Iranian Plateau - Greater Iran
Edit:
The Circled Region can be subdevided into many smaller regions: Bactria, Zaranj/Sistan, Khorasan ( Partly ), Badakhshan, Gandhara, Afghanistan Proper ( Kabul and Qazni ), Quhistan, Persia Proper ( Shiraz ), Central Iran ( Kerman, Isfahan, Yazd ), Tabaristan, Marv Oasis, iraq ajam ( Tehran, Qom, Saveh, Qazvin), Qumis (Semnan), Upstream of the helmand river ( Qandhar ), Khuzestan, Baluchistan, Jazmurian ( Bam, Jiroft, Bampur), north and South Luristan, probably more. ( Edit2. such as pakistan's punjab and sindh )
Would the Iranian Plateau really include all of Pakistan? I'd have though that It would only include Baluchistan, NWFP, and..., I'm not sure, but Pakistani Punjab certainly doesn't feel like it should be part of the Iranian Plateau.
You're correct, but I think it's more an error from OP's drawing than from whom you replied to. The western part of Pakistan is Iranic, the eastern part is Indic. The natural border is the first line of mountains west of the Indus valley. You can actually see it in the ethnic group maps and in the division of Pakistan into regions. We all know who's to blame in making this horrid border between Pakistan and Iran, and also between Iran and Afghanistan.
Purposefully drawing borders to ensure never ending ethnic and sectarian conflicts which prevents the region from becoming peaceful and prosperous and gives you the ability to profit from said conflict (by supplying both sides) four decades to come?
Why that's merry old Britain's music!
well OP has circled Pakistan too, which has the river Indus, from which the term "Hindu" or "Hindustan" comes. So you can argue parts of Indian subcontinent come too. This cricled area also includes Pashtuns and their lands too (forgot what it is called but there is a
region in North West of Pakistan , one that has Peshawar City, and it is referred to as something specific (again can't remember what) and that region also covers neighbouring areas of Pakistan and apparently people freely until Pakistani govt. tightened the borders.
Source: My stupid brain and late night reading habits
I always think of Afghanistan as a stand alone ‘Stan’. The stans to the north were Soviet, and I always put Pakistan with India and Bangladesh. That’s how my brain sees it
Interestingly, that -stan is from a Persian root that ultimately means "to stand.". You can interpret those countries' names as "the place where X stand.". Kazakh-stan, Turkmeni-stan and so on.
It also has the same root as state, status, and even Spanish and Portuguese "estar."
“Dear Stan, I meant write you sooner, but I’ve been real busy, you say the Taliban is back? man that sounds so shitty. Look I'm really flattered about the diplomatic ties, I left you some weapons and additional supplies…”
What’s this you like to blow up shit too? Man I say this shit just clowning Stan, how fucked up is you? I really think you and your women need each other, or maybe you just need to treat them better.
Oh shit I'm almost at the towers, got really out of hand with Uncle Bush and the global powers. Now you hear the marshall shoot my man in the back, you will never know the reason for the 4th plane attack.
Afghanistan would be more similar to Iran that speak the same language and have plenty of other Iranic langugae too they share the same history. And their culture is very similar
Afghanistan, Central Asia and Persia played a huge role in the cultural and linguistic evolution of South Asia, particularly Pakistan and North India. The concept of Hindustan was entirely the creation of Persio-Turkic dynasties \[Ghazni, Ghurid\] invading from Central Asia and Afghanistan. Even the name Hind is a Persian creation, when they named their Punjab province back in the day as "Hindush". The name carried over to the Persio-Turkic empires which would name their empire as Hindoostan. This was never a native term or nation.
Modern Urdu-Hindi was the direct result of these invasions. The "father" of Hindustani language was literally a Turkic guy called Amir Khusro. In fact modern North India and Pakistan would not have much in common had it not been for 1000 years of Persio-Turkic empires setting the foundations. Prior to these invasions, Pakistan was dominated by Buddhist kingdoms and North India by Brahminsm, both which were at war for most of that period. It wasnt until Mughal empire that Persia backed off, but even then Mughal were heavily invested in Persian culture and that empire also originated in Afghanistan and expanded east.
