tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-201573542024-03-13T09:31:41.096-07:00The Origin of PersiansAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289642560759360969noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20157354.post-59772987905964272012006-11-02T02:21:00.000-08:002006-11-02T02:22:20.934-08:00Iranians before Iran<h2 style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">History of Iran, Chapter 2: Iranians before Iran</h2> <div face="georgia" style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;"> </div> <p face="georgia" style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold;"> </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">Indo-Europeans and Indo-Iranians</p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">A long standing, and still unchallenged, belief of historians is that the people of Europe, Iran, and India, with the exception of Hungarians and the Finns, have their ancestry in common. Based on historical evidence and supports from archaeology, historians propose the existence of a pre-historic tribal confederation, called theoretically "Indo-Europeans", who eventually spread out from their original homeland to cover the mass of land in western Eurasia. Their language, costumes, and cultural characteristics survived in one way or another to the historical time, and it is based on comparative studies of various Indo-European languages and cultures that the idea of a common ancestry first came to existence (<span style="font-size:85%;">see J.P. Mallory for a detailed discussion of Indo-European theory</span>). </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">A considerable amount of criticism has been bestowed upon the idea of Indo-European ancestry. It has been called a racist idea, it has been challenged by those who felt "left-out" of it, and it has been linked to colonialism and the idea of European superiority. Probably the worst use of this theory has been the Nazi ideology of a pure "Aryan" race. Nevertheless, our purpose here is purely historical, and for the sake of the narrative, we assume that the idea of a common Indo-European ancestry, first and foremost in linguistic and mythological terms rather than biological, is valid and at least supportable. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">One of the most serious problems for all adherents to the common ancestry theory is the location of the original homeland of Indo-Europeans. Nineteenth century historians proposed an Eastern European homeland (lately revitalised by new archaeology), others saw Northern Europe more plausible, and in the Twentieth century, steppes of Southern Russia have won the most favour. Archaeology in the steppes shows the coexistence of many tribes during the proposed time of the start of Indo-European migrations (ca. 3000 BCE). These cultures show varied anatomies, and strengthen the idea that a common biological ancestry might not have been the case. Since no written evidence is available from this era, our only points of reference are their pottery, tool use, and burial habits, based on which they have been called the "Kurgan" people (from Russian word for grave). Their graves were built in a mount shape, and the body was buried in chambers, along with personal belongings and animals such as horses (in case of more prosperous members of the society). It is generally accepted now that Indo-Europeans as a historical reality were most likely a collection of tribes spread from Central Asia to Eastern Europe, and they all migrated in different time periods due to climactic and demographic reasons. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">An eastern branch of these tribes, theoretically called proto-Indo-Iranians, lived probably in Central Asia and belonged to a branch of Kurgan people called the "Andronovo Culture" by archaeologists. These people, who called themselves <i>Aryans (</i>Indo-Iranian for<i> noble, wellborn)</i>, migrated towards south into present day Afghanistan and Eastern Iran sometimes around 2000 BCE. There, they seem to have been split into two branches, the eastern one called Indo-Aryans by historians, and the other one proto-Iranians. Based on their later literature, we might assume an inter tribal war or ideological disagreement might have initiated the split. In any case, their languages, or what has been preserved of their oldest forms (Vedic Sanskrit and "Avestan" respectively), show remarkable similarities in linguistic and mythical tradition terms. These people were supposedly nomadic, they had domesticated horses, probably as early as their time in Central Asia, and had a complex pantheon of gods and natural forces. It has been suggested that prior to the first phase of their migration, Indo-Iranians have had a communal social system, but by the time of their split, they had formed into a patriarchal class system society. These changes, along with their complex belief system, leads some to believe that the proto-Indo-Iranian society was not as simplistic and nomadic based as currently assumed. Furthermore, archaeological evidence such as excavations in the Bactro-Margian Archaelogical Complex (BMAC), point out to a very early formation of settlements and commercial centres in Central Asia. Artifacts from BMAC show pottery very similar to the ones found in Mohenjudaro/Harrapan culture of Indus Valley, and Uruk culture of Sumer. Although the BMAC excavations show more influence from Dravidians of Indus Valley than Indo-Iranians, they also show an early contact of proto-Indo-Iranians with civilisation, and thus a much earlier formation of class society and complexity believed up to now. Also, the discovery of some pottery with what seems to be an early form of writing might challenge the accepted theories of the development of civilisations and cultural formation.</p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">In any case, the branching of proto-Indo-Iranians to Indo-Aryans and proto-Iranians happened at the dawn of history, ca. 2000-1800 BC. Indo-Aryans apparently moved to the Indus Valley region, with which they might have been familiar by their contacts with BMAC traders. There they faced the challenge of an established civilisation. The traditional story would tell us that the superior military power of Indo-Aryans, especially their use of horses, left no chance for the local Dravidians, who were conquered, massacred, absorbed into the Aryans society as "untouchables" or driven to the south of the Indian peninsula. However, new studies whose scope is out of the capacity of the present paper, suggest that the conquest of the Harrapan culture and the establishment of an Indo-Aryan lead society did not happen as easily and took more time and included a higher degree of influence from the Dravidians on conquering Aryans. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">We have less evidence of such sudden conflict in the Iranian case. Proto-Iranians seem to have been split into branches early in their history, forming the nomadic Saka/Scythian tribes, and the settled populations that inhabited the Iranian plateau and eventually came to be known under the massive and inaccurate names of Parthains, Persians, and Medians. How early this split happened, and how the Iranians came to overpower the established civilisations of the Mitanni, the Kassites, and civilisations of eastern Iran, is not known. Only their final pressure in replacing the prosperous civilisation of Elam has survived into history. For earlier events, we only have scattered reports from the Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles, and rarely in Elamite reports. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">The idea of a simple split of proto-Iranians from Indo-Aryans and especially their origin in Central Asia poses some problems. In dates supposedly prior to their migration, we have evidence of their existence in Western Iran. Terms relating to horse breeding that are from an obvious Indo-Iranian source exist in Mitanni, Kassite, and even Babylonian documents. We know that horses were taken by Kassites to Babylon, and they most likely learned of horse taming from proto-Iranians who lived to their east and north. Also, the names of Indo-Aryan deities like <i>Indra</i> and <i>the Nassaties</i> exist among the names of Mitanni deities in a treaty with the Hittites, while these deities don't exist among the Iranian pantheon. Also, some Mitanni names have obvious Indo-Iranian and even purely Iranian overtones, while an Egyptian pharaoh married a girl from "east of Sumer" ca. 2200 BCE who has an Iranian name. As we can see, the route and time of Indo-Iranian migrations is not certain and provable, and some even deny any migration in a sensible term, and instead propose the gradual push of Indo-Iranians from the northern Caspian regions, via both Caucasus and Central Asia, in a much earlier (e.g. 3000 BCE) date. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">Nevertheless, by 1200 BCE, we have a remarkable and undeniable Iranian presence in the plateau, and their overwhelming military force seems to have gradually overpowered the local people and formed early kingdoms which posed threats to the established civilisations of Assyria, Babylonia, and Elam. These petty kingdoms seem to have established confederacies of all the tribes, Aryan and non Aryan, and spread their early influence in the areas east of Elam. The earliest of these confederacies to form a coherent kingdom of which we have historical evidence was the kingdom of the Medes. We shall see the development of this kingdom in further chapters.</p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">Iranian Mythology and Social System</p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">Traditionally, Iranian tribes, prior to their settlement in the Iranian plateau, are considered pastural nomads. Their formation of agricultural system is usually dated to their contacts with the established civilisation of the Iranian plateau. However, their mythology and social system, and their parallels in the Indian tradition, might point us to another direction. Fertility goddesses, deities concerned with climactic changes, and their class based social system could be indication of an early agricultural culture, abandoned in face of climactic changes in Central Asia, and only retaken after their second settlement in the Iranian plateau. Some further archaeological excavations east of BMAC, shows early evidence of farming and seed growing. These tribes might have well been early agriculturalists who only resorted to occasional movements in face sheer demographic pressure. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">The early mythology of Iranians includes a complex set of deities, divided into two groups, one with celestial and the other with terrestrial concerns. In time, these two groups, Ahuras and Daevas, seem to have developed good and evil characteristic respectively, and thus form a distinctly "Iranian" ideology (Indo-Aryans had Asuras as evil and Daevas as the good set of gods). Some of the gods seem to have transcended the secondary characteristics and either changed their positions or have become incorporated into new roles; among these is <i>Indra the Dragon Slayer</i>, a Daeva, who enters the Ahura group in Iran under the his nickname of <i>Vrathraghna/Vahran</i>. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">Iranians also seem to have adopted local deities of the pre-Iranian population of the plateau, including <i>Araduui Sura Anahita</i>, the goddess of fertility and water, who is unmatched in the Indian pantheon and shows similar characteristics with the Mesopotamian <i>Inana/Ishtar</i>. Also, some deified mortals such as Yima/Yama seem to have existed in the time before the Indo-Iranian split, and have survived into the historical times for both people, as well as a minor Aryan group called <i>the Kafirs</i> (living in eastern Afghanistan, they are Aryan, but neither Indian nor Iranian). In many cases also deities or superhuman beings such as <i>Azhidhahaka </i>or <i>Thria</i> are anthropomorphized into historical and mortal characters, very evident especially in the Iranian case. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">Zarathushtra's Religion and the New Social Order</p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">Unlike the Indian case, the Iranian mythology seem to have undergone a very early, pre-historic change during which the polytheism was abandoned for duality or maybe an earlier version of monotheism. This revolution, credited to Zarathushtra, the greatest spiritual thinker of the Iranian tradition, set the path of both the Iranian social system and political thought apart from its Indian cousin. Gods and forces were abandoned, and some of the most prominent ones were reduced to levels of mortal, and often sinful, humans, or even labeled as evil. Zarathushtra's spiritual upturn and the opposition and resistance presented to it by the adherents to the old spiritual and social system, set the pace for many socio-political changes up to the advent of Islam. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">We have no evidence of the time and origin of Zarathushtra. He has been dated as far back as 2000 BCE, living among the nomadic proto-Iranians, and as late as 500 BCE, living in the court of the Achaemenid kings. We can only trace him based on the influence of his ideas on early Iranian tribes and their ideology, and also based on the age of his compositions, <i>the Gathas</i>. These compositions, in the form of 16 poems, are universally accepted to be the oldest parts of the Zoroastrian cannon of laws, <i>the Avsta</i>, and almost all scholars attribute them to Zarathushtra himself. The language is a very rustic version of a<a href="http://www.iranologie.com/history/ilf.html"> northeastern old Iranian language</a>, pointing us to a date of roughly 1300 BCE. The ideas of the poems are clearly against the worship of several gods and the belief in natural forces, and they include a very deep philosophical thought, emphasizing the originality of mind, the role of the individual decision and thought, and common movement towards righteousness. