Yerevan: Ed. YSU and the Caucasus Center for Iranian Studies, 2012. 130 p. In February 2012, the collective monograph "Introduction to the History and Culture of the Talysh People" by the staff of the Department of Iranian Studies of Yerevan State University (Yerevan, 2011), edited by Professor G. S. Asatryan, was awarded the Presidential Prize in Iran as one of the best publications in the world on Iranian studies for 2011 [Asatryan, 2011]. And here we have a new edition by the same author - a monograph on a rather relevant topic of the ethnic map of Iran, which is an abridged summary of the seminars on Iranian ethnology that Professor G. S. Asatryan has been teaching for many years at the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Yerevan State University. The article deals with the issues of Turkophony of the so-called Azerbaijani minority in Iran, which have become relevant due to various political circumstances, as well as the problems of ethnic self-identification of Kurds, Balochs, Gurans, Talyshs, Tats, and Arabs in Iran and neighboring states. The author notes that Iranian ethnology is a very complex academic discipline that requires a deep knowledge of history, religion, culture, linguistics, Indo-European comparative studies and other related academic knowledge. Today, we are witnessing that Iranian ethnology is often taken up by authors who not only do not have the necessary training, but also come from very dubious and politically biased semi-scientific circles. The author uses a complex diachronic method in presenting the subject of research of the material offered to the readers ' attention. The first chapter examines the prehistory of the Iranian ethnic groups in the Aryanam-vaijah expanses ("Aryan Expanse", "Eransharkh", "Iranian Ecumene"), and provides the opinion of E. Benveniste, A. Christensen, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Gnoli on the space-time dimension of this concept [Benveniste, 1954, p. 265-274; Christensen, 1943, p. 72-74; Gnoli, 1989, p. 69-81]. It is not ... Читать далее