Oghuz branch
Khorasan Turks
An Oghuz Turk community of north-eastern Iran whose speech links the Azerbaijani and Turkmen worlds.
Horasan Türkleri
Khorasan Turks are descended from the Oghuz who took part in the Seljuk conquest of Khorasan in the 11th century, joined over the following centuries by later Turk settlers. They live mainly in the towns and villages of North Khorasan and Razavi Khorasan, including Bojnurd, Quchan and Dargaz.
Their language was long described by outside observers as Turkmen or as a dialect of Azerbaijani. Fieldwork by Gerhard Doerfer’s Göttingen team, beginning with a 1973 expedition to Khorasan, established Khorasani Turkish as a distinct Oghuz language, standing between Azerbaijani and Turkmen.
Khorasani Turkish has no official written standard, and most speakers are bilingual in Persian. The region’s bakhshis — singer-musicians who perform with the two-stringed dotar — sing in Turkish as well as Kurdish, Turkmen and Persian.
- Language
- Khorasani Turkish, an Oghuz Turk language transitional between Azerbaijani and Turkmen
- Branch
- Oghuz
- Homeland
- North-eastern Iran — North Khorasan and Razavi Khorasan provinces, around Bojnurd, Quchan and Dargaz
- Also living in
- Neighbouring border regions of Turkmenistan
Key dates
1040
The Seljuks defeat the Ghaznavids at Dandanqan and take control of Khorasan, opening the region to Oghuz settlement.
1736–1747
Under Nader Shah, an Afshar Turk of Khorasan, Mashhad becomes the imperial capital of Iran.
1973
Gerhard Doerfer’s expedition to Khorasan begins the scholarly documentation of Khorasani Turkish.
2004
Khorasan province is divided into North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan and South Khorasan.
2010
The Music of the Bakhshis of Khorasan is inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Heritage
- The Music of the Bakhshis of Khorasan (UNESCO Representative List, 2010)
- Folk tales and songs in Khorasani Turkish, recorded and published by Doerfer’s team
- Historic Turk towns of northern Khorasan such as Bojnurd, Quchan and Dargaz
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, “Khorasan xxiii. Turkic Dialects of Khorasan”
- G. Doerfer and W. Hesche, Chorasantürkisch: Wörterlisten, Kurzgrammatiken, Indices (Harrassowitz, 1993)
- UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, “Music of the Bakhshis of Khorasan”