159-832: Jalal al-Din Mangburni ( Persian : جلال الدین مِنکُبِرنی ), also known as Jalal al-Din Khwarazmshah ( جلال الدین خوارزمشاه ), was the last Khwarazmshah of the Anushtegin dynasty . The eldest son and successor of Ala ad-Din Muhammad II of the Khwarazmian Empire , Jalal al-Din was brought up at Gurganj , the wealthy capital of the Khwarazmid homeland. An able general, he served as second-in-command to his father in at least one battle ; however, since he
318-728: A Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages . Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran , Afghanistan , and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties , respectively Iranian Persian (officially known as Persian ), Dari Persian (officially known as Dari since 1964), and Tajiki Persian (officially known as Tajik since 1999). It
477-452: A day's journey away. In 1221, the city opened its gates to an invading Mongol horde, resulting in massive devastation . Historical accounts contend that the entire population (including refugees) were killed; Tolui Khan is reputed to have slaughtered 700,000 people. Though partly rebuilt after the Mongol destruction, the city never regained its former prosperity. Between 1788 and 1789,
636-655: A Dari dialect. In the 19th century, under the Qajar dynasty , the dialect that is spoken in Tehran rose to prominence. There was still substantial Arabic vocabulary, but many of these words have been integrated into Persian phonology and grammar. In addition, under the Qajar rule, numerous Russian , French , and English terms entered the Persian language, especially vocabulary related to technology. The first official attentions to
795-440: A Persian nobleman restored a large dam (the "Soltanbent") on the river Murghab , and the settlement which grew up in the irrigated area became known as Baýramaly , as referenced in some 19th-century texts. After Shah Ismail's death, the region became a dependency of Khiva , but in 1593 Merv was conquered by Abdullah Khan II of Bukhara . The city was soon captured by Shah Abbas, and a Safavid governor (Biktash Khan Ustajlu)
954-418: A dictionary called Words of Scientific Association ( لغت انجمن علمی ), which was completed in the future and renamed Katouzian Dictionary ( فرهنگ کاتوزیان ). The first academy for the Persian language was founded on 20 May 1935, under the name Academy of Iran . It was established by the initiative of Reza Shah Pahlavi , and mainly by Hekmat e Shirazi and Mohammad Ali Foroughi , all prominent names in
1113-674: A dispute over booty between Temur Malik and Ighrak, commander of the right flank. Jalal al-Din had won several victories against the Mongols in 1221, and after the Battle of Parwan, independent insurgency groups emerged in multiple cities inspired by his deeds. Kushteghin Pahlawan launched a revolt in Merv and ousted the Mongol administration; he then made a successful attack on Bukhara , while Herat also rebelled. These revolts would be crushed by
1272-458: A few days, he was joined by his maternal uncle Temur Malik, who brought an additional 30,000 veterans – al-Din now had a sizeable force with which to strike back at the Mongols. Meanwhile, back in Khwarazm, Gurganj , Merv , Balkh , and Nishapur had all been taken by the Mongol forces. Jalal al-Din, who had just married Temur Malik's daughter to solidify ties, marched towards Kandahar which
1431-607: A hero valianty fighting for "Persian independence" by the Iranian bureaucrat and historian Ata-Malik Juvayni (died 1283), who, however, was in reality aware that Jalal al-Din was fighting for his own survival and selfish motives. Jalal al-Din was the subject of the Uzbek-Turkish TV series Mendirman Jaloliddin , created by Mehmet Bozdağ in collaboration with the Uzbek Ministry of Culture and Sports , where he
1590-577: A joint team of archaeologists from Turkmenistan and the UK have made remarkable discoveries. In 2001, the Institute of Archaeology , University College London and the Turkmen authorities started a new collaboration. This Ancient Merv Project is concerned with the complex conservation and management issues posed by this site, furthering understanding of the site through archaeological research, and disseminating
1749-505: A language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Farsi , which is the Persian word for the Persian language, has also been used widely in English in recent decades, more often to refer to Iran's standard Persian. However, the name Persian is still more widely used. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature has maintained that the endonym Farsi is to be avoided in foreign languages, and that Persian
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#17327653244431908-480: A large garden, which included an artificial lake; similar gardens were found in other Central Asian palaces. Any remnants of interior or exterior decoration have been lost because of erosion or theft. Another notable Seljuk structure within the Shahryar Ark is the kepderihana (from the Persian, " Kaftar Khaneh ", or "pigeon house", i.e., the columbarium ). This mysterious building, among the best-preserved in
2067-417: A literary language considerably different from the spoken Persian of the time. This became the basis of what is now known as "Contemporary Standard Persian". There are three standard varieties of modern Persian: All these three varieties are based on the classic Persian literature and its literary tradition. There are also several local dialects from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan which slightly differ from
2226-770: A major mosque that contained 12,000 volumes. As the caliphate weakened, Persian general Tahir b. al -Husayn and his Tahirid dynasty replaced Arab rule in Merv in 821. The Tahirids ruled Merv from 821 to 873, followed by the Saffarids , then the Samanids and later the Ghaznavids . In 1037, the Seljuq Turkmens , a clan of Oghuz Turks moving from the steppes east of the Aral Sea , peacefully took over Merv under
2385-471: A new Mongol army commanded by Chormagan was sent to invade al Din's lands; they were met near Dameghan and defeated. In August 1228, a new Mongol army under the leadership of Taymas Noyan invaded the re-established kingdom. Jalal al-Din met them near Isfahan and the two armies battled. The Mongols scored a pyrrhic victory in this battle, unable to exploit their victory as they had no power left to advance. The same year, his brother Ghiyath al-Din rebelled but
2544-486: A number of years working at the observatory in Merv. As Persian geographer and traveller al-Istakhri wrote of Merv: "Of all the countries of Iran , these people were noted for their talents and education." Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi counted as many as 10 giant libraries in Merv, including one within a major mosque that contained 12,000 volumes. Merv was also a popular place for pilgrimage , and several religions considered it holy. In Zoroastrianism , Merv (Mouru)
2703-536: A period of several centuries, Ottoman Turkish (which was highly Persianised itself) had developed toward a fully accepted language of literature, and which was even able to lexically 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%. In the Ottoman Empire, Persian was used at the royal court, for diplomacy, poetry, historiographical works, literary works, and
2862-526: A pitched battle with his diminished army and after attempts to win back Ighrak and his men failed, he marched towards India. The Khan's army managed to surround al-Din's army on the banks of the River Indus and crushed them in the ensuing battle in November 1221. The Shah escaped the battle by jumping into the river fully armed, and reaching the other shore. This act of desperation is said to have drawn
3021-690: A place of some importance: under the name of Margu , it occurs as part of one satrapy in the Behistun inscriptions (c. 515 BC) of the Persian monarch Darius the Great . The first city of Merv was founded in the 6th century BC as part of the Achaemenid expansion into the region of Cyrus the Great (559–530 BC), but later strata deeply cover the Achaemenid levels at the site. Alexander
3180-483: A speaker of Persian. Persian is a member of the Western Iranian group of the Iranian languages , which make up a branch of the Indo-European languages in their Indo-Iranian subdivision . The Western Iranian languages themselves are divided into two subgroups: Southwestern Iranian languages, of which Persian is the most widely spoken, and Northwestern Iranian languages, of which Kurdish and Balochi are