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">Zarathushtra's social reform was met with resistance even during his life time, by the adherents to the traditional pantheon and social structure. They are refered to in later parts of the Avesta as <i>Daeva-Yasna</i>, "Adherents to the Daevs", a clear indication of Zarathushtra's declaration of war against the forces of evil. Apparently, one of these opposition members is even responsible for the death of Zarathushtra. However, it seems that after embracement of the Zoroastrian ideas by political forces who found Zarathushtra's uniting theories better suited to power than dispersed social structure of polytheism, the former opposition parties, among them the <i>Mogh/Magus</i> tribe of Medians, were entrusted with the safe keeping of the new religion. This religious classes, a presence in all Indo-Iranian social structures, became the defenders of the new faith, albeit making major changes to it, including a re-introduction of deities, this time in the form of lower deities and assistants to the supreme deity, Ahura Mazdah, "The Lord Reason". The hybrid Zoroastrian religion was eventually adopted by many Iranian dynasties, including the later Achaemenids, probably Arsacid, and certainly by the Sasanians who themselves came from a Persian religious class. This, however, did not mean a total abandonment of the old ideological and social system, especially those insisting on a revitalisation of the class-less, communal society that existed prior to Zarathushtra. These social movements raised throughout the Iranian history, well into the Islamic times, and are characterized best by <i>Manichean,</i> <i>Mazdaki,</i> and <i>Khoram-din</i> movements. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;">In short, the Zoroastrian reform in the social terms seems to have been an accompaniment o the social changes that were happening as a result of the Aryan settlement in Iran and the pressure of their neighbours to the west, powerful civilisations of Mesopotamia. In face of scarce agricultural land, constant military threat, and the need to organise and form coherent political systems, another need for a uniting idea was evident. So, Zoroastrianism, a belief system that is certainly uniting and also emphesises the duty of classes to obey their superiors, could be an indispensable tool in the hands of the new political rulers. The same process can be traced in India, where while not abandoning the polytheistic system, a caste system was formed that held each member of the society responsible for assigned duties. In Iran, since the integration of local inhabitants to the Aryan society seems to have happened in a longer period of time, and since this social system was well formed prior to the Aryan contact with the locals, the formation of a caste system did not become an issue. Instead, the situation, especially the existence of laws in the civilised societies of the plateau and different climactic and land endowments, pressured the Iranians to form a new and coherent socio-political system that would enable them to become a political power and replace their predecessors. So, the foundations of the Median and Achaemenid power were laid in the pre-historical formation of Aryan, and indeed "Iranian" (i.e. Aryan and non Aryan), social system. </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> </div> <hr face="georgia" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; font-weight: bold;"> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> <a href="http://www.iranologie.com/history/history.html">Back to the History Page</a> </div> <hr style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> <div style="text-align: justify; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"> <address> <span style="font-size:85%;">(c) 1996-2002 Iranologie.com. </span><a href="mailto:khodadad21@yahoo.com"><span style="font-size:85%;">khodadad21@yahoo.com</span></a> </address> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289642560759360969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20157354.post-90249555241441967412006-11-02T02:20:00.001-08:002006-11-02T02:20:53.233-08:00Aryan burial found in Russian city of Omsk<div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="font-size:100%;">Aryan burial found in Russian city of Omsk - 06/28/2004 11:27<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span> <span style="font-size:100%;">Burial of an Aryan was found in the Russian city of Omsk, reported archaeologist Albert Pelevedov to ?Interfax¦. Analyses indicated that the Aryan had lived 3 500 years ago.<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span> <span style="font-size:100%;"> One of the residents of the Beregovoy village (located on the outskirts of Omsk) discovered the burial. While fixing a water-pipe, the man stumbled upon a skull and immediately called the police. However, policemen denied criminal nature of the case and invited archaeologists to conduct some tests.<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span> <span style="font-size:100%;"> According to Polevodov, the burial belongs to the Andron culture (middle of the second millennium BC).<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span> <span style="font-size:100%;"> The archaeologist tells that the Aryan has been buried on his left side, facing south; his upper and lower limbs all drawn in. Archaeologists were able to determine the time of the burial after examining ceramic pieces found next to the skeleton. Some of the ceramic pieces depicted swastika turned the opposite direction.<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span> <span style="font-size:100%;"> Polevedov states, ?Andron people, European-like tribes, who spoke languages of Indo-Iranian language group, were in fact the exact same Aryans that used to be praised by fascists.¦<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span> <span style="font-size:100%;"> The find is of tremendous significance due to the fact that settlements of Andron tribes are quite rare for that particular region. Back in the days, they were forced out of there, stated the archaeologist.<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />According to specialists, the burial was not solitary in the area. It is also possible that a larger settlement of Andron people can be found by the river Irtysh. </span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289642560759360969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20157354.post-70161626872986151792006-11-02T02:18:00.000-08:002006-12-14T01:09:17.434-08:00Persian Populations from Prehistoric Times<hr /><div style="text-align: center;">This article is provided to show how Azeri Turk Iranians are falsifying DNA research</div><hr /><ol style="font-weight: bold; text-align: justify;"><hr /><li>Lors originate from Kurds. That is not true.<br /></li><li>Afshar and Shahsavand are turkish tribes. They are called Iranian Tribes</li><li>Tehrani is regarded as an ethnic group. There is no Tehrani ethnic group.</li><li>Shirazi and Isfahanis are mostly Azeri Turks and also Georgians. The report is silent about that.</li><li>Qashqaiis are mostly Persians. They are called Turks. They are turkish speaking Persian tribes.</li><li> Medes or Maads are not Persian tribes. They are natives of Iran.<br /></li></ol><hr /> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;" align="center"><b> <span style="line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-size:180%;">The Human Genome Diversity Project of Iran</span></span></b><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >This Project (HGDPI) aims to collect biological samples from different population groups throughout Iran, with the aim of building up a representative database of human genetic diversity in Iranian populations. The HGDP was first conceived by the eminent geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza of </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Stanford</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >University</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >. For many years, he and other human geneticists and anthropologists have been visiting different ethnic groups around the world, collecting samples and trying to build up a picture of how different human populations are related to each other. The samples are seen as immensely valuable, but are in laboratories spread around the world. In 1991, Cavalli-Sforza and a number of colleagues wrote a letter to the scientific journal <i>Genomics</i>, pointing out the need for a systematic study of the whole range of human genetic diversity within the context of the Human Genome Project. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Cavalli-Sforza argues that the Human Genome Project has been Eurocentric, in that both the samples it has taken and the scientists who will assemble the sequence of the human genome are from people of European origin. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Scientists have remarked that when chromosomes are finally mapped and sequenced they will tell us everything there is to know about one French farmer or a lady from Philadelphia.<span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> </span><span style="color:black;">Plans for the project started in 1991, although the collection of samples did not start at that time.)</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> </span>In 1993 it was formally brought under the auspices of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO), a consortium of scientists involved in the Human Genome Project. The project is looking for $25 million over five years to collect and store blood and tissue samples from population groups around the world and to create a central repository and database for study by scientists. Access to the database will essentially be free.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >There seem to be two main scientific objectives to the project: a) to trace the evolution and migration of different human populations, with the hope of creating a definitive family tree of human populations; b) to identify genes which confer resistance and vulnerability to disease, and use these to develop medical treatments and tests.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >The cells of every person alive today, regardless of where or how they live, contain the same 100000 or so genes. Collectively known as the human genome, these genes contain all the information that makes us appear and function as humans rather than as members of some other species. However, many human genes exist in more than one form and we do not all carry exactly the same forms of every variable <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(255, 153, 153);">gene</span>. The genetic variation from one person to another reflects the evolution of our species.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >The main goal of the HGD project lies in its enormous potential in illuminating our understanding of the origin, identity and history of populations living in Iran.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >The resource created by the HGD project will also provides valuable information on the role played by genetic factors in the predisposition, linkage or resistance to disease.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;"><span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Persian</span> Populations from Prehistoric Times</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Since ancient times, the people inhabiting the western regions of </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Central Asia</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > and the Iranian upland played a key role in populating East European territories. It is suggested that one of the routes of the Homo Sapiens penetration to Europe passed though the Caspian regions. Later, during the Mesolitic period, the Caspian regions and shelters at the south of Eastern Europe were the starting points for the recolonization of European territories.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Apparently, Parsi tribes were highly involved in the first stages of Scythian ethnogeny. Later, Scythians spread over wide territories of </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Europe</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >, central </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Asia</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > and southern </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Siberia</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >, accumulating many ethnic components. The Iranian substrate also took a momentous part in the formation of eastern Slavs, specifically Ukrainians and southern ethnic territorial groups of Russians.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >According to anthropological data, in the early Middle Ages, Iranian-Slavic symbiosis (Chernyakhovaskaya culture) was a typical feature of the population of east European steppes. In view of this, it is likely that Iranians, or Iranianized tribes, could have been affiliated with eastern Slavs.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Origin of the <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Persian</span> Population</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Aryan or Indo-European is the general name given to the people thought to have originated from the steppes of central and southern Asia. Around 4000-3000 BC, these people started to immigrate to the warmer areas in the south or west. Most scientists think of this as the beginning of distinction between Indo-European tribes. Tribes who emigrated to the west became the ancestors of Germans, Slavs, Greeks, Latins, and probably Celts. People who chose the south as their destination came to be known as Indo-Iranian. There is also a rather small group of people who most likely chose not to participate in this great migration. These later entered the pages of the history as Scythians and Samarians, although they are also believed to be nomadic Indo-Iranians, since their language and customs are closely related to ancient Persians.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >For a long time, scientific debates have been going on about whether this theory of the migration of Indo-Europeans is true or not, and about whether these people are in fact related. Reasons presented to support this theory are based on linguistic and cultural evidence. Linguistic studies suggest close similarities in the grammar and lexicon of ancient forms of modern Indo-European languages. Many words are still used in similar ways, and many others are changed forms of similar ancient ones. Cultural background also provides a basis for this theory. Horse breeding, similar agricultural methods, strong fighting abilities, similar religious beliefs and mythological superstitions seem to suggest that all this started from a common background, probably from a time when all these people were the same.