Mazanderanis (), also known as the Tabari people or Tabarestani people ( or ), are an

Iranian peoples Iranian peoples, or Iranic peoples, are the collective ethnolinguistic groups who are identified chiefly by their native usage of any of the Iranian languages, which are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages within the Indo-European langu ...

Academic American Encyclopedia By Grolier Incorporated, page 294 who are indigenous to the Caspian Sea region of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. They are also referred to as Mazanis for short. They inhabit the southern coast of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

and are part of the historical region known as

Tabaristan Tabaristan or Tabarestan (; ; from , ), was a mountainous region located on the Caspian coast of northern Iran. It corresponded to the present-day province of Mazandaran, which became the predominant name of the area from the 11th-century onward ...

. The

Alborz Mountains The Alborz ( ) range, also spelled as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran that stretches from the border of Azerbaijan along the western and entire southern coast of the Caspian Sea and finally runs northeast and merge ...

mark the southern boundary of the area settled by the Mazanderani people.Ethnologue report for language code:mzn
/ref> Stamp-Mazandaran

People

The population of Mazanderanis was 4,480,000 in 2019. As per a 2006 estimate, Mazandaranis numbered between 3 and 4 million. Mazanderani people are also known as the Tabari people, and traditionally call the Mazanderani language as Tabari. Their region was called Tapuria or Tapurestan, Land of Tapuris. Most Mazanderanis live on the southeastern coast of

. Their traditional professions are farming and fishing. Mazandaranis are closely related to the neighboring Gilaki people as well as South Caucasian peoples (e.g.

Georgians Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and Peoples of the Caucasus, Caucasian ethnic group native to present-day Georgia (country), Georgia and surrounding areas historically associated with the Ge ...

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

).Iran, Encarta Encyclopedi
Iran
2009-10-31.

History

The origin of the Mazanderanis goes back to Tapuri people and Amardi people. The

Mazandaran Mazandaran Province (; ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Sari, Iran, Sari. Located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the adjacent Central Alborz mountain range and Hyrcanian forests, it is border ...

region has experienced a long reign of independent and semi-independent rulers in the centuries after the Arab invasion lasting until 1596, when

Shah Abbas I Abbas I (; 27 January 1571 – 19 January 1629), commonly known as Abbas the Great (), was the fifth Safavid shah of Iran from 1588 to 1629. The third son of Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, he is generally considered one of the most important rulers ...

incorporated Mazandaran into the

Safavid Empire The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

Language

300px, Percentage of Mazanderanis in Iran (2010) The

Mazanderani language Mazandarani (Mazanderani: , ''Mazeruni''; also spelled Mazani () or Tabari (); also called Taveri, Mazeruni, Tati, Geleki and Galeshi) is an Iranian language of the Northwestern Iranian languages, Northwestern branch spoken by the Mazanderani pe ...

is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken by the Mazanderani people; however, most Mazandaranis are also fluent in Persian. The Gilaki and Mazanderani languages (but not other Iranian languages) share certain typological features with

Caucasian languages The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Linguistic comparison allows t ...

. Mazanderani is closely related to Gilaki and the two languages have similar vocabularies. They preserve more of the noun declension system characteristic of older Iranian languages than Persian does.With the growth of education and the media, the distinction between Mazanderani and other Iranian languages is likely to disappear. Assistant professor Maryam Borjian of

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

states that Mazanderani has different sub-dialects and there is high mutual intelligibility among Mazanderani sub-dialects. The dialects of Mazanderani are Saravi, Amoli, Baboli, Ghaemshahri, Chalusi, Nuri, Shahsavari, Ghasrani, Shahmirzadi, Damavandi, Firoozkoohi, Astarabadi, and Katouli. The native people of

Sari A sari (also called sharee, saree or sadi)The name of the garment in various regional languages include: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * is a drape (cloth) and a women's garment in the Indian subcontinent. It consists of an un-sti ...

