Major subgroup of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Iranian languages are probably spoken by more than 80 million people in southwestern and southern Asia. Only two Old Iranian languages are known, Avestan and Old Persian. A greater number of Middle Iranian languages ( 300 BC-AD 950) are known; these are divided into a western and an eastern group. Modern Iranian languages fall into four groups. The southwestern group includes Modern Persian (Farsi), Dari (in northern Afghanistan), Tajiki (in Tajikistan and other Central Asian republics); Luri and Bakhtiari (in southwestern Iran); and Tat. The northwestern group includes Kurdish (spoken in Kurdistan) and Baluchi (in southwestern Pakistan, southeastern Iran, and southern Afghanistan). The southeastern group includes Pashto (in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan) and the 10 or so Pamir languages (in eastern Tajikistan and adjacent parts of Afghanistan and China). The northeastern group includes Ossetic, spoken by the Ossetes in the central Caucasus Mountains, and Yaghnobi, formerly spoken in a single valley of the Pamirs. Nearly all the Modern Iranian languages have been written if at all in adaptations of the Arabic alphabet
Ancient religions of the peoples of the Iranian plateau. The Medes and Persians were dominated by a powerful priestly tribe, the magi. The magi were responsible for chanting accounts of the origin and descent of the gods, and they were probably the source of the dualism that later characterized Zoroastrianism, the best known of the Iranian religions. The chief god of the pre-Zoroastrian pantheon was Ahura Mazda, the creator of the universe and the one who maintains the cosmic and social order. Mithra was the second most important deity and the protector of covenants. Other major deities included Anahita, the war goddess; Rashnu, the god of justice; and astral deities such as Tishtrya, identified with the star Sirius. The ancient Iranians did not build temples or make images of their gods, preferring to worship in the open. The central ritual was the yazna, which consisted of a festive meal at which the worshipers made animal sacrifices and invited the deity to attend as a guest. Fire was regarded as a sacred element. The sacred drink hauma, which contained a mind-altering drug, was used to inspire worshipers with insight into truth and to stimulate warriors going into battle
Of or relating to any of the Iranian languages, such as Pahlavi or Khotanese, spoken from about the first to the tenth century in areas of western and central Asia