Ghilman (singular Arabic : غُلاَم ghulām , plural غِلْمَان ghilmān ) were slave-soldiers and/or mercenaries in armies throughout the Islamic world . Islamic states from the early 9th century to the early 19th century consistently deployed slaves as soldiers, a phenomenon that was very rare outside of the Islamic world.
102-524: Abu Mansur Nasir ad-Din wa'd-Dawla Sabuktigin ( Persian : ابومنصور ناصرالدین والدوله سبکتگین ; c. 940s – August-September 997) was the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty , and amir of Ghazna from 977 to 997. Sabuktigin was a Turkic slave who was bought by Alp-Tegin , the commander of the royal guard of the Samanid dynasty . Alp-Tegin established himself as the governor of Ghazna in 962, and died
204-655: 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
306-681: A brief interruption under the Mongols , the institution returned under the Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu Turkmens . The various Iranian dynasties (Safavid, Afsharid, Qajar) drew slave soldiers from the Caucasus such as Georgians , Circassians and Armenians . (Unlike the Seljuks, who quickly abandoned their tribal warriors for an increase in slave-soldier forces, the Mongols did not adopt
408-418: 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
510-466: A lack in evidence. In truth, Ghaznavid historians such as Bayhaqi conceptualized Sabuktigin as the ideal image of an archetype : the founding monarch, who lived a simple life and was a humble soldier who imposed justice. This representation continued with Nizam al-Mulk , the vazir of the Seljuk Empire , who idealized Sabuktigin. This image persisted even half a millennium later, when Babur ,
612-505: 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
714-417: 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
816-452: A number of frontier forts belonging to Shahi dynasty. With the backing of jihad as a casus belli , Sabuktigin raided the neighbouring Indian lands and destroyed Hindu temples, replacing them with mosques . The Shahi maharaja , Jayapala , placed Afghan garrisons in Multan and Laghman , but they joined Sabuktigin. His threat prompted Jayapala to form an alliance with
918-536: 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
1020-583: A slave soldier of the Samanids, also built their military around slave soldiers, first Turks and later Indians. The Turkish Seljuks and their successors the Ghurids and the Turkic Khwarazmian dynasty also continued with an army of mainly Turkish slave soldiers. Seljuk regional princes were each placed under the tutelage of slave soldier guardians (atābak) who formed their own dynasties. After
1122-599: 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
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#17327979517621224-451: A sword on their belt, where it was easier to draw as opposed to the back or the chest. The Quran mentions ghilman in verse 52:24 : "There will circulate among them ghilman for them, as if they were pearls well-protected." Ghilman are traditionally described as servant boys provided especially for believers in heaven. In verse 56:17 : "There will circulate among them [the faithful in heaven] young boys made eternal" -- "them" refer to
1326-482: A tribe in Barskhan , therefore he probably belonged to a Karluk tribe. His father was called Juq, and in contemporary Chinese documents, Sabuktigin is referred to as Sabuktigin, son of Juq. However, Juzjani , a 13-century historian, citing Tarikh-i Majadwal by Abu Al-Qasim Imami (written in early twelfth-century) states that Sabuktigin's father was called Qara Bechkem, and through a fabricated genealogy, links him to
1428-566: A vassal of the Samanid Empire, he answered Nuh II 's call to help regarding Abu Ali Simjuri 's rebellion, defeating the latter in several battles during 994 to 996. Towards the end of his life, Sabuktigin arranged an agreement with the Kara-Khanid Khanate , Samanids' rivals, to partition Nuh's realm between themselves. However, before he could realize this agreement, he died on his way to Ghazna on August-September 997. As
1530-523: A year later in 963. Afterwards, Sabuktigin built his prestige among other slave soldiers in Ghazna until he was elected by them as their ruler in 977. Sabuktigin expanded his rule down to south of present-day Afghanistan and north of Balochistan . Through conflicts with the Hindu Shahi dynasty of Kabul , he invaded Indian lands, opening the gates of India for the future monarchs of his dynasty. As
1632-615: Is 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
1734-664: 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
1836-628: 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
1938-850: 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
2040-675: 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
2142-425: 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
