T. Cuyler Jr. Young, The Early History of the Medes and the Persians and the Achaemenid Empire to the Death of Cambyses, in John Boardman, N. G. L. Hammond, D. M. Lewis e M. Ostwald (a cura di), Persia, Greece and the Western Mediterranean c. 525 to 479 B.C., The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 11, 2ª ed., Cambridge University Press, 1988, p. 1, ISBN 0-521-22804-2.
«The Iranians are one of the three major ethno-linguistic groups who define the modern Near East.»