3339-717: A substantial Christian community. In 1009, the Archbishop of Merv sent a letter to the Patriarch at Baghdad asking that the Keraites be allowed to fast less than other Nestorian Christians. Great Persian polymath Omar Khayyam , among others, spent several years working at the observatory in Merv. As Persian geographer and traveller al-Istakhri wrote of Merv: "Of all the countries of Iran , these people were noted for their talents and education." Yaqut al-Hamawi counted as many as 10 giant libraries in Merv, including one within
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#17327653244433498-662: A substantial army at Ghazni . He managed to inflict an excellent defeat on Shigi Qutuqu at the Battle of Parwan , but soon lost a good portion of his army in a dispute over spoils. He was defeated by a vengeful Genghis Khan at the Battle of the Indus , and fled across the river. Now essentially a warlord, Jalal al-Din managed to establish a succession of short-lived states: first in the Punjab from 1222 to 1224, and then in northwest Iran and Georgia after 1225. Jalal al-Din did not have
3657-664: Is a continuation of Middle Persian , an official language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE), itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used in the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE). It originated in the region of Fars ( Persia ) in southwestern Iran. Its grammar is similar to that of many European languages. Throughout history, Persian was considered prestigious by various empires centered in West Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia . Old Persian
3816-628: Is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian. Gernot Windfuhr considers new Persian as an evolution of the Old Persian language and the Middle Persian language but also states that none of the known Middle Persian dialects is the direct predecessor of Modern Persian. Ludwig Paul states: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian." The known history of
3975-796: Is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan , as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran . It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet , a derivative of the Arabic script , and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet , a derivative of the Cyrillic script . Modern Persian
4134-675: Is attested in Old Persian cuneiform on inscriptions from between the 6th and 4th century BC. Middle Persian is attested in Aramaic -derived scripts ( Pahlavi and Manichaean ) on inscriptions and in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the third to the tenth centuries (see Middle Persian literature ). New Persian literature was first recorded in the ninth century, after the Muslim conquest of Persia , since then adopting
4293-425: Is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian remains largely intelligible to speakers of Contemporary Persian, as the morphology and, to a lesser extent, the lexicon of the language have remained relatively stable. New Persian texts written in the Arabic script first appear in the 9th-century. The language is a direct descendant of Middle Persian, the official, religious, and literary language of
4452-478: Is evidence of Merv's importance during the pre-Islamic era; no pre-Islamic fortifications of comparable size have been found anywhere in the Garagum . Gäwürgala is also important for the vast amount of numismatic evidence it has revealed; an unbroken series of Sassanian coins has been found there, hinting the extraordinary political stability of this period. Even after the foundation of Soltangala by Abu Muslim at
4611-650: Is extremely soft." The Islamic world admired the elegant robes and silk turbans produced in Merv. The city was notable as a home for immigrants from the Arab lands and those from Sogdia and elsewhere in Central Asia. In the period from 813 to 818, the temporary residency of the caliph, al-Ma'mun effectively made Merv the capital of the Muslim world and highlighted Merv's importance to the Abbasids . A descendant of
4770-460: Is not actually attested until 600 years later when it appears in the Sassanid era (224–651 AD) inscriptions, so any form of the language before this date cannot be described with any degree of certainty. Moreover, as a literary language, Middle Persian is not attested until much later, in the 6th or 7th century. From the 8th century onward, Middle Persian gradually began yielding to New Persian, with
4929-475: Is one of Afghanistan's two official languages, together with Pashto . The term Dari , meaning "of the court", originally referred to the variety of Persian used in the court of the Sasanian Empire in capital Ctesiphon , which was spread to the northeast of the empire and gradually replaced the former Iranian dialects of Parthia ( Parthian ). Tajik Persian ( форси́и тоҷикӣ́ , forsi-i tojikī ),
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5088-585: Is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages. According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in Southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called Parsuwash , who arrived in the Iranian Plateau early in the 1st millennium BCE and finally migrated down into the area of present-day Fārs province. Their language, Old Persian, became
5247-495: Is the appropriate designation of the language in English, as it has the longer tradition in western languages and better expresses the role of the language as a mark of cultural and national continuity. Iranian historian and linguist Ehsan Yarshater , founder of the Encyclopædia Iranica and Columbia University 's Center for Iranian Studies, mentions the same concern in an academic journal on Iranology , rejecting
5406-400: Is the oldest and most perfectly preserved of the oasis cities along the historical Silk Road in Central Asia. A few buildings and structures still stand today, especially those constructed in the last two millennia. UNESCO has listed the site of ancient Merv as a World Heritage Site . Merv has prehistoric roots: archaeological surveys have revealed many traces of village life as far back as
5565-436: The Encyclopædia Iranica notes that the Iranian, Afghan, and Tajiki varieties comprise distinct branches of the Persian language, and within each branch a wide variety of local dialects exist. The following are some languages closely related to Persian, or in some cases are considered dialects: More distantly related branches of the Iranian language family include Kurdish and Balochi . The Glottolog database proposes
5724-506: The Kalila wa Dimna . The language spread geographically from the 11th century on and was the medium through which, among others, Central Asian Turks became familiar with Islam and urban culture. New Persian was widely used as a trans-regional lingua franca , a task aided due to its relatively simple morphology, and this situation persisted until at least the 19th century. In the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on
5883-410: The Achaemenid Empire , it was the center of the satrapy of Margiana . It was subsequently ruled by Hellenistic Kings , Parthians , Sasanians , Arabs , Ghaznavids , Seljuqs , Khwarazmians and Timurids , among others. Merv was the capital city of several polities throughout its history. In the beginning of the 9th century, Merv was the seat of the caliph al-Ma'mun and the capital of
6042-633: The Amu Darya pillaged the city. Subsequently, Merv changed hands from the Turkmen nomads to the Ghurids in 1192, and to the Khwarizmians in 1204. According to Tertius Chandler , by 1150 Merv was the world's largest city, with a population of 200,000. By 1210, it may have had as many as 500,000 residents, preceding such medieval metropolises as Constantinople and Baghdad. In 1221, Merv opened its gates to Tolui , son of Genghis Khan , chief of
6201-547: The Battle of Yassıçemen was seen as unbelievable. Modern historians are also positive concerning his military talent. Carl Sverdrup described Jalal al-Din as "brave and energetic"; while Timothy May describes him as the most stalwart enemy of the Mongols in West Asia until the time of the Mamluk Sultanate. Due to his reputation for resisting the Mongols, Jalal al-Din is commonly depicted on artwork resembling that of
6360-668: The British colonization , Persian was widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent . It took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts on the subcontinent and became the sole "official language" under the Mughal emperors . The Bengal Sultanate witnessed an influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers, and clerics. Thousands of Persian books and manuscripts were published in Bengal. The period of
