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111-582: Baba Tahir is known as one of the most revered early poets in Persian literature. Little is known of his life. He was born in a Persian family and lived in Hamadan Province in Iran . He was known by the name of Baba Taher-e Oryan (The Naked), which suggests that he may have been a wandering dervish . Legend tells that the poet, an illiterate woodcutter, attended lectures at a religious school, where he

222-534: A Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa ( 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 ), which evolves into Fārs ( فارس ) in modern Persian. In the Bible , particularly in the books of Daniel , Esther , Ezra , and Nehemya , it is given as Pārās ( פָּרָס ). A Greek folk etymology connected the name to Perseus , a legendary character in Greek mythology . Herodotus recounts this story, devising a foreign son, Perses , from whom

333-576: A center of interest, particularly during the annual international Shiraz Arts Festival and the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire . The Pahlavi rulers modernized Iran, and ruled it until the 1979 Revolution . In modern Iran, the Persians make up the majority of the population. They are native speakers of the modern dialects of Persian , which serves as the country's official language. The Persian language belongs to

444-535: A dialect version of Gujarati , and no longer speak in Persian. They do however continue to use Avestan as their liturgical language. The Parsis have adapted many practices and tendencies of the Indian groups that surrounded them, such as Indian dress norms, and the observance of many Indian festivals and ceremonies. From Persis and throughout the Median, Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sasanian empires of ancient Iran to

555-410: A geometric system. The enclosure of this symmetrically arranged planting and irrigation by an infrastructure such as a palace created the impression of "paradise". The word paradise itself originates from Avestan pairidaēza ( Old Persian paridaida ; New Persian pardis , ferdows ), which literally translates to "walled-around". Characterized by its quadripartite ( čārbāq ) design,

666-471: A glorification of Selim I. After a period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Persianised itself) had developed towards a fully accepted language of literature, which was even able to satisfy the demands of a scientific presentation. However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%. The Ottomans produced thousands of Persian literary works throughout their century long lifespan. With

777-568: A lesser extent within the Caucasus proper to the northwest. In historical contexts, especially in English , "Persian" may be defined more loosely (often as a national identity) to cover all subjects of the ancient Persian polities, regardless of their ethnic background. The term Persian , meaning "from Persia", derives from Latin Persia , itself deriving from Greek Persís ( Περσίς ),

888-573: A literary language again of the Central Asian and West Asian lands. The rebirth of the language in its new form is often accredited to Ferdowsi , Unsuri , Daqiqi , Rudaki , and their generation, as they used pre-Islamic nationalism as a conduit to revive the language and customs of ancient Iran. So strong is the Persian inclination to versifying everyday expressions that one can encounter poetry in almost every classical work, whether from Persian literature, science, or metaphysics . In short,

999-533: A loaf of bread as fare, A joint of lamb, a jug of vintage rare, And you and I in wilderness encamped— No Sultan 's pleasure could with ours compare. The Persian poet and mystic Rumi (1207–1273) (known as Molana in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and as Mevlana in Turkey), has attracted a large following in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Popularizing translations by Coleman Barks have presented Rumi as

1110-683: A major role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire . The Medes , another group of ancient Iranian people, unified the region under an empire centered in Media , which would become the region's leading cultural and political power of the time by 612 BC. Meanwhile, under the dynasty of the Achaemenids , the Persians formed a vassal state to the central Median power. In 552 BC, the Achaemenid Persians revolted against

1221-435: A more available and detailed documentation than the earlier periods, and is especially more evident within the context of Zoroastrian musical rituals . Overall, Sasanian music was influential and was adopted in the subsequent eras. Iranian music, as a whole, utilizes a variety of musical instruments that are unique to the region, and has remarkably evolved since the ancient and medieval times. In traditional Sasanian music,

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1332-612: A number of different lands. The nucleus of the collection is formed by a Pahlavi Sassanid Persian book called Hazār Afsānah ( Persian : هزار افسان , Thousand Myths ), a collection of ancient Indian and Persian folk tales. During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the 8th century, Baghdad had become an important cosmopolitan city. Merchants from Persia , China , India , Africa, and Europe were all found in Baghdad. During this time, many of

1443-448: A park, surrounded by flowers and winding paths. The structure consists of twelve external pillars surrounding a central tower . It was constructed in 1970. Persians The Persians ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən z / PUR -zhənz or / ˈ p ɜːr ʃ ən z / PUR -shənz ) are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise the majority of the population of Iran . They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of

1554-704: A period of artistic growth that left a legacy ranging from Cyrus the Great's solemn tomb at Pasargadae to the structures at Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam . The Bam Citadel , a massive structure at 1,940,000 square feet (180,000 m ) constructed on the Silk Road in Bam , is from around the 5th century BC. The quintessential feature of Achaemenid architecture was its eclectic nature, with elements from Median architecture, Assyrian architecture, and Asiatic Greek architecture all incorporated. The architectural heritage of

1665-571: A reliable chronological source by many experts), as well as Ata-Malik Juvayni 's famous Tarikh-i Jahangushay-i Juvaini (which spans the Mongolid and Ilkhanid era of Iran ). Attar 's Tazkerat-ol-Owliya ("Biographies of the Saints") is also a detailed account of Sufi mystics, which is referenced by many subsequent authors and considered a significant work in mystical hagiography . The oldest surviving work of Persian literary criticism after

