File:AzerbaijaniSpeakingAreasMap.jpg

English: Sources:

1) http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/iran.html (University of Texas Iran Ethnic Maps)

2)

http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Iran_Languages_lg.png (University of Columba - Gulf 2000 project - Ethnic map of Iran)

3) Data on Hamadan is taken from the above maps as well the following two sources which breakdown the ethnicity of the province county by county or by approximate geographical regions.

[1] (Official Statistics from Provincial Governor)

Parviz Aḏkāʾi and EIr, HAMADĀN i. GEOGRAPHY in Encyclopaedia Iranica[2]: "Languages spoken. Hamadān has been a crossroads of civilizations for millennia and a mosaic of cultures and dialects live there side by side. The main language spoken, especially in the provincial capital and its surroundings, is Persian, which is also the lingua franca in other regions. In the northern parts of the province, however, the language mostly spoken is Azeri Turkish, while in the northwest and west, near the provinces of Kurdistan and Kermānšāhān, people mostly speak Kurdish, while in some other cities such as Malāyer, Nehāvand, and Sāmen most people speak Lori and Lak (Faraji, p. 1296).

Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, Peter McDonald, Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, "The Fertility Transition in Iran: Revolution and Reproduction", Springer, 2009. pp 100-101: "The first category is 'Central' where the majority of people are Persian speaking ethnic Fars (provinces of Fars, Hamedan, Isfahan, Markazi, Qazvin, Qom, Semnan, Yazd and Tehran..."

4) Data on Qazvin:

a) IRIB https://web.archive.org/web/20120317112139/http://qazvin.irib.ir/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=342

b) http://qazvin.irib.ir/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=83 c) http://www.ichto.ir/Default.aspx?tabid=648 (A study of Qazvin).

d) University of Texas and Gulf 2000 Columbia Map

Summary of the data on Qazvin: The city and the East of the Province speaks Persian. In Takestan, Tati is the prevalent language. I have taken the rest of the province outside of these areas to be Azerbaijani speaking. Hopefully in the future, more available and accurate data becomes available on the West of the province.

5) Data on West Azerbaijan is highly uncertain. Note there is a Kurdish minority or majority in every county. Most counties in West Azerbaijan also contain either an Azerbaijani minority or majority. There has never been a complete study of the province. This map was taken into account: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/WestAzEthnics1.jpg which cites an Iranian academic source (not a fringe source).

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/iran_ethnoreligious_distribution_2004.jpg http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Iran_Languages_lg.jpg

6)

Note although there is an Azeri minority in Kordestan, Alborz, Arak, Qom and Tehran, this is just pointed out in the text of the map. It did not make sense to put these provinces as a whole as "linguistically mixed" as Azerbaijani language is minority in these. In the future if there are information exact counties in these provinces where Azerbaijani is a majority, then the map should be modified to highlight those counties only and not the province as a whole. One such an example is probably Komijan in Arak province based on some internet sources.