6519-544: The Hellenistic and Sassanian metropolis and also served as an industrial suburb to the Abbasid/Seljuk city, Soltangala—by far the largest of the three. The smaller Timurid city was founded a short distance to the south and is now called Abdyllahangala. Other ancient buildings are scattered between and around these four cities; all the sites are preserved in the "Ancient Merv Archaeological Park" just north of
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6678-797: The Ilkhanate , and it was consistently looted by Chagatai Khanate . In the early part of the 14th century, the town became the seat of a Christian archbishopric of the Eastern Church under the rule of the Kartids , vassals of the Ilkhanids. By 1380, Merv belonged to the empire of Timur (Tamerlane). In 1505, the Uzbeks occupied Merv; five years later, Shah Ismail , the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Iran, expelled them. In this period,
6837-516: The Mongols . Most of the inhabitants are said to have been butchered. Arab historian Ibn al-Athir described the event basing his report on the narrative of Merv refugees: Genghis Khan sat on a golden throne and ordered the troops who had been seized should be brought before him. When they were in front of him, they were executed and the people looked on and wept. When it came to the common people, they separated men, women, children and possessions. It
6996-583: The Nizari Ismaili Assassins sent a letter to Ögedei Khan , proposing joint operation against Jalal al-Din. Ögedei Khan sent a new army of 30,000 – 50,000 men under the command of Chormagan and the remaining Khwarazmians, whose numbers were in hundreds, were swept away by the new Mongol army, which occupied Northern Iran . Jalal ad-Din took refuge in the Silvan mountains and there in August he
7155-622: The Sultanate of Delhi but Iltutmish denied this to him because of al-Din's poor relationship with the Abbasid caliphs ; he did however give one of his daughters to al-Din as a peace offering. The Khan sent Dorbei Doqshin with two tumens to pursue al-Din, whom he still regarded as a threat, in early 1222; one account has Doqshin fail to secure al-Din, and return to the Khan in Samarkand , who
7314-455: The Sultanate of Rum , Turkmen beyliks of Anatolia , Delhi Sultanate , the Shirvanshahs , Safavids , Afsharids , Zands , Qajars , Khanate of Bukhara , Khanate of Kokand , Emirate of Bukhara , Khanate of Khiva , Ottomans , and also many Mughal successors such as the Nizam of Hyderabad . Persian was the only non-European language known and used by Marco Polo at the Court of Kublai Khan and in his journeys through China. A branch of
7473-439: The Turkic , Armenian , Georgian , & Indo-Aryan languages . It also exerted some influence on Arabic, while borrowing a lot of vocabulary from it in the Middle Ages. Some of the world's most famous pieces of literature from the Middle Ages, such as the Shahnameh by Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , The Divān of Hafez , The Conference of
7632-423: The ezāfe construction, expressed through ī (modern e/ye ), to indicate some of the relations between words that have been lost with the simplification of the earlier grammatical system. Although the "middle period" of the Iranian languages formally begins with the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the transition from Old to Middle Persian had probably already begun before the 4th century BC. However, Middle Persian
7791-479: The " Persianized " Turko-Mongol dynasties during the 12th to 15th centuries, and under restored Persian rule during the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian during this time served as lingua franca of Greater Persia and of much of the Indian subcontinent . It was also the official and cultural language of many Islamic dynasties, including the Samanids, Buyids , Tahirids , Ziyarids , the Mughal Empire , Timurids , Ghaznavids , Karakhanids , Seljuqs , Khwarazmians ,
7950-450: The "capital of the eastern Islamic world". Written sources also attest to a large library and madrasa founded by Nizam al-Mulk , vizier of the Seljuq empire, as well as many other major cultural institutions. Perhaps most importantly, Merv had a market described as "the best of the major cities of Iran and Khurasan". Sanjar's rule, marked by conflict with the Kara-Khitai and Khwarazmians , ended in 1153 when Turkmen nomads from beyond
8109-459: The 12th century. During this period Merv, like Samarqand and Bukhara, functioned as one of the great cities of Muslim scholarship; the celebrated historian Yaqut (1179–1229) studied in its libraries. Merv produced a number of scholars in various branches of knowledge, such as Islamic law , hadith , history, and literature. Several scholars have the name "Marwazi" (المروزي) designating them as hailing from Merv. The city continued to have
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#17327653244438268-430: The 3rd millennium BC and have associated the area culturally with the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex . The geography of the Zend-Avesta (commentaries on the Avesta ) mentions Merv (under the name of Mouru ) along with Balkh . In Zoroastrianism , the god Ahura Mazda created Mouru as one of sixteen perfect lands. Under the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330 BC), the historical record mentions Merv as
8427-404: The Abbasid re-planning of Baghdad. A 10th-century Arab historian, Ibn Hawqal , wrote of Merv: "and in no other city are to be seen such palaces and groves, and gardens and streams". Merv was also known for its high-quality textiles. A 12th-century Arab geographer al-Idrisi noted: "From this country is derived much silk as well as cotton of a superior quality under the name of Merv cotton, which
8586-572: The Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi , are written in Persian. Some of the prominent modern Persian poets were Nima Yooshij , Ahmad Shamlou , Simin Behbahani , Sohrab Sepehri , Rahi Mo'ayyeri , Mehdi Akhavan-Sales , and Forugh Farrokhzad . There are approximately 130 million Persian speakers worldwide, including Persians , Lurs , Tajiks , Hazaras , Iranian Azeris , Iranian Kurds , Balochs , Tats , Afghan Pashtuns , and Aimaqs . The term Persophone might also be used to refer to
8745-419: The Bukharan oasis and the Samarkand region in the Zarafshan Valley. Being the last remaining Persian-speaking Shias , the deportees resisted assimilation into the Sunni population of Bukhara and Samarkand, despite the common Persian language they spoke with most natives. These Marvis survive as of 2016 —Soviet censuses listed them as " Iranis /Iranians" through the 1980s. They live in Samarkand and Bukhara and
8904-403: The Great 's visit to Merv is merely legendary, but the city was named Alexandria ( Ἀλεξάνδρεια ) after him for a time. After his death in 323 BC, it became the capital of the Province of Margiana of the Seleucid , Greco-Bactrian (256–125 BC), Parthian , and Sassanid states. The Seleucid ruler Antiochus Soter (reigned 281–261 BC) renamed it to Antiochia Margiana. He rebuilt and expanded
9063-400: The Hellenistic city and later the Arc of the Islamic city. The foundation of Gäwürgala (Turkmen from the Persian " Gabr Qala", "Fortress of the Zoroastrians ") occurred in the early Hellenistic era under the rule of the Seleucid king Antiochus I . The city was continuously inhabited under a series of Hellenistic rulers, by the Parthians , and then under the Sassanids, who made it
9222-404: The Islamic prophet Muhammad , 8th Imam of Twelver Shia Islam, Ali ar-Ridha moved to Merv and lived there for several years. Merv also became the centre of a major 8th-century Neo- Mazdakite movement led by al-Muqanna , the "Veiled Prophet", who gained many followers by claiming to be an incarnation of God and heir to Abu Muslim; the Khurramiyya inspired by him, persisted in Merv until
9381-400: The Khwarazm kingdom, but he never fully consolidated his power. In 1224, he confirmed Burak Hadjib , ruler of the Qara Khitai , in Kerman , and received the submission of his brother Ghiyath, who had established himself in Hamadan and Isfahan, and the province of Fars, and clashed with the Caliph An Nasser in Khuzestan, from whom he captured parts of Western Iran. The next year, he dethroned