1776-507: A variety of Persian by the name of Aimaqi , which also belongs to the Dari dialect continuum. Persian-speaking communities native to modern Arab countries are generally designated as Ajam , including the Ajam of Bahrain , the Ajam of Iraq , and the Ajam of Kuwait . The Parsis are a Zoroastrian community of Persian descent who migrated to South Asia , to escape religious persecution after

1887-567: Is Siyasatnama , by Nizam al-Mulk , a famous Persian vizier . Kelileh va Demneh , translated from Indian folk tales, can also be mentioned in this category. It is seen as a collection of adages in Persian literary studies and thus does not convey folkloric notions. Among the major historical and biographical works in classical Persian, one can mention Abolfazl Beyhaghi 's famous Tarikh-i Beyhaqi , Lubab ul-Albab of Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi (which has been regarded as

1998-719: Is attested as late as 465". Following the Arab conquest of the Sasanian Empire in the medieval times, the Arab caliphates established their rule over the region for the next several centuries, during which the long process of the Islamization of Iran took place. Confronting the cultural and linguistic dominance of the Persians, beginning by the Umayyad Caliphate , the Arab conquerors began to establish Arabic as

2109-688: Is essentially a reciprocal cultural exchange. Its legacy and impact on the kingdom of Macedon was also notably huge, even for centuries after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe following the Greco-Persian Wars . During the Achaemenid era, Persian colonists settled in Asia Minor . In Lydia (the most important Achaemenid satrapy), near Sardis , there was the Hyrcanian plain , which, according to Strabo , got its name from

2220-695: Is esteemed more as a scientist than a poet in his native Persia, but in Fitzgerald's rendering, he became one of the most quoted poets in English. Khayyam's line, "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou", is known to many who could not say who wrote it, or where: گر دست دهد ز مغز گندم نانی وز می دو منی ز گوسفندی رانی وانگه من و تو نشسته در ویرانی عیشی بود آن نه حد هر سلطانی gar(agar) dast dahad ze maghz-e gandom nāni va'z(va az) mey do mani ze gūsfandi rāni vāngah man-o tō neshaste dar vīrāni 'eyshi bovad ān na had-de har soltāni Ah, would there were

2331-543: Is from the Behistun Inscription , a multilingual inscription from the time of Achaemenid ruler Darius the Great carved on a cliff in western Iran. There are several ethnic groups and communities that are either ethnically or linguistically related to the Persian people, living predominantly in Iran, and also within Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the Caucasus, Turkey, Iraq, and the Arab states of

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2442-536: Is known to have one of the world's oldest and most influential literatures. Old Persian written works are attested on several inscriptions from between the 6th and the 4th centuries BC, and Middle Persian literature is attested on inscriptions from the Parthian and Sasanian eras and in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the 3rd to the 10th century AD. New Persian literature flourished after

2553-421: Is regarded as the world's oldest existing carpet, depicts elements of Assyrian and Achaemenid designs, including stylistic references to the stone slab designs found in Persian royal buildings. According to the accounts reported by Xenophon, a great number of singers were present at the Achaemenid court. However, little information is available from the music of that era. The music scene of the Sasanian Empire has

2664-547: Is renowned both as a poet and as the founder of a widespread Sufi order. Hafez , too, is hugely admired in both East and West, and he was inspired by Sufism if he was not actually a Sufi himself. The themes and styles of this kind of devotional poetry have been widely imitated by many Sufi and non-Sufi poets. See also the article on Sufi poetry . Many notable texts in Persian mystic literature are not poems, yet highly read and regarded. Among those are Kimiya-yi sa'ādat , Asrar al-Tawhid and Kashf ul Mahjoob . Beginning in

2775-483: Is the guide to gnosis, and when gnosis has come the vision of knowledge lapses and there remain only the movements of knowledge to gnosis"; "knowledge is the crown of the gnostic, and gnosis is the crown of knowledge"; "whoever witnesses what is decreed by God remains motionless and powerless." His tomb , designed by Mohsen Foroughi, is located near the northern entrance of the city of Hamadan in Western Iran, in

2886-642: Is the immediate ancestor of Modern Persian and a variety of other Iranian dialects, became the official language of the empire and was greatly diffused among Iranians. The Parthians and the Sasanians would also extensively interact with the Romans culturally. The Roman–Persian wars and the Byzantine–Sasanian wars would shape the landscape of Western Asia , Europe , the Caucasus , North Africa, and

2997-619: Is the largest comprehensive Persian dictionary ever published, comprising 16 volumes (more than 27,000 pages). It is published by the Tehran University Press (UTP) under the supervision of the Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute and was first published in 1931. It traces the historical development of the Persian language, providing a comprehensive resource to scholars and academic researchers, as well as describing usage in its many variations throughout

3108-465: The do-baytī style, a form of Persian quatrains, which some scholars regard as having affinities with Middle Persian verses. Attributed to him is a work by the name Kalemat-e Qesaar, a collection of nearly 400 aphorisms in Arabic , which has been the subject of commentaries, one allegedly by Ayn-al-Qozat Hamadani. An example of such a saying is one where Baba Tahir ties knowledge with gnosis: "Knowledge

3219-638: The Arab conquest of Iran with its earliest records from the 9th century, and was developed as a court tradition in many eastern courts. The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , the Divān of Hafez , The Conference of the Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi are among