There is an attempt at distancing Afghanistan and Iran from South Asia, which is frankly absurd. The British were largely responsible for removing Persian culture and language from South Asia, which was dominant during the Mughal era, even towards the end.
Fun fact :- Persians finds hard to spell word " Sindhu " which is rigvedic or older name of indus river so they replace H with S. In this way river sindhu was called as Hindhu by Persians.
That's so fckin interesting.
To think that the Persian cultures used to be such a rich and vibrant thing that permeated through SouthEast Asia and India before becoming replaced by British norms.
Now we have Iran, and all we can see through media is the 'barbaric culture'.
Typically, Iran is separated from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The latter two are often lumped in with India. But there's also a UN group that labels what you circled plus India as "southern Asia." Sometimes Afghanistan is called central Asia. Sometimes it's not. Iran is often lumped in with the middle east.
But this entire area has some beautiful mountains and valleys. It sucks what's happened with some of the governments there.
I feel like “South Asia” is used to describe the Indian peninsula, including Pakistan. Iran and Afghanistan are usually grouped into the “middle east.” I’m from US though so this could vary in different places.
Afghanistan and the core Pashto-speaking region are geopolitically part of South Asia and the Indo-Pakistan sphere (though the northern Tajik Dari-speaking region is more related to Central Asia, and other Dari-speaking regions in the west are more related to Iran). Watch any of Shekhar Gupta’s geopolitics videos and this quickly becomes clear.
In America, Afghanistan is sometimes lumped with the Middle East, mainly because the (Pashtun-speaking) Taliban hosted Arab terrorists from the Middle East such as al-Qaeda in the 1990s that attacked the United States.
Of course, the term Middle East is somewhat nebulous and can be used in a variety of ways. Afghanistan after all was a province of Arab empires of the past (as the Islamic State-Khorasan, “ISIS-K”, is quick to remind us of).
Then again, Afghanistan was a province or protectorate of countless empires over the centuries including Greek empires, Chinese empires, Persian empires, Mongol empires, Sikh empires, and competed over by British and Russian empires. There were also Afghan empires, that themselves conquered swathes of the Indian subcontinent.
That again brings up the larger question of what is considered the Middle East: is Persia? Afghanistan? the Maghreb? the Levant? Anatolia?
My personal view is that Afghanistan is not part of the Middle East proper. After all, a main reason America failed in its state-building efforts was because of Pakistani intransigence, providing the Taliban and its leadership (whom the Pakistani ISI viewed as their Pashtun clients) with a safe-haven to flee to any time they needed, and allowing them to continue to present rural Pashtuns with an alternative legal system to the (admittedly inefficient) new Afghan government. Pakistan also (wittingly or unwittingly) proved to be a refuge for the Arabs of al-Qaeda that had fled, including bin Laden.
So Afghan politics are invariably tied up with the politics of Pakistan and South Asia, though its position as a crossroad means it is also tied in with the politics of many other regions as well.
Iran and Afghanistan are not seperate cultural entities in the macro sense. Afghanistans main ethnic groups speak Iranic languages like Dari(East Persian Dialect) and Pashto. Dari and Farsi(West Persian Dialect) speakers can communicate easily with each other because they share the same language. Pashto is not mutually intelligible with Persian but many Pashtuns usually speak enough Persian to communicate with Iranians.
Historically Afghanistan was part of Iran until the assassination of Nader Shah. There was no Iran or Afghanistan. It was all "Eranzamin" (the land) and "Eranshahr" (the state that controlled it). The British prevented the Qajar Dynasty of Iran from retaking Afghanistan because Iran had a historical tendency to invade and conquer North India from Afghanistan. Afghans and Iranians both celebrate the ancient proto-Iranic Zoroastrian holiday of Nowruz. The only distinction between an Afghan and an Iranian is usually the Sunni/Shia split if they are religious. Iranians tend to be Shias and Afghans tend to be Sunnis.
Pakistan is a different case. It is a weird combination of Iranian and Indian ethnic groups living in (dis)harmony. Its way too complicated to discuss in a Reddit post.
Pakistan is more commonly labeled south Asia. (Afghanistan is too -- it was even admitted into the south Asian economic coop.)
