Tati, Central

The Central Tats are the Tati-speaking villagers of Shahrud district in the mountains of southern Khalkhal county, Ardabil province, in villages such as Kolur, Shal, Lerd, Asbu, Derav, Karnaq and Gilavan. Their speech, listed as Shahrudi, is a Central Tatic language so close to Southern Talysh that Glottolog groups the two; Kajali and Koresh-e Rostam, spoken nearby, are separate varieties. Like other Tats, they descend from the Northwestern Iranian population of Azerbaijan that kept its language while the plains around became Turkic, and the majority of Khalkhal county now speaks Azerbaijani. They are Twelver Shia, bilingual or trilingual in Tati, Azerbaijani and Persian, and their language is described as moribund among the young.

Shahrud villages sit in high, green Alborz valleys and live from rainfed wheat and barley, walnut and fruit orchards, saffron in Kolur, livestock, beekeeping and crafts. Women in Lerd still make and wear the traditional sheh shelwar dress, and village women bake flatbread together in clay ovens. Men long went away for seasonal work: to the Gilan lowlands for rice planting, and as woodcutters and carpenters in Gilan and Mazandaran, where men from Karnaq and Lerd developed Arranaji, a Tati-based secret language of the trade. Folk belief keeps reverence for sacred trees and groves, the fear of Al, a red-clad spirit who attacks mothers and newborns, and rich bear lore. Lerd, its stone cave and the nearby Sibiyeh Khani waterfall draw summer tourists. Community accounts such as 'Tat speakers of Shahrud' share Tati proverbs, songs and books, including works by Kolur author Mohsen Haddad.

The Tats of Shahrud are Twelver Shia; village life centres on the mosque, the Imamzadeh Abdollah shrine at Kolur, Muharram mourning and vows. Pre-Islamic beliefs persist alongside Islam: sacred trees and groves, protective rites against Al at childbirth, and tales about bears as half-human beings. Khalkhal county has a small Sunni pocket in Kaghazkonan, outside the Tati villages of Shahrud.

There is no Scripture, Jesus Film or audio recording in Shahrudi. Speakers read Persian, and many understand Azerbaijani, for which a New Testament exists. No outreach to this group is known.