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Today, the most widespread theory specifies that the people of </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Europe</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > (with the exceptions of Estonians, Finns and Magyars), </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Iran and the Indian subcontinent belong to a common origin.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Indo-Iranians were later divided into two major sections, Indians and Iranians. Indians continued their way further into Dakan (North India), were stopped by local Dravidians, and settled there. They mixed up with the inhabitants, kept their own religion, and became present day Indians. Iranians, on the other hand, were in turn divided into three major tribes, each with its own sub-tribes. These tribes and their area of initiation in the Iranian plateau were:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Maad (Medians): central and north-western parts</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Paars (Persians): south-western parts</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Parthav (Parthians): north-eastern and eastern parts</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> Figure 1:Indo-Iranian Linguistic Chart<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Iranian Tribes</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Most of the tribes of central Iran are from pure Aryan stock, while other tribes such as the Arabs of Khuzistan, the Turks of Quchan, the Qashqais of Fars, the Shahsavans and Afshars of Azarbaijan, and the Turkmans are remnants of races that have passed through Iran during various periods of history. Today, there are over 100 different tribes, each with its own dialect, costumes and territory:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Afshars and Shahsavans:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >During the summer season they live in planes on </span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >mount</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Sabalan</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > at an altitude of 4,821 meters; winters they spend in the warmer planes of Moghan, near the Caspian coast. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Baluchis:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >They speak a genuine <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Persian</span> dialect and are scattered over a vast area from the Pakistan border to Iranian deserts. They comprise many smaller tribes, all living on livestock and farming. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Kurds:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="font-size:100%;">The Kurds of Iran inhabit broad lands from the most northern limits of Azarbaijan (northwest of </span> <span style="font-size:100%;">Iran</span><span style="font-size:100%;">) to the hot plane of Khuzistan (south of </span> <span style="font-size:100%;">Iran). They speak an old <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Persian</span> dialect and comprise many tribes of which the major branches are: The northern Kurds of Maku and northwestern Azarbaijan; The Mahabad Kurds, occupying the area between Lake Orumya and the mountains of Kurdistan; The Kurds of Sanandaj, with subdivisions in Paveh and Saqqes; and the Kurds of Kermanshah, living between the Zagros Mountains and the Khuzistan Plane.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Bakhtiaris:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">They dwell in the high lands of mount Zard Kuh extending to the south of Isfahan, and spend the winter on the Khuzistan plane. Men’s costume includes extraordinarily loose trousers, round hats and short tunics, and dates back to the Arsasid (Parhtian) period, 200 BC-280 AD.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Gilaks: </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">These people are among the most original tribes of Iran, speaking a pure <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Persian</span> dialect. They reside in the northwestern provinces of Iran. Their population is dwindling, but one can still see some descendents in the region of Talish.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Turkmans:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">They descend from the Mongols and are strongly built, with high cheekbones and slanting eyes. They settled in the extensive fields of Turkman-Sahra, a flat land between the eastern Caspian coast and the mountains of Khorasan, a few hundred years ago.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"> <span dir="ltr" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Qashqaeis: </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">These Turkish-speaking tribes dwell in the high mountains of Fars. Their costume is quite colorful, almost the same as that of the Bakhtiari tribes, except for their hats. Amazingly, these hats resemble Napoleonic headgear.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Arabs:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">These tribes are scattered along the coast of <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Persian</span> Gulf and the hot plane of Khuzistan. A small population of Arab tribes, descendants of early emigrants, lives near Bojnurd in eastern Khorasan and also in some places in Fars.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"> <span dir="ltr" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Lors:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;">They are probably the most intact tribes of Iran, retaining their robustness, virility, and tall stature. They are mostly farmers and shepherds and occupy the high lands of Loristan. The Lors are thought to be a division of ancient Kurds, both tribes being considered true descendants of Medes. The Mamasani Lors, dwelling in western mountains of Fars, are one of the principal clans.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"> <span dir="ltr" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"> <span dir="ltr" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > Figure 2: People of </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 125%;">Iran and Their Locations</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-family: georgia; font-weight: bold;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Climate of Iran</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Iran enjoys considerable climatic diversity, which is subjected to various seasons in different parts of the country, in a way that in some areas the cold of the winter and the heat of the summer can be seen simultaneously. That is why weather in Iran must be considered regionally.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >The average annual temperature of Bandar Abbas in the south of Iran is 18.5 degrees Centigrade in January. The average annual rainfall is also highly varied in different parts of the country, the amplitude varying between 2,000 mm. in Gilan and less than 100 mm. in the central parts of Iran. The average annual precipitation in </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Iran</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > is 275 mm.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >In January and February, there are three climatic zones in Iran. The shores of the Caspian Sea have mild and relatively cold weather, central parts experience winter weather conditions and southern parts enjoy moderate and pleasant weather. The whole country enjoys pleasant weathers in spring, especially in May, but in southern parts it grows very hot unexpectedly. The climatic condition of the country becomes complicated in summer. Due to high humidity, the weather of the coastal parts of the Caspian Sea changes in summers. During the day it is hot, but it relatively cools down at night. In southern coastlines of Iran (<span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Persian</span> Golf), days are very hot and nights are relatively warm, with very high humidity, which is intolerable to non-natives.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">History</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >The Iranian Plateau is amongst the oldest civilization centers of the ancient area in Asia, and has an important place in the science of archeology. The history of settlement in the Iranian Plateau, from the new Stone Age to the migration of Aryans, is not yet very clear. However, there is reliable evidence which indicates that Iran has been inhabited since a very long time ago.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Settlement centers have emerged close to water resources like springs and rivers, or totally close to the Alborz and Zagross Mountains. The most important centers of this kind are: Tappeh <span style="color:black;">Sialk</span> in Kashan, Tappeh Hesar in Damghan, Torang Tappeh in Gorgan, Tappeh Hasanloo in Azarbaijan, Marlik Tappeh in Roodbar and </span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Susa</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > (Shoosh) in Khuzistan. In archeological excavations in these civilization centers some vestiges have been discovered which date back to the 5<sup>th millennium BC.</sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><sup> </sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Migration of Aryan clans to the Iranian plateau began in the 2<sup>nd millennium BC. Out of these tribes, Parthians dwelled in Khorasan, Medes in the west and Parsees in the south of Iran. The Median Empire rose in Hegmataneh (Ekbatan), present Hamedan. The Achaemenidae established the first great Iranian Empire after defeating the Medians and conquering their capital. During the reign of Dariush I (522-485 BC) the Achaemenian Empire extended from the planes of the river Sand in the east to the borders of Greece in the west. Passargad and Persepolis are the vestiges of this period and are amongst the most important historical places as well as the most significant tourist attractions of Iran. Thousands of tourists visit these places annually.</sup></span></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup> </sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Emergence and influence of Islam in Iran happened in early 7<sup>th century AD, after the decline of the Sassanid Empire. A new era began in the history of </sup></span><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Iran</span><span style="line-height: 125%;"> which caused severe fundamental evolution in the social, political, religious, governmental, and public conditions of the country. Iranians, who were very disappointed with the existing social and economic inequality in the time of the Sassanides, accepted Islam rapidly and tried to expand it and enrich its cultural magnanimity. In spite of accepting Islam, Iranians never concealed their opposition to the dominance of the Omavid and Abbasid Caliphs and their tyrannies, and founded many autonomous movements to confront them. On the other hand, the Caliphs, in order to neutralize and suppress these Iranian movements, which were based on the partisanship of the family of the Prophet of Islam and the establishment of a government based on imamate, tried to support non-Iranian forces. Due to these constant wars of attrition among local governors, their power was exhausted, and so grounds were prepared for the dominance of strange tribes of central Asia, like the Saljoogh Turks, the Mongols and the Taymoorians. In the Safavid era, the second great Iranian Empire was founded and Shiiism, the disciples of which had been severely restricted until then, became formal. The dynamic nature of Shiism and its political and social commitments firmly safeguarded the independence and the national identity of </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Iran</span><span style="line-height: 125%;"> against the Ottoman assaults. Iran, as a new political and religious power, could once again hoist the flag of resistance against a very powerful empire that was the claimant of supremacy in the Islamic world. With the decline of the Safavids, the Afshars and then the Zands took the throne. After the Zands, the era of the Qajar dynasty began, during which the influence of England and Russia in Iran’s internal affairs expanded.</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;color:black;" >Today the population of Iran is approximate 70 million, of which about 47 million live in urban areas, about 23 million in villages and in major cities like </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;color:black;" >Tehran</span><span style="line-height: 125%;color:black;" >, Meshed, Isfahan, Tabriz, <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Shiraz</span>, Qum, Ahwaz, Rasht, Orumyeh, and Kermanshah.</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Iran is situated on the route to Central Asia and Turkey as well as western countries. Different ethnic groups live in Iran, among which Farsis, Kurds, Lors, Balooches, Bakhtiaris, Azari Turks, Taleshes, Turkamans, Qashqais and Arabs may be pointed out. Smaller ethnic groups also live in Iran. Turkamans, who live in Turkaman Sahara and north of Khorasan, are different from other Iranian ethnic groups in appearance, language, and culture. Qashqais, who are of Turkish origin, live in the central part of Iran. Arab clans mostly live in Khuzistan and are scattered along the coastlines of <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(153, 255, 153);">Persian</span> Gulf.</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Some groups of colored people, who are the descendants of slave trade with Zanzibar, are scattered in the southern provinces of </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Iran</span><span style="line-height: 125%;">. The existing minority in the south of </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Iran</span><span style="line-height: 125%;"> also descends from Indian traders of past times.</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Sampling</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Samples from individuals within each of these populations were collected (Table 1, Figure 2) and the <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(160, 255, 255);">DNA</span> content was analyzed to produce data on the frequency of occurrence within the population of an agreed set of alleles or other genetic <span style="color: white; background-color: rgb(136, 0, 0);">markers</span>.