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#17327979517622244-460: 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
2346-475: 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 ),
2448-585: 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
2550-611: Is speculated that he utilized the local Persian secretaries and officials in Ghazna. After his conquest of Bust, Sabuktigin brought with himself the local secretary and poet Abu al-Fath al-Busti , who became his chancellor. Moreover, al-Utbi, who previously served the Samanids, Abu Ali Simjuri and the Ziyarid ruler Qabus , became his secretary. According to al-Utbi, Sabuktigin was initially mistrustful of him and of al-Busti, because both had served his rivals, but then both successfully gained his favour and served in high positions. Sabiktigin
2652-495: 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
2754-491: 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
2856-506: 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
2958-668: 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
3060-598: The Ghurids until the Turko-Afghans successfully established themselves in the Delhi Sultanate . ——— (1985). "Alptigin" . In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica . Vol. 9: Alp Arslan–ʿAbd-al-Hamīd. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 898. doi : 10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_5251 . ISBN 978-0-71009-098-0 . ——— (1961). The transition from Ghaznavid to Seljuq rule in
3162-718: The Rashidun Caliphate . Slavs and Berbers were also used under the Umayyad Caliphs . However, large-scale use became prevalent only in the mid-9th century. The first Muslim ruler to form an army of slave soldiers, before the Abbasid Caliphs, seems to have been Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab (800–812), founder of the Aghlabids of Ifriqiya, where there was already a large population of agricultural slaves and access to extensive slave trading networks across
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3264-674: 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
3366-713: 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
3468-491: 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
3570-541: 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 ,
3672-532: The 860s and killed four caliphs. Eventually, starting with Ahmad ibn Tulun in Egypt, some of them became autonomous rulers and established dynasties of their own, leading to the dissolution of the Abbasid Caliphate by the mid-10th century. In Umayyad Spain , slave soldiers of "saqaliba" (Slavs) were used from the time of Al-Hakam I , but only became a large professional force in the tenth century, when
3774-626: The Arabic root ḡ-l-m ( غ ل م ). The ghilman were slave-soldiers taken as prisoners of war from conquered regions or frontier zones, especially from among the Turkic people of Central Asia and the Caucasian peoples ( Turkish : Kölemen ). They fought in bands, and demanded high pay for their services. The use of slave soldiers in the Islamic world stretches back to 625, when African slave soldiers were mentioned serving under Muhammad and
3876-681: 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
3978-513: The Faith and State". According to al-Biruni , before Nasir ad-Din , Sabuktigin held the laqab Mu'in ad-Dawla . As an autonomous vassal of the Samanid dynasty , Sabuktigin was referred to as amir , contrary to his descendants who assumed the royal title of sultan . Born around 940s, there is not much known about Sabuktigin's early life. In Sabuktigin's Pandnama , a mirror for princes epistle , he attests that he came from
4080-519: The Islamic East (PhD thesis). The University of Edinburgh. Khatibi, Aolfazl (2015). "Abū ʿAlī Sīmjūr" . In Daftari, Farhad; Madelun, Wilfred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Islamica Online . Leiden: Brill. doi : 10.1163/1875-9831_isla_SIM_0097 . Persian language Russia Persian ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən , - ʃ ən / PUR -zhən, -shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , Fārsī [fɒːɾˈsiː] ),
4182-675: The Kara-Khanid khagan , however, after a falling out between the two, Sabuktigin made a secret agreement with Nasr to separate the Samanid realms in Transoxiana between themselves. But shortly after, when he was returning to Ghazna, Sabuktigin died in a village north of Hindu Kush on August-September 997. According to Juzjani, Sabuktigin had a total of six sons, of which three were in their adolescence when he died: Mahmud , Abu al-Muzzafar Nasr, and Ismail . One other son, Yusuf,
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4284-565: 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
4386-543: 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
