Khunsari

The Khunsaris (Khansaris) are the native people of Khansar (Khvansar), a long, narrow valley town at about 2,250 m on the eastern slopes of the Zagros, 30 km south of Golpayegan and 150 km northwest of Isfahan. The name is usually explained as khan ('spring, pool') plus -sar ('many'): the valley has hundreds of springs. Their speech, Khunsari, is a Central Plateau ('Median') language of the Northwestern Iranian branch. It belongs to the western group of these dialects together with the extinct or nearly extinct varieties of Mahallat, Golpayegan and Khomeyn and the Jewish dialects of Khunsar and Khomeyn, and the village variety of Vanishan is still spoken. Khunsari keeps old Northwestern sound changes, for example isba/espa 'dog' and heze 'yesterday'. It was documented in detail by Wilhelm Eilers (Die Mundart von Chunsar, 1976), and the local poet Yusof Bakhshi wrote verse in it. About 21,000 people were estimated to speak it in 2000, roughly the population of the town (21,883 in 2016). By the late 1980s the surrounding villages had switched to Persian, and the dialect survived in certain quarters of Khansar itself.

Khansar is a garden town strung along the Khansar river, with apricot, walnut, almond, apple, peach and grape orchards watered by some 450 springs. Its honey (about 500 tonnes a year), gaz nougat and dried fruit are famous across Iran. In spring the Golestan Kuh mountain above the town blooms with wild tulips and crown imperial (laleh-ye vazhgun) fritillaries, drawing many visitors. Other sights are the Sarcheshmeh springs, a honey park and old water mills. Traditional crafts include 'visti' carpets, dyeing, oil-pressing and wooden kitchenware. Khansaris also have a long book and calligraphy tradition: Khansari families have long been prominent in Tehran's publishing trade, and Khansari scribes once copied Qurans for export. The town is proud of its sons: the Shia jurist Ayatollah Ahmad Khansari, the classical musician Adib Khansari and the diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif. Local enthusiasts publish Khansari word lists, flashcards and Instagram videos (2017-2026), and the dialect has been declared part of the town's intangible heritage, but daily speech is shifting to Persian, especially among the many Khansaris who live in Tehran, Qom and Isfahan.

Khansar has been one of Iran's important Twelver Shia clerical towns since the Safavid period, and it has produced many mujtahids and teachers who worked in Isfahan, Qom and Najaf. Religious life centres on the town's mosques, the Imamzadeh shrines, Muharram mourning and the strong tradition of religious scholarship within families. The town also had a Jewish community in the Jida quarter, with two synagogues and three cemeteries, which faced forced conversion in 1656-62 and had dwindled to two people by 1986. As elsewhere in urban Iran, many younger people are less observant, but the town's identity remains strongly religious.

There is no Scripture or Jesus Film in Khunsari. Global Recordings Network has produced 'Good News' audio-visual Bible lessons in Khunsari (program 37909), also posted on GRN's 'Languages of Iran' YouTube channel, and EveryTongue hosts a 30-minute Khunsari recording. Khunsaris are fully literate in Persian and can use Persian Bibles, satellite TV and online Christian media. No outreach to Khunsaris or believers among them are known.