The term Turcophone Iran or Turks of Iran typically applies to Iranian Azerbaijan, Fars Province ( nomads) and northern . The Azerbaijanis, who inhabit the Âzerbâyjân provinces, form the vast majority of these Turkish-speaking Iranians: between 20 and 25% of the total population. Because of their large numbers in big cities, like Tabriz and especially in Tehran and its surrounding region, these languages are dominant in only 12% of the rural cantons (). Turkish-speaking areas are often very homogeneous (more than 90% of Turkish-speaking villages in the same dehestân) in Âzerbâyjân and in the . Because of the great dispersion of Turkish villages in the Zagros mountains, Fars region and northern Khorasan since the mid-nineteenth century, the Turkish-speaking population gradually mixed with and Persian-speakers, especially in Tehran and suburban cities such as Karaj, and . The Turkish-speaking population in Iran is the result of a long history that began in the eleventh century with the invasion of Iran by the and lasted to the long ruling Turkic-speaking tribes such as the Safavids (1501-1736) who founded modern Iran in the sixteenth century and the (1786-1923).