139-418: Zibad ( Persian : زيبَد ) is a village in, and the capital of, Zibad Rural District , of Kakhk District , Gonabad County , Razavi Khorasan province, Iran . At the time of the 2006 National Census, the village's population was 868 in 288 households. The following census in 2011 counted 856 people in 309 households. The 2016 census measured the population of the village as 1,058 people in 397 households. It
278-452: 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,
417-655: 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
556-440: 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)
695-418: 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
834-407: A generation earlier briefly conquered Egypt and Asia Minor , even reaching as a far as Constantinople , fell to a force of lightly equipped Arabs that were used to skirmishes and desert warfare. The heavy Sasanian cavalry was too sluggish and systematized to contain them; employed light-armed Arab or East Iranian mercenaries from Khorasan and Transoxiana would have been much more successful. Zibad
973-577: 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
1112-577: A just and exact distribution of water from qanats to their shareholders for agricultural irrigation. The use of water clocks in Iran, especially in Zibad, dates back to 500BCE. Later they were also used to determine the exact holy days of pre-Islamic religions, such as the Nowruz , Chelah , or Yaldā - the shortest, longest, and equal-length days and nights of the years. The water clocks used in Iran were one of
1251-505: 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
1390-480: 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
1529-417: 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
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#17327975671771668-770: 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
1807-471: A mill near Marv , the latter who killed Yazdegerd in order to obtain his jewelry. The Cambridge History of Iran states that the miller was sent by Mahoe Suri . According to the history of Belazari, Yazdegerd III was defeated in a war in the city of Gonabad. According to the excavations of Zibad-Gonabad Fortress and according to oral narrations and the report of Blazeri and Habib Abdolhai, Dr Ajam and Abas Zmani (historical study magazine 1974), it seems that
1946-486: 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)
2085-536: 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
2224-690: 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
2363-599: 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
2502-717: 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
2641-504: Is July when the average temperature is 30 °C, and the coldest is January, with 1 °C. Average annual rainfall is 211 mm (8 in). The rainiest month is February, with an average of 58 mm (2 in) of precipitation, and the driest is July, with 1 mm of precipitation. This mountain had been referred in some historical book such as shahnameh in Davazdah Rokhwar as the Zibad mountain and its eastern part
2780-615: 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
2919-664: 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
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#17327975671773058-628: 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
3197-745: 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
3336-507: Is an ancient place with many historical places. The Davazdah Rokh war had occurred in Zibad. Sufeh Pir is another famous place in Zibad, a holy cave believed to be the tomb of Piran Viseh in the Kūh-Zibad mountain. He is a Turanian figure in Shahnameh , the national epic of Greater Iran . Beside Shahnameh, Piran is also mentioned in other sources such as Tabari and Tha'ālibī . He
3475-675: 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
3614-420: Is believed to be the last shelter of the last Sasanian emperor Yazdegerd III . It was registered in 2001 as an Iranian national heritage property, as it is related to the history of pre-Islamic Iran . There is the royal castle nationally registered in 2002 under the name of Shahab Castle. Sources conflict as to the exact manner of the emperor's final moments. One suggests that after his defeat, he sought refuge at
3753-466: Is called black mountain or kouh Gonabad. the long-range mountain called Qohestan and It extends from Bajestan to Birjand near the border with Afghanistan this rang mountain separate south Khorasan from Razavi Khorasan , part of this rang mountain near Kakhk is called black mountain or Kouh e Gonabad Zibad Castle is one of the four historical monuments of Zibad. It is located in Gonabad and
3892-425: 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
4031-400: Is estimated to be between around 2000 years old. Despite the desert and dry place with little rain natural conditions of its location have been credited as the main reason for the tree's longevity. [5] . ( Persian : سرو زیبد ) Sarv Zibad is 1 km (0.62 mi) from Davazdah Rokh battle field near to the Kūh-Zibad and Zibad Castle it was center of ancient Zibad and now located north of
4170-478: 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
4309-650: 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
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4448-460: 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
4587-475: 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 ),
4726-585: 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
4865-530: Is protected by the Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran as a national natural monument and is a major tourist attraction with a height of 20 metres and with a perimeter of 6.5 meters (21 ft) at its trunk and 16 meters (52 ft) higher up around its branches. It is estimated to be over two millennia old and is likely the second-oldest living lifeform in Iran . The exact age of the tree has been difficult to determine, but it
5004-495: 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
5143-445: Is the king of Khotan and the spahbed of Afrasiab , the king of Turan. According to the book of Dr. Abas Zamani Piran Viseh was buried in the cave of Sofe Zibad now called DarSufa Pir. [3] The Cypress of Zibad ( Persian : سرو زیبد Sarv-e Zibad ), is a Cupressus sempervirens tree in Zibad, Sarv-e Zibad is 10 km (6.2 mi) from [4] Qanats of Ghasabeh a UNESCO 's World Heritage Sites since 2016. Sarv-e Zibad
5282-400: 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
5421-411: Is very sparsely populated, with 5 inhabitants per square kilometre. Nearest society Zibad, 8.5 km (5.3 mi) north of Kuh-e Zibad. The neighbourhood around Kuh-e Zibad is barren with little vegetation. In the neighbourhood around are unusually many named mountains and valleys. A cold steppe climate prevailing in the region. The average annual temperature in the area is 17 °C. The warmest month
5560-491: 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
5699-506: 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
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5838-410: 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
5977-633: 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
6116-668: 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
6255-544: 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
6394-545: The Hephthalite ruler Nizak against Yazdegerd. Regardless, the death of Yazdegerd marked the end of the Sasanian Empire, and made it less difficult for the Arabs to conquer the rest of Iran. All of Khorasan was soon conquered by the Arabs, who would use it as a base to attack Transoxiana . The death of Yazdegerd thus marked the end of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire after more than 400 years of rule. An empire–which had
6533-797: 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,
6672-516: 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
6811-674: 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
6950-713: 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
