Affinity Bloc: Persian-Median

Overview: The Tajiks are a Central Asian, Iranian-speaking people whose homeland, the Republic of Tajikistan, is bordered on the north by Kyrgyzstan, on the northeast by the Republic of Uzbekistan, on the east by China's Xinjiang Province, and on the south by Afghanistan. In addition to the majority Tajik people group, this people cluster includes several related people groups that speak languages classified as southeastern Iranian. A majority of Tajiks follow Sunni Islam of the Hanafi school, but several subgroups practice Shia Islam.

  -- James S. Olson, An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press (1994), pp. 611-619.

Peoples within this cluster: Bartang; Guhjali, Wakhi; Ishkashimi; Khuf; Parya; Roshor; Rushan; Sanglechi; Shughni; Tajik; Tajik, Sarikoli; Yagnob; Yazgul

Countries where they are found: Afghanistan; China; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Pakistan; Russian Federation; Tajikistan; Turkmenistan; United States; Uzbekistan