3330-402: The Caucasus (primarily in the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan , Russia ), albeit heavily assimilated, are known as Tats . Historically, however, the terms Tajik and Tat were used synonymously and interchangeably with Persian . Many influential Persian figures hailed from outside of Iran's present-day borders—to the northeast in Afghanistan and Central Asia , and to

3441-630: The Caucasus , and Turkey , regions of Central Asia (such as Tajikistan ), South Asia and the Balkans where the Persian language has historically been either the native or official language. For example, Rumi , one of the best-loved Persian poets, born in Balkh (in modern-day Afghanistan) or Wakhsh (in modern-day Tajikistan), wrote in Persian and lived in Konya (in modern-day Turkey), at that time

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3552-772: The Greek colonies of the Tauric Chersonesos , and for a brief time the Roman province of Asia . After a long struggle with Rome in the Mithridatic Wars , Pontus was defeated; part of it was incorporated into the Roman Republic as the province of Bithynia and Pontus , and the eastern half survived as a client kingdom. Following the Macedonian conquests , the Persian colonists in Cappadocia and

3663-572: The Iranian calendar , which corresponds to around March 21 in the Gregorian calendar. An ancient tradition that has been preserved in Iran and several other countries that were under the influence of the ancient empires of Iran, Nowruz has been registered on UNESCO 's Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists . In Iran, the Nowruz celebrations (incl. Charshanbe Suri and Sizdebedar ) begin on the eve of

3774-579: The Old Assyrian form Parahše , designating a region belonging to the Sumerians . The name of this region was adopted by a nomadic ancient Iranian people who migrated to the region in the west and southwest of Lake Urmia , eventually becoming known as "the Persians". The ninth-century BC Neo-Assyrian inscription of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III , found at Nimrud , gives it in

3885-563: The Pahlavi dynasty issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran , the native name of the country, in formal correspondence. However, the term Persian is still historically used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent . Persia is first attested in Assyrian sources from the third millennium BC in

3996-510: The Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian . The ancient Persians were originally an ancient Iranian people who had migrated to the region of Persis (corresponding to the modern-day Iranian province of Fars ) by the 9th century BCE. Together with their compatriot allies, they established and ruled some of the world's most powerful empires that are well-recognized for their massive cultural, political, and social influence, which covered much of

4107-479: The Sasanian Empire , a national culture that was fully aware of being Iranian took shape, partially motivated by restoration and revival of the wisdom of "the old sages" ( dānāgān pēšēnīgān ). Other aspects of this national culture included the glorification of a great heroic past and an archaizing spirit. Throughout the period, Iranian identity reached its height in every aspect. Middle Persian , which

4218-518: The Seljuks , the Sultanate of Rum , took Persian language, art and letters to Anatolia. They adopted Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans , which can "roughly" be seen as their eventual successors, took this tradition over. Persian was the official court language of the empire, and for some time, the official language of the empire. The educated and noble class of

4329-502: The Sho'ubiyye as asserting that the pre-Islamic Iranians had books on eloquence, such as 'Karvand'. No trace remains of such books. There are some indications that some among the Persian elite were familiar with Greek rhetoric and literary criticism ( Zarrinkoub , 1947). While initially overshadowed by Arabic during the Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphates, New Persian soon became

4440-561: The Tahirids and Samanids being based in Khorasan. Persian poets such as Ferdowsi , Saadi , Hafiz , Attar , Nezami , Rumi and Omar Khayyam are also known in the West and have influenced the literature of many countries. Very few literary works of Achaemenid Iran have survived, partly due to the destruction of the library at Persepolis . Most of what remains consists of

4551-586: The Timurid era and produced the likes of Amir Khosrow Dehlavi , and Bhai Nand Lal Goya . The most significant prose writings of this era are Nizami Arudhi Samarqandi 's "Chahār Maqāleh" as well as Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi 's anecdote compendium Jawami ul-Hikayat . Shams al-Mo'ali Abol-hasan Ghaboos ibn Wushmgir 's famous work, the Qabus nama ( A Mirror for Princes ), is a highly esteemed Belles-lettres work of Persian literature. Also highly regarded

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4662-470: The Western world , the names Persia and Persian came to refer to all of Iran and its subjects. Some medieval and early modern Islamic sources also used cognates of the term Persian to refer to various Iranian peoples and languages, including the speakers of Khwarazmian , Mazanderani , and Old Azeri . 10th-century Iraqi historian Al-Masudi refers to Pahlavi , Dari , and Azari as dialects of

4773-445: The epic style of poetry, with Ferdowsi 's Shahnama at the apex. By glorifying the Iranian historical past in heroic and elevated verses, he and other notables such as Daqiqi and Asadi Tusi presented the " Ajam " with a source of pride and inspiration that has helped preserve a sense of identity for the Iranian people over the ages. Ferdowsi set a model to be followed by a host of other poets later on. The 13th century marks

4884-410: The octave was divided into seventeen tones. By the end of the 13th century, Iranian music also maintained a twelve-interval octave, which resembled the western counterparts. The Iranian New Year 's Day, Nowruz , which translates to "new day", is celebrated by Persians and other peoples of Iran to mark the beginning of spring on the vernal equinox on the first day of Farvardin , the first month of