7089-491: 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
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#17327975671777228-597: 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 ,
7367-562: 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
7506-459: 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
7645-637: 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
7784-404: 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
7923-572: 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
8062-419: 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
8201-403: 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
8340-400: 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
8479-404: 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
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#17327975671778618-500: 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
8757-429: 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
8896-459: 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
9035-425: 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
9174-401: 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
9313-487: 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,
9452-428: 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
9591-427: 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)
9730-407: 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
9869-418: 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
10008-627: 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
10147-712: 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
10286-811: 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,
10425-738: 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
10564-498: 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
10703-421: 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
10842-582: The central roundabout of Zibad. Holding the Yalda Night and festival of Davazdah Rokh is 2 most famous festival of Zibad. Iranian festivals such as Yaldā Night and Nowruz are celebrated in Zibad. [REDACTED] Media related to Zibad at Wikimedia Commons [REDACTED] Iran portal Persian language Russia Persian ( / ˈ p ɜːr ʒ ən , - ʃ ən / PUR -zhən, -shən ), also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , Fārsī [fɒːɾˈsiː] ),
10981-425: 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;
11120-671: 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
11259-593: 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
11398-492: 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,
11537-457: 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
11676-512: 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
11815-880: The emperor to marry his daughter and the emperor refused and this caused a war and at the end Nizak defeats the king's army and destroys and captures remnants of the imperial forces. The battle occurred in Zibad Gonabad . Mahoe Suri was probably from the House of Suren , one of the seven Parthian clans of the Sasanian state. During the Islamic invasion of Iran , Yazdegerd III went to refuge in Marv ; on his way to Merv he stayed in Gonabad Mahoe. The envoy warmly received them. Mahoe Suri used opportunity to secretly plot with
11954-614: 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
12093-652: 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
12232-493: 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
12371-400: 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
12510-650: 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,
12649-599: The following phylogenetic classification: Merw 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
12788-577: 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
12927-476: 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
13066-410: 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
13205-531: 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
13344-464: 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
13483-478: 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,
13622-596: 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
13761-432: 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
13900-462: 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
14039-479: 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,
14178-568: The most practical ancient tools for timing the yearly calendar. [2] . The mountain of Kūh-Zibad is located near Zibad, and is the second-highest mountain in Razavi Khorasan Province . Kūh-Zibad is famous because of some great historical events. Its peak is called Tir Mahi. The terrain around Kuh-e Zibad is mainly hilly. The highest point in the vicinity is 2,775 meters (9,104 ft) above sea level, 17.7 km (11.0 mi) southeast of Qole-e Tir Mahi. Around Kuh-e Zibad
14317-536: 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
14456-610: The narration related to the murder of Yazdgerd in Merw Mill is more mythical than fact. What is closer to the truth is the narration of Al-Baladhuri in Kitab Futuh al-Buldan , that he was killed in Gonabad. The main text of Blazeri's book The Fate of Yazdgerd III: Then he went to Khorasan, then he went to Janabad ( Gonabad ) he was welcomed and ruler of Merv send Nizak Trkhan to welcome him in Gonabad. but after weeks he asked
14595-466: 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
14734-499: 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
14873-414: 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
15012-732: 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
15151-423: 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 ,
15290-616: 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
15429-483: 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
15568-495: 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
15707-638: 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
15846-647: 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
15985-602: 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
16124-468: 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
16263-508: 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
16402-668: 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
16541-483: 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
16680-512: 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
16819-777: 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,
16958-467: 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",
17097-508: 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
17236-525: 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
17375-485: 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
17514-496: 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
17653-487: 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
17792-543: 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
17931-572: 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,
18070-452: 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
18209-511: 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
18348-503: 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
18487-437: 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,
18626-654: 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
18765-484: 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
18904-488: 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
19043-446: Was the most populous village in its rural district. Zibad, which means "beautiful" in Persian, was a famous ancient area in Shahnameh . According to Shahnameh Ferdowsi (around 1000 AD), it was the place of a famous war called Davazdah Rokh (12 hero) between Iran and Turan . Zibad also has an ancient qanat that may be more than 1600 years old. According to Callisthenes , the Persians were using water clocks in 328BCE to ensure
19182-425: 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
19321-427: 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
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