4488-527: The Persian community around him, despite being a stranger at first. He flourished under Alp-Tegin's patronage and by the age of eighteen, commanded 200 ghulams (military slaves). At the time, Alp-Tegin served as the head of the royal guard of the Samanid dynasty, but in 962, after he fell from grace, he left his position and sought to establish an independent rule in Ghazna , in present-day eastern Afghanistan . Sabuktigin accompanied him and helped defeating
4590-530: 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
4692-425: 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
4794-401: 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
4896-886: 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,
4998-647: The Punjabi Muslim Emirate of Multan and march towards Ghazna with a large army in 986. A battle took place in Laghman which after days had no definitive winner. However, a sudden snowstorm devastated Jayapala's army. The cause of this storm's eruption, according to al-Utbi's history book Tarikh-i Yamini , was Sabuktigin himself. Jayapala conceded to a humiliating treaty with conditions such as paying 1 million dirhams , and granting his relatives as hostages to Sabuktigin. Yet, he did not uphold
5100-563: The Sahara Desert. Ghilman were introduced to the Abbasid Caliphate during the reign of al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842), who showed them great favor and relied upon them for his personal guard. Accounts cite that their numbers increased in the caliphal household as Mu'tasim tried to address the court factionalism. These slave-soldiers were opposed by the native Arab population, and riots against them in Baghdad in 836 forced Mu'tasim to relocate his capital to Samarra . The use of ghilman reached its maturity under al-Mu'tadid and their training
5202-498: The Samanid army in Tokharistan . Eventually, Alp-Tegin conquered Ghazna from its local ruler, Abu Bakr Lawik , and was recognised as governor by the Samanid administration. He died shortly after in 963, and was succeeded by his son, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim , who also became Sabuktigin's new master. After Abu Ishaq's brief reign and death in 966, the Turkic ghulams in Ghazna reconciled with the Samanid government but remained autonomous and chose their leaders from their commanders. During
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#17327979517625304-475: The Samanid lands between themselves. Abu'l-Fadl Bayhaqi , in his history book Tarikh-i Bayhaqi , portrayed Sabuktigin as a just ruler, contrasting him with his patron and Sabuktigin's grandson, Masʽud I . Before him, al-Utbi had portrayed Sabuktigin as an approachable, forgiving and just ruler, to contrast him with Mahmud. However, according to the British orientalist Clifford Edmund Bosworth , no traits can be attributed to Sabuktigin's personality because of
5406-428: 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
5508-427: 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)
5610-407: 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
5712-504: The Turkic peoples of Central Asia due to their hardiness in desert conditions and expertise with horseback riding. Ghilman in the Abbasid Caliphate fought primarily as a mounted strike force whose purpose was to weaken the enemy with swift and rapid attacks before allied infantry were sent into battle. They carried a lance that could be used to impale enemy infantry easily and a round wooden shield that had been reinforced with either animal skin or thin metal plates. These ghilman also carried
5814-441: 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
5916-457: 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
6018-512: 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
6120-430: 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
6222-587: The farmers and had pampered their production. Therefore, upon ascension, Sabuktigin's treasury was empty of gold and silver and reportedly only contained "swords and silks". Sabuktigin first ordered his commanders to give him gifts for his ascension, and then confiscated farming and iqta lands back into governmental domains, promising to pay his army from his treasury and from spoils of war, making his army dependent on him for their earnings. Sparse details remain about Sabuktigin's bureaucratic retinue; there are no recorded names of his vazirs (ministers), and it
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#17327979517626324-423: The following phylogenetic classification: Ghilman The Quran mentions ghilman ( غِلْمَان ) as serving boys who are one of the delights of Jannah or paradise/heaven of Islam, in verse 52:24 (Verse 56:17 is also thought to refer to ghilman). The words ghilman ( غِلْمَان ) and its singular variant ghulam ( غلام ) are of Arabic origin, meaning boys or servants . It derives from
6426-444: 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
6528-421: 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