4995-774: The western group of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family . Modern Persian is classified as a continuation of Middle Persian , the official religious and literary language of the Sasanian Empire , itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used by the time of the Achaemenid Empire . Old Persian is one of the oldest Indo-European languages attested in original text. Samples of Old Persian have been discovered in present-day Iran, Armenia , Egypt , Iraq , Romania ( Gherla ), and Turkey . The oldest attested text written in Old Persian

5106-459: The Šāh-nāma are quite popular, and the stories of Rostam and Sohrāb , or Bījan and Maniža became part of Georgian folklore. Farmanfarmaian in the Journal of Persianate Studies : Distinguished scholars of Persian such as Gvakharia and Todua are well aware that the inspiration derived from the Persian classics of the ninth to the twelfth centuries produced a ‘cultural synthesis’ which saw, in

5217-477: The Šāh-nāma that is no longer extant. ... The Šāh-nāma was translated, not only to satisfy the literary and aesthetic needs of readers and listeners, but also to inspire the young with the spirit of heroism and Georgian patriotism. Georgian ideology, customs, and worldview often informed these translations because they were oriented toward Georgian poetic culture. Conversely, Georgians consider these translations works of their native literature. Georgian versions of

5328-548: The 14th century, while it simultaneously grew in the Indian subcontinent and Ottoman Turkey, regions that were increasingly becoming Persianized. Only 4 dictionaries of Persian were compiled in Iran between the 10th and 19th centuries, while more than 66 were produced in India. Significant dictionaries from India include the Farhang-e Ghavvas, Sharafnama-ye Ebrahimi , Farhang-i Jahangiri , and Burhan-i Qati . Unlike

5439-518: The 1950s. Currently, English-Persian dictionaries of Manouchehr Aryanpour and Soleiman Haim are widely used in Iran. Also highly regarded in the contemporary Persian literature lexical corpus are the works of Dr. Mohammad Moin . The first volume of Moin Dictionary was published in 1963. Some of Persia's best-beloved medieval poets were Sufis , and their poetry was, and is, widely read by Sufis from Morocco to Indonesia . Rumi, in particular,

5550-458: The 20th century, for example, largely based their works on the detailed lexicography produced in India, using compilations such as Ghazi khan Badr Muhammad Dehlavi 's Adat al-Fudhala ( اداة الفضلا ), Ibrahim Ghavamuddin Farughi 's Farhang-i Ibrahimi ( فرهنگ ابراهیمی ), and particularly Muhammad Padshah's Farhang-i Anandraj ( فرهنگ آنندراج ). Persian learning was also widespread in

5661-804: The Abbasid and Samanid courts into every major Iranian dynasty . The Qasida was perhaps the most famous form of panegyric used, though quatrains such as those in Omar Khayyam 's Ruba'iyyat are also widely popular. Khorasani style , whose followers mostly were associated with Greater Khorasan , is characterized by its supercilious diction, dignified tone, and relatively literate language. The chief representatives of this lyricism are Asjadi , Farrukhi Sistani , Unsuri , and Manuchehri . Panegyric masters such as Rudaki were known for their love of nature, their verses abounding with evocative descriptions. Through these courts and system of patronage emerged

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5772-649: The Balkans insofar as that it was a town where Persian was also widely spoken. However, the Persian of Vardar Yenicesi and throughout the rest of the Ottoman-held Balkans was different from formal Persian both in accent and vocabulary. The difference was apparent to such a degree that the Ottomans referred to it as "Rumelian Persian" ( Rumili Farsisi ). As learned people such as students, scholars and literati often frequented Vardar Yenicesi, it soon became

5883-574: The Caucasus (primarily living in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian republic of Dagestan ), speak a language ( Tat language ) that is closely related to Persian. The origin of the Tat people is traced to an Iranian-speaking population that was resettled in the Caucasus by the time of the Sasanian Empire. The Lurs , an ethnic Iranian people native to western Iran, are often associated with

5994-437: The Islamic conquest of Persia is Muqaddame-ye Shahname-ye Abu Mansuri , which was written during the Samanid period . The work deals with the myths and legends of Shahnameh and is considered the oldest surviving example of Persian prose. It also shows an attempt by the authors to evaluate literary works critically. One Thousand and One Nights ( Persian : هزار و یک شب ) is a medieval folk tale collection which tells

6105-400: The Late Assyrian forms Parsua and Parsumaš as a region and a people located in the Zagros Mountains , the latter likely having migrated southward and transferred the name of the region with them to what would become Persis (Persia proper, i.e., modern-day Fars ), and that is considered to be the earliest attestation to the ancient Persian people. The ancient Persians played

6216-403: The Median monarchy, leading to the victory of Cyrus the Great over the throne in 550 BC. The Persians spread their influence to the rest of what is considered to be the Iranian Plateau , and assimilated with the non-Iranian indigenous groups of the region, including the Elamites and the Mannaeans . At its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in

6327-433: The Mediterranean Basin for centuries. For a period of over 400 years, the Sasanians and the neighboring Byzantines were recognized as the two leading powers in the world. Cappadocia in Late Antiquity , now well into the Roman era, still retained a significant Iranian character; Stephen Mitchell notes in the Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity : "Many inhabitants of Cappadocia were of Persian descent and Iranian fire worship

