Tajik is a general designation for a wide range of Persian-speaking people of Iranian origin, with traditional homelands in the Oxus Basin, the Fergana Valley and on both banks of the upper Oxus, i.e. in present-day Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. In Tajikistan they are the main ethnic group (about 80% of the population, i.e. 6,787,000), but most of them live in Afghanistan (between 9,450,000 and 11,550,000). As a self-designation, the term Tajik, which earlier on had been more or less pejorative, has become acceptable only during the last several decades, particularly as a result of Soviet administration in Central Asia.
Read more »