</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">In order to establish a resource that would be available for many years and that would allow future scientists to study any polymorphism, and in order to provide a back-up source of original sequence <span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(160, 255, 255);">DNA</span>, all blood samples were used to develop cell lines (according to standard cell line preparation methods).</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Table 1. Iranian Ethnic groups and sample size</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><div style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" dir="ltr" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><table class="MsoTableGrid" style="border: medium none ; border-collapse: collapse;" _base_target="Main" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody _base_target="Main"><tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> No.</span></span></p></td> <td style="border-style: solid solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Province</span></span></p></td> <td style="border-style: solid solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">City</span></span></p></td> <td style="border-style: solid solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Ethnic groups</span></span></p></td> <td style="border-style: solid solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Total samples</span></span></p></td> <td style="border-style: solid solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Male</span></span></p></td> <td style="border-style: solid solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Female</span></span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >1</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Khorasan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Mashad</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Khorasani</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >100</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >64</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >36</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >2</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Yazd</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Yazd</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Yazdi</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >138</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >63</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >75</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >3</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Lorestan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Khoramabad</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Lor</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >99</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >58</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >41</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >4</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Kerman</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Kerman</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Kermani</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >70</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >36</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >14</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >5</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Gilan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Rasht</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Gilak</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >150</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >83</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >67</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >6</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Phars</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: black; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Shiraz</span></span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >F</span><span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >ars</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >100</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >91</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >9</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >7</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Golestan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Bandar Torkman</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Torkman</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >150</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >96</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >54</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >8</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Mazandaran</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Babol</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Mazandarani</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >101</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >84</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >17</span></p></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 39.1pt;" _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt; height: 39.1pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >9</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt; height: 39.1pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Tehran</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt; height: 39.1pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Tehran</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt; height: 39.1pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Tehrani Jew Ashoori</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Armenian</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt; height: 39.1pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >91 41 13</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >62</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt; height: 39.1pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >91</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >25</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >11</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt; height: 39.1pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >-</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >16</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >2</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >10</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Khuzistan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Ahvaz</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Arab</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >161</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >97</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >64</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >11</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Kordestan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Sanandaj</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Kord</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >101</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >81</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >20</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >12</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Hormozgan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Bandar Abbas</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Gheshm</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Bandari Negro</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;color:red;" >Iland</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >142</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >62</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >63</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >132</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >62</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >63</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >10</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >-</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >-</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >13</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >West Azarbaijan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Oroomyeh</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Azari</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Ashoori</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >150</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >51</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >97</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >42</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >53</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >9</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >14</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Sistan-Baloochestan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Zahedan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Zaboli</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Balouch</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >31</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >55</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >12</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >29</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >19</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >26</span></p></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 18.75pt;" _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt; height: 18.75pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >15</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt; height: 18.75pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Isfahan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt; height: 18.75pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Isfahan</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt; height: 18.75pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >Isfahani</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt; height: 18.75pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >50</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt; height: 18.75pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >19</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt; height: 18.75pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >31</span></p></td> </tr> <tr _base_target="Main"> <td style="border-style: none solid solid; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 23.4pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="31"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="108"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >TOTAL</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="120"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="91"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" > </span></p><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 62.25pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="83"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >1981</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="78"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >1336</span></p></td> <td style="border-style: none solid solid none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" _base_target="Main" valign="top" width="66"> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"> <span style="line-height: 125%;font-size:100%;" >612</span></p></td> </tr> </tbody></table><span style="font-size:100%;"><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span></div><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span>Scientific Team:</sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> M. M. Banooi, DVM</sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span>Head of: </span> <span style="line-height: 125%;">Sampling and Cell Line Preparation</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" face="georgia" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;">F. Beyrami jamal, Ph.D</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">(Biochemistry)</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">Head of: </span> <span dir="ltr">Identification of Genetic Polymorphism of p53 , GST-P1, NQO1, CYP2C9 in different populations from Iran</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="" lang="AR-SA"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">P. Derekhshandeh, Ph.D</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">(Molecular Genetics)</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">Head of: </span> <span dir="ltr">Study of Genomic Diversity on Three <span style="color: white; background-color: rgb(136, 0, 0);">Markers</span>: SDF1-680IA, CCR5-AS9029G and CCR2-V641 in different Iranian ethnic groups. </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">M. Hashemzadeh, Ph.D</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">(Molecular Genetics)</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">Head of:</span><span dir="ltr"> </span>Study of Genomic Diversity on Four VNTR loci (D1S80, D17S5, D19S20 and APOB) in different Iranian ethnic groups</sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="a" dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="rtl" style="" lang="AR-SA"> </span><span style="" lang="FA"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">M. Houshmand, Ph.D</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">(Molecular Genetics)</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">Head of:</span><span dir="ltr"> </span> <span dir="ltr">Investigation on Iranian Mitochondrial Haplogroups</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">A. Mesbah, Ph.D</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">(Biochemistry)</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">F. Mirzajani, Ph.D</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">(Biochemistry)</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">F. Mahjoubi</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">(Cytogenetics)</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">Heads of project: </span><span dir="ltr" style="line-height: 150%;">Y-chromosome STR Haplotype in the Iranian Population</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; line-height: 150%; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr" style="line-height: 150%;"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr">Project Consuler: </span>Prof. Dariush D. Farhud.</sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" face="georgia" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 125%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span style="line-height: 125%;"> </span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup>For more information please contact to head of project:</sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoPlainText" dir="rtl" style="text-align: left; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" align="right"><span style="font-size:130%;"><sup><sup><sup> <span dir="ltr" style="">Dr. MOHAMMAD H. SANATI</span></sup></sup></sup></span></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup></span><p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 102);font-size:130%;" ><sup><sup><sup>Email: m-sanati@nrcgeb.ac.ir</sup></sup></sup></span></p><sup><sup><sup> </sup></sup></sup>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289642560759360969noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20157354.post-42139265211551879962006-10-11T19:46:00.000-07:002006-10-11T19:47:42.508-07:00The History of Iran<div> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Elamite" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Proto-Elamite civilization</span></u></a> (3200–2700 BCE) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiroft_Civilization" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Jiroft civilization</span></u></a> (3000–5th c. BCE) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elam" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Elamite dynasties</span></u></a> (2700–539 BCE) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannaeans" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Kingdom of Mannai</span></u></a> (10th–7th c. BCE) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Median Empire</span></u></a> (728–550 BCE) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Achaemenid Empire</span></u></a> (648–330 BCE) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seleucid_Empire" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Seleucid Empire</span></u></a> (330–150 BCE) </li><li><strOng><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthia" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">Parthian Empire</span></u></a> (250 BCE– 226 CE) </strOng></li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassanid_Dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Sassanid Dynasty</span></u></a> (226–650) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_conquest_of_Persia" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Islamic conquest</span></u></a> (637–651) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahirid_dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Tahirid dynasty</span></u></a> (821–873) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alavids" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Alavid dynasty</span></u></a> (864–928) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffarid_dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Saffarid dynasty</span></u></a> (861–1003) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samanid" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Samanid dynasty</span></u></a> (875–999) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziyarid" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Ziyarid dynasty</span></u></a> (928–1043) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buwayhid" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Buwayhid dynasty</span></u></a> (934–1055) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Ghaznavid Empire</span></u></a> (963–1187) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghurids" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Ghori dynasty</span></u></a> (1149–1212) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljuq_dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Seljukid Empire</span></u></a> (1037–1194) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwarezmian_Empire" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Khwarezmid dynasty</span></u></a> (1077–1231) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilkhanate" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Ilkhanate</span></u></a> (1256–1353) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzaffarids" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Muzaffarid dynasty</span></u></a> (1314–1393) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chobanids" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Chupanid dyansty</span></u></a> (1337–1357) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalayirids" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Jalayerid dynasty</span></u></a> (1339–1432) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timurid_Dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Timurid Empire</span></u></a> (1370–1506) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Koyunlu" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans</span></u></a> (1407–1468) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aq_Qoyunlu" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans</span></u></a> (1378–1508) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safavid_dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Safavid Empire</span></u></a> (1501–1722/1736) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotaki" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Hotaki Ghilzai dynasty</span></u></a> (1722–1729) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsharid_dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Afsharid dynasty</span></u></a> (1736–1802) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zand_dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Zand dynasty</span></u></a> (1750–1794) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qajar_dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Qajar dynasty</span></u></a> (1781–1925) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahlavi_dynasty" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Pahlavi dynasty</span></u></a> (1925–1979) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Iranian Revolution</span></u></a> (1979) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Government_of_Iran_%281979%E2%80%931980%29" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Provisional Government</span></u></a> (1979–1980) </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran" target="_blank"><u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Islamic Republic of Iran</span></u></a> (1980–Present)</li></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289642560759360969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20157354.post-1135435317629691062005-12-24T06:41:00.000-08:002006-12-12T17:53:10.206-08:00The Elusive Origins of the Indo-Europeans<div style="font-family: georgia;" id="post_message_145239"> <div align="center"><b><span style="font-size:180%;">In Quest of Our Linguistic Ancestors</span></b><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">The Elusive Origins of the Indo-Europeans</span><br /><br /><i>John V. Day</i></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The Proto-Indo-Europeans, they say, were the herdsmen who changed the world. But these days even the majority of well-educated people in the West have never even heard of them. They might tell you that the Aryans, who were Proto-Indo-Europeans under another name, had some connection with Adolf Hitler, but this information stretches their knowledge to the limit. This widespread ignorance among Westerners is cause for great shame, but it should be expected. For decades, educators in schools and universities have neglected Proto-Indo-Europeans. And although several scholars in recent years have written general books about them, readers seldom come across these works in bookshops.1 Non-readers never have the chance to learn about Proto-Indo-Europeans, either. It appears that neither the TV companies nor Hollywood have made a single documentary or movie on the subject. And yet, as the history of the world turned out, these Proto-Indo-Europeans may have been the most important people who ever lived.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Now, this is not Erich von Däniken's “Chariots of the Gods” or some other fanciful idea dreamed up by the unhinged or those wanting to sell mountains of books for a quick buck, although it must be admitted that over the years one or two misguided souls have tried to locate Proto-Indo-Europeans in such unlikely places as Tibet, the Sahara, Antarctica, and outer space. The real story of the Proto-Indo-Europeans has been pieced together from meticulous work by brilliant linguists, mythologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists over the last two hundred years.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Scholarship understands a lot about Proto-Indo-Europeans, and yet they are still the most elusive of peoples. For one thing, nobody can pin down precisely where they lived—or even precisely when they lived, although it must have been at least four or five thousand years ago. Nobody knows what they called themselves or what their neighbors called them. "Proto-Indo-Europeans" is our modern term. None of the Proto-Indo-Europeans' literate neighbors recorded what they looked like or which customs they practiced. And we have no documents, not even a single word, written by the Proto-Indo-Europeans themselves. In all probability, they had no writing.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Language of the Proto-Indo-Europeans</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Yet scholars have identified the Proto-Indo-Europeans mainly by their spoken language. This language may not have been written down, but as groups of Proto-Indo-Europeans spread further afield in antiquity and lost contact with each other, so their original language diversified into daughter languages, and linguists can reconstruct a good deal of Proto-Indo-European from these daughter languages that “were” preserved in texts.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Consider, for example, some words in ancient languages that mean mother.2 The word mother in ancient Greek was meter, in Latin it was mater, and in Sanskrit, a language spoken in northern India over 3,000 years ago, it was matar. All these words correspond so well that linguists can reconstruct from them the original Proto-Indo-European form for mother as mater. (The modern English word mother, incidentally, derives from Proto-Indo-European via another route altogether, from its Germanic branch in ancient northern Europe.) Similarly, linguists can compare Greek nephos, Latin nebula and Sanskrit nabhas—all words meaning mist, fog or cloud—to obtain the Proto-Indo-European form for cloud. These words indicate only that Proto-Indo-European people recognized their mothers and experienced cloudy days. But linguists can go much further. Among the hundreds of Proto-Indo-European words that have been reconstructed are the numbers one to ten; the other family members of father, brother and sister; the body parts of eye, ear, nose and mouth; such trees as ash, birch, pine and willow; and such domestic animals as cow, sheep, goat and pig. Proto-Indo-European vocabulary was so precise, linguists tell us, that it even distinguished between words for breaking wind audibly and inaudibly.3</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Furthermore, the parts of grammar that survive in Proto-Indo-European's daughter languages closely resemble one another. Pupils who study Latin often begin by learning amo, amas, amat ─ I love, you love, he loves. These verb endings of -o, -as, and -at find parallels in other languages, such as the comparable verb endings in modern German of -e, -st, and -t.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Linguists use a similar comparative method to determine that Proto-Indo-Europeans sorted nouns by gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter) and number (singular, plural, or dual [for two of a kind]). Each noun, moreover, had eight cases, depending on its purpose in a sentence, and each one had a different ending. Thus every Proto-Indo-European who opened his mouth to speak a few words realized that a noun like mother or cloud had 72 possible endings to choose from. Proto-Indo-Europeans may not have used writing, which was being invented by their contemporaries in the highly centralized economies of Egypt and Mesopotamia to count goods and register taxes, but they evidently did not suffer from low IQs.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The daughter languages of Proto-Indo-European can be grouped into such branches as Celtic, Greek, and Germanic, so that in the modern world English, Dutch, and German languages, for example, all belong in the Germanic branch. We know from ancient written texts that Indo-European languages—the languages that the original Proto-Indo-European developed into—have for thousands of years covered much of Europe and Asia. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >During this period, Celtic languages were spoken across vast regions from central Europe to Iberia. Consider the linguistic map of Europe and Asia during the 1st millennium B.C., the period in which some of the earliest evidence for the location of early Indo-European languages appears.4 Across northern Europe, running from west to east, were Germanic, Baltic, and Slavic branches, while the so-called "Iranian" branch was spoken on the steppe before moving southward into Iran itself. In Italy existed the Italic branch, its best-known member being Latin, and further east in ancient Europe there were Thracian, Illyrian, Greek, and Albanian branches. During early historical times, the Armenian branch was sited in Asia's far southwest and the Indic branch in south central Asia. Languages descended from all these Indo-European branches of Europe and Asia survive today. But some other branches have died out, such as the Anatolian and Phrygian in Anatolia (which is what prehistorians call Turkey) and the Tocharian in northwest China.