Editing Tajikistan (section)

== Etymology ==
{{anchor|Etymology}}
{{Main|Tajik people}}
The term "[[Tajik (word)|Tajik]]" itself ultimately derives from the [[Middle Persian]] ''Tāzīk'', the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] rendition of the [[Arabic]] ethnonym ''[[Tayy|Ṭayyi’]]'', denoting a [[Qahtanite]] [[Arab tribe]] who emigrated to the [[Transoxiana]] region of [[Central Asia]] in the 7th century AD.<ref>Ali Shir Nava'i ''Muhakamat al-lughatain'' tr. & ed. Robert Devereaux (Leiden: Brill) 1966 p6</ref> Tajikistan appeared as ''Tadjikistan'' or ''Tadzhikistan'' in English prior to 1991. This is due to a transliteration from the {{langx|ru|"Таджикистан"}}. In Russian, there is no single letter "j" to represent the phoneme {{ipa|/d͡ʒ/}}, and therefore {{script|Cyrl|дж}}, or dzh, is used. Tadzhikistan is the alternate spelling and is used in English literature derived from Russian sources.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gleason |first1=Gregory W. |title=The Central Asian States: Discovering Independence |date=8 October 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-96532-6 |page=xv |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_7EDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>

While the [[Library of Congress]]'s 1997 Country Study of Tajikistan found it difficult to definitively state the origins of the word "Tajik" because the term is "embroiled in twentieth-century political disputes about whether Turkic or Iranic peoples were the original inhabitants of Central Asia,"<ref name="lcweb2.loc.gov">[https://lccn.loc.gov/97005110 A Country Study: Tajikistan, Ethnic Background] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200517164239/https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=97005110&searchType=1&permalink=y |date=17 May 2020 }}. Library of Congress Call Number DK851. K34 (1997)</ref> scholars concluded that contemporary [[Tajiks]] are the descendants of the [[Eastern Iranian|Eastern Iranic]] inhabitants of [[Central Asia]], in particular, the [[Sogdians]] and the [[Bactrians]] and possibly other groups.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/item/97005110/ Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan : country studies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520055121/https://www.loc.gov/item/97005110/ |date=20 May 2021 }} Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, page 206</ref><ref>[[Richard Foltz]], ''A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East'', London: [[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]], 2019, pp. 33–61.</ref><ref>[[Richard Nelson Frye]], ''"Persien: bis zum Einbruch des Islam"'' (original English title: ''"The Heritage Of Persia"''), German version, tr. by Paul Baudisch, Kindler Verlag AG, [[Zürich]] 1964, pp. 485–498</ref> In later works, [[Richard Nelson Frye|Richard Frye]] expands on the complexity of the historical origins of the Tajiks. In a 1996 publication, Frye explains that "factors must be taken into account in explaining the evolution of the peoples whose remnants are the Tajiks in Central Asia" and that "the peoples of Central Asia, whether [[Iranian languages|Iranic]] or [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] speaking, have one culture, one religion, one set of social values and traditions with only language separating them."<ref name=frey96>{{cite book |title=The heritage of Central Asia from antiquity to the Turkish expansion |last=Frye |first=Richard Nelson |author-link=Richard Nelson Frye |year=1996 |publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers |location=[[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]] |isbn=1-55876-110-1 |page=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0RSXSu1x9hwC |access-date=29 May 2020 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124200452/https://books.google.com/books?id=0RSXSu1x9hwC |url-status=live }}</ref>

Regarding Tajiks, the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' states:{{blockquote|The Tajiks are the direct descendants of the Iranic peoples whose continuous presence in Central Asia and northern Afghanistan is attested from the middle of the first millennium BC. The ancestors of the Tajiks constituted the core of the ancient population of Khwārezm (Khorezm) and Bactria, which formed part of Transoxania (Sogdiana). Over the course of time, the eastern Iranic dialect that was used by the ancient Tajiks eventually gave way to [[Tajiki]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581047/Tajikistan/214553/History Tajikistan: History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101212045237/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581047/Tajikistan/214553/History |date=12 December 2010 }} ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia''</ref>}}