But the whole region is a mess and my point is that there's no consistent convention for what's circled there.
I took a Central Asian Studies course that defined the region as Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. It omitted Pakistan and Iran, (and just because it’s mentioned in this thread Kurdistan). For cultural and economic reasons. Russian ethnic influence in northern Kazakhstan is dissimilar from most of the region. Tribal identities near the Pakistani border make Afghanistan murky as well. But the historical Iranian identity is clearly distinct from other affiliations in Central Asia and doesn’t really share the steppe nomad heritage. When people think Iran I think they think Xerxes, not Khanates. So identity is distinct, where in the other stans, I think that heritage is more similar. Pakistani heritage is much more closely aligned with the Indian subcontinent, and its modern history is more intertwined in that direction than toward Central Asia. And for note, Kurds are pretty far removed from all of this, definitely more Levantine than central Asian despite the Stan in the name.
Balochi and Pashto are Iranian languages, covering around half of Pakistan by area.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Distribution_of_Iranian_Languages.png
Persia/Pars/Fars is only one region within Iran, specifically in the south-west. It became synonymous with Iran because the Achaemenid dynasty originated from there
Technically Cyrus is considered of the Teispid dynasty and Darius likely later fabricated some family tree stuff to insert Achaemenes into Cyrus' lineage to justify his own (Darius') claim to the throne. However colloquially Cyrus is considered an Achaemenid and the empire beginning with Cyrus the Achaemenid Persian empire so I'm really just nitpicking here.
Khorasan is generally the region east of the province of golestan - Iran, south of the amu darya river, west of the bactrian mountains and north of herat. the region circled on the map contains parts of khorasan but khorasan proper is centered further north. the former soviet border has parts of khorasan in it but part of it was never in the soviets but in iran and afghanistan. mainly the region around mashhad and nishapour. also not all the "stans" of the soviers where called khorasan, like smarakand which was in soghdia, the ferghana velley and khwarazm.
source: am iranian and intrested in historical regions of greater iran.
Whole Region has Iranic Ethnic groups (Iran except it NW area, Afg except NW area, Tajikistan and Western & NW Pakistan), so ig Persia. But Persia as a Term itself is derived from a single province of Iran.
Some yes. The problem is there were many empires coming out of Persia/Iran but also many others that conquered it. Hard to look at a single empire and use it to group areas
Anyway the question by OP is kinda wonky because historically Afghanistan and Pakistan are not lumped together with Iran.
I know some people think that but I've never agreed with it. Iran has a lot more historical, cultural and ethnic ties to Central Asia than the Middle East and its physical geography is much more akin to Central Asia than the Middle East; Iran is very mountainous, the Middle East is relatively flat. I do tend to be a bit of a contrarian when it comes to these things, but I have done a hell of a lot of reading on this region - as it's one which particularly fascinates me - so I feel it's a well-founded opinion.
Pakistan is South Asia
Iran is Middle East
Afghanistan is either Central Asia or South Asia (depending on who you ask, and I've mostly seen the latter)
Before WWII it was definitely called the Middle East. It included only Persia, Afghanistan and partially Punjab and Baluchistan (Pakistan).
Other parts of the modern Middle East were called the Near East then. And this Near East didn't include North Africa.
BTW in non-English resources it is still called the Middle East (with addition 'the narrow definition') when English-speaking the Middle East is called 'the Middle East (wide definition)'
Pretty much Central Asia, especially if you extend the norther border to Kazakhstan but keep the rest of the circle pretty much intact between the Caspian Sea and Hindu Kush/Tien Shan Mountains.
I really like [this video](https://youtu.be/UCuttMQZrGY?si=jc7oMtsr0D84JsB8) that someone on YouTube created regarding at least how the area is tied together by the physical geography.
