History of the Persian language
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| History of the Persian language |
| Prehistory |
| Proto-Indo-Iranian
History |
| Old Persian (c. 525 BCE - 300 BCE)
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| Middle Persian (c.300 BCE-800 CE)
Pahlavi script • Manichean script • Avestan script |
| Modern Persian (from 800) |
The history of the Persian language is spans three chronologically related languages: Old Persian, Middle Persian and Modern Persian, the last of which has been around since at least 900 AD.
Contents |
[edit] Old Persian
Old Persian and the Avestan language represent the old stage of development and were spoken in ancient Bactria. The Avestan language is called Avestan because the sacred scriptures of Zoroastrianism, the Avesta, were written in this old form. Avestan died out long before the advent of Islam and except for scriptural use, not much has remained of it. Old Persian, however, is much better documented. There are many written records of Old Persian, written in a cuneiform script called Maikhi, that have been found in Khorasan. Old Persian was spoken until around the third century BC. It is known to have been a highly inflected language.
[edit] Middle Persian
Middle Persian was spoken from the 3rd century to 9th and is closely related to several other Central Asian tongues such as Sogdian, Chrosmian and also Parthian languages. Parthian was the language of the Arsacid Dynasty of Parthia. Parthian, though it left some influences on Middle Persian, declined when the Sassanid power expanded. Middle Persian had a simpler grammar than Old Persian, and was written in multivalent letters (Pahlavi script). Middle Persian declined after Arab conquest of Persia in the 7th century and much of its rich literature was lost or destroyed by the Arab conquerors. However, a lot of it was also translated into Arabic.
[edit] Modern Persian
Modern Persian began to develop by 9th century. It is a continuation of the Khorasanian standard language which had considerable Parthian and Middle Persian elements. It has much simpler grammar than its ancestral forms. Because it developed after the Islamic conquest, it is written in Arabic script with some modification, and has absorbed a vast Arabic vocabulary.
[edit] Literature
Persian literature is one of the richest in the world. After the Arab conquest of 7th century, Islam replaced Zoroastrianism and Arabic became the language of law, religion and culture in Khorasan. However with the rise of Samanids and the political revival of Khorasan, Persian reemerged as a literary medium and developed into the established literary form of Persian language. During the period of Samanids a new era of literary activity began. The ancient traditions of Khorasan and Islam merged together. Persian was especially instrumental in freeing Islam from an exclusive attachment to Arabic culture, universalizing, and thus helping preserve it.
[edit] Poetry
Persian poetry had began sporadically in Khorasan in 9th century. The earliest main genres are the epic, qasida (ode of praise), ghazal (lyric), and masnavi (long narrative poem). By 10th century Persian had become an important and melodious medium for poetry, as the surviving works of Rudaki demonstrate. Rudaki is regarded as the father of Dari (Persian) poetry. After Rudaki's death the epic tradition, with its sources in Avestan and Middle Persian texts, bloomed. The first epic poet was Marvazi Samarqandi who composed a Shahnameh (Book of Kings) in 910. Daqiqi Balkhi another poet of tenth century wrote a better known Shahnameh in 975. The best known Shahnameh, however, and the one that is most commonly known by the name Shahnameh was composed by Firdowsi Tusi in 1010. This work is considered the apex of Persian epic poetry, and includes the works of other epic poets, such as Daqiqi, as well.
Persian qasida were also first written by Rudaki. Mostly qasidas are panegyrics, sometimes elegiac, didactic and occasionally they deal with philosophical or biographical literature. The average length of qasida is between sixty and hundred lines and they are written in couplets. Long qasidas, over two hundred lines, were also frequently written. The earliest exponents of this form of poetry Unsuri Balkhi, Asjadi, and Farrukhi Sistani, were the greatest poets of their time. Of many panegyrists in the history of Persian literature, Anvari is regarded as the foremost. In philosophical qasidas Naser-e Khosrow was very well regarded. Omar Khayyám was another poet of this era who is considered to be of astonishing originality.
Persian poetry blossomed again in the 13th and 14th centuries which are often called its golden age. This was the period of the three great lyric poets, Mawlana Rumi, Saadi and Hafez. They were excellent in a form o poetry called ghazal, a passionate mystical lyric form that is composed on a single rhyme. Ghazals usually consist of five to fifteen couplets and they could be in any of a variety of meters.
The first mystic masnavi is believed to have been written by Hakim Sanai of Ghazna and is known as Hadiqat al-Haqiqa (The Walled Garden of Truth). He was followed by Attar and Rumi. Rumi's Masnavi-e-Manavi consists of six books that contain 30,000 couplets. Masnavi's basic theme is love and Rumi's verse is concerned with problems bearing on the conduct, meaning and purpose of life and the longing of the human soul for union with God. Rumi's Masnavi is a deeply moving work, and one of gigantic stature in Persian literature, and in Islamic literature in general. The Masnavi is often called Quran-e-Sani meaning the second Qur'an. The masnavi form of poetry was also suitable for epic and romantic stories. Nezami was the best known practitioner of this style, Khosrow o Shirin and Leyle o Mæjnun being his most famous works.
[edit] Prose
During the Samanid era the foundation of Persian prose was also laid. Several pieces of literature demonstrated the suitability of Persian language for sacred texts. Al-Bal'ami, a vizier in the court of Mansur I of Samanid, in 963 published a translation of the Annals of Tabari. Also at the same time, a group of theologians made a Persian copy of Tabari's commentary on the Quran. These works and works of a similar nature produced a clear demonstration that Persian was very suitable for religious works. In fact, these works brought to an end the absolute domination of Arabic as the language of Islamic religious literature. Mansur I also commissioned the pharmacopoeia of Abu Mansur Muwaffak of Herat, the first Persian book on medicine. An extensive technical vocabulary, applicable to philosophy and science were also coined with the patronage of Samanids.
