Parsees
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| India | 60,000 |
| Pakistan | 1,400 |
| Languages | |
| Gujarati (Parsi dialect), English (Indian dialect) | |
| Religion | |
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Parsi /ˈpɑːrsiː/ (or Parsee) is one of two Zoroastrian communities (the other being Iranis) majorly located in India and few in Pakistan. According to the Qissa-i Sanjan, Parsis migrated from Greater Iran to Sindh and Gujarat, where they were given refuge, between the 8th and 10th century CE to avoid persecution following the Arab conquest of Persia.
At the time of the Arab conquest of Persia, the dominant religion of the region (which was ruled by the Sasanian Empire) was Zoroastrianism. Iranians rebelled against Arab invaders for almost 200 years. During this time many Iranians who are now called Parsi chose to preserve their religious identity by fleeing from Iran to India.
The word پارسیان, pronounced "Parsian", i.e., "Parsi" in the Persian language, literally means Persian. Persian is the official language of modern Iran, which was formerly known as Persia, and the Persian language's endonym is Farsi, an arabization of the word Parsi.
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