6438-405: The Ottoman Empire all spoke Persian, such as sultan Selim I , despite being Safavid Iran's archrival and a staunch opposer of Shia Islam . It was a major literary language in the empire. Some of the noted earlier Persian literature works during the Ottoman rule are Idris Bidlisi 's Hasht Bihisht , which begun in 1502 and covered the reign of the first eight Ottoman rulers, and the Salim-Namah ,

6549-409: The Ottoman-held Balkans ( Rumelia ), with a range of cities being famed for their long-standing traditions in the study of Persian and its classics, amongst them Saraybosna (modern Sarajevo , Bosnia and Herzegovina), Mostar (also in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Vardar Yenicesi (or Yenice-i Vardar, now Giannitsa , in the northern part of Greece). Vardar Yenicesi differed from other localities in

6660-408: The Parthian era, Iranian identity had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value. However, it did not yet have a political import. The Parthian language , which was used as an official language of the Parthian Empire, left influences on Persian, as well as on the neighboring Armenian language . The Parthian monarchy was succeeded by the Persian dynasty of the Sasanians in 224 AD. By the time of

6771-403: The Persian Gulf . The Tajiks are a people native to Tajikistan , Afghanistan , and Uzbekistan who speak Persian in a variety of dialects. The Tajiks of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are native speakers of Tajik , which is the official language of Tajikistan, and those in Afghanistan speak Dari , one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. The Tat people , an Iranian people native to

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6882-550: The Persian dictionaries of India, most dictionaries from Ottoman Turkey are bilingual (Persian-Turkish). Some significant dictionaries of the era are Oqnum-e Ajam , Loghat-e Ne'matallah , and Lesan al-Ajam. In 1645, Christian Ravius completed a Persian- Latin dictionary, printed at Leiden. This was followed by John Richardson 's two-volume Oxford edition (1777) and Gladwin-Malda's (1770) Persian-English Dictionaries, Scharif and S. Peters' Persian-Russian Dictionary (1869), and 30 other Persian lexicographical translations through

6993-402: The Persian fire ceremony at the towns of Hyrocaesareia and Hypaepa . Mithridates III of Cius , a Persian nobleman and part of the Persian ruling elite of the town of Cius , founded the Kingdom of Pontus in his later life, in northern Asia Minor. At the peak of its power, under the infamous Mithridates VI the Great , the Kingdom of Pontus also controlled Colchis , Cappadocia , Bithynia ,

7104-432: The Persian garden was evolved and developed into various forms throughout history, and was also adopted in various other cultures in Eurasia. It was inscribed on UNESCO 's World Heritage List in June 2011. Carpet weaving is an essential part of the Persian culture, and Persian rugs are said to be one of the most detailed hand-made works of art. Achaemenid rug and carpet artistry is well recognized. Xenophon describes

7215-413: The Persian language. In 1333, medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta referred to the Afghans of Kabul as a specific sub-tribe of the Persians. Lady Mary (Leonora Woulfe) Sheil, in her observation of Iran during the Qajar era, states that the Kurds and the Leks would consider themselves as belonging to the race of the "old Persians". On 21 March 1935, the then-king of Iran Reza Shah of

7326-421: The Persian settlers that were moved from Hyrcania . Similarly near Sardis, there was the plain of Cyrus, which further signified the presence of numerous Persian settlements in the area. In all these centuries, Lydia and Pontus were reportedly the chief centers for the worship of the Persian gods in Asia Minor. According to Pausanias , as late as the second century AD, one could witness rituals which resembled

7437-459: The Persians is eclectic and has included contributions from both the east and the west. Due to the central location of Iran, Persian art has served as a fusion point between eastern and western traditions. Persians have contributed to various forms of art, including calligraphy , carpet weaving , glasswork , lacquerware , marquetry ( khatam ), metalwork , miniature illustration , mosaic , pottery , and textile design . The Persian language

7548-407: The Persians and the Kurds . They speak various dialects of the Luri language , which is considered to be a descendant of Middle Persian . The Hazaras , making up the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, speak a variety of Persian by the name of Hazaragi , which is more precisely a part of the Dari dialect continuum. The Aimaqs , a semi-nomadic people native to Afghanistan, speak

7659-447: The Persians took the name. Apparently, the Persians themselves knew the story, as Xerxes I tried to use it to suborn the Argives during his invasion of Greece, but ultimately failed to do so. Although Persis (Persia proper) was only one of the provinces of ancient Iran, varieties of this term (e.g., Persia ) were adopted through Greek sources and used as an exonym for all of the Persian Empire for many years. Thus, especially in

7770-440: The Sasanian Empire includes, among others, castle fortifications such as the Fortifications of Derbent (located in North Caucasus , now part of Russia ), the Rudkhan Castle and the Shapur-Khwast Castle , palaces such as the Palace of Ardashir and the Sarvestan Palace , bridges such as the Shahrestan Bridge and the Shapuri Bridge , the Archway of Ctesiphon , and the reliefs at Taq-e Bostan . Architectural elements from

7881-414: The ability to write in verse form was a pre-requisite for any scholar. For example, almost half of Avicenna 's medical writings are in verse. Works of the early era of Persian poetry are characterized by strong court patronage , an extravagance of panegyrics , and what is known as سبک فاخر "exalted in style". The tradition of royal patronage began perhaps under the Sassanid era and carried over through