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >As noted above, this particular survey of Indo-European languages dates to roughly the first millennium B.C. Any such map can have only a rough date, because, for a variety of reasons, the extent of languages will change over time. For example, Celtic used to be spoken over much of western Europe but is nowadays confined to Brittany and the fringes of Britain and Ireland. This doesn't necessarily mean that Celts themselves were driven to Europe's western rim by Romans invading continental Europe and Anglo-Saxons invading England. More probably, ancient Celtic-speakers and their descendants stayed put on the land, and, over time, simply changed their speech. When natives have new rulers who speak an alien language, it must be in the natives' interest to start learning it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Race and Indo-European Languages</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Incidentally, ideas about mass migrations being common during prehistoric times arose in the Victorian age, when Europeans really were migrating en masse to the Americas and the colonial empires. But prehistoric people had no guns, railroads, or steamships, and would have found it much harder than nineteenth-century European colonists to migrate and to conquer natives. Anthropologists rarely find skeletal evidence of mass migrations in prehistory, because the skeletal record largely speaks of biological continuity. So too does Europe's genetic record, for the most part, even going as far back as the Ice Ages.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The discovery that ancient and modern Indo-European languages were spoken over a vast area came as a big jolt to educated people in the nineteenth century. They were staggered that all these languages were descended from a single ancestor. Indeed, the great French linguist Antoine Meillet likened the impact of the discovery of the Indo-Europeans to Columbus's discovery of the New World.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Meillet was right. For one thing, because scholars can reconstruct a good deal of the Proto-Indo-Europeans' language—and, by similar comparative methods, their customs and mythology—we moderns can glimpse a prehistoric mentality. No longer restricted to such humdrum archaeological finds as stone tools and charred seeds, we can get inside the minds of the distant Proto-Indo-Europeans and understand their outlook on life.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Many people also find something intriguing in the idea that one fairly small prehistoric population and its descendants somehow managed to expand across most of Europe and much of Asia, disseminating their language and culture on the way. After all, the Proto-Indo-Europeans' descendants provided much of the language and culture for the civilizations of ancient India, Iran, Greece, Rome, and Celtic and Germanic Europe.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Not surprisingly, Proto-Indo-Europeans were greatly admired by such earlier racial historians as the Count de Gobineau and Madison Grant and, of course, the Aryans were also the favorite people of Adolf Hitler. This enthusiasm for Proto-Indo-Europeans as the ancestors of the white race and European culture has contributed to the contemporary taboo against Westerners identifying too closely with their racial origins.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The racial origins of the Proto-Indo-Europeans are, like race and IQ or race and crime, a red-hot subject. Take the case of Professor Wolfram Nagel of Berlin University, who in 1987 argued in the journal of the German Oriental Society that Proto-Indo-Europeans must have been racially northern European.5 He didn't say they were a master race or destined to conquer the world, just that they were northern European. Although Professor Nagel had reached the top of his profession, his reasoned arguments based on ancient texts and artworks so appalled the learned society that they fired the journal's editors and debated whether to expel him (although in the event they allowed him to stay). This incident offers an insight into the totalitarian climate that intellectuals work under in "democratic" Germany.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Similarly in France, two intellectuals whose books and articles describe Proto-Indo-Europeans as racially northern European—Alain de Benoist,6 the leading figure of the French New Right, and Professor Jean Haudry—are routinely vilified as Nazis. Westerners are living in a strange world, when discussing the origins of their people and culture can land them in so much trouble.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The Search for the Proto-Indo-Europeans’ Homeland</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >As noted above, the location of the Proto-Indo-European homeland has long been the subject of speculation. One might begin the search for it by deciding if the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language offers any clues about where or when its speakers may have lived. Proto-Indo-European had words for houses, for taming animals, for wagons and for pottery, implying that its people must have lived during the Neolithic or even later, which gives us a general time-frame for the period of archaeological cultures and skeletal material that prehistorians should be examining.7 In addition, the earliest words from one of Proto-Indo-European's daughter languages, Hittite in Anatolia, appeared around 1900 B.C., and so Proto-Indo-European itself must have existed at least a few centuries earlier, before developing into Hittite, and so perhaps before about 2500 B.C.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Proto-Indo-Europeans can therefore be placed vaguely in time. But prehistorians struggle to pin them down geographically. Over the years, scholars and cranks alike have offered dozens of apparent solutions to the problem of the Proto-Indo-European homeland. Many seemingly ingenious proposals have seized on just one reconstructed Proto-Indo-European word, such as beech or salmon, to determine where these occurred in prehistoric times and delimit the homeland, but so far no proposal has worked. All these proposals turn out to be too vague. (One Icelandic linguist offered an especially bizarre idea, arguing that the harsh sound of some Proto-Indo-European words imitates seabirds living around the Baltic.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Turning to more serious matters, once ancient people had given up hunting and gathering, which necessitated roaming across wide territories, and had taken up the Neolithic, including farming and settling down into hamlets and villages, becoming more or less rooted to the soil, their populations became relatively isolated from one another, and over time their languages also became isolated, accumulating more and more differences from one another. Judging by parts of the world that even now have a Neolithic way of life, the original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans would have been more or less the size of, say, Poland.8</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >In tracing Proto-Indo-European origins, anthropology offers three main kinds of evidence in Europe and Asia. First, the genetic data, though so far almost all our data comes from modern populations. Second, the masses of information from ancient times about physical types, and most important of all about hair and eye pigmentation—information that comes from texts, artworks and mummified corpses. Finally, the ancient skeletal remains. Now, anthropologists cannot immediately deduce from any archaeological culture's skeletal remains that, in life, its people spoke Proto-Indo-European. All we can do with ancient skeletal material is determine cases of population movements, and then decide if any such movements match the relevant period of Indo-European expansions and the relevant lands penetrated by Indo-Europeans. Likewise with modern genetic material, we can use it only to locate ancient population movements that might correspond with Indo-European expansions.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The ancient texts and artworks recording human pigmentation offer a different kind of evidence. After all, these texts and artworks come from, or are about, historical societies that were certainly Indo-European-speaking, and so some, if not all or even many, of the people in these societies were descended from Proto-Indo-Europeans, as I hope to show later.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Anyway, let's begin with the genetic evidence. Any similar article written in 2020 will discuss at length the evidence of ancient DNA. Ancient DNA taken from human teeth and bone will revolutionize the study of prehistory. It will tell us about the sex of individual ancient humans, their familial relationships and their biological affinities and ancestries. Geneticists might one day draw up a family tree for all the populations of ancient Europe and Asia. And once geneticists have located the genes controlling hair and eye colors, we can speculate about the likely pigmentation of ancient human populations. We shall also use DNA from ancient domesticated crops and animals to explain how early farming expanded.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >At present, though, ancient DNA has revealed only that modern humans are not, as Carleton Coon once believed, descended from Neanderthals.9 But as for Indo-Europeans, current studies of ancient DNA tell us next to nothing.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Many prehistorians have used modern genetic data to work out where Proto-Indo-Europeans came from and how they expanded, but most of their ideas are chasing down blind alleys.10 For example, many analyses try to match modern genetic boundaries with modern or ancient linguistic boundaries, arguing that neighbors who speak different languages rarely marry each other, and so over time their populations have diverged genetically. But populations divided genetically and linguistically are also often separated by such physical boundaries as mountains and seas, and this factor complicates matters inextricably.11</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >This article touches very briefly on a few of the more important findings from genetic studies. First of all, it turns out that, in genetic terms, modern Europe is very homogeneous, and northern Europe even more so. Genetic distances between northern European populations are usually low—between English and Germans, for example, English and French, and English and Irish. In contrast, many genetic distances in southern and eastern Europe are a good deal higher, such as those between Greeks and Hungarians, and Greeks and Yugoslavs.12</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Genetically, Greek and Yugoslav populations are among the least typically "European." And the significance of this impinges on Colin Renfrew's hypothesis that around 7000 B.C. Proto-Indo-Europeans were farmers in Anatolia, and indeed farming so well that their big population increases enabled them and their descendants to spread across most of Europe in the course of thousands of years, mixing with indigenous Europeans on the way.13 Yet it seems odd that Greeks should be divided by fairly large genetic distances from Hungarians and Yugoslavs if Anatolian farmers really had expanded via southeast Europe en masse. One might expect such a large-scale population movement to have homogenized gene pools in southeast Europe.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >A particular kind of DNA is mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which has nothing to do with shaping physical or personality traits. Both males and females carry mtDNA, although only mothers pass it on, and when it is inherited there are occasional mutations. In consequence, geneticists can examine mtDNA lineages to determine how they evolved into new types. And comparing lineages from different populations allows us to work out where various lineages arose and, if we estimate mutation rates, when they arose.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Bryan Sykes and others classify modern European mtDNA in nine major lineage groups. Sykes finds that eight of these nine groups arose in Europe as long ago as the Upper Palaeolithic, during the time of the Ice Ages.14 But one lineage group which originated in southwest Asia entered Europe during the last 10,000 years and currently occurs across much of Europe, perhaps comprising 17% of modern European lineages, although another study puts it at more like 10%.15 This lineage group, Sykes argues, ran in two streams—one common along the Mediterranean coast to Spain, Portugal and from there along the Atlantic coast to Cornwall, Wales and western Scotland, the other common in the river valleys of central Europe. And these two streams, he suggests, reflect ancient Anatolian farmers spreading northward and westward across Europe.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >As for the problem of Indo-European expansions, Sykes's deduction makes a neat solution. It explains how Indo-Europeans managed during prehistoric times to advance across most of Europe and part of Asia. However, his theory doesn’t makes any sense—at least, not as far as Proto-Indo-Europeans are concerned. Proto-Indo-Europeans appeared later on. For one thing, the age and distribution of the mtDNA stream along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts might be an echo of another migration altogether—the migration that thousands of years later took megalithic tombs around the coasts of western Europe.16</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Sykes's hypothesis also runs into difficulties with the skeletal remains.17 Several studies of early Neolithic skeletal material find that, contrary to his hypothesis, remains from the Balkans don't really resemble remains from southwest Asia. So were these two populations related? In addition, we cannot be certain that early Neolithic remains from central Europe closely match remains from the Balkans. So this apparently unstoppable advance from Anatolia via the Balkans to northern Europe is, judging by the skeletal record, by no means proven. But even if it took place, such a population movement might still have no connection with the expansions of Indo-Europeans.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Indeed, linguists can apparently reconstruct Proto-Indo-European words for items of material culture that first appear in the archaeological record, as far as we know, only from the fourth millennium B.C. onwards. Some of these words are for wagon, axle, wheel, and reins.18 But if Proto-Indo-Europeans still existed as a unified population at this late date, then they cannot have begun separating as long ago as 7000 B.C., when wheeled vehicles were still unknown.