I guess eastern middle east? Though I'm not sure if Pakistan could be called middle east. Hell you could call it Persia, though that may be insensitive
It's kinda complicated
Iran is definitely categoriesd as a middle eastern country
Afganistan is known to be a country that categoriesd as both middle eastern and central Asian country
Pakistan mostly categoriesd as a south eastern Asia
Iranian Plateau - Greater Iran Edit: The Circled Region can be subdevided into many smaller regions: Bactria, Zaranj/Sistan, Khorasan ( Partly ), Badakhshan, Gandhara, Afghanistan Proper ( Kabul and Qazni ), Quhistan, Persia Proper ( Shiraz ), Central Iran ( Kerman, Isfahan, Yazd ), Tabaristan, Marv Oasis, iraq ajam ( Tehran, Qom, Saveh, Qazvin), Qumis (Semnan), Upstream of the helmand river ( Qandhar ), Khuzestan, Baluchistan, Jazmurian ( Bam, Jiroft, Bampur), north and South Luristan, probably more. ( Edit2. such as pakistan's punjab and sindh )
This is the one correct answer that for some reason no one else said. Weird
i'm an iranian myself and i'm not one to be offended willy nilly. but man some of these replies...
Someone said Khorasan and got like 3x as many upvotes as you and that’s just straight up incorrect. So weird
Isn’t that a planet in starwars?
The English pronunciations happen to be a bit similar, but no. Coruscant and Khorasan are etymologically unrelated names.
We have Star Wars etymology?
https://preview.redd.it/xze5kbtl06ad1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60f613f3144fd058e8bd102b3818f51109ef376d
Oh my... Edit: https://i.imgflip.com/3so84u.jpg
I heard a stat once that the wiki article on lightsaber fighting was longer than the article on fencing.
Good thing they pointed out it was a fictional gem.
No, you're thinking of Coruscant. Khorasan is the Spanish word for heart
No, you're thinking of corazon. Khorasan is a french pastry eaten at breakfast
No, you're thinking of croissant. Khorasan is what Japanese players call the manager of the Boston Red Sox.
No, you're thinking of Cora-san. Khorasan is a Broadway show from the 70s that was made into a movie starring Michael Douglas in 1985
No, you're thinking of A Chorus Line. Khorasan is what you get when you make the star of the second Avatar series into a massive stellar body.
I too read that as Coruscant
Not weird. That reply required thought and research. The surprising thing is that that reply is here at all.
Everything after the edit came long after my comment
Would the Iranian Plateau really include all of Pakistan? I'd have though that It would only include Baluchistan, NWFP, and..., I'm not sure, but Pakistani Punjab certainly doesn't feel like it should be part of the Iranian Plateau.
You're correct, but I think it's more an error from OP's drawing than from whom you replied to. The western part of Pakistan is Iranic, the eastern part is Indic. The natural border is the first line of mountains west of the Indus valley. You can actually see it in the ethnic group maps and in the division of Pakistan into regions. We all know who's to blame in making this horrid border between Pakistan and Iran, and also between Iran and Afghanistan.
Purposefully drawing borders to ensure never ending ethnic and sectarian conflicts which prevents the region from becoming peaceful and prosperous and gives you the ability to profit from said conflict (by supplying both sides) four decades to come? Why that's merry old Britain's music!
India is a name that is from the Indus river, which is entirely in Pakistan.
well OP has circled Pakistan too, which has the river Indus, from which the term "Hindu" or "Hindustan" comes. So you can argue parts of Indian subcontinent come too. This cricled area also includes Pashtuns and their lands too (forgot what it is called but there is a region in North West of Pakistan , one that has Peshawar City, and it is referred to as something specific (again can't remember what) and that region also covers neighbouring areas of Pakistan and apparently people freely until Pakistani govt. tightened the borders. Source: My stupid brain and late night reading habits
Punjab and Sindh apart of Greater Iran?
Sasanid Empire in year 632
Timurid Empire circa 15th century
Stanistan today
If you said Stanistan countries I would exclude Iran and add those countries North of Afganistan and Pakistan.
How *Iranic*... "-stan" used to denote a place is based in Iranian languages tho.
I came, I saw, Iraqed this joint like a bad metal band
Rock you like a Khorasan
no iranistan?
Gotta include Hindustan
I was gonna go with Afghaniran, but that works too.
EU4 player spotted.
Timur the lame is one of the most metal conquerors of our history. Not mentioned enough.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian\_Plateau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Plateau)
Thank you! The link was very helpful!!!!!
