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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Talysh of Iran

The Talysh of Iran, numbering approximately 148,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are described as an Iranian ethnic group primarily residing in the Talysh region, which spans the western shore of the Caspian Sea in both Iran and Azerbaijan Talush, Talyshon, Talishi, Taleshi, Talyshi They are an Indigenous people, with Talysh as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Talysh people cluster of the Persian-Median Peoples. They mostly adhere to Shia Islam and Talysh is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash: Talysh

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Persian-Median Peoples
Country: Iran
People Cluster: Talysh
Primary Language(s): Talysh (tly)
Primary Religion(s): Shia Islam
Population: 148,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024220
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Pray for the Talysh of Iran

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Shia Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

95%
%
Shia Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Talysh
Language Family: Indo-European

100%
%
Talysh Speakers

Media Resources in Talysh:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

2 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Talysh:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2018 Kitab Shirketi✓✓✓
Korpu Ltd✓✓

2 entries

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Talysh bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Talysh:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Talysh of Iran

Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together.
readGenesis 22:8

Pray that God will open the ears of those who are lost to understand and believe that only shed blood takes away sin and that, like Abraham, they will believe that God Himself provides the lamb for the burnt offering, who is Jesus the final, perfect sacrifice.

Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.
readMatthew 13:8-9

Pray that they will have open hearts and minds to the Word of God, and that it will take root in their lives and bear fruit for His glory.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
readPsalm 37:4

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will delight themselves in the Lord, trusting Him to give them the desires of their hearts.

Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
readLuke 10:3

Ask God to raise up and send humble believers who will depend on Him as they go out like lambs among wolves to share the good news with those who need to hear it.

Talysh Across Countries (ROP3 - 109766) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
TalyshPG024220TalyshIran148,000Unengaged and UnreachedTalyshShia Islam
TalyshPG024089TalyshAzerbaijan134,000Engaged yet UnreachedTalyshShia Islam

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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