9540-553: The Khwarezmians; due to the hot weather, the Mongols were forced to retreat after 42 days. Peter Jackson suggests that Doqshin, having been instructed not to return unsuccessfully, eventually converted to Islam and joined al-Din. The rest of al-Din's three years in exile in India were spent in taking large parts of Lahore and the Punjab ; he returned to Persia at the behest of his brother Ghiyath al-Din Pirshah, who still controlled parts of Persia, in late 1223. Having gathered an army and entered Persia, Jalal ad-Din sought to re-establish
9699-500: The Middle Ages, and is because of the lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The standard Persian of Iran has been called, apart from Persian and Farsi , by names such as Iranian Persian and Western Persian , exclusively. Officially, the official language of Iran is designated simply as Persian ( فارسی , fārsi ). The standard Persian of Afghanistan has been officially named Dari ( دری , dari ) since 1958. Also referred to as Afghan Persian in English, it
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#17327653244439858-419: The Mongols had occupied all of Transoxania , and had invaded Tocharistan , Guzgan and Gharchistan during the latter half of 1220. Jalal ad-Din rode to Gurganj , a city reportedly housing 90,000 soldiers, and found the city in turmoil. The city's nobility, like Terken Khatun, were not prepared to accept Jalal ad-Din as Shah, preferring the more malleable Uzlaq, and planned a coup against al-Din. Al-Din left
10017-436: The Mongols, and many atrocities perpetuated as retribution. Genghis Khan, now at Bamiyan , did not take this defeat lightly. After executing that fortress, he made his way eastwards to confront Jalal al-Din, using his powers of organisation to send detachments out to prevent the disparate Khwarazmid factions from uniting, one of whom al-Din managed to isolate and defeat. Al-Din knew he had no chance of winning against Genghis in
10176-429: 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 works during the Ottoman rule are Idris Bidlisi 's Hasht Bihisht , which began in 1502 and covered the reign of the first eight Ottoman rulers, and the Salim-Namah , a glorification of Selim I. After
10335-445: The Persian epic Shahnameh , where he is associated with the mythological warrior Rostam . Jalal al-Din's contemporary Ibn Wasil attributed the Mongol triumph over the Muslim countries into Jalal al-Din's fall, which was in turn attributed to Jalal al-Din's treachorus behaviour. Ibn Wasil explicitly stated that Jalal al-Din's army could have been a buffer between the Islamic countries and the Mongols. Even after defeating Jalal al-Din at
10494-459: The Persian language can be divided into the following three distinct periods: As a written language , Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions. The oldest known text written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscription , dating to the time of King Darius I (reigned 522–486 BC). Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now Iran , Romania ( Gherla ), Armenia , Bahrain , Iraq , Turkey, and Egypt . Old Persian
10653-425: The Persian language, a language historically called Dari, emerged in present-day Afghanistan. The first significant Persian poet was Rudaki . He flourished in the 10th century, when the Samanids were at the height of their power. His reputation as a court poet and as an accomplished musician and singer has survived, although little of his poetry has been preserved. Among his lost works are versified fables collected in
10812-401: The Persian model: Ottoman Turkish , Chagatai Turkic , Dobhashi Bengali , and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter languages" of Persian. "Classical Persian" loosely refers to the standardized language of medieval Persia used in literature and poetry . This is the language of the 10th to 12th centuries, which continued to be used as literary language and lingua franca under
10971-487: The Perso-Arabic script. Persian was the first language to break through the monopoly of Arabic on writing in the Muslim world , with Persian poetry becoming a tradition in many eastern courts. It was used officially as a language of bureaucracy even by non-native speakers, such as the Ottomans in Anatolia , the Mughals in South Asia, and the Pashtuns in Afghanistan. It influenced languages spoken in neighboring regions and beyond, including other Iranian languages,
11130-428: The Sasanian Empire (224–651). However, it is not descended from the literary form of Middle Persian (known as pārsīk , commonly called Pahlavi), which was spoken by the people of Fars and used in Zoroastrian religious writings. Instead, it is descended from the dialect spoken by the court of the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon and the northeastern Iranian region of Khorasan , known as Dari. The region, which comprised
11289-427: The Sassanids (who were Persians, i.e. from the southwest) from the preceding Arsacids (who were Parthians, i.e. from the northeast). While Ibn al-Muqaffa' (eighth century) still distinguished between Pahlavi (i.e. Parthian) and Persian (in Arabic text: al-Farisiyah) (i.e. Middle Persian), this distinction is not evident in Arab commentaries written after that date. "New Persian" (also referred to as Modern Persian)
11448-462: The Seljuks, the Sultanate of Rum , took Persian language, art, and letters to Anatolia. They adopted the Persian language as the official language of the empire. The Ottomans , who can roughly be seen as their eventual successors, inherited this tradition. 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
11607-571: The Shah from a humiliating defeat. However, he could not ignore the seizure of a trade caravan in Otrar and subsequent execution of Mongol envoys in Gurganj . War between the two new neighbours was inevitable. The Khan commanded a skilled and disciplined army: the precise size of it is disputed, but most agree on around 75,000 to 200,000 soldiers. The Khwarazmshah, meanwhile, faced many problems. His empire
11766-455: The Shah. The Battle of Parwan was fought on a rock-strewn, narrow valley which was unsuitable for the Mongol cavalry, and the Muslims fought dismounted until the final charge led by Jalal ad-Din, who personally commanded the center, resulting in the repulsion of the Mongols. This battle made Jalal al-Din's reputation; however, he soon lost half of his army through infighting: the sources report
11925-591: The Shahryar Ark (Persian, "the Sovereign's citadel"), is on its east side. In the centre of the Sharhryar Ark is the Seljuk palace, probably built by Sanjar. The surviving mud brick walls lead to the conclusion that this palace, though relatively small, was composed of tall, single-storey rooms surrounding a central court along with four axial iwans at the entrance to each side. Low areas nearby seem to indicate
12084-627: The Tekkes' advance, but in about 1856, the latter became the sovereign power in the country, and remained so until the Russians occupied the oasis in 1884. By 1868, the Russians had taken most of what would become Russian Central Asia except Turkmenistan . The Russians approached this area from the Caspian, and in 1881, they captured Geok Tepe in one of the bloodiest battles in the region . Much of
12243-712: The Umayyad caliphate. After the Abbasids established themselves in Baghdad, Abu Muslim continued to rule Merv as a semi-independent prince until his eventual assassination. Indeed, Merv operated as the centre of Abbasid partisanship for the duration of the Abbasid Revolution of 746–750, and became a consistent source of political support for the Abbasid rulers in Baghdad later on; the governorship of Khurasan at Merv
12402-542: The Uzbek Muzaffar al-Din, ruler of the Eldiguzids , and set himself up in their capital of Tabriz on 25 July 1225. That same year, he attacked Georgia , defeating its forces in the battle of Garni , and conquered Tbilisi , after which a hundred thousand citizens were allegedly put to death for not renouncing Christianity . Jalal ad-Din spent the rest of his days struggling against the Mongols, pretenders to
12561-522: The admiration of Genghis Khan, who forbade Mongols to pursue the Shah or shoot him with arrows. The Shah's surviving troops were however slaughtered, along with his harem and children. After the battle of Indus, Jalal al-Din crossed the Indus and settled in India. A local prince, who had six thousand men attacked Jalal al-Din's makeshift forces of no more than four thousand, but al-Din still triumphed, greatly enhancing his Indian appeal. He then sought asylum in
12720-811: The area in 1900. Valentin Alekseevich Zhukovsky of the Imperial Archaeological Commission directed the first fully professional dig in 1890 and published in 1894. Geologist Raphael Pumpelly and a German archaeologist, Hubert Schmidt, directed the American Carnegie Institute's excavations. Merv is the focus of the Ancient Merv Project (initially called the International Merv Project). From 1992 to 2000,
