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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Qashqai of Iran

The Qashqai of Iran, numbering approximately 2,085,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as an ethnolinguistic community of Iran They are an Indigenous people, with Qashqai as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Azerbaijani people cluster of the Turkic Peoples. Their primary religion is Shia Islam. They primarily speak Kashkay.

Photo courtesy of Joshua Project. Photo Source: IAWTIran - Wikimedia IAWTIran - Wikimedia Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Turkic Peoples
Country: Iran
People Cluster: Azerbaijani
Primary Language(s): Kashkay (qxq)
Primary Religion(s): Shia Islam
Population: 2,085,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024203
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Pray for the Qashqai of Iran

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Shia Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

80%
%
Shia Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Kashkay
Language Family: Turkic

80%
%
Kashkay Speakers

Media Resources in Kashkay:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Kashkay:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Kashkay bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 1), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Qashqai:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Qashqai are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Qashqai:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Qashqai are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Qashqai:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Qashqai of Iran

For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
readPsalm 97:9

Pray that those who don't yet know Him will recognize the Lord as the Most High and turn from spiritual darkness to worship Him above all else.

But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
readMark 4:20

Pray that those who have never encountered the gospel will have the opportunity to receive it, and that it will fall on good soil and bear much fruit.

Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
readPsalm 25:6

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will remember the merciful nature and steadfast love of God as they walk with Him daily.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
readJohn 12:24

Pray that God will raise up men and women who are willing to die to their own desires, bearing much fruit for the kingdom among individuals and in places where His gospel has not been proclaimed.

Qashqai Across Countries (ROP3 - 108219) reported in the following countries:

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Definitions page.

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