This area includes Iran's coastal plain and the western part of the central Zagros Mountains. The plains border the Persian Gulf(5) and the Gulf of Oman.
The central Zagros mountains are parallel ranges with salt domes and salt marshes, useful for upland pastoralism and oil wells. The mountains reach above 4,000 meters in several peaks; Zard Mountain(6) at 4,547 meters is the tallest. The largest salt marshes are in east central Fars.
The majority of the nearly eight million people here speak dialects of Persian (Farsi or Parsi) but beyond that it is difficult to say. Minority language estimates vary by as much as two magnitudes.(7) Perhaps just over half speak Persian.
About one in five speak Luri, though some consider these dialects distinct languages.
Almost the same number may speak Qashqay, a form of Azeri.
Less than one in ten--more or less--speak Domari(8), an Indo-Aryan language.
Shiraz, the capital of Fars, is the only city with over a million residents. It was a capital of Persia for a time in the 18th century and is located not too far from one of the large salt marshes of the province. It is renowned for wine and textiles today, and poets and religious leaders of the past.
See also central and southern Iran generally
Early mainstream linguistic developments
Common early religious developments Early Chrisianity Islam arrivesnortheast, also east of southeastern Hormozgan Province
south of eastern Hormozgan Province
south of central Hormozgan Province
southwest of western Hormozgan Province, and of Bushehr Province
west of Chahar Malal-e Baktiari and Kohgilayeh-e Boyerahmad Provinces, and northwest of Bushehr Province
(1) Formerly Persia.
(2) '-e' is sometimes transliterated from Persian as 'va'.
(3) Also transliterated from Persian as Kohkiluyeh.
(4) Also transliterated from Persian as Boyer Ahmad (two words).
(5) Also called the Arabian Gulf.
(6) Mountain is transliterated as 'kuh' from Persian.
(7) The Qashqay, for example. Andrew Dalby estimates 100,000 in his Dictionary of Languages, while Ethnologue.com (5/2005) puts their numbers at 1.5 million.
(8) About 1.3 million Iranians over all; I do not know their distribution beyond 'western Iran, Fars and Kohgiluyeh-e Boyerahmad' (Ethnologue.com, 5/2005).