12879-738: The area in between on the Zarafshan river. They are listed as Persian speaking but counted separately from the local Tajiks because of their Shia religion and their maintaining of their ancient Mervi identity. Merv passed to the Khanate of Khiva in 1823. Sir Alexander Burnes traversed the country in 1832. About this time, the Persians forced the Tekke Turkmens , then living on the Tejen River , to migrate northward. Khiva contested
13038-498: The area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III . The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain, but from a linguistic viewpoint the word matches Old Persian pārsa itself coming directly from the older word * pārćwa . Also, as Old Persian contains many words from another extinct Iranian language, Median , according to P. O. Skjærvø it is probable that Old Persian had already been spoken before
13197-442: The battle of Indus, Genghis khan was keen on maintaining peace with Jalal al-Din, promising not to cross the demarcation between the Mongol empire and Jalal al-Din's re-established realm after being informed of Jalal al-Din's might. Though considered a successful warrior and a general, Jalal al-Din is considered a poor ruler and the loss of his re-established empire to Mongols has been attributed to his poor diplomacy and rulership; he
13356-413: The battles he took part in. He was a lion among lions and the most fearless among his valiant horsemen. He was mild in his temper though, did not get easily provoked and never used bad language. Juzjani described al-Din as "endowed with great heroism, valour and high talents and accomplishments". Yaqut al-Hamawi notes that Jalal al-Din was known as a bellicose warrior and Jalal al-Din's passiveness after
13515-472: The capital after being warned of the coup, accompanied by Timur Malik and 300 cavalry. Crossing the Karakum Desert , he attacked the garrison of a Mongol detachment at Nesa , killing most of the force including two brothers of Toghachar, son in law of Genghis Khan. The Mongols pursued, past Nishapur and Herat, but lost the trail before Ghazni, where al-Din found 50,000 loyalists waiting for him. After
13674-421: The capital of a satrapy. Gäwürgala was the capital of the Umayyad province of Khurasan and grew in importance as Khurasan became the most loyally Muslim part of the Iranian world during Islam's first two centuries. Gäwürgala 's most visible remaining structures are its defensive installations. Three walls, one built atop the next, are in evidence. A Seleucid wall, graduated in the interior and straight on
13833-425: The centuries of prosperity which followed. Kushks (Persian, Kushk , "pavilion", "kiosk"), which comprise the chief remains of Abbasid Merv, are a building type unique to Central Asia during this period. A kind of semi-fortified two-story palace, whose corrugated walls give it a unique and striking appearance, köshks were the residences of Merv's elite. The second storey of these structures comprised living quarters;
13992-619: The city at the site presently known as Gyaur Gala fortress. Isidore of Charax wrote Antiochia was called the "unwatered" ( Ἄνυδρος ). After the fall of the Seleucid dynasty (63 BC), Bactria , Parthia, and the Kushans took control in succession. In 53 BC, some 10,000 Roman prisoners of war from the Battle of Carrhae appear to have been deported to Merv. Merv was a major city of Buddhist learning, with Buddhist monastery temples for many centuries until its Islamisation. At
14151-593: The city was razed by Shah Murad of the Emirate of Bukhara for the last time, and its population deported. By the 1800s, under pressure from the Russians, the area surrounding Merv was completely deserted. Today the site is preserved by the Government of Turkmenistan as the State Historical and Cultural Park "Ancient Merv". It was established in 1987 and is regulated by Turkmenistan's legislation. It
14310-492: The civilian population that was unable to flee was later massacred by the Russian troops. The Russians further occupied the oasis of Tejen , eighty miles to the west. The next Russian move was south toward Herat . By 1888, the city was entirely abandoned. A future viceroy of British India , George Curzon visited the remains of Merv in 1888. He later wrote: "In the midst of an absolute wilderness of crumbling brick and clay,
14469-457: The code fas for the dialects spoken across Iran and Afghanistan. This consists of the individual languages Dari ( prs ) and Iranian Persian ( pes ). It uses tgk for Tajik, separately. In general, the Iranian languages are known from three periods: namely Old, Middle, and New (Modern). These correspond to three historical eras of Iranian history ; Old era being sometime around the Achaemenid Empire (i.e., 400–300 BC), Middle era being
14628-512: The collapse of the Sassanid state, Parsik came to be applied exclusively to (either Middle or New) Persian that was written in the Arabic script . From about the 9th century onward, as Middle Persian was on the threshold of becoming New Persian, the older form of the language came to be erroneously called Pahlavi , which was actually but one of the writing systems used to render both Middle Persian as well as various other Middle Iranian languages. That writing system had previously been adopted by
14787-466: The court of Ögedei Khan and then Hulagu Khan , who married her to the governor of Mosul. Some pretenders to the name of Jalal al-Din arose after his death. In 1236, the founder and the leader of an insurgency in Mazandaran claimed he was Jalal al-Din. After he was defeated, the Mongols verified that his claim was false, and he was executed. In the year 1254, a leader of a merchant group claimed he
14946-413: The decision to distribute his forces as garrison troops inside his most important towns, such as Samarkand, Merv and Nishapur . Meanwhile, the Shah raised taxes to raise a field army, with whom he would harass the besieging Mongol forces. However, through a combination of excellent manoeuvering and planning, the Mongols managed to carve a path of destruction through Khwarazmia. Otrar fell, and Bukhara
15105-614: The entire Islamic caliphate . It served later as the seat of the Tahirid governors of Khorasan . In the 11th–12th centuries, Merv was the capital of the Great Seljuk Empire and remained so until the latter's ultimate fall. Around this time, Merv turned into a chief centre of Islamic science and culture , attracting as well as producing renowned poets, musicians, physicians, mathematicians and astronomers. The great Persian polymath Omar Khayyam , among others, spent
15264-600: The extent of its influence on certain languages of the Indian subcontinent. Words borrowed from Persian are still quite commonly used in certain Indo-Aryan languages, especially Hindi - Urdu (also historically known as Hindustani ), Punjabi , Kashmiri , and Sindhi . There is also a small population of Zoroastrian Iranis in India, who migrated in the 19th century to escape religious execution in Qajar Iran and speak
15423-493: The exterior, forms a platform for the second, larger wall, built of mudbricks and stepped on the interior. The form of this wall is like other Hellenistic fortresses found in Anatolia , though this is unique for being made of mudbrick instead of stone. The third wall is possibly Sassanian and is built of larger bricks. Surrounding the wall were a variety of pottery sherds, particularly Parthian ones. The size of these fortifications
15582-400: The figure at more than 1,300,000. Each individual soldier of the conquering army "was allotted the execution of three to four hundred persons", many of those soldiers being levies from Sarakhs who, because of their town's enmity toward Merv, "exceeded the ferocity of the heathen Mongols in the slaughter of their fellow-Muslims." Almost the entire population of Merv, and refugees arriving from
15741-650: The first storey may have been used for storage. Parapets lined the roof, which was often used for living quarters as well. Merv's largest and best-preserved Abbasid köşk is the Greater Gyzgala (Turkmen, "maiden's fortress"), located just outside Soltangala's western wall; this structure consisted of 17 rooms surrounding a central courtyard. The nearby Lesser Gyzgala had extraordinarily thick walls with deep corrugations, as well as multiple interior stairways leading to second storey living quarters. All of Merv's kushks are in precarious states of preservation. However,
