Talish (region)

This article is about the region divided between Iran and Azerbaijan. For ethnicity, see Talysh people.
For other uses, see Talysh, Talış, and Talesh.
Talish
Region
Country Iran
 Azerbaijan
DemonymTalyshi
Time zones
IranUTC+03:30 (IRST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+04:30 (IRDT)
AzerbaijanUTC+04:00 (AZT)

Tālīsh[a] (Talysh: Tolış; Azerbaijani: Talış; Persian: تالش, romanized: Tālesh) is a region in the southwestern coast of the Caspian Sea.[1] It is a homeland of the indigenous Talysh people, who inhabit the region and speak the Talysh language.[2] The territory and the language set apart Talish from its neighbors.[1]

Talish is now divided between Azerbaijan and Iran.[2] It stretches north from the Sefīd-Rūd river, which cuts through the Alborz mountains in Iran's Gilan Province, to the Aras river in the south of the Republic of Azerbaijan.[3]

The main city of the region and its Talysh people is Lankaran (Talysh: Lankon),[4][5][6] the majority of the population of which is ethnically Talysh.[7][8][9][10]


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  1. ^ a b Borjian & Asatrian 2005, p. 43.
  2. ^ a b Williams 2020, p. 1016.
  3. ^ Bazin 2000.
  4. ^ Stokes 2009, p. 682.
  5. ^ Minahan, James (2002). Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: S-Z. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 1837. ISBN 978-0-313-32384-3.
  6. ^ "UNPO: Talysh". unpo.org. Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Retrieved 2024-02-08. Largely concentrated in southern Azerbaijan and north-western Iran, with a major population centre in the city of Lenkoran.
  7. ^ "Lankaran". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. 2000. Retrieved 2024-02-08. Its inhabitants are mostly Talysh, an Iranian-speaking people who are Shiite Muslims.
  8. ^ Clifton et al. 2005, p. 3.
  9. ^ Williams 2020, p. 1018: "This move toward urbanization can be seen in the population figures for Lankaran to where large numbers of Talysh have migrated since the early 1980s. Indeed, according to 2000 figures, the Talysh population of Lankaran was forty-eight thousand people."
  10. ^ Allnutt, Luke (2007-10-01). "Azerbaijan: The Struggle To Shape Islam". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2024-02-08. Only a few kilometers from the Iranian border, the southeastern town of Lankoran has close ties with Iran. The people in Lankoran are mainly Talysh, linguistically and ethnically similar to Persians.