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The pattern of languages tells a similar story. Archaic languages that preserve Proto-Indo-European forms are often found on the edge of the Indo-European world. Many correspondences link, for example, Germanic in northern Europe and Tocharian in central Asia. Indeed, the Indo-European branch retaining the highest percentage of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European words—about 67% of them—is Germanic, followed by Greek with 60% and Baltic with 54%.19 Again, if farmers had taken thousands of years to migrate across Europe from an Anatolian homeland, one might expect that Germanic and Baltic would have the fewest original words, because migrants traveling ever further into new country for thousands of years, and marrying with natives on the way, would find their original vocabulary becoming more and more diluted.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Consider also the similarity between Indo-European mythologies. Scholars of religion consider the three great reservoirs of Proto-Indo-European mythology to be Rome (think of Mars and Jupiter, Romulus and Remus), Scandinavia (think of Thor and Odin), and India (think of Indra the warrior-god and Agni the fire-god).20 Yet, just like the most archaic languages, these three regions sit right on the edge of the Indo-European world, thousands of miles apart. But if Anatolian farmers and their descendants had trekked across Europe and Asia, think how much Proto-Indo-European mythology would have been lost by the time, thousands of years after setting out, that they eventually settled in such distant lands as Rome, Scandinavia and India. So perhaps Indo-European settlers made fairly swift expansions to their new lands, where they established themselves.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Ancestral Clues From Antiquity</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Information about how pigmentation was distributed in antiquity provides crucial evidence in understanding where Proto-Indo-Europeans originated and how they expanded, and is far too useful to be disregarded. Many students of Proto-Indo-European origins examine genetic data, and some even consider skeletal remains. But very few in recent years have said anything about ancient texts and artworks recording pigmentation. Linking Proto-Indo-Europeans with a specific pigmentation became a huge taboo once the National Socialists began promoting their doctrine of "blond Aryans," even though similar ideas go back as far as the 1820s.21 But we should ignore taboos of political correctness.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Yet ancient sources about pigmentation are often scarce. A further problem is that the earliest useful texts from each Indo-European branch vary so much in period. The earliest useful texts about pigmentation from India come from the mid-second millennium B.C., whereas those from Ireland and Scandinavia were composed two thousand years later. Ideally, ancient peoples would have compiled anthropological surveys, but these simply don't exist. Descriptions of historical figures provide a rough population sample, although even the Greeks of the classical period virtually never reported the coloring of their greatest men. And so anthropologists must also examine the pigmentation of mythical figures and deities, working on the assumption that their physical appearance mirrors the real-life people who admired or worshiped them.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The Indo-European world covers so many lands and eras that this article will consider just six of the many regions where Indo-European-speaking peoples lived in antiquity: Ireland, Rome, Greece, Iran, India, and Xinjiang (which used to be known as Chinese Turkestan) in northwest China.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >For evidence of how the Celts described themselves, we might turn to the highly traditional society of early medieval Ireland. One excellent source from Ireland is the epic Táin Bó Cuailnge, otherwise known as The Cattle Raid of Cooley, probably composed as late as the seventh or eigth century A.D. and lying at the heart of early Irish literature. The Táin and other Irish works contain some valuable descriptions of mythological heroes.22 In the world they depict, beautiful women generally have fair hair and blue eyes, and the great warrior-heroes, although varying more than the women, also tend to have fair hair and, when bearded, always fair beards. Moreover, early Irish tales often regard men who have dark hair as somewhat alien, because some ugly giants and male slaves are dark-haired, and even a few important dark-haired warrior-heroes are regarded as marginal figures.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >In ancient Rome, some valuable descriptions of physical traits are embedded in the biographies of early emperors. The earliest nineteen Roman emperors, from Caesar up to Commodus at the end of the Age of the Antonines in A.D. 192, offer a small but exceptionally useful population sample.23 Of these nineteen emperors, four have no descriptions and two are described only as gray-haired. But whereas one or perhaps two of the remainder have dark hair, five are described as having fair or fairish hair. And whereas three have dark eyes, nine have blue or grayish eyes, and indeed five of the first seven have blue or grayish eyes. For example, Augustus and Nero had fairish hair and blue eyes, Caesar had dark eyes, and Hadrian had dark hair and blue eyes. Although upper-class Romans tended to have a light pigmentation, they were greatly outnumbered by the Roman masses, who overwhelmingly had dark hair and eyes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >In Greece, Homer's two epics from the eighth century B.C., the Iliad and the Odyssey, are among the earliest texts in Europe containing useful information about pigmentation.24 When characterizing his Greek warrior-heroes, Homer says nothing about the coloring of Agamemnon, but he does picture Achilles, Meleager, Menelaus, and Odysseus as fair-haired—a coloring that coincides with their youthfulness. Certainly by classical times, however, the great majority of Greeks had dark hair.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Useful information about real rather than fictional Greeks comes from Polemon, the second most important Greek writer on physiognomy, who wrote as late as the second century A.D..25 Polemon explains that "the pure Greek" of his time has fair skin and red hair, and resembles the man inclined to literature and philosophy, who has fair skin and fairish hair. Polemon may have drawn these ideas from Pseudo-Aristotle, the most important Greek physiognomist, who in his third century B.C. Physiognomica declares that the most perfect male type is the lion with its fair mane.26</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Fair Indo-Europeans from the Caspian to Turkestan</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Turning to Iranians, I remarked earlier that speakers of Indo-European's so-called "Iranian" branch must have lived on the steppe before infiltrating southward to Iran, where non-Indo-European Elamites already had a civilization. Now, Greek and Roman writers in the centuries before and after Christ stated that Iranian-speaking peoples north of the Black Sea and Caspian had fair or reddish hair and blue eyes.27 One especially trustworthy source is Ammianus Marcellinus, because he had visited the Black Sea region, unlike the writers who simply relied on others' reports, and he portrays the Alans with fairish hair.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >From Iran itself, although nowadays housed in the Louvre in Paris, comes the Archer Frieze of glazed bricks, which was created about 500 B.C. to represent the bodyguards of Darius I.28 Most of the eighteen or so archers on the frieze have dark skin, hair, and eyes, but a few have blue eyes. This frieze originally stood outdoors, causing the pigment for archers' skins to darken over time. But we do have some brick fragments showing paler skin, and Annie Caubet, the director of the Louvre's Department of Oriental Antiquities, told me in a letter that pinkish skin probably came from the frieze's portrayal of Darius himself.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Many similarities in language, as well as in mythology and culture, are shared by the Indo-European's Iranian and Indian branches, which implies that, wherever the Proto-Indo-Europeans had their homeland, the Proto-Iranians and Proto-Indians must even then have been neighbors who resembled each other physically. One similarity is that the Indo-European peoples in Iran and India both referred to themselves as Aryans. The Iranian king Darius I, in a famous rock inscription, calls himself "an Aryan of the Aryans," and the very word Iran developed from Aryan. These days, more and more linguists are returning to the older opinion that the term Aryan occurred throughout the Indo-European world, cropping up, for instance, in the Old Irish word aire meaning "noble, free," and hence Ireland's name of Eire. To the Proto-Indo-Europeans, it seems, Aryan meant peer or comrade or perhaps an ethnic term.29</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >In India, the earliest known Indo-European text, coming from the later second millennium B.C., is the religious work, the Rig-Veda.30 Only one god in the Rig-Veda has anything like a human pigmentation, and he is the great warrior-god Indra. In personality and attributes, Indra resembles the Germanic god Thor, and even his fair hair and beard resemble Thor's red beard.31 Throughout the Rig-Veda, Indra often helps the warlike Aryans—the Indo-European invaders of India—to battle against the native Dasas and Dasyus, who are portrayed as dark-skinned. In contrast, the Rig-Veda refers to Aryans as white and having an "Aryan color."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Later works from ancient India also offer useful sources, and one of them is the very long Mahabhasya, composed in northern India by the grammarian Patañjali in the second century B.C. 32 In this work, Patañjali, making a philosophical point about objects having and lacking attributes, casts around for an illustration that makes obvious sense to his readers. Nobody, Patañjali says, would look at a dark-skinned man and imagine that he was a brahmin, from India's highest caste. Instead, he goes on, everyone knows that brahmins have fair skins and kapila-kesa hair, which translates as "brown" or "reddish-brown."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Finally, abundant evidence comes from Xinjiang in northwest China, the home of people speaking Indo-European's Tocharian branch. Unfortunately, ancient Chinese sources rarely comment on the physical appearance of foreigners. But they do record that the Yuezhi, who may have been Tocharians under another name, had fair skins, and that the Wusun's descendants, again possibly Tocharian, had green (or blue) eyes and red beards.33</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Some of the best evidence for Tocharians is artistic, because they were painted on murals in Xinjiang during the later first millennium A.D. One example is the so-called Cave of the Sixteen Sword-Bearers at Kizil.34 Of these sixteen knights, five have white hair and eleven have light red hair. Marianne Yaldiz, the director of Berlin's Museum for Indian Art, where the murals are now housed, told me in a letter that the eyes are a sort of gray-green-blue. Although the men wear Iranian-style dress and stand in an Iranian-style pose, historians generally regard them as Tocharians.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Still, all of these sixteen figures are stereotyped. To find individual portrayals, we must turn to other murals in Xinjiang that are three hundred miles further east at Bezeklik.35 Murals at Bezeklik chiefly portray typically Chinese faces, although all these Mongoloids are stereotyped. In contrast, the minority of Caucasoids on the murals are rendered as individual portraits, as in one cave at Bezeklik which portrays about six or seven Buddhist monks who have Caucasoid features. These Caucasoid monks are apparently a distinct ethnic group—unlike the Mongoloids, they all have heads shaven on top, and all wear similar gowns—and are almost certainly Tocharians. One or two of these Caucasoid monks have dark hair and brown eyes, but most have reddish-brown hair and blue or green eyes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >In recent years, archaeologists working in Xinjiang's Tarim Basin have excavated more than one hundred Caucasoid mummies, thanks to a desert climate and salty soil’s having preserved corpses. Even some mummies 3,000 years old look as though they were buried days ago. These Caucasoid mummies have typically northern European faces, with prominent noses, unslanted eyes, and hair that is usually fair or light brown.36 Although the mummies' eyes have long since perished, we know that two infants were buried with stones placed over their eyes, one with green stones and one with blue, colors perhaps representing their irises.37 Judging by the mummies' location, historians conclude that at least the great majority of these Caucasoids were ancestral Tocharians.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Origins on the Steppe?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Does this brief survey of pigmentation in ancient Ireland, Rome, Greece, Iran, India, and Xinjiang tell us anything? I think it clearly does. Light-haired and light-eyed types were found all over the ancient Indo-European world, even in lands which at present are overwhelmingly dark in pigmentation, such as Rome and India. And traces of these northern European types occurred especially among the warriors who comprised each society's ruling class.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Ireland had an abundance of fair-haired warrior-heroes. Most of the early Greek warrior-heroes had fair hair, too. In fact, most of the early Roman emperors had fair or fairish hair and blue eyes. The Iranians who lived on the steppe north of the Black and Caspian Sea were also described by foreign observers as having fair or fairish hair. Indian Brahmins have been characterized as having fair skins and brown or reddish-brown hair, and the Indian warrior-god Indra apparently had fair hair as well. Finally, the mummies and murals of Xinjiang reveal that most Tocharians had fair or brownish hair and blue or green eyes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Moreover, Indo-Europeans often seem to have been small minorities in the countries they penetrated: the Celtic warrior-class in Ireland; the Roman patricians; the few Homeric heroes and the so-called "pure Greeks" of later years; and the Aryans battling against the many natives in India. Then again, the majority of Tocharians in Xinjiang apparently had light pigmentation, as did most Iranians living on the steppe.