West Asian ethnicity indicates genetic origins in the region stretching from Turkey and Lebanon in the west to Afghanistan and Turkmenistan in the east, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in the south, and Georgia and Armenia in the north, including Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Current inhabitants of the Iranian Plateau and Anatolia, encompassing modern-day Iran and Turkey, trace their genetic heritage to the Iranian and Turkic peoples. Around the first millennium B.C.E., the ancestors of the Persians — known as proto-Iranians — moved into the Iranian Plateau. The ancient Persians established the largest empire the world had ever seen, extending the Persian sphere of influence as far west as Eastern Europe. Nearly two millennia later, Turkic tribes originating from Central Asia made Anatolia their new home. For a thousand years since, the peoples of West Asia have shared ties of religious, political, and cultural exchange. This region is also home to what is believed to be the largest ethnic group in the world without its own state: the Kurds. Currently numbering some 35–45 million people, the Kurds are native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan, which is split between the modern-day countries of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. While there are no official statistics regarding the extent of the Turkish diaspora, significant communities reside in Europe, North America, and the Arab world. Although significantly smaller in numbers, communities of Iranians can also be found in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf states.
West Asian history
In the sixth century B.C.E., a band of Persian tribes united into a federation under the leadership of Cyrus II — commonly known as Cyrus the Great — and began a series of uprisings, ultimately subduing and conquering the Medians, the main regional power at the time. Over the course of Cyrus’ reign, the Achaemenid Empire he established expanded vastly, conquering lands ranging from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Indus river in the east. Engulfing most of the cultures of the Near East, Achaemenid rule was generally liberal. For example, in the Jewish and Christian traditions, Cyrus the Great is best known for the “Edict of Cyrus,” which encouraged exiled Jews to return to the Land of Israel to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. The empire came to an end with the death of Darius III, following his defeat in 330 B.C.E. by Alexander the Great. Alexander’s empire expanded the territories previously held by the Achaemenid Empire. The Greeks — including the Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasties which succeeded Alexander after his death — imposed their culture on the peoples they conquered, resulting in a widespread blend of Greek, Middle Eastern, and Asian cultures. In the mid-third century B.C.E., Arsaces I of Parthia successfully shook off the Seleucid yoke, establishing the Parthian Empire, which ruled the Iranian Plateau along with parts of Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula. But Parthian rule was short lived: within two decades, the powerful Sassanid dynasty had usurped the Parthians, establishing an empire that would rule Iran and much of the Near East for over 900 years, until the Arab conquest of Iran in the seventh century C.E.
Under the direction of Caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab, Muslim Arab forces overran the Sassanid Empire. The conversion of Persia to Islam was long and gradual, and in fact has never been completed. Following years of repression under the Umayyad dynasty, the ruling elite of its successor — the Abbasid dynasty (eighth century) — broadly adopted Persian customs and culture. Starting in the nineth century, a gradual weakening of the Caliphate in Baghdad brought about the rise of Persian emirates and sultanates, a process which had a profound impact on the political, linguistic, and intellectual landscape of the Islamic world. In the eleventh century, the Seljuqs — an Oghuz Turk Sunni Muslim dynasty — migrated from Central Asia into mainland Persia and Anatolia, establishing the first Turkic empire of the Muslim world. Over the following decades, Seljuqs mixed with local populations and adopted Persian culture, forming an early iteration of the Turko-Persian tradition.
Sometime in the fourteenth century, Osman Gazi, leader of the Turkic Kayi tribe in Anatolia, established a beylik (principality) in Anatolia that would become the basis of the vast Ottoman Empire, which at its peak ruled over territories in West Asia, North Africa, and Europe. Following the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was abolished, superseded by the Republic of Turkey. To the east, the Safavid Empire (1501–1736), the Qajar dynasty (1789–1925), and the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979) were the major powers in Iran, until the Persian monarchy was overthrown and abolished as a result of the Iranian Revolution.
West Asian culture
Ancient Persians were adherents of the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster, who lived in ancient Iran approximately 3,500 years ago. The Zoroastrian cosmological emphasis on the powers of good and evil as two personified principles at war with each other heavily influenced Jewish, Christian, and Muslim dogma, contributing to the ideas of heaven and hell, the coming of a Messiah, and the resurrection of the dead. While Islam has been the dominant religion in Iran for the past millennium, it was the Safavid dynasty that oversaw the conversion of Iran from Sunni to Shi‘a Islam between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The Turkic tribes who would come to inhabit the Iranian Plateau and Anatolia had already adopted Sunni Islam prior to their incursions. Today, 82% of the population of Turkey identify as Sunni Muslim.
A testament to its incredible cultural history, Iran is home to 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In recent centuries, the ruling dynasties of Iran erected some of the most splendid palaces and mosques of the Muslim world, including the Golestand Palace in Tehran and the Masjed-e Jame in Isfahan. We have the ancient Persians to thank for many innovations that are now ubiquitous: the brick, the staple, the game of polo, the cookie, and ice cream, to name a few. Persian literature is among the world’s oldest and most celebrated, including the works of world-renowned poets such as Rumi and Hafiz. Its influence has echoed all across the world and down through the centuries — reaching as far as German writer Goethe and American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth century.
One of the most widely recognized Iranian cultural exports, however, is the Persian rug. Initially woven as practical articles used as floors in the tents of nomadic tribes, the skill and craft involved in carpet production, as well as the art of its designs and patterns, have been handed down and made more elaborate over generations. Today, Iran produces more rugs and carpets than the rest of the world combined.
Rice is a staple food of the region, and Iranian cuisine is typically based around rice and meat, with the addition of vegetables and nuts, herbs, fruits, and colorful spices such as saffron, turmeric, cinnamon, and dried lime. Various forms of wheat flatbread are also commonly eaten.
Thanks to the incredible ethnic diversity of the Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey is a nexus of Mediterranean, Central Asian, Eastern European, and Caucasian cultural elements and traditions. Its cuisine reflects this diversity: each region has its own culinary specialities, from the koftes (meatballs) and stews of the Asia Minor region to the kebabs (grilled meat dishes) and baklava (pastries with chopped nuts doused in sugar syrup or honey) of the southeast. Yet, despite its multicultural influences, Turkey retains a strong Turkic identity, as is evident in the popularity of yağlı güreş (oil wrestling) — Turkey’s national sport. In the competition, competitors (known as pehlivan) wear hand-stitched leather trousers called kisbets; the match ends when one opponent successfully grabs hold of his competitor’s kisbet. Kırkpınar, the annual yağlı güreş tournament held in Edirne, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest running sports competition — held consecutively since 1362!
West Asian languages
The predominant languages of West Asia are Farsi (Persian) in Iran and Turkish in Turkey. Farsi is an Indo-European language which derives its name from the area of Fars in southwestern Iran, where it was spoken by the ancient Persian tribes. Turkish is the most widely spoken language of the Turkic language family. Due to its primacy in Islamic cultures, Arabic — another language spoken in the region — has heavily influenced both Farsi and Turkish. Other languages spoken in the region include the Kurdish languages (Kurmanji, Sorani, and Palewani) and the Zaza-Gorani languages.
Explore more about ethnicity estimates
- MyHeritage DNA at MyHeritage
- Ethnicities around the world at MyHeritage
- What Is My Ethnicity? How MyHeritage Estimates Ethnicities at MyHeritage Knowledge Base
- Where's My Ethnicity?!: Why An Ethnicity Might Not Show Up In Your DNA (and How To Find Evidence Of It Anyway) at MyHeritage Knowledge Base