15900-599: The following phylogenetic classification: Merv Merv ( Turkmen : Merw , Мерв , مرو ; Persian : مرو , romanized : Marv ), also known as the Merve Oasis , was a major Iranian city in Central Asia , on the historical Silk Road , near today's Mary, Turkmenistan . Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium BC until the 18th century AD. It changed hands repeatedly throughout history. Under
16059-520: The formation of many modern languages in West Asia, Europe, Central Asia , and South Asia . Following the Turko-Persian Ghaznavid conquest of South Asia , Persian was firstly introduced in the region by Turkic Central Asians. The basis in general for the introduction of Persian language into the subcontinent was set, from its earliest days, by various Persianized Central Asian Turkic and Afghan dynasties. For five centuries prior to
16218-476: The formation of the Achaemenid Empire and was spoken during most of the first half of the first millennium BCE. Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BCE, which is when Old Persian was still spoken and extensively used. He relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like
16377-410: The language of the Persians. Related to Old Persian, but from a different branch of the Iranian language family, was Avestan , the language of the Zoroastrian liturgical texts. The complex grammatical conjugation and declension of Old Persian yielded to the structure of Middle Persian in which the dual number disappeared, leaving only singular and plural, as did gender. Middle Persian developed
16536-531: The last Sassanian ruler, Yazdegerd III (632–651) was killed near the city and the Sassanian military governor surrendered to the approaching Arab army. Representatives of the caliph, Umar occupied the city, which became the capital of the Umayyad province of Khorasan . In 671, Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan sent 50,000 Arab troops to Merv as a colony. This colony retained its native Kufan sympathies and became
16695-464: The latter at the Tomb of Ahmad Sanjar . Nearing the end of the 11th century, Merv became the eastern capital of the split Seljuq state . However, starting from 1118, it served as the capital of the whole empire. During this period, Merv expanded to its greatest size—Arab and Persian geographers termed it "the mother of the world", the "rendezvous of great and small", the "chief city of Khurasan" and
16854-531: The leadership of Tughril —the Ghaznavid sultan Mas'ud I was extremely unpopular in the city. Tughril's brother Chaghri stayed in Merv as the Seljuq domains grew to include the rest of Khurasan and Iran, and it subsequently became a favourite city of the Seljuq sultans. Chaghri, his son Alp Arslan (sultan from 1063 to 1072) and great-grandson Ahmad Sanjar (sultan from 1118 to 1157) were buried at Merv,
17013-596: The local Qajars in the region declared independence and formed the Qajar Principality of Merv . In 1785, the Manghit amir of Bukhara, Shah Murad , attacked the city and killed the ruler, Bayram 'Ali Khan Qajar. A few years later, in 1788 and 1789, Shah Murad razed the city to the ground, and broke down the dams, leaving the area a waste land. The entire population of the city and the surrounding oasis of about 100,000 were then deported in several stages to
17172-432: The middle-period form only continuing in the texts of Zoroastrianism . Middle Persian is considered to be a later form of the same dialect as Old Persian. The native name of Middle Persian was Parsig or Parsik , after the name of the ethnic group of the southwest, that is, "of Pars ", Old Persian Parsa , New Persian Fars . This is the origin of the name Farsi as it is today used to signify New Persian. Following
17331-462: The modern village of Baýramaly and 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of the large Soviet-built city of Mary. Erk Gala (from Persian, "the citadel fort") is the oldest part of the city of Merv complex. Built in the 7th century BC, Erk Gala was built as a Persian Style fortress controlling the oasis on the Murghab River . The Erk Gala fortress later served as the acropolis for
17490-571: The most common variant today is Mangburni ("with a birthmark on the nose") or Mingirini ("valiant fighter worth one thousand men"; cf. Persian hazarmard ). Jalal al-Din was reportedly the eldest son of the Khwarazmshah Ala ad-Din Muhammad II ( r. 1200–1220 ), while his mother was a concubine of Turkmen origin, whose name was Ay-Chichek. Due to the low status of Jalal al-Din's mother, his powerful grandmother and Kipchak princess Terken Khatun refused to support him as heir to
17649-479: The most important of Soltangala's surviving buildings are Seljuq constructions. Seljuq leader Toghrul's conquest of Merv in 1037 revitalised the city; under his descendants, especially Sanjar, who made it his residence, Merv found itself at the centre of a large multicultural empire. Evidence of this prosperity is found throughout the Soltangala. Many of these buildings are concentrated in Soltangala's citadel,
17808-536: The most widely spoken. The term Persian is an English derivation of Latin Persiānus , the adjectival form of Persia , itself deriving from Greek Persís ( Περσίς ), a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa ( 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 ), which means " Persia " (a region in southwestern Iran, corresponding to modern-day Fars ). According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the term Persian as
17967-466: The nationalist movement of the time. The academy was a key institution in the struggle to re-build Iran as a nation-state after the collapse of the Qajar dynasty. During the 1930s and 1940s, the academy led massive campaigns to replace the many Arabic , Russian , French , and Greek loanwords whose widespread use in Persian during the centuries preceding the foundation of the Pahlavi dynasty had created
18126-448: The necessity of protecting the Persian language against foreign words, and to the standardization of Persian orthography , were under the reign of Naser ed Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty in 1871. After Naser ed Din Shah, Mozaffar ed Din Shah ordered the establishment of the first Persian association in 1903. This association officially declared that it used Persian and Arabic as acceptable sources for coining words. The ultimate goal
18285-414: The next period most officially around the Sasanian Empire , and New era being the period afterward down to present day. According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language" for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian
18444-732: The northern part of Greece). Vardar Yenicesi differed from other localities in 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
18603-475: The nucleus of Khurasan. Using the city as their base, the Arabs, led by Qutayba ibn Muslim from 705 to 715, brought large parts of Central Asia, including Balkh , Bukhara , and Fergana under subjection. Merv, and Khorasan, in general, became one of the first parts of the Persian -speaking world to become majority- Muslim . Arab immigration to the area was substantial. A Chinese man captured at Talas, Du Huan ,
18762-616: The official Sassanid Zoroastrianism , including Buddhists, Manichaeans , and Christians of the Church of the East . Between the 5th and 11th centuries, Merv served as the seat of an East Syrian metropolitan province . The first bishop was Barshabba (c.360/424). The Hephthalite occupation from the end of the 5th century to 565 AD briefly interrupted Sassanid rule. Khuzestan Central Persia Caucasus Pars Khorasan Other geographies Sassanian rule ended when
18921-483: The official language of the Achaemenid kings. Assyrian records, which in fact appear to provide the earliest evidence for ancient Iranian (Persian and Median) presence on the Iranian Plateau, give a good chronology but only an approximate geographical indication of what seem to be ancient Persians. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash (along with Matai , presumably Medians) are first mentioned in
19080-427: The other parts of the Khwarazmian Empire , were slaughtered, making it one of the bloodiest captures of a city in world history. Excavations revealed the drastic rebuilding of the city's fortifications in the aftermath of their destruction, but the city's prosperity had passed. The Mongol invasion spelled the eclipse of Merv and other major centres for more than a century. After the Mongol conquest, Merv became part of