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Indeed, many prehistorians believe that the Proto-Indo-European homeland lay on the steppe, which, if true, might explain why steppe Iranians retained the Proto-Indo-Europeans' northern European physical type. A steppe homeland, moreover, would have been a good basis for Indo-European expansions. Steppe groups during the third millennium B.C. and earlier lived mainly by cattle and sheep herding, and by at least the third millennium B.C. they had also domesticated the horse. Down to historical times, such other steppe pastoralists as the Huns and Mongols have been highly mobile horseriders and warlike, too, living in the midst of poor farmland and consequently raiding neighbors for food supplies. So if Proto-Indo-Europeans did originate on the steppe, they may also have been highly expansionist.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >To confirm that Proto-Indo-Europeans did originate on the steppe, we must find traces in the skeletal record of prehistoric steppe groups expanding across the known Indo-European world—to Xinjiang, Iran, India, Greece, Rome, and northern Europe. The evidence of pigmentation surveyed above implies that Indo-Europeans were usually minorities in the lands they entered, and must have expanded from their homeland in smallish groups. This finding tallies broadly with the skeletal record, which in general points to continuity in prehistoric Europe and Asia, where population movements on a large scale were the rare exception.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >But prehistoric steppe groups did extend as far east as southern Siberia and Xinjiang, as demonstrated by both archaeological evidence and the remains of robust skeletal types.38 At present, though, traces of these steppe groups have not been found entering Iran or India, and neither can they be located as far west as Italy. In the northern Balkans, prehistoric steppe groups are certainly represented by skeletal and archaeological remains, but did they penetrate as far south as Greece? Archaeological traces of steppe groups largely peter out before Greece, but the renowned Grave Circle B at Mycenae resembles steppe tombs, and the very rugged nobles buried here also resemble steppe groups.39 Steppe groups definitely expanded as far westward as central Europe as well, judging by the three thousand steppe graves known in eastern Hungary, and, although the females buried here seem lightly built, the males are similar to robust steppe types.40</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >But did steppe groups reach northern Europe? It is there that several important Indo-European peoples first emerge into history: Slavs, Balts, Germans, and Celts. The archaeological record is ambiguous: there are many disputed parallels between the Late Neolithic culture of northern Europe, known as Corded Ware, and Neolithic steppe culture, although vague cultural parallels can't automatically be attributed to migrating groups. The skeletal remains are less ambiguous, however, because they show no traces of steppe groups reaching northern Europe. The typically Corded Ware skulls from Germany, Czechoslovakia , and Poland are high and have narrow faces, whereas steppe crania are low and have broad faces.41</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The archaeological and skeletal evidence seems to leave us with three possibilities. First, that steppe groups did reach northern Europe, but in such small numbers it makes it nearly impossible to detect them. Second, that steppe groups didn't reach northern Europe, which proves that, at least in this region, steppe groups were not transmitting Indo-European speech. Third, that steppe groups didn't need to reach northern Europe, because Proto-Indo-Europeans lived in a vast homeland that encompassed the steppe and northern Europe.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >The puzzle remains. But steppe groups must somehow be implicated in Proto-Indo-European origins. They, and they alone among prehistoric groups, expanded to much of Europe and Asia where Indo-European languages were known to have been spoken. Perhaps one day archaeologists and anthropologists will determine exactly the prehistoric links, if any, between the steppe and northern Europe. Scholars might also have a clearer picture about Indo-European influences in eastern Asia—on the civilizations of China, where Indo-Europeans may have introduced bronze-working and the chariot, and Japan, whose mythology bears unmistakable affinities with Proto-Indo-European mythology.42</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >What we can declare is that Indo-Europeans tended to expand in small groups, and that in the great civilizations of Ireland, Rome, Greece, and India they and their descendants were heavily outnumbered minorities who were concentrated in the ruling classes. I take it that Indo-Europeans were ruling these lands because they had somehow dominated the natives by force of arms, although the archaeological evidence for this assertion scarcely exists. So far, prehistorians have found it perplexing to explain from the archaeological record how Indo-Europeans arrived in any land and established themselves as the commanding power.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >And what happened to these Indo-Europeans? It appears that at least Europe and southern Asia were so densely populated by Neolithic times that small groups of newcomers would have made little biological impact on the natives. Since Proto-Indo-Europeans began expanding about five thousand years ago, two hundred generations have passed, and the few drops of their original blood have been lost in an ocean of non-Indo-Europeans. Traces of light hair and eyes crop up now and again in modern Iran and northern India, and even in Xinjiang, where Dolkun Kamberi, a local expert on the Caucasoid mummies, has green eyes and light brown hair. Light hair and eyes are more common in modern Greece and Rome and especially Ireland, although in northern Europe most traces probably predate any incoming Indo-Europeans.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >In a journal about the West and its future, it is fitting to end this article by briefly recounting the fate of the Roman upper class. Among Indo-European peoples, the Romans offer an especially useful example because they left masses of records, enabling later historians to determine what became of them. The evidence found in ancient texts implies that this class descended largely from Indo-Europeans who had a decidedly northern European physical type, although that isn't something one reads in modern books about Roman history. In Rome, though, the upper class was always a tiny minority. Instead of protecting its interests, it allowed itself to wither away. Consider a bleak statistic. We know of about fifty patrician clans in the fifth century B.C., but by the time of Caesar, in the later first century B.C., only fourteen of these had survived.43 The decay continued in imperial times. We know of the families of nearly four hundred Roman senators in A.D. sixty five, but, just one generation later, all trace of half of these families had vanished.44</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >If we in the West want to avoid a similar fate, we must learn from Indo-European history.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >John V. Day, Ph.D., is the author of Indo-European Origins: The Anthropological Evidence (The Institute for the Study of Man, 2001) and is the editor of the forthcoming anthology, The Lost Philosopher: The Best of Anthony M. Ludovici.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >End Notes</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >1. For an excellent introduction to the subject, see Shan M.M. Winn, Heaven, Heroes, and Happiness: The Indo-European Roots of Western Ideology, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1995. See also John V. Day, Indo-European Origins: The Anthropological Evidence, Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man, 2001.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >2. In the interests of clarity, linguists have transliterated the Greek, Sanskrit, and Proto-Indo-European words in the following examples into the Roman alphabet, removed any accents, and used only the root of each word without any suffixes.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >3. For a survey of modern English words that ultimately derive from Proto-Indo-European, see Calvert Watkins, The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >4. It is not only Indo-Europeans that had a wide language family. Uralic, for example, comprises Finnish, Lapp, Estonian and Hungarian and various languages of northwest Asia. But in modern Europe the only significant peoples who do not speak Indo-European languages are Basques, Hungarians, Finns, Estonians, and Georgians. Together, these non-Indo-European-speakers number only about 25 million out of over 500 million Europeans.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >5. Wolfram Nagel, "Indogermanen und Alter Orient -- Rückblick und Ausblick auf den Stand des Indogermanenproblems," Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 119, 1987, pp. 157-213.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >6. Alain de Benoist, "Indo-Européens: à la recherche du foyer d'origine; quatre remarques finales," Nouvelle École 49, 1997, pp. 13-105.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >7. Day, pp. 4-6.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >8. Day, p. 8.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >9. Bryan Sykes, The Seven Daughters of Eve, New York: W.W. Norton, 2001, p. 126.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >10. Patrick Sims-Williams, "Genetics, Linguistics, and Prehistory: Thinking Big and Thinking Straight," Antiquity 72, 1998, pp. 505-27.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >11. Day, pp. 253-66.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >12. L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi, and Alberto Piazza, The History and Geography of Human Genes, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 270.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >13. Colin Renfrew, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, London: Jonathan Cape, 1987.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >14. Day, p. 277; Sykes, pp. 184, 196.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >15. Day, pp. 279-80.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >16. Day, pp. 278-9.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >17. Day, pp. 221-33.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >18. J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, eds., Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997, pp. 481, 625-8.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >19. Day, p. 24.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >20. Jaan Puhvel, Comparative Mythology, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, paperback edition, 1989, p. 39.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >21. Day, p. 125.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >22. Day, pp. 107-13.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >23. Day, pp. 102-6</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >.24. Day, pp. 87-92.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >25. Day, p. 94.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >26. Day, pp. 94-5.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >27. Day, p. 57.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >28. Day, pp. 134-6.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >29. Puhvel, p. 45; Mallory and Adams, p. 213.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >30. Day, pp. 74-9.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >31. Day, pp. 79, 115-16.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >32. Day, pp. 80-2.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >33. Day, pp. 58-9.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >34. Day, pp. 137-8; J.P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair, The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, London: Thames & Hudson, 2000, plate XII.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >35. Day, pp. 138-9; Mallory and Mair, Plate XIII.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >36. Day, pp. 351-5; Mallory and Mair, pp. 181-200.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >37. Day, p. 352 n. 1.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >38. Day, pp.184-7, 190-4.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >39. Day, pp. 199-200.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >40. Day, p. 209.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >41. Day, p. 206.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >42. Mallory and Mair, pp. 324-6, 327-8; Michael Puett, "China in Early Eurasian History: A Brief Review of Recent Scholarship on the Issue," in Victor H. Mair, ed., The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern Central Asia, Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum Publications, 2 volumes, 1998, pp. 699-715; C. Scott Littleton, "The Indo-European Strain in Japanese Mythology: A Review of Some Recent Research," Mankind Quarterly 26, 1985-6, pp. 152-74.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >43. Arnaldo Momigliano and Tim J. Cornell, "Patricians," in Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth, eds., The Oxford Classical Dictionary, New York: Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1996, p. 1123.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >44. James Paton Isaac, Factors in the Ruin of Antiquity: A Criticism of Ancient Civilization, Canada: no publisher, 1971, p. 421. See also Nathaniel Weyl and Stefan T. Possony, The Geography of Intellect, Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1963, pp. 106-9; Ilse Schwidetzky, Das Problem des Völkertodes: Eine Studie zur historischen Bevölkerungsbiologie, Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke, 1954, pp. 43-53.</span></span><br /><br /></div><span style="font-size:78%;">[<a href="http://theoccidentalquarterly.com/vol2no3/jvd-europeans.html" target="_blank">Source</a>]</span></div><!-- / message --><!-- sig -->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06289642560759360969noreply@blogger.com0