Gazi

The Gazis are the native people of Gaz (Gaz-e Borkhar), an ancient town on the Borkhar plain 18 km north of Isfahan, and speak Gazi, one of the Central Plateau (Median) Northwestern Iranian languages that survive as islands in Persian-speaking central Iran. Gazi is closely related to Sedehi and to Judeo-Isfahani, the former language of Isfahan's Jews; mutual intelligibility is high enough that Judeo-Isfahani was once mistaken for Gazi. Locals liken it to Ardestani and Naini and regard it as the pre-Islamic speech of central Iran. The town takes its name from the gaz (tamarisk) shrub of the desert fringe.

Gaz has a four-iwan Seljuk-era Friday mosque, a Safavid caravanserai and the cultural centre of the national poet Adib Boroumand (1924-2016), a native of the town. The poet Darvish Abbas Gazi wrote verse in Gazi. Community historians publish Gazi word lists, proverbs, folk medicine and beliefs about jinn and demons online. The Gazi language was entered in Iran's national intangible heritage list in 2009. Daily life today is suburban: the town is a brick-making and car-trading centre tied to Isfahan.

Gazis are Twelver Shia, and the Shia calendar, especially Muharram mourning, structures community life. Folk beliefs about jinn, demons and the evil eye and traditional healing persist alongside orthodox practice. The town has produced Shia jurists such as Sheikh Abdolkarim Gazi. Younger Gazis in the Isfahan metropolitan area share the national drift toward secularism, but no figures exist.

No Scripture, film or audio exists in Gazi. Every Gazi speaks Persian, in which the Bible, the Jesus Film and audio resources are available. No believers among Gazis are known.