19239-522: The political ability needed to underpin his martial exploits, and he was forced to combat several large revolts and increasing pressure from Mongol forces. Eventually, he was killed in August 1231. The army he had gathered would continue to terrorize the Levant as the mercenary Khwarazmiyya until its final defeat in 1246. The spelling and meaning of his Turkic personal name is obscure. Early scholarship spelled it as Manguburti (or similar variants), whilst
19398-694: The present territories of northwestern Afghanistan as well as parts of Central Asia, played a leading role in the rise of New Persian. Khorasan, which was the homeland of the Parthians, was Persianized under the Sasanians. Dari Persian thus supplanted Parthian language , which by the end of the Sasanian era had fallen out of use. New Persian has incorporated many foreign words, including from eastern northern and northern Iranian languages such as Sogdian and especially Parthian. The transition to New Persian
19557-595: The region during the following centuries. Persian continued to act as a courtly language for various empires in Punjab through the early 19th century serving finally as the official state language of the Sikh Empire , preceding British conquest and the decline of Persian in South Asia. Beginning in 1843, though, English and Hindustani gradually replaced Persian in importance on the subcontinent. Evidence of Persian's historical influence there can be seen in
19716-602: The reign of Sultan Ghiyathuddin Azam Shah is described as the "golden age of Persian literature in Bengal". Its stature was illustrated by the Sultan's own correspondence and collaboration with the Persian poet Hafez ; a poem which can be found in the Divan of Hafez today. A Bengali dialect emerged among the common Bengali Muslim folk, based on a Persian model and known as Dobhashi ; meaning mixed language . Dobhashi Bengali
19875-468: The results of the work to the widest possible audience. Merv consists of a few discrete walled cities very near to each other constructed on uninhabited land by builders of different eras, used, and then abandoned and never rebuilt. Four walled cities correspond to the chief periods of Merv's importance: the oldest, Erkgala, corresponds to Achaemenid Merv, the smallest of the three. Gäwürgala (also known as Gyaur Gala), which surrounds Erkgala, comprises
20034-508: The site of Gyaur Kala and Baýramaly , Buddhism was followed and practised often at the local Buddhist stupas . After the Sasanid Ardashir ;I (220–240 AD) took Merv, the study of numismatics picks up the thread: the unbroken series of coins originally minted at Merv document a long unbroken direct Sassanian rule of almost four centuries. During this period Merv was home to practitioners of various religions beside
20193-668: 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 . The Persian language influenced
20352-483: The spectacle of walls, towers, ramparts and domes, stretching in bewildering confusion to the horizon, reminds us that we are in the centre of bygone greatness." Some exploratory excavations at Merv were conducted in 1885 by the Russian general A. V. Komarov, the governor of the Transcaspian oblast, 1883–1889; Komarov employed his troops as excavators and published his collection of trophy artifacts and coins from
20511-512: The standard Persian of Tajikistan, has been officially designated as Tajik ( тоҷикӣ , tojikī ) since the time of the Soviet Union . It is the name given to the varieties of Persian spoken in Central Asia in general. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa for the Persian language, as its coding system is mostly based on the native-language designations. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses
20670-777: The standard Persian. The Hazaragi dialect (in Central Afghanistan and Pakistan), Herati (in Western Afghanistan), Darwazi (in Afghanistan and Tajikistan), Basseri (in Southern Iran), and the Tehrani accent (in Iran, the basis of standard Iranian Persian) are examples of these dialects. Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan can understand one another with a relatively high degree of mutual intelligibility . Nevertheless,
20829-467: The start of the Abbasid dynasty, Gäwürgala persisted as a suburb of the larger Soltangala. In Gäwürgala are concentrated many Abbasid-era "industrial" buildings: pottery kilns, steel, iron and copper-working workshops and so on. A well-preserved pottery kiln has an intact vaulted arch support and a square firepit. Gäwürgala seems to have been the craftsmen's quarters throughout the Abbasid and pre-Seljuk periods. Soltangala (from "Sultan Qala",
20988-508: The structures in Merv is the 12th-century mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar , also in Sultan Gala. It is the largest of Seljuk mausoleums and is also the first dated mosque-mausoleum complex, a form which was later to become common. It is square, 27 metres (89 ft) per side, with two entrances on opposite sides; a large central dome supported by an octagonal system of ribs and arches covers the interior (Ettinghausen, 270). The dome's exterior
21147-525: The sultan's fortress) is by far the largest of Merv's cities. Textual sources establish it was Abu Muslim, the leader of the Abbasid rebellion, who symbolised the beginning of the new Caliphate by commissioning monumental structures to the west of the Gäwürgala walls, in what then became Soltangala. The area was quickly walled and became the core of medieval Merv; the many Abbasid-era köshks (fortified building) discovered in and outside Soltangala attest to
21306-632: The throne and the Seljuqs of Rûm . His dominance in the region required year-after-year campaigning. In 1226, Burak Hadjib, the governor of Kerman and al-Din's father-in-law, rebelled against him, but after al-Din marched against him he was subdued. Jalal ad-Din then had a brief victory over the Seljuqs and captured the town of Akhlat in Turkey from the Ayyubids . In 1227, after the death of Genghis Khan,
21465-437: The throne, and instead favored his half-brother Uzlagh-Shah, whose mother was also a Qipchaq. Jalal al-Din first appears in historical records in 1215, when Muhammad II divided his empire among his sons, giving the southwestern part (part of the former Ghurid Empire ) to Jalal al-Din. Genghis Khan had chosen to ignore a skirmish between the Mongol general Jochi and the Shah, in which Jalal al-Din's military acumen had saved
21624-485: The use of Farsi in foreign languages. Etymologically, the Persian term Farsi derives from its earlier form Pārsi ( Pārsik in Middle Persian ), which in turn comes from the same root as the English term Persian . In the same process, the Middle Persian toponym Pārs ("Persia") evolved into the modern name Fars. The phonemic shift from /p/ to /f/ is due to the influence of Arabic in
21783-496: The whole Merv oasis, comprises one long and narrow windowless room with many tiers of niches across the walls. Some sources Believe the kepter khana (there are more elsewhere in Merv and Central Asia) was a pigeon roost used to raise pigeons, to collect their dung, which was used in growing the melons for which Merv was famous. Others see the kepderihanas as libraries or treasuries, because of their location in high status areas next to important structures. The best-preserved of all
21942-483: Was Jalal al-Din; detained and tortured, he asserted he was truthful until his death. Jalal al-Din was considered by many to be a fearless commander and a great warrior. His biographer, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi , described him as follows: He was swarthy (dark-skinned), small in stature, Turkic in "behavior" and speech, but he also spoke Persian. As for his courage, I have mentioned it many times when describing
22101-487: Was a memorable day for shrieking and weeping and wailing. They took the wealthy people and beat them and tortured them with all sorts of cruelties in the search for wealth ... Then they set fire to the city and burned the tomb of Sultan Sanjar and dug up his grave looking for money. They said, "These people have resisted us" so they killed them all. Then Genghis Khan ordered that the dead should be counted and there were around 700,000 corpses. A Persian historian, Juvayni , put
22260-543: Was already complete by the era of the three princely dynasties of Iranian origin, the Tahirid dynasty (820–872), Saffarid dynasty (860–903), and Samanid Empire (874–999). Abbas of Merv is mentioned as being the earliest minstrel to chant verse in the New Persian tongue and after him the poems of Hanzala Badghisi were among the most famous between the Persian-speakers of the time. The first poems of