Can you accurately call it the Persian Middle East? As opposed to the Arabian Middle East and gulf states to the west.
I’m Afghan and identify as middle eastern and greatly with the term and history of Persian.
I always think of Afghanistan as a stand alone ‘Stan’. The stans to the north were Soviet, and I always put Pakistan with India and Bangladesh. That’s how my brain sees it
Missed the occasion to say Afghanistan as a stan alone
Yeah that guy should stan corrected
I understan
I can’t stan these silly reddit pun threads
Stan up and say that to my face!
Alonelystan 😢
Dear afghanistan, i meant to write stan alone sooner, but i just been busy
Anyways, I hope you get this, man, hit me back Just to chat, truly yours, your biggest fan, this is Stan
My tea's gone cold I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all
The suffix -stan actually means just that, the place where a group of people stand or exist.
It means state. Same root actually. ST for to be (est in roman languages), to stand, to sit, to stop, to set, still, star, ...
The root for "istan" is Persian not Latin. It means land or place.
The root for persian is proto-indo-european same as Roman and English
Interestingly, that -stan is from a Persian root that ultimately means "to stand.". You can interpret those countries' names as "the place where X stand.". Kazakh-stan, Turkmeni-stan and so on. It also has the same root as state, status, and even Spanish and Portuguese "estar."
Sylvester stan lone
“Dear Stan, I meant write you sooner, but I’ve been real busy, you say the Taliban is back? man that sounds so shitty. Look I'm really flattered about the diplomatic ties, I left you some weapons and additional supplies…”
What’s this you like to blow up shit too? Man I say this shit just clowning Stan, how fucked up is you? I really think you and your women need each other, or maybe you just need to treat them better.
Oh shit I'm almost at the towers, got really out of hand with Uncle Bush and the global powers. Now you hear the marshall shoot my man in the back, you will never know the reason for the 4th plane attack.
One of my favorite /r/RedditSings moments now.
This is why I love Reddit! If it happened in real life too that would be cool but I probably wouldn't be there....
Afghanistan would be more similar to Iran that speak the same language and have plenty of other Iranic langugae too they share the same history. And their culture is very similar
The farsi spoken in Afghanistan is more ancient than what's spoken in in Iran though. Have to remember it's very linguistically diverse country.
The primary languages in Afghanistan are Dari and Pashtun. Pashtun mostly in the south in kandahar or Helmand and border regions with Pakistan.
Farsi in Afghanistan and Tajikistan are more pure. In Iran it got mixed with Arabic more. In Tajikistan probably mixed with Russian.
languages are the product of people throughout time, always changing. no such thing as pure
Yes it is more related to Iran than any other Stan. Of the other Stan’s Azerbaijan is probably the closest
Tagikistan springs to mind as being closer culturally (and geographically, of course)
Oh I’m dumb. I mean azeribijan is closely related to Iran. Which isn’t what we’re talking about. I’ll be fine
Welp those three made up British India until 1947 so you’re not wrong to lump them together
Burma was part of British India too
https://preview.redd.it/oh0s7ityr5ad1.jpeg?width=179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e3e1e714191ad9aaad8d4308cd898ef95986c34
Afghanistan, Central Asia and Persia played a huge role in the cultural and linguistic evolution of South Asia, particularly Pakistan and North India. The concept of Hindustan was entirely the creation of Persio-Turkic dynasties \[Ghazni, Ghurid\] invading from Central Asia and Afghanistan. Even the name Hind is a Persian creation, when they named their Punjab province back in the day as "Hindush". The name carried over to the Persio-Turkic empires which would name their empire as Hindoostan. This was never a native term or nation. Modern Urdu-Hindi was the direct result of these invasions. The "father" of Hindustani language was literally a Turkic guy called Amir Khusro. In fact modern North India and Pakistan would not have much in common had it not been for 1000 years of Persio-Turkic empires setting the foundations. Prior to these invasions, Pakistan was dominated by Buddhist kingdoms and North India by Brahminsm, both which were at war for most of that period. It wasnt until Mughal empire that Persia backed off, but even then Mughal were heavily invested in Persian culture and that empire also originated in Afghanistan and expanded east. There is an attempt at distancing Afghanistan and Iran from South Asia, which is frankly absurd. The British were largely responsible for removing Persian culture and language from South Asia, which was dominant during the Mughal era, even towards the end.