7992-643: The ascendancy of lyric poetry with the consequent development of the ghazal into a major verse form, as well as the rise of mystical and Sufi poetry . This style is often called Araqi (Iraqi) style (Araq-e-Ajam) and is known by its emotional lyric qualities, rich meters, and the relative simplicity of its language. Emotional romantic poetry was not something new, however, as works such as Vis o Ramin by As'ad Gorgani , and Yusof o Zoleikha by Am'aq Bokharai exemplify. Poets such as Sana'i and Attar (who ostensibly inspired Rumi ), Khaqani Shirvani , Anvari , and Nizami , were highly respected ghazal writers. However,

8103-663: The capital of the Seljuks in Anatolia . The Ghaznavids conquered large territories in Central and South Asia and adopted Persian as their court language. There is thus Persian literature from Iran, Mesopotamia , Azerbaijan , the wider Caucasus, Turkey, Pakistan , Bangladesh , India , Tajikistan and other parts of Central Asia, as well as the Balkans. Not all Persian literature is written in Persian , as some consider works written by ethnic Persians or Iranians in other languages, such as Greek and Arabic , to be included. At

8214-404: The carpet production in the city of Sardis, stating that the locals take pride in their carpet production. A special mention of Persian carpets is also made by Athenaeus of Naucratis in his Deipnosophistae , as he describes a "delightfully embroidered" Persian carpet with "preposterous shapes of griffins ". The Pazyryk carpet, a Scythian pile-carpet dating back to the 4th century BC that

8325-579: The earliest stages of written secular literature in Georgia, the resumption of literary contacts with Iran, “much stronger than before” (Gvakharia, 2001, p. 481). Ferdowsi’s Shahnama was a never-ending source of inspiration, not only for high literature, but for folklore as well. “Almost every page of Georgian literary works and chronicles [...] contains names of Iranian heroes borrowed from the Shahnama ” (ibid). Ferdowsi, together with Nezāmi , may have left

8436-703: The early 16th century, Persian traditions had a large impact on the Georgian ruling elites, which in turn resulted in Persian influence on Georgian art, architecture, and literature. This cultural influence lasted until the arrival of the Russians. Jamshid Sh. Giunashvili remarks on the connection of Georgian culture with that of the Persian literary work Shahnameh : The names of many Šāh-nāma heroes, such as Rostom-i , Thehmine, Sam-i , or Zaal-i , are found in 11th- and 12th-century Georgian literature . They are indirect evidence for an Old Georgian translation of

8547-482: The elite of this school are Rumi, Saadi , and Hafiz Shirazi . Regarding the tradition of Persian love poetry during the Safavid era, Persian historian Ehsan Yarshater notes, "As a rule, the beloved is not a woman, but a young man. In the early centuries of Islam, the raids into Central Asia produced many young slaves . Slaves were also bought or received as gifts. They were made to serve as pages at court or in

8658-526: The emergence of the Ghaznavids and their successors such as the Ghurids , Timurids and Mughal Empire , Persian culture and its literature gradually moved into South Asia too. In general, from its earliest days, Persian literature and language was imported into the subcontinent by culturally Persianised Turkic and Afghan dynasties. Persian became the language of the nobility, literary circles, and

8769-621: The expansion of the Persianate societies , particularly those of Turco-Persian and Indo-Persian blends. After over eight centuries of foreign rule within the region, the Iranian hegemony was reestablished by the emergence of the Safavid Empire in the 16th century. Under the Safavid Empire, focus on Persian language and identity was further revived, and the political evolution of the empire once again maintained Persian as

8880-571: The fall of the Sassanian Empire . They have had a significant role in the development of India , Pakistan and Sri Lanka , and also played a role in the development of Iranian nationalism during the late Qajar years and Pahlavi dynasty. They are primarily located in the western regions of India principally the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra , with smaller communities in other parts of India and in South and Southeast Asia. They speak

8991-669: The fall of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, records only traces of Persians in western Asia Minor; however, he considered Cappadocia "almost a living part of Persia". The Iranian dominance collapsed in 330 BC following the conquest of the Achaemenid Empire by Alexander the Great , but reemerged shortly after through the establishment of the Parthian Empire in 247 BC, which was founded by a group of ancient Iranian people rising from Parthia . Until

9102-489: The famous works of medieval Persian literature. A thriving contemporary Persian literature has also been formed by the works of writers such as Ahmad Shamlou , Forough Farrokhzad , Mehdi Akhavan-Sales , Parvin E'tesami , Sadegh Hedayat , and Simin Daneshvar , among others. Not all Persian literature is written in Persian, as works written by Persians in other languages—such as Arabic and Greek—might also be included. At

9213-448: The first great poet of Sufi love in Persian literature. In the last two decades his do-baytis have often been put to music". Baba Tahir's poems are recited to the present day all over Iran accompanied by the setar , the three stringed lute. This style of poetry is known as Pahlaviat and it is very ancient. The quatrains of Baba Tahir have a more amorous and mystical connotation rather than philosophical. Many of Baba Tahir's poems are of

9324-710: The first time after two centuries of no attestation of the language, now having received the Arabic script and a large Arabic vocabulary. Persian language and culture continued to prevail after the invasions and conquests by the Mongols and the Turks (including the Ilkhanate , Ghaznavids , Seljuks , Khwarazmians , and Timurids ), who were themselves significantly Persianized , further developing in Asia Minor , Central Asia , and South Asia , where Persian culture flourished by

