire. According to Herodotus, the adopting of the name "Persian" was due to a claim of lineal descent from the mythological hero, Perseus.
The term Iranian (Persian: ایرانیان) is etymologically descended from the term Aryan (Persian: آریایی), resulting from a shift in pronunciation of the latter.
The name Iran, actually Aryana, has as its original meaning "land of the Aryans", where the root ar- is derived from ancient Avestan, meaning noble. Similar cognates exist in other Indo-European languages.
The Iranian peoples of prehistory are generally believed to be ancestors of the contemporary Iranians, northern Indians (partly), northern and western Afghans, the Tajikis, the Uzbeks (partly), Azerbaijanis, Ossetians, Kurds and Baluchis.
In contemporary usage, the term Iranians refers to the people of the nation of Iran, which includes Persian, Azerbaijani, Baluch, Gilaki, Kurd, Lur, Mazandarani, Qashqai, Arab and Turkmen ethnic groups, although ethnically, the greater majority of the people are Persian, while groups such as the Arabs constitute less than 5% of the populace.
See also Persian Empire, Aryan, Iran.
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