Editing Demographics of Iran (section)

===Tats (Caucasus)===
{{Main article|Tats (Caucasus)}}

The "Tats" are an [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] people, presently living within [[Azerbaijan]] and Russia (mainly Southern [[Dagestan]]). The Tats are part of the indigenous peoples of [[Iranian peoples|Iranian origin]] in the Caucasus.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780203217696 |title=Islam in Post-Soviet Russia |date=2003 |isbn=978-1-134-43187-8 |editor-last1=Pilkington |editor-last2=Yemelianova |editor-first1=Hilary |editor-first2=Galina |page=27 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Khanam |first1=R. |title=Encyclopaedic Ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia |date=2005 |publisher=Global Vision Publishing House |isbn=978-81-8220-065-4 |page=746 |quote=The contemporary Tats are the descendants of an Iranian-speaking population sent out of Persia by the dynasty of the Sasanids in the fifth to sixth centuries. }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Masti︠u︡gina |first1=T. M. |last2=Perepelkin |first2=Lev |title=An Ethnic History of Russia: Pre-Revolutionary Times to the Present |date=1996 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-0-313-29315-3 |page=80 }}</ref>

Tats use the [[Tat language (Caucasus)|Tat language]], a [[Southwestern Iranian languages|southwestern Iranian language]] and a variety of [[Persian language|Persian]]<ref name="Gernot Windfuhr 1979. pg 4">{{cite book |doi=10.1515/9783110800425 |title=Persian Grammar |date=1979 |last1=Windfuhr |first1=Gernot L. |isbn=978-90-279-7774-8 |page=4 |quote=Tat- Persian spoken in the East Caucasus }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">V. Minorsky, "Tat" in M. Th. Houtsma et al., eds., The Encyclopædia of Islam: A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples, 4 vols. and Suppl., Leiden: Late E.J. Brill and London: Luzac, 1913–38.</ref><ref name="ReferenceC">V. Minorsky, "Tat" in M. Th. Houtsma et al., eds., The Encyclopædia of Islam: A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples, 4 vols. and Suppl., Leiden: Late E.J. Brill and London: Luzac, 1913–38. Excerpt: Like most Persian dialects, Tati is not very regular in its characteristic features"</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kerslake |first1=C. |title=Turkic-Iranian Contact Areas: Historical and Linguistic Aspects * Edited by LARS JOHANSON and CHRISTIANE BULUT |journal=Journal of Islamic Studies |date=January 2010 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=147–151 |doi=10.1093/jis/etp078 |quote=It is a comparison of the verbal systems of three varieties of Persian—standard Persian, tat, tajik }}</ref><ref name="Borjian, Habib pp. 243-258">{{cite journal |last1=Borjian |first1=Habib |title=Tabari Language Materials from Il'ya Berezin's Recherches sur les dialectes persans |journal=Iran and the Caucasus |date=2006 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=243–258 |doi=10.1163/157338406780346005 |quote=It embraces Gilani, Ta- lysh, Tabari, Kurdish, Gabri, and the Tati Persian of the Caucasus, all but the last belonging to the north-western group of Iranian language. }}</ref> [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]] and [[Russian language|Russian]] are also spoken. Tats are mainly [[Shia]] Muslims, with a significant [[Sunni]] [[Muslim]] minority. Likely the ancestors of modern Tats settled in South Caucasus when the [[Sassanid Empire]] from the 3rd to 7th centuries built cities and founded military garrisons to strengthen their positions in this region.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Minorsky |first1=Vladimir |authorlink1=V. Minorsky |title=فصول من تأريخ الباب وشروان |trans-title=A history of Sharvān and Darband in the 10th-11th centuries |language=ar |date=1958 |publisher=Heffer |oclc=583581811 }}{{page needed|date=November 2024}}</ref>