22419-572: Was appointed to the governorship in 1600. In 1608, Mihrab Khan Qajar became governor, beginning two centuries of Qajar governorship over Merv. From 1715, the Qajar elite began to assert Merv's independence from the Safavid government, but within a decade the oasis became insecure due to raids by Tatars and Turkmens. Nader Shah launched military campaigns that cowed the Turkmens and Tatars and restored Merv's irrigation system. After Nader Shah's death,
22578-400: Was born and started his movement in Merv. During the 12th and 13th centuries, Merv may have been the world's largest city, with a population of up to 500,000. During this period, Merv was known as "Marw al-Shāhijān" (Merv the Great), and frequently referred to as the "capital of the eastern Islamic world". According to geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi , the city and its structures were visible from
22737-401: Was brought to Baghdad and toured the caliphate. He observed that in Merv, Khurasan, Arabs and Persians lived in mixed concentrations. Merv gained renewed importance in February 748 when the Iranian general Abu Muslim (d. 755) declared a new Abbasid dynasty at Merv, expanding and re-founding the city, and, in the name of the Abbasid line, used the city as a base of rebellion against
22896-458: Was defeated. Ghiyath al-Din fled to Kerman where he and his mother were killed. The revived Khwarazmshah by this time controlled Kerman, Tabriz, Isfahan and Fars . Jalal ad-Din moved against Ahlat again in 1229. However, he was defeated in this campaign by Sultan Kayqubad I at the Battle of Yassıçemen in 1230, from whence he escaped to Diyarbakır . Through the ruler of Alamut , the Mongols learned that Jalal ad-Din had recently been defeated;
23055-503: Was in the 12th century. A final set of Seljuq remains are the walls of the Soltangala. These fortifications, which largely remain, began as eight-to-nine-metre-high (26 to 30 ft) mud brick structures, inside of which were chambers for defenders to shoot arrows from. There were horseshoe-shaped towers every 15 to 35 metres (49 to 115 ft). These walls, however, did not prove to be effective because they were not of adequate thickness to withstand catapults and other artillery. By
23214-466: Was killed by a Kurd who claimed that he was avenging his brother, who had been killed in Ahlat . Jalal al-Din's kingdom swiftly collapsed after his death; his nobles squabbled over territory and would be overcome easily by the Mongols. Several thousand, however, took up service with the princes of Anatolia and Syria to escape the Mongols. They continued to be a force in Syrian politics until their destruction in 1246. His daughter, Turkan, would grow up in
23373-437: Was one of 16 perfect lands created by god Ahura Mazda . Between the 5th and 11th centuries, Merv served as the seat of an East Syrian metropolitan province . A descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , 8th Imam of Twelver Shia Islam , Ali ar-Ridha , moved to Merv from Baghdad and resided there for several years. Al-Muqanna , the "Veiled Prophet", who gained many followers by claiming to be an incarnation of God,
23532-542: Was one of the most important political figures of the Caliphate . The influential Barmakid family, based in Merv, played an important part in transferring Greek knowledge (established in Merv since the days of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians ) into the Arab world. Throughout the Abbasid era, Merv remained the capital and most important city of Khurasan. During this time, the Arab historian Al-Muqaddasi (c. 945/946–991) called Merv "delightful, fine, elegant, brilliant, extensive, and pleasant". Merv's architecture inspired
23691-484: Was patronised and given official status under the Sultans of Bengal , and was a popular literary form used by Bengalis during the pre-colonial period, irrespective of their religion. Following the defeat of the Hindu Shahi dynasty, classical Persian was established as a courtly language in the region during the late 10th century under Ghaznavid rule over the northwestern frontier of the subcontinent . Employed by Punjabis in literature, Persian achieved prominence in
23850-399: Was played by Emre Kıvılcım . A sculpture of him by Saragt Babaýew won a national competition in 2015, receiving a prize from the president of Turkmenistan , Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow . Persian language Russia Persian ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən , - ʃ ən / PUR -zhən, -shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , Fārsī [fɒːɾˈsiː] ), is
24009-408: Was seen as untrustworthy and warmongering. His enmity with many neighbors resulted in his isolation against the Mongol army of Chormaqan. Vasily Bartold believed that Jalal al-Din executed more cruel and irrational brutality than Genghis Khan did. Even al-Nasawi was unable to justify the negative impact Jalal al-Din's rule and conduct of his soldiers had on his subjects. Jalal al-Din is represented as
24168-417: Was so infuriated Doqshin was sent out at once on the same task. Meanwhile, al-Din was quarrelling with local princes, but was mostly victorious when it came to battle. Under Doqshin's leadership, the Mongol army took Nandana from one of the lieutenants of Jalal ad-Din, sacked it, then proceeded to besiege the larger Multan . The Mongol army managed to breach the wall but the city was defended successfully by
24327-516: Was taken , as was Samarkand. Genghis Khan then sent an army under his elite generals Jebe and Subutai specifically to pursue the Shah; although Muhammad, accompanied by Jalal-al Din and two other sons, managed to escape, he was prevented from gathering any forces as his empire collapsed around him. Fleeing to the loyal region of Khorasan , the Shah died destitute on an island in the Caspian Sea . Jalal al-Din would later claim that his father had appointed him as his successor on his deathbed. Meanwhile,
24486-488: Was taught in state schools, and was also offered as an elective course or recommended for study in some madrasas . Persian learning was also widespread in 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
24645-513: Was the son of a concubine, he was challenged as successor by a younger brother, whose cause was supported by the powerful Queen Mother, Terken Khatun . Nevertheless, after the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire led to his father's flight and death on an island in the Caspian Sea , Jalal-al Din gained the loyalty of the majority of Khwarazmian loyalists. The new Shah Jalal al-Din moved to Gurganj, but departed eastwards after Terken Khatun moved against him; evading Mongol patrols, he gathered
24804-425: Was to prevent books from being printed with wrong use of words. According to the executive guarantee of this association, the government was responsible for wrongfully printed books. Words coined by this association, such as rāh-āhan ( راهآهن ) for "railway", were printed in Soltani Newspaper ; but the association was eventually closed due to inattention. A scientific association was founded in 1911, resulting in
24963-427: Was turquoise, and its height made it imposing; it was said that approaching caravans could see the mausoleum while still a day's march from the city. The mausoleum's decoration, in typical early Seljuk style, was conservative, with interior stucco work and geometric brick decoration, now mainly lost, on the outside. Except for the recently "reconstructed" exterior decoration, the largely intact mausoleum remains just as it
25122-402: Was under siege by a Mongol army and defeated them after a two-day battle. In autumn 1221, he then moved north to Parwan and attacked a besieging army north of Charikar in the Battle of Waliyan ; the numerically inferior Mongols lost 1,000 and retreated across the river, destroying the bridge. Genghis sent an army numbering between thirty and forty-five thousand under Shigi Qutuqu to confront
25281-559: Was vast and newly formed, with a still-developing administration. In addition, his mother Terken Khatun still wielded substantial power in the realm – one historian termed the relationship between the Shah and his mother as 'an uneasy diarchy', which often acted to Muhammad's disadvantage. The Shah also distrusted most of his commanders, with the only exception being Jalal al-Din. If he had sought open battle, as many of his commanders wished, he would certainly have been greatly outmatched in quantity of troops, let alone quality. The Shah thus made
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