Esfarayen County
Esfarayen County is in North Khorasan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Esfarayen.
History
In 2023, Bam and Safiabad District was separated from the county in the establishment of Bam and Safiabad County and renamed the Central District. At the same time, Daman Kuh and Zorqabad Rural Districts were separated from the Central District of Esfarayen County in the formation of Zorqabad District.Demographics
Language and ethnicity
The surrounding mountains and deserts have become totally Kurdish 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-speaking farmers and townsfolk of northern Khorasan, starting with the Mongol invasion, the coming of destructive tribes, and finally the massive murder and depopulation of northern Khorasan in the 18th and 19th centuries by the hands of Turkmen raiders and slave catchers.Khorasani Persians were found in great numbers at the slave markets of Khiva and Kashgar in China in the late 19th century, being sold by the Turkmens. Esfarayen preserves what the entire northwestern Khorasan must have looked like before the avalanche of the Turkic nomadic invasion began in the 11th century.