9435-493: The ghazal. " During the same Safavid era, many subjects of the Iranian Safavids were patrons of Persian poetry, such as Teimuraz I of Kakheti . In the didactic genre one can mention Sanai 's Hadiqat-ul-Haqiqah (Garden of Truth) as well as Nizami 's Makhzan-ul-Asrār (Treasury of Secrets). Some of Attar 's works also belong to this genre as do the major works of Rumi, although some tend to classify these in

9546-428: The good and beautiful things that the soil produce." The Persian garden , the earliest examples of which were found throughout the Achaemenid Empire, has an integral position in Persian architecture. Gardens assumed an important place for the Achaemenid monarchs, and utilized the advanced Achaemenid knowledge of water technologies, including aqueducts , earliest recorded gravity-fed water rills, and basins arranged in

9657-409: The households of the affluent, or as soldiers and bodyguards. Young men, slaves or not, also, served wine at banquets and receptions, and the more gifted among them could play music and maintain a cultivated conversation. It was love toward young pages, soldiers, or novices in trades and professions which was the subject of lyrical introductions to panegyrics from the beginning of Persian poetry, and of

9768-548: The last Wednesday of the preceding year in the Iranian calendar and last on the 13th day of the new year. Islamic festivals are also widely celebrated by Muslim Persians. Persian literature Persian literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures . It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources have been within Greater Iran including present-day Iran , Iraq , Afghanistan ,

9879-897: The latter of which dates back as far as 522 BCE, the date of the earliest surviving Achaemenid inscription, the Behistun Inscription . The bulk of surviving Persian literature, however, comes from the times following the Muslim conquest of Persia c. 650 CE. After the Abbasids came to power (750 CE), the Iranians became the scribes and bureaucrats of the Islamic Caliphate and, increasingly, also its writers and poets. The New Persian language literature arose and flourished in Khorasan and Transoxiana because of political reasons, early Iranian dynasties of post-Islamic Iran such as

9990-585: The lyrical type due to their mystical and emotional qualities. In addition, some tend to group Naser Khosrow 's works in this style as well; however true gems of this genre are two books by Saadi, a heavyweight of Persian literature, the Bustan and the Gulistan . After the 15th century, the Indian style of Persian poetry (sometimes also called Isfahani or Safavi styles) took over. This style has its roots in

10101-617: The main language of the country. During the times of the Safavids and subsequent modern Iranian dynasties such as the Qajars , architectural and iconographic elements from the time of the Sasanian Persian Empire were reincorporated, linking the modern country with its ancient past. Contemporary embracement of the legacy of Iran's ancient empires, with an emphasis on the Achaemenid Persian Empire, developed particularly under

10212-464: The most enduring imprint on Georgian literature (...) Despite that Asia Minor (or Anatolia ) had been ruled various times prior to the Middle Ages by various Persian-speaking dynasties originating in Iran, the language lost its traditional foothold there with the demise of the Sassanian Empire . Centuries later however, the practise and usage in the region would be strongly revived. A branch of

10323-441: The neighboring Greek city states and the kingdom of Macedon , and later throughout the medieval Islamic world , all the way to modern Iran and others parts of Eurasia , Persian culture has been extended, celebrated, and incorporated. This is due mainly to its geopolitical conditions, and its intricate relationship with the ever-changing political arena once as dominant as the Achaemenid Empire. The artistic heritage of

10434-421: The primary language of the subject peoples throughout their empire, sometimes by force, further confirming the new political reality over the region. The Arabic term ʿAjam , denoting "people unable to speak properly", was adopted as a designation for non-Arabs (or non-Arabic speakers), especially the Persians. Although the term had developed a derogatory meaning and implied cultural and ethnic inferiority, it

10545-489: The reign of the Pahlavi dynasty , providing the motive of a modern nationalistic pride. Iran's modern architecture was then inspired by that of the country's classical eras, particularly with the adoption of details from the ancient monuments in the Achaemenid capitals Persepolis and Pasargadae and the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon . Fars, corresponding to the ancient province of Persia, with its modern capital Shiraz , became

10656-606: The rest of Asia Minor were cut off from their co-religionists in Iran proper, but they continued to practice the Iranian faith of their forefathers. Strabo, who observed them in the Cappadocian Kingdom in the first century BC, records (XV.3.15) that these "fire kindlers" possessed many "holy places of the Persian Gods", as well as fire temples. Strabo, who wrote during the time of Augustus ( r.  27 BC – AD 14 ), almost three hundred years after

10767-654: The royal Mughal courts for hundreds of years. In the early 19th century, Hindustani replaced it. Under the Mughal Empire during the 16th century, the official language of the Indian subcontinent became Persian. Only in 1832 did the British army force the South Asia to begin conducting business in English. (Clawson, p.  6) Persian poetry in fact flourished in these regions while post- Safavid Iranian literature stagnated. Dehkhoda and other scholars of