6630-413: The founder of the Mughal Empire , citing al-Utbi's work, sought to find a way to erupt a snowstorm just as Sabuktigin had done. Sabuktigin was the first Ghaznavid ruler to invade India. According to al-Biruni , he opened the gates of India for his successor, Mahmud. Sabuktigin's conquests facilitated the beginning of the Turko-Afghan period into India, which would be further conducted by Mahmud, and later
6732-448: The founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, Sabuktigin was later idealized by Ghaznavid historians as a just and forgiving ruler, though these traits may have no basis in reality. He was the image of the "founding monarch" archetype , developed by historians such as Abu'l-Fadl Bayhaqi , who drew a contrast between the humble and just Sabuktigin with his successors. This conclusion was shared by later historians such as Nizam al-Mulk and lived all
6834-446: The institution of slave-soldiers). The Delhi Sultanate also made extensive use of Turkish cavalry ghilman as their core shock troops. After Central Asia fell to the Mongols they switched to capturing Hindu boys to convert into Islamic slave soldiers. There were violent ethnic conflicts between the different groups of ghilman, the Turks, Slavs, Nubians and Berbers in particular. Islamic caliphs often recruited slave-soldiers from
6936-451: The invading forces at Charkh , killing Lawik in the process. Afterwards, with the support of the army, Sabuktigin replaced Böritigin as the governor. In 978, Sabuktigin invaded Rukkhaj and Bust in the south of his realm and subdued a rival Turkic group who were installed there earlier in the century by Qaratigin Isfijabi (d. 929), another rebellious Samanid ghulam . He continued his expansion into Qusdar in north-east Baluchistan and
7038-410: 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
7140-454: The last Sasanian shahanshah , Yazdegerd III ( r. 632–651 ), claiming his daughter married a Turkic chief. Sabuktigin recounts that his tribe was raided and he, along with all the women and the children, was captured. His captors, a rival Karluk tribe, sold him at a slave market at Nakhshab (modern-day Qarshi ). Later, he was bought by Alp-Tegin , himself a slave and a prominent commander. Sebuktigin quickly became integrated in
7242-485: The latter as garrison. Throughout his reign, Sabuktigin acknowledged Samanid sovereignty, he minted the names of Samanid amirs before his own name in his coins, and used the title al-Hajib al-Ajall (Most Exalted Commander) to indicate his subordinate status. This display was only nominal, since he was not bound to any vassalage obligations. The Samanid amir , Nuh II , came to gradually rely on Sabuktigin's military for defense against Kara-Khanid Khanate in
7344-432: 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
7446-536: 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
7548-466: 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
7650-499: 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
7752-414: 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
7854-615: The north, who were a constant threat to his borders. In 994, Nuh requested Sabuktigin's help in subduing the rebellious Abu Ali Simjuri and his Kara-Khanid supporter, Fa'iq Khassa. Sabuktigin with his son Mahmud in tow, met Simjuri's army at Herat . During initial negotiations, Sabuktigin agreed to peace if only Abu Ali pledged obedience to Nuh II and paid a sum of 15 million dirhams as compensation. Abu Ali's warriors found these terms too humiliating and thus attacked Sabuktigin's army on their own. Fa'iq's men quickly disarrayed Sabuktigin's war elephants , which made him furious. The battle
7956-732: 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
8058-542: 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
8160-694: 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
8262-606: The reasons that ghilman, even when they attained power, generally failed to start dynasties or to proclaim their independence. There are, however, a few exceptions to that rule, such the Ghaznavid dynasty of Afghanistan and the Anushtegin dynasty , which succeeded it. Slave soldiers became the core of Islamic armies as the Bedouin , Ghazi holy warriors and Hashariyan conscripts were not as reliable, while Ghilman were expected to be loyal as they had no personal connections to
8364-588: 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
8466-602: 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
8568-526: The rest of society. However, the Ghilman often did not remain as loyal as expected. From the 10th century, masters would distribute tax farming land grants ( Iqta ) to the ghilman to support their slave armies. The Buyids and likely the Tahirids also built armies of Turkish slave soldiers. The Saffarids drew slave soldiers from Turks, Indians and Africans. The Ghaznavid dynasty, which originated from
8670-613: 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
