Questions about extinct Iranic peoples of Central Asia; the Bactrians, Khwarezmians and Sogdians.

[blogen]

The peoples were mainly East Iranid caucasoids like pashtuns. Also Turks are different looking then Mongols . Turkic tribes before the Mongol Horde invasions were an admixed people.

The Pashtuns are not Central Asian population, they are Indians, their majority live in the historical Indus valley region and their racial character is highly mixed with Indid elements. Central Asia started on the other side of the Hindukush.

[Rambo07]

NORTH WEST CHINA Xinjiang was once Caucasian inhabited area=> Current population got ~50% Caucasian genes

What are you talking about?
Tocharians are directly related to Androvono peoples they have nothing to do with Iranids ( only distant Indo European connection) . Indo Iranians are far removed from them, their nucleus of operation was BMAC.

[Shah-Jehan]

Yes and Tajiks mixed with Turks and maybe Mongolians. They are mountain survivors of the medieval Iranian population of the plain.

What I don't get is why do Tajiks speak Persian(west Iranic) instead of traditionally Eastern Iranic spoken in the region like Pashtuns? Was there any "Persianisation" of these people sometime in history?

[Smeagol]

Do you think the Tajiks(Farsis) are their descendants? Are they "purely Iranic" or mixed with Turkic peoples because they seem to show minor Mongoloid(Turanid) admixture?

Most Tajiks have Mongoloid influences, but are predominantly Caucasoid.

[Rambo07]

Most Tajiks have Mongoloid influences, but are predominantly Caucasoid.

Tajikistan ones are mostly like that, but if you go to Badhakshan you will find pure Caucasoid types, but yeah as a whole most Tajiks are admixed with mongoloids.

[blogen]

What I don't get is why do Tajiks speak Persian(west Iranic) instead of traditionally Eastern Iranic spoken in the region like Pashtuns? Was there any "Persianisation" of these people sometime in history?

They are Persians. The Tajik is a Turkic origin Soviet term for the Persians. They were part of the Persian cultural sphere, but the Russian conquest divided this sphere and the Soviet cultural policy exterminated the Iranian influence in the region. But Central Asia was the transitional zone between the steppic Iranians and the settled Iranians and the Persian culture turned into dominant after the Mongolian devastation, so the cultural differences disappeared in the Middle Ages slowly. The Persian language was the language of the culture in the region, the French of Central Asia.

[Shah-Jehan]

Sogdians depicted by the Chinese



Sogdians depicted in Persepolis

[Rambo07]

Well one big reason to think thank the Ancient Iranics for, PANTS! lol

[Shah-Jehan]

Well one big reason to think thank the Ancient Iranics for, PANTS! lol

really, they invented pants? Never knew that, a source would be appreciated...

[Shah-Jehan]

The Pashtuns are not Central Asian population, they are Indians, their majority live in the historical Indus valley region and their racial character is highly mixed with Indid elements. Central Asia started on the other side of the Hindukush.

Yeah, they do show heavy Nord Indid influenced especially the ones east and South of the Durrand line (those in Pakistan) but, the places they inhabit are generally crossroads between three regions (near-east, Indian subcontinent and continental central Asia)