, Qaem Shahr,

Babol Babol (; Mazandarani: ), famously known as the City of Orange Blossoms and the Global City of Wetlands, is the capital city of Babol County. This city, which was the center of Mazandaran during the Zand dynasty era, now serves as the telec ...

Amol Amol ( ; ) is a city in the Central District (Amol County), Central District of Amol County, Mazandaran province, Mazandaran province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Amol is located on the Haraz River bank. It is ...

Nowshahr Nowshahr () is a city in the Central District of Nowshahr County, Mazandaran province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. It is a port city on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. History Ruyan is a region in t ...

, Chalus, and

Tonekabon Tonekabon () is a city in the Central District of Tonekabon County, Mazandaran province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Etymology Toneka was a large and fortress-like city with a fence and a hard and stron ...

are Mazanderani people and speak the Mazanderani language.

Genetics

The Mazanderanis and the closely related Gilaks occupy the south Caspian region of Iran and speak languages belonging to the North-Western branch of

Iranian languages The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian langu ...

. It has been suggested that their ancestors came from the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

region, perhaps displacing an earlier group in the South Caspian. Linguistic evidence supports this scenario, in that the Gilaki and Mazanderani languages (but not other Iranian languages) share certain typological features with Caucasian languages. Based on mtDNA HV1 sequences, the Gilaki and Mazanderani most closely resemble their geographic and linguistic neighbors, namely other Iranian groups. However, their Y chromosome types most closely resemble those found in groups from the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

. Researchers have interpreted these differences as demonstrating that peoples from the Caucasus settled in the south Caspian area and mated with peoples from local Iranian groups, possibly because of patrilocality. The Mazanderani and Gilaki groups are closely related on the male side with populations from the South

such as

, and

Azerbaijanis Azerbaijanis (; , ), Azeris (, ), or Azerbaijani Turks (, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group living mainly in the Azerbaijan (Iran), Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan. They are predomin ...

Haplogroups

Analysis of their NRY patrilines has revealed haplogroup J2, associated with the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

diffusion of agriculturalists from the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

, to be the predominant

Y-DNA The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes in therian mammals and other organisms. Along with the X chromosome, it is part of the XY sex-determination system, in which the Y is the sex-determining chromosome because the presence of the Y ...

lineage among the Mazanderani (subclades J2a3h-M530, J2a3b-M67 and J2a-M410, more specifically.). The next most frequently occurring lineage, R1a1a, believed to have been associated with early

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

expansion into Central/ Southern

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

and currently ubiquitous in that area, is found in almost 25%,. This haplogroup, with the aforementioned J2, accounts for over 50% of the entire sample. Haplogroup G2a3b, attaining significant frequency together with G2a and G1, is the most commonly carried marker in the G group among Mazanderani men. The lineages E1b1b1a1a-M34 and C5-M356 comprise the remainder, of less than 10% sampled.

Notable figures

Historic

* Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir ibn Yazid ibn Kathir al-Tabari (838–923) was a Mazanderani historian and

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

(the most famous and widely influential person called al-Tabari). * Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir ibn Rustom al-Tabari was a

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

thinker who is commonly confused with the former. He is the author of the book ''Dala'il al-Imamah'' (Proofs of the

Imamate The term imamate or ''imamah'' (, ''imāmah'') means "leadership" and refers to the office of an ''imam'' or a Muslim theocratic state ruled by an ''imam''. Theology *Imamate in Shia doctrine, the doctrine of the leadership of the Muslim commu ...

) * Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, "Ali the scholar from Tabiristan" (838–870 A.D.), was the writer of a medical encyclopedia and the teacher of the scholar physician Zakariya al-Razi. * Abul Hasan al-Tabari, a 10th-century Iranian physician * Al-Tabarani (c. 821–918 AD), author of numerous

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

* Amir Pazevari, poet * Maziar, Iranian aristocrat of the House of Karen

Contemporary

Reza Shah Reza Shah Pahlavi born Reza Khan (15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941 and founder of the roughly 53 years old Pahlavi dynasty. Originally a military officer, he became a politician, serving as minister of war an ...

