Afshar people

Afshar
Tamgha of Afshar according to Mahmud al-Kashgari, which represents Bonelli's eagle according to Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur
Regions with significant populations
 Iran
200,000–342,000[1]
 Turkey,  Afghanistan
Languages
Azerbaijani, Afshar, Persian,[2] Turkish, Turkmen[3][page needed]
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Oghuz Turks

Afshar (Azerbaijani: Əfşar افشار; Turkish: Avşar, Afşar; Turkmen: Owşar اوْوشار; Persian: افشار, romanized: Afshār) is a tribe of Oghuz Turkic origin, that split into several groups in Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan.[4][5]

Afshar means "obedient". According to Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, Afshar, the eponymous founder of the tribe, was a son of Yildiz Khan, the third son of Oghuz Khan.[6] During the Seljuk conquests of the 11th century, they moved from Central Asia into the Middle East.[4] They are noted in history for being one of the Qizilbash tribes that helped establish the Safavid dynasty of Iran, and for being the source of descent of Iran's Afsharid dynasty.[4] Nader Shah, who became the monarch of Iran in 1736, was from the Qereklu clan (Persian: قرخلو) of Afshars.[7][8] The founders of the Germiyanids,[9][10] and the Khalkhal Khanate were also of Afshar descent. The founder of the Karamanids may have also been of Afshar descent.[4]

Today, Afshars mainly inhabit Iran,[11] where they remain a largely nomadic group.[12] They are variously grouped as a branch of the Azerbaijanis[13][14] and Turkmens[15][16] or Turkomans (a common general term used for people of Oghuz Turkic origin).[17]

  1. ^ Potter, Lawrence G. (2014). Sectarian Politics in the Persian Gulf. Oxford University Press. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-19-937726-8. Archived from the original on 6 April 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  2. ^ Stöber 2010, "As they were embedded in a Fārsī-speaking environment, however, in many cases Fārsī became the mother tongue of the Afshārs".
  3. ^ Adnan Menderes Kaya, "Avşar Türkmenleri", Dadaloğlu Eğitim, Kültür, Sosyal Yardımlaşma ve Dayanışma Derneği, 2004; ISBN 9755691499
  4. ^ a b c d Stöber 2010.
  5. ^ Oberling 1984, pp. 582–586.
  6. ^ Oberling, P. (July 28, 2011) [December 15, 1984]. "Afšār". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Archived from the original on 2021-04-13. Retrieved 2011-11-23.
  7. ^ Tribal resurgence and the Decline of the bureaucracy in the eighteenth century, A.K.S. Lambton, Studies in Eighteenth Century Islamic History, ed. Thomas Naff; Roger Owen, (Southern Illinois University Press, 1977), 108-109.
  8. ^ The Struggle for Persia, 1709-1785, Cambridge Illustrated Atlas, Warfare: Renaissance to Revolution, 1492-1792, ed. Jeremy Black, (Cambridge University Press, 1996), 142.
  9. ^ Claude Cahen, Pre-Ottoman Turkey: a general survey of the material and spiritual culture and history c. 1071-1330, trans. J. Jones-Williams (New York: Taplinger, 1968), 281-2.
  10. ^ Leiser, Gary; Koprulu, Fuat (1992). Origins of the Ottoman Empire. p. 37. ISBN 9781438410432.
  11. ^ Bulookbashi & Negahban 2008.
  12. ^ Encyclopedia of The Modern Middle East and North Africa, (Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2004) P. 1112
  13. ^ Richard V. Weekes. Muslim peoples: a world ethnographic survey. AZERI. — Greenwood Press, 1978 — p. 56 — ISBN 9780837198804
  14. ^ "Азербайджанцы / Большая советская энциклопедия". gatchina3000.ru. Archived from the original on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2019-06-07.
  15. ^ From multilingual empire to contested modern state, Touraj Atabaki, Iran in the 21st Century: Politics, Economics & Conflict, ed. Homa Katouzian, Hossein Shahidi, (Routledge, 2008), 41.
  16. ^ James J. Reid, Crisis of the Ottoman Empire: Prelude to Collapse 1839-1878, (Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000), 209.
  17. ^ The Afghan Interlude and the Zand and Afshar Dynasties (1722-95), Kamran Scot Aghaie, The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History, ed. Touraj Daryaee, (Oxford University Press, 2012), 308.