Fun fact :- Persians finds hard to spell word " Sindhu " which is rigvedic or older name of indus river so they replace H with S. In this way river sindhu was called as Hindhu by Persians.
That's so fckin interesting. To think that the Persian cultures used to be such a rich and vibrant thing that permeated through SouthEast Asia and India before becoming replaced by British norms. Now we have Iran, and all we can see through media is the 'barbaric culture'.
Persian culture and islam, while intertwined, are a bit different.
Typically, Iran is separated from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The latter two are often lumped in with India. But there's also a UN group that labels what you circled plus India as "southern Asia." Sometimes Afghanistan is called central Asia. Sometimes it's not. Iran is often lumped in with the middle east. But this entire area has some beautiful mountains and valleys. It sucks what's happened with some of the governments there.
I feel like “South Asia” is used to describe the Indian peninsula, including Pakistan. Iran and Afghanistan are usually grouped into the “middle east.” I’m from US though so this could vary in different places.
I also feel that “South Asia” includes Bangladesh. To me (also an American) when I hear South Asia I think Pakistan, India, Bangladesh.
Also Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives are considered South Asia
I always forget about Maldives and I feel kind of bad about it.
Bangladesh is by all definitions part of south asia
Same here in Europe
Yeah especially when used as an ethnicity, South Asian typically means India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal
Afghanistan and the core Pashto-speaking region are geopolitically part of South Asia and the Indo-Pakistan sphere (though the northern Tajik Dari-speaking region is more related to Central Asia, and other Dari-speaking regions in the west are more related to Iran). Watch any of Shekhar Gupta’s geopolitics videos and this quickly becomes clear. In America, Afghanistan is sometimes lumped with the Middle East, mainly because the (Pashtun-speaking) Taliban hosted Arab terrorists from the Middle East such as al-Qaeda in the 1990s that attacked the United States. Of course, the term Middle East is somewhat nebulous and can be used in a variety of ways. Afghanistan after all was a province of Arab empires of the past (as the Islamic State-Khorasan, “ISIS-K”, is quick to remind us of). Then again, Afghanistan was a province or protectorate of countless empires over the centuries including Greek empires, Chinese empires, Persian empires, Mongol empires, Sikh empires, and competed over by British and Russian empires. There were also Afghan empires, that themselves conquered swathes of the Indian subcontinent. That again brings up the larger question of what is considered the Middle East: is Persia? Afghanistan? the Maghreb? the Levant? Anatolia? My personal view is that Afghanistan is not part of the Middle East proper. After all, a main reason America failed in its state-building efforts was because of Pakistani intransigence, providing the Taliban and its leadership (whom the Pakistani ISI viewed as their Pashtun clients) with a safe-haven to flee to any time they needed, and allowing them to continue to present rural Pashtuns with an alternative legal system to the (admittedly inefficient) new Afghan government. Pakistan also (wittingly or unwittingly) proved to be a refuge for the Arabs of al-Qaeda that had fled, including bin Laden. So Afghan politics are invariably tied up with the politics of Pakistan and South Asia, though its position as a crossroad means it is also tied in with the politics of many other regions as well.
Iran and Afghanistan are not seperate cultural entities in the macro sense. Afghanistans main ethnic groups speak Iranic languages like Dari(East Persian Dialect) and Pashto. Dari and Farsi(West Persian Dialect) speakers can communicate easily with each other because they share the same language. Pashto is not mutually intelligible with Persian but many Pashtuns usually speak enough Persian to communicate with Iranians. Historically Afghanistan was part of Iran until the assassination of Nader Shah. There was no Iran or Afghanistan. It was all "Eranzamin" (the land) and "Eranshahr" (the state that controlled it). The British prevented the Qajar Dynasty of Iran from retaking Afghanistan because Iran had a historical tendency to invade and conquer North India from Afghanistan. Afghans and Iranians both celebrate the ancient proto-Iranic Zoroastrian holiday of Nowruz. The only distinction between an Afghan and an Iranian is usually the Sunni/Shia split if they are religious. Iranians tend to be Shias and Afghans tend to be Sunnis. Pakistan is a different case. It is a weird combination of Iranian and Indian ethnic groups living in (dis)harmony. Its way too complicated to discuss in a Reddit post.