, Shah of Iran (

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

) from 1924 to 1941 * Nima Yooshij, poet, 1941 *

Mina Assadi Mina Assadi (; born March 12, 1943) is an Iranian-born poet, author, journalist and songwriter who lives in exile in Stockholm, Sweden. Author Assadi wrote her debut book, a collection of poems named ''Minas Gift'' (Armanghane Mina), at the age ...

, poet * Emamali Habibi, Olympic and world champion of free-style wrestling/Babr e Mazandaran *

Ali Larijani Ali Ardashir Larijani (born 3 June 1958) is an Iranian politician and former military officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who served as the Speaker of the Parliament of Iran from 2008 to 2020. He has been a member of the Expediency ...

, former member of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran and Speaker of the Majlis of Iran * Simin Ghanem, Iranian classical and pop singer * Hassan Yazdani, wrestler * Komeil Ghasemi, wrestler * Mohammad Javad Larijani, mathematician and former member of the Majlis * Sadegh Larijani, former head of the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran * Mohammad Zohari, poet * Mohsen Bengar, footballer * Delkash, singer * Ali Pahlavan, singer * Ehsan Tabari, Marxist theoretician *

Noureddin Kianouri Noureddin Kianouri (; 1915–1999) was an Iranian construction engineer, urban planner, professor of Bauakademie der DDR in Berlin, and a communist political leader. He studied first at University of Tehran until 1934 and later in Germany from 1 ...

, politician *

Parinaz Izadyar Parinaz Izadyar (; born August 30, 1985) is an Iranian actress. She is mostly known for her willingness to play dramatic roles, making her one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation. Izadyar has received various accolades, including a C ...

, actress * Parviz Natel-Khanlari, writer/translator * Reza Allamehzadeh, director * Behdad Salimikordasiabi, Olympic weightlifter * Abdollah Movahed, freestyle wrestler - Olympic champion * Abbas-Ali Soleimani, Shia cleric and politician * Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri, Shia cleric and diplomat * Yasubedin Rastegar Jooybari, Shia marja * Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, Shia marja and politician * Shahab ud-Din Mar'ashi Najafi, Arab-descended Mazanderani Iranian Shia cleric * Mirza Hashem Amoli, Shia marja * Alireza Firouzja, chess super grandmaster and the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of 2,800

Assimilated populations in Mazandaran

In the

Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

, Afsharid, and

Qajar The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic origin,Cyrus Ghani. ''Iran an ...

eras Mazandaran was settled by large numbers of

, and other

peoples of the Caucasus The peoples of the Caucasus, or Caucasians, are a diverse group comprising more than 50 ethnic groups throughout the Caucasus. By language group Language families indigenous to the Caucasus Caucasians who speak languages which have l ...

, whose descendants still live across Mazandaran.^ Muliani, S. (2001) Jaygah-e Gorjiha dar Tarikh va Farhang va Tammadon-e Iran. (The Georgians’ position in the Iranian history and civilization.) Esfahan: Yekta The names of many towns, villages and neighbourhoods in Mazandaran reflect this legacy by bearing variations of the name "Gorji" (i.e., Georgian), although most of the Georgians are assimilated into the mainstream Mazanderanis. The history of Georgian settlement is described by Iskandar Beg Munshi, the author of the 17th century '' History of Alam Aray Abbasi''. In addition, European travelers such as Chardin and Della Valle have written about their encounters with the Georgian, Circassian and Armenian Mazanderanis.

References

{{Ethnic groups in Iran 01 Iranian ethnic groups Ethnic groups in Iran . History of Mazandaran province Tabaristan Mazanderani language Ethnic groups in the Middle East