Esfarayen County ( fa, شهرستان اسفراین) is located in North Khorasan province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The capital of the county is

Esfarayen Esfarayen ( fa, اسفراین, also Romanized as Esfarāyen; formerly, Meyanābād, Mīānābād, and Mīyānābād) is a city and capital of Esfarayen County, North Khorasan Province in Iran. At the 2011 census its population was 60,372 persons ...

. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 119,152, in 30,307 households. Retrieved 7 November 2022 The following census in 2011 counted 127,012 people, in 35,903 households. At the 2016 census, the county's population was 120,513, in 36,519 households.

Ethnography

Esfarayen is the most important Persian-speaking town and locality of far northwestern

Khurasan Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plate ...

. The surrounding mountains and deserts have become totally

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

and Turkmen in their ethnicity and language. It was only Esfarayen that resisted the flood of violence that swept away the ancient and sedentary

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

speaking farmers and town folks of northern Khurasan, starting with the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire (1206- 1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

, coming of the destructive tribes, and finally the massive murder and depopulation of northern Khurasan in the 18th and 19th centuries in the hands of Turkmen raiders and slave catchers. Khurasani Persians were found in great numbers at the slave markets of

Khiva Khiva ( uz, Xiva/, خىۋا; fa, خیوه, ; alternative or historical names include ''Kheeva'', ''Khorasam'', ''Khoresm'', ''Khwarezm'', ''Khwarizm'', ''Khwarazm'', ''Chorezm'', ar, خوارزم and fa, خوارزم) is a district-level city ...

and

Kashgar Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan ...

in China in the late 19th century, being sold by the Turkmens. Esfarayen preserves what the entire northwestern Khurasan (include the whole of southern half of

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

must have looked like before the avalanche of the Turkic nomadic invasion began in the 11th century.

Administrative divisions

References

Counties of North Khorasan Province {{NorthKhorasan-geo-stub