Language and ethnicity

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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 (including the whole southern half of Turkmenistan) must have looked like before the avalanche of the Turkic nomadic invasion began in the 11th century.

Population

At the time of the 2006 National Census, the county's population was 119,152 in 30,307 households.^[4] The following census in 2011 counted 127,012 people in 35,903 households.^[5] At the 2016 census, the county's population was 120,513 in 36,519 households.^[2]

In February 2023, Bam and Safiabad District was separated from the county in the establishment of Bam and Safiabad County, which was divided into two districts of two rural districts each, with Safiabad as its capital and only city. At the same time, Daman Kuh Rural District and Zorqabad Rural District were separated from the Central District in the establishment of Zorqabad District.^[6]

Administrative divisions

Esfarayen County's population history and administrative structure over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table.