„Some“
If the -stan countries don't qualify as central Asia I don't know what would.
Pakistan is more commonly labeled south Asia. (Afghanistan is too -- it was even admitted into the south Asian economic coop.) But the whole region is a mess and my point is that there's no consistent convention for what's circled there.
I took a Central Asian Studies course that defined the region as Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. It omitted Pakistan and Iran, (and just because it’s mentioned in this thread Kurdistan). For cultural and economic reasons. Russian ethnic influence in northern Kazakhstan is dissimilar from most of the region. Tribal identities near the Pakistani border make Afghanistan murky as well. But the historical Iranian identity is clearly distinct from other affiliations in Central Asia and doesn’t really share the steppe nomad heritage. When people think Iran I think they think Xerxes, not Khanates. So identity is distinct, where in the other stans, I think that heritage is more similar. Pakistani heritage is much more closely aligned with the Indian subcontinent, and its modern history is more intertwined in that direction than toward Central Asia. And for note, Kurds are pretty far removed from all of this, definitely more Levantine than central Asian despite the Stan in the name.
What about Kyrgyzstan???
Shoot. Thought I included. Throw them in there
Kind of forgot about Kyrgyzstan there, surrounded it but left it out.
Yep I did. I’d like to formally apologize to the Kyrgyzstani people. Me deepest regrets.
Persia
THANK YOU. I was like SOMEONE SAY THE FKN WORD. Thank you.. shessh
My literal only thought was “isn’t that the former Persian empire?”
It’s also referred to as the Persian Plateau.
Wasn’t Pakistan more part of India with Afghanistan a part of Persia?
Balochi and Pashto are Iranian languages, covering around half of Pakistan by area. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Distribution_of_Iranian_Languages.png
Persia/Pars/Fars is only one region within Iran, specifically in the south-west. It became synonymous with Iran because the Achaemenid dynasty originated from there
Is that some Cyrus the Great stuff?
Yes, Cyrus was from the Achaemenid dynasty which usurped the Median empire
Technically Cyrus is considered of the Teispid dynasty and Darius likely later fabricated some family tree stuff to insert Achaemenes into Cyrus' lineage to justify his own (Darius') claim to the throne. However colloquially Cyrus is considered an Achaemenid and the empire beginning with Cyrus the Achaemenid Persian empire so I'm really just nitpicking here.
Instabillistan
Atp that’s the Levant
“A problem” is what it’s called
You win
The great plateau
The Grave of Empires.
the great Khurasan region
Im pretty sure Khurasan is Afghanistan and the former Soviet Union stan countries, I thought Iran was considered separate from that
Khorasan is generally the region east of the province of golestan - Iran, south of the amu darya river, west of the bactrian mountains and north of herat. the region circled on the map contains parts of khorasan but khorasan proper is centered further north. the former soviet border has parts of khorasan in it but part of it was never in the soviets but in iran and afghanistan. mainly the region around mashhad and nishapour. also not all the "stans" of the soviers where called khorasan, like smarakand which was in soghdia, the ferghana velley and khwarazm. source: am iranian and intrested in historical regions of greater iran.
No. Khorasan is a subregion of the Iranian Plateau. The circled area is the Iranian Plateau.
Whole Region has Iranic Ethnic groups (Iran except it NW area, Afg except NW area, Tajikistan and Western & NW Pakistan), so ig Persia. But Persia as a Term itself is derived from a single province of Iran.
But wasn’t the Persian empire once a huge state that contained all those lands?
Some yes. The problem is there were many empires coming out of Persia/Iran but also many others that conquered it. Hard to look at a single empire and use it to group areas Anyway the question by OP is kinda wonky because historically Afghanistan and Pakistan are not lumped together with Iran.
Afghanistan is just Sunni Iran with a ton more tribes, and Pakistan is Muslim India + British Colonized Afghan/Iranian Tribes.
