Editing Tajiks (section)

== History ==
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{{Further|Ghurid Empire|Kartids}}

{{See also|List of ancient Iranian peoples|label 1=Ancient Iranian peoples|Proto-Indo-Europeans}}

The Tajiks are an Iranian people, speaking a variety of Persian, concentrated in the [[Oxus]] basin, the [[Ferghana valley|Fergana valley]] (Tajikistan and parts of Uzbekistan) and on both banks of the upper Oxus, i.e., the [[Pamir Mountains]] in Tajikistan, and northeastern Afghanistan ([[Badakhshan Province|Badakhshan]]).<ref name="Iranica"/> Historically, the ancient Tajiks were chiefly agriculturalists before the [[Muslim conquest of Persia|Arab Conquest of Iran]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title=A Genetic Landscape Reshaped by Recent Events: Y-Chromosomal Insights into Central Asia|year=2002|last1=Zerjal|first1=Tatiana|last2=Wells|first2=R. Spencer|last3=Yuldasheva|first3=Nadira|last4=Ruzibakiev|first4=Ruslan|last5=Tyler-Smith|first5=Chris|journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics|volume=71|issue=3|pages=466–482|doi=10.1086/342096|pmid=12145751|pmc=419996}}</ref> While agriculture remained a stronghold, the [[Islamization of Iran]] also resulted in the rapid urbanization of historical [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]] and [[Transoxiana]] that lasted until the devastating Mongolian invasion.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uQ7k2vQlYxEC&pg=PA50|title=Al-Hind: The Slavic Kings and the Islamic conquest, 11th–13th centuries|via=google.nl|isbn=0391041746|last1=Wink|first1=André|year=2002|publisher=BRILL |access-date=28 October 2018|archive-date=10 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410122239/https://books.google.com/books?id=uQ7k2vQlYxEC&pg=PA50|url-status=live}}</ref> Several surviving ancient urban centers of the Tajik people include [[Samarkand]], [[Bukhara]], [[Khujand]], and [[Termez]].

Contemporary Tajiks are the descendants of ancient Eastern Iranian inhabitants of Central Asia, in particular, the [[Sogdia]]ns and the [[Bactria]]ns.<ref name="loc.gov"/> They are also possible descendants of other groups, with an admixture of Western Iranian Persians and non-Iranian peoples.<ref name="loc.gov"/>{{sfn|Foltz|2023|p=33-60}} The latter group includes Greeks who are known to have settled in the Tajikistan and Uzbekistan region before and after the conquests of [[Alexander the Great]], and some of them were referred to as [[Dayuan]] by ancient Chinese chronicles.<ref name="Watson, Burton 1993 pp. 244-245">Watson, Burton(1993). ''Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian''. Translated by Burton Watson. Han Dynasty II (Revised Edition), pp. 244–245. Columbia University Press. {{ISBN|0-231-08166-9}}; {{ISBN|0-231-08167-7}} (pbk)</ref>  According to [[Richard Nelson Frye]], a leading historian of Iranian and Central Asian history, the Persian migration to Central Asia may be considered the beginning of the modern Tajik nation, and ethnic Persians, along with some elements of East-Iranian Bactrians and Sogdians, as the main ancestors of modern Tajiks.<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, Frye expands on the complexity of the historical origins of the Tajiks. In a 1996 publication, Frye explains that many "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|Iranian]] 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=13 October 2015|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 Iranian peoples whose continuous presence in Central Asia and northern Afghanistan is attested from the middle of the 1st 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 Iranian dialect that was used by the ancient Tajiks eventually gave way to [[Persian language|Farsi]], a western dialect spoken in Iran and Afghanistan.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/place/Tajikistan/Cultural-life#ref214553] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021112841/https://www.britannica.com/place/Tajikistan/Cultural-life#ref214553 |date=21 October 2020 }} ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia''</ref>}}

The geographical division between the eastern and western Iranians is often considered historically and currently to be the desert [[Dasht-e Kavir]], situated in the center of the Iranian plateau.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Soper | first1=J.D. | last2=Bodrogligeti | first2=A.J.E. | title=Loan Syntax in Turkic and Iranian | publisher=Eurolingua | series=Eurasian language archives | year=1996 | isbn=978-0-931922-58-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZUbAQAAIAAJ | access-date=1 November 2023 | page=48}} "Western languages were located in the western portion of the Iranian plateau, separated by the Dasht - e Kavir and Dasht - e Lūt deserts from the Eastern Iranian dialects."</ref>

=== Modern history ===
During the [[Soviet–Afghan War]], the Tajik-dominated [[Jamiat-e Islami]] founded by [[Burhanuddin Rabbani]] resisted the [[Soviet Army]] and the communist [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghan government]]. Tajik commander, [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]], successfully repelled nine Soviet campaigns from taking [[Panjshir Valley]] and earned the nickname "Lion of Panjshir" ({{lang|prs|شیر پنجشیر}}).