8772-471: The slave soldier recruitment shifted to Christian Spain, particularly the Kingdom of León. A ghulam was trained and educated at his master's expense and could earn his freedom through his dedicated service. Ghilman were required to marry Turkic slave-women, who were chosen for them by their masters. Some ghilman seem to have lived celibate lives. The absence of family life and offspring was possibly one of
8874-573: 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
8976-717: 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,
9078-504: The successive reigns of Bilgetegin (966-975) and Böritigin (975-977), Sabuktigin increased his prestige among his troops. In 977, the citizens of Ghazna, tired of the unpopular Böritigin, invited Abu Ali Lawik , Abu Bakr's son, to rule their city. The Hindu Shahi dynasty of Kabul supported Lawik and sent a large force under his leadership towards Ghazna. Sabuktigin united the Turkic garrisons of Gardez , Ghazna and Bamyan and defeated
9180-447: The treaty once he returned to his realm, causing Sabuktigin to march towards his realm with an army composed of Afghans and Khalajs in 988. Jayapala, who held some prestige among Indian rulers, mustered an army with the assistance of Delhi , Ajmer , Kalinjar and Kannauj . They again battled in Laghman , and this time Sabuktigin defeated Jayapala completely and captured the lands between Lamghan and Peshawar , housing 2000 horsemen in
9282-485: 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
9384-535: The way to Babur , the founding monarch of the Mughal Empire , who was influenced by Sabuktigin half a millennium after his death. Sabuktigin is a Turkic name meaning "beloved prince", however, during his era, the Old Turkic tegin had degenerated from "prince" to a synonym for Turkic slave commanders under the Abbasid service. His laqab ( agnomen ) Nasir ad-Din wa'd-Dawla means "Protector of
9486-673: Was a victory for Abu Ali until one of his allies, the Ziyarid prince Dara who ruled Gorgan , deserted his army and joined Sabuktigin. Abu Ali and Fa'iq fled towards Gorgan to seek help from their ally, Fakhr al-Dawla (Dara's overlord). For their victory, Sabuktigin and Mahmud were rewarded with laqabs and Mahmud became the commander of the army of Khorasan. In 995, Fa'iq and Abu Ali invaded Nishapur , and when Sabuktigin arrived, instead of fighting him, asked for forgiveness. Sabuktigin refused and launched an attack. His war elephants crushed many of Abu Ali's soldiers and chief commanders. Abu Ali
9588-597: 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
9690-464: Was befitting that a descendant of Alp-Tegin would rule Ghazna. For Nasr, he left Bust, and since Mahmud was commanding the army of Khorasan, Sabuktigin could not bestow him any titles and left nothing for him. In 998, during a succession struggle, Mahmud deposed Ismail and took his place. In 999, his invasion of Khorasan, along with Kara-Khanid's intrusion from north, finally put an end to the Samanid Empire, after which, Mahmud and Nasr ibn Ali partitioned
9792-403: Was conceived and inspired through the noble furusiyya . From a slave, a ghulam attained his freedom after completing the formative training period and joined the elite corps as a mounted warrior. The ghilman rose rapidly in power and influence, and under the weak rulers that followed Mu'tasim, they became kingmakers: they revolted several times during the so-called " Anarchy at Samarra " in
9894-543: Was imprisoned in 996 and was killed in 997 on Sabuktigin's order. Sabuktigin put forth a set of reforms regarding the iqta system in his realm. During Alp-Tegin's tenure, soldiers earned their pay through plunder and raids, but from his death to Sabuktigin's ascension, payment from raids ceased and soldiers turned to iqta as a source of income. Gradually, the soldiers turned their iqta lands into independent ownerships and grew disinclined to fight for their ruler. Moreover, their dominance upon farming lands burdened
9996-538: 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
10098-476: Was still a child at the time of his death. He also had a daughter called Hurra-yi Khuttali who later married two rulers of Khwarazm from the Ma'munid dynasty : Abu al-Hasan Ali and Ma'mun II . Though there are no given birth dates, Ismail seems to have been his youngest adult son, born from a daughter of Alp-Tegin. His maternal lineage may have influenced Sabuktigin to pass Ghazna onto Ismail upon his death, since it
10200-613: 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
10302-578: Was the first ruler to bring Islam into the northwest India . He believed in the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam and converted into a Hanafite sect called the Karramiyya . According to Bosworth, the reason for his conversion was his entrancement with the Karramiyya leader, the ascetic Abu Ya'qub Ishaq ibn Mahmudshadh (d. 993). In 996, Nuh II again requested Sabuktigin's support against Nasr ibn Ali,
10404-492: 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
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