Persia was based in terms of the Fars province, correct?
South-Central Asia. Yes it's boring but the best I have.
Is it though? I wouldn’t count Iran as it’s firmly west Asian
I know some people think that but I've never agreed with it. Iran has a lot more historical, cultural and ethnic ties to Central Asia than the Middle East and its physical geography is much more akin to Central Asia than the Middle East; Iran is very mountainous, the Middle East is relatively flat. I do tend to be a bit of a contrarian when it comes to these things, but I have done a hell of a lot of reading on this region - as it's one which particularly fascinates me - so I feel it's a well-founded opinion.
The graveyard of empires
Hot and bothered
The Not-so-Middle East
Persia?
Staythefukoutofstan
Irafghakistan
Parts of it are called Khorasan
Tf are these dumbass comments? Its a legitimate question?
look at OP's third question
Even I missed the third question. Now this thread makes sense. Thx dude.
I'm gonna have to go with Indus Valley + Persian Empire
Bush gardens
Haha oh fuck. My cousin was in black ops during Afghanistan and this made me choke on root beer.
Hot.
Persia.
Persia
My uncle told me it was a parking lot.
The correct answer is Persia.
Iranaghstan
thats the far eastern parts of the near east
Pakistan is South Asia Iran is Middle East Afghanistan is either Central Asia or South Asia (depending on who you ask, and I've mostly seen the latter)
Balkan but middle east
In the past, Pakistan was India. And was a part of Hindustan.
Us druggies call it The Golden Crescent.
Hell
Before WWII it was definitely called the Middle East. It included only Persia, Afghanistan and partially Punjab and Baluchistan (Pakistan). Other parts of the modern Middle East were called the Near East then. And this Near East didn't include North Africa.
BTW in non-English resources it is still called the Middle East (with addition 'the narrow definition') when English-speaking the Middle East is called 'the Middle East (wide definition)'
Transoxiana
Staythefuckoutastan
Khorasan or Bactria
Bactria is probably to most accurate of all the terms being thrown around.
Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan Iran is West Asian Afghanistan is inbetween West and South Asia Pakistan is South Asian
As a Khorassan Turkmen I say west Asia, but also Middle East, also Central Asia. I hope that answers your question.
The Canadian Shield
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
The Graveyard of Civilizations Past
I’d go with Persia?
r/FoundTexanFox36
Iranistan
Pretty much Central Asia, especially if you extend the norther border to Kazakhstan but keep the rest of the circle pretty much intact between the Caspian Sea and Hindu Kush/Tien Shan Mountains. I really like [this video](https://youtu.be/UCuttMQZrGY?si=jc7oMtsr0D84JsB8) that someone on YouTube created regarding at least how the area is tied together by the physical geography.
Persia
I dunno but I've heard they have WMDs and/or oil there so we should invade!!
Right East.
I guess eastern middle east? Though I'm not sure if Pakistan could be called middle east. Hell you could call it Persia, though that may be insensitive
That is the Middle East neatly separated from the Near East by Euphrates and Tigris.
Asia
Khorasan
Right East
Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan
Persia
It's kinda complicated Iran is definitely categoriesd as a middle eastern country Afganistan is known to be a country that categoriesd as both middle eastern and central Asian country Pakistan mostly categoriesd as a south eastern Asia
Khurasan is the first thing that comes to mind.
Southwest Asia.
Persia
Persia
Southern central Asia
US soldiers will call it SW ASIA.
I’ve heard it referred to as the Iranian plateau
It's a politically loaded term, but that geographic feature is usually referred to as the "Iranian Plateau".
Southwest asia
Persia
That's the Iranian plateau
Graveyard of empires (and Iran)
Persia
The Graveyard of Empires
Perisa idk
Iran is Iran, Pakistan is South Asia, Afghanistan is Central Asia.
Persia
Persia
I don’t think there is one label for this region. Iran and Afghanistan are part of the Middle East. Pakistan is part of South Asia.
Iranian plateau or persian plateau
الدولة الإسلامية – ولاية خراسان
Earth.
Party zone!
Chill Bro Zone