10878-959: The royal inscriptions of Achaemenid kings, particularly Darius I (522–486 BC) and his son Xerxes . Many Zoroastrian writings were destroyed in the Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century. The Parsis who fled to India , however, took with them some of the books of the Zoroastrian canon, including some of the Avesta and ancient commentaries ( Zend ) thereof. Some works of Sassanid geography and travel also survived, albeit in Arabic translations. No single text devoted to literary criticism has survived from pre-Islamic Iran . However, some essays in Pahlavi , such as "Ayin-e name nebeshtan" (Principles of Writing Book) and "Bab-e edteda’I-ye" ( Kalileh o Demneh ), have been considered as literary criticism (Zarrinkoub, 1959). Some researchers have quoted

10989-475: The same time, not all literature written in Persian is written by ethnic Persians or Iranians, as Turkic, Caucasian, Indic and Slavic poets and writers have also used the Persian language in the environment of Persianate cultures. Described as one of the great literatures of humanity, including Goethe 's assessment of it as one of the four main bodies of world literature, Persian literature has its roots in surviving works of Middle Persian and Old Persian ,

11100-426: The same time, not all literature written in Persian is written by ethnic Persians or Iranians, as Turkic, Caucasian, and Indic authors have also used Persian literature in the environment of Persianate cultures . The most notable examples of ancient Persian architecture are the works of the Achaemenids hailing from Persis . Achaemenid architecture , dating from the expansion of the empire around 550 BC, flourished in

11211-655: The site of a flourishing Persianate linguistic and literary culture. The 16th-century Ottoman Aşık Çelebi (died 1572), who hailed from Prizren in modern-day Kosovo , was galvanized by the abundant Persian-speaking and Persian-writing communities of Vardar Yenicesi, and he referred to the city as a "hotbed of Persian". Many Ottoman Persianists who established a career in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul ) pursued early Persian training in Saraybosna, amongst them Ahmed Sudi . Persian literature

11322-439: The stories that were originally folk stories are thought to have been collected orally over many years and later compiled into a single book. The compiler and 9th-century translator into Arabic is reputedly the storyteller Abu Abd-Allah Muhammad el-Gahshigar . The frame story of Shahrzad seems to have been added in the 14th century. The biggest Persian dictionary is Dehkhoda Dictionary (16 volumes) by Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda . It

11433-530: The story of Scheherazade ( Persian : شهرزاد Šahrzād ), a Sassanid queen who must relate a series of stories to her malevolent husband, King Shahryar ( Persian : شهریار Šahryār ), to delay her execution. The stories are told over a period of one thousand and one nights, and every night she ends the story with a suspenseful situation, forcing the King to keep her alive for another day. The individual stories were created over several centuries, by many people from

11544-508: The territory and population of the ancient world . Throughout history, the Persian people have contributed greatly to art and science . Persian literature is one of the world's most prominent literary traditions. In contemporary terminology, people from Afghanistan , Tajikistan , and Uzbekistan who natively speak the Persian language are known as Tajiks , with the former two countries having their own dialects of Persian known as Dari and Tajiki , respectively; whereas those in

11655-554: The time of Iran's ancient Persian empires have been adopted and incorporated in later period. They were used especially during the modernization of Iran under the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty to contribute to the characterization of the modern country with its ancient history. Xenophon , in his Oeconomicus , states: "The Great King [Cyrus II]...in all the districts he resides in and visits, takes care that there are parádeisos ("paradise") as they [Persians] call them, full of

11766-529: The west to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenids developed the infrastructure to support their growing influence, including the establishment of the cities of Pasargadae and Persepolis . The empire extended as far as the limits of the Greek city states in modern-day mainland Greece , where the Persians and Athenians influenced each other in what

11877-524: The world. He names 200 Persian lexicographical works in his dictionary, the earliest, Farhang-i Oim ( فرهنگ اویم ) and Farhang-i Menakhtay ( فرهنگ مناختای ), from the late Sassanid era of the 3rd-7th century. The most widely used Persian lexicons in the Middle Ages were those of Abu Hafs Sughdi ( فرهنگ ابوحفص سغدی ) and Asadi Tusi ( فرهنگ لغت فرس ), written in 1092. The production of Persian dictionaries declined in Iran after

11988-551: Was completed 603/1206, describes a meeting between Baba Tahir and the Seljuq conqueror Tughril (pp. 98–99). At the time when Baba Tahir lived in the 10th century, there were great changes occurring in the development and growth of literature and art. Medieval artists and poets in Persia were greatly respected and valued and had the right to express their thoughts freely. According to L. P. Elwell-Sutton : "He could be described as

12099-544: Was gradually accepted as a synonym for "Persian" and still remains today as a designation for the Persian-speaking communities native to the modern Arab states of the Middle East. A series of Muslim Iranian kingdoms were later established on the fringes of the declining Abbasid Caliphate , including that of the ninth-century Samanids , under the reign of whom the Persian language was used officially for

12210-431: Was little known in the West before the 18-19th century. It became much better known following the publication of several translations from the works of late medieval Persian poets, and it inspired works by various Western poets and writers. Perhaps the most popular Persian poet of the 19th and early 20th centuries was Omar Khayyam (1048–1123), whose Rubaiyat was freely translated by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. Khayyam

12321-439: Was not welcomed by his fellow-students. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. One source indicates that he died in 1019. If this is accurate, it would make Baba Tahir a contemporary of Ferdowsi and Avicenna and an immediate precursor of Omar Khayyam . Another source reports that he lived between 1000 and 1055, which is unlikely. It is said that Baba Tahir lived for seventy-five years. Rahat al-sodur of Ravandi, whose work

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