Iranian Azerbaijanis
According to Ahmadi, the nationalism in Iran is that it has been largely promoted by intellectuals coming from the ethnically populated or originally non-Persian-speaking areas of Iran, in this case, Azerbaijani-speaking elites have played a remarkable role. Azerbaijani intellectuals such as Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Kazemzadeh Iranshahr, Ahmad Kasravi, Hassan Taqizadeh, Mahmoud Afshar, Taqi Arani, Yahya Zoka, Rezazadeh Shafaq, Javad Tabatabai, and others have contributed to the idea of nationalism and Iranian national identity and culture.