Ajam

Ajam is a word used in Persian and Arabic literature but with different concepts. Ajam (عجم) in Arabic has two primary meanings: "non-Arab" and "Persian".literally it has other meaning "one who is illiterate in language", "silent", or "mute", and refers to non-Arabs in general, or people of Southern Persian origin specifically. In the former sense it is a neutral term meaning "stranger" or "foreign". in Persian language Ajamis used to refer to Persian language as a synonym and also it refer to iran and Iranian. [1]

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Etymology

Origin

Ajam has two primary meanings in Arabic: "non-Arab" and "Persian".[2]

The word `ajam comes from the Semitic root `-j-m. Related forms of the same root include, but are not limited to:[3]

Homophonous words, which may or may not be derived from the same root, include:

A Persian folk etymology derives the word from the name of an ancient Persian king, Jamshid, though this is linguistically dubious. The folk etymology would have "Ajam" as an arabized version of the kings name 'Jam' through the addition of the definite article al-. However, as jīm is a lunar and not a solar letter, this explanation cannot account for the anomalous assimilation of the "l" by the jīm or the ayin at the beginning of the word in place of the alif that would be expected from the article al-.

Development

According to The Political Language of Islam, during the Islamic period, Ajam was originally used as a reference to denote those whom Arabs in the Arabian peninsula viewed as 'alien' or outsiders.[4] The early application of the term included all of the peoples with whom the Arabs had contact including Persians, Greeks, Ethiopians, and the somewhat related Nabataeans. Over time the term because specialized and referred to Persians almost exclusively as an ethnic term, but varied in its usage from place to place as the early Muslim conquests led to a much wider of Arabic-speakers. However, the original meaning still exists, and in much of the non-Arabic speaking Muslim world the term does not have a pejorative meaning as the word is understood to mean anyone who does not speak Arabic.

During the early age of the Caliphates, Ajam was often synonymous for "barbarian" or stranger. In the eastern portions of the Middle East, it was generally applied to the Persians, while in al-Andalus it referred to speakers of Romance languages - becoming "Aljamiado" in Spanish in reference to Arabic-script writing of those languages - and in West Africa, Ajami similarly refers to Ajami script, or the writing of local languages such as Hausa and Fulani in the Arabic alphabet. In Zanzibar ajami and ajamo means Persian which came from the Persian Gulf and the cities of Shiraz and Siraf. In Turkish and Urdu, the usage of the term is not used to any ethnic group, but instead may have evolved from the original Arabic usage for outsiders in general. According to Encyclopædia Iranica, the name "ajam", while "given to the non-Arabs of the Islamic empire" in general, was "applied especially to Persians" by the Arabs. The verb ʿaǰama originally meant "to mumble, and speak indistinctly", which is the opposite of ʿaraba, “to speak clearly”. Accordingly, the noun ʿoǰma, of the same root, is the opposite of foṣḥa, which means "chaste, correct, Arabic language".[5] In general, ajam was a pejorative term used by Arabs conscious of their social and political superiority, in early Islam. However, the distinction between Arab and Ajam is discernible in pre-Islamic poetry.[5]

According to Clifford Edmund Bosworth, "by the 3rd/9th century, the non-Arabs, and above all the Persians, were asserting their social and cultural equality (taswīa) with the Arabs, if not their superiority (tafżīl) over them (a process seen in the literary movement of the Šoʿūbīya). In any case, there was always in some minds a current of admiration for the ʿAǰam as heirs of an ancient, cultured tradition of life. Even the great proponent of the Arab cause, Jāḥeẓ, wrote a Ketāb al-taswīa bayn al-ʿArab wa’l-ʿAǰam. After these controversies had died down, and the Persians had achieved a position of power in the Islamic world comparable to their numbers and capabilities, "ʿAjam" became a simple ethnic and geographical designation.".[6] Thus by the 9th century, the term was being used by Persians themselves as an ethnic term, and examples can be given by Asadi Tusi in his poem comparing the superiority of Persians and Arabs.[7] Accordingly: "territorial notions of “Iran,” are reflected in such terms as irānšahr, irānzamin, or Fors, the arabicized form of Pārs/Fārs (Persia). The ethnic notion of “Iranian” is denoted by the Persian words Pārsi or Irāni, and the Arabic term ahl al-fors (inhabitants of Persia) or ʿAjam, referring to non-Arabs, but primarily to Persians as in molk-e ʿAjam (Persian kingdom) or moluk-e ʿAjam (Persian kings).".[8]

In the Persian Gulf region today, people usually refer to Persian as Ajami as they refer to Persian carpet (Ajami carpet or Sajjad al Ajami), Persian cat (Ajami cat), and Persian emperors (Ajami kings).

The Persian community in Bahrain calls itself Ajami, see: Ajam (Bahrain)

Other usages

See also: "Ajami (disambiguation)"

See also

References

  1. ^ The Book.documents on the Persian gulf's name.names of Iran.pp.23-60 Molk e Ajam= Persi . Molk-e-Jam and Molouk -e-Ajam(Persian Kings). عجم - تهران 2010 ISBN 978-600-90231-4-1PAGE 23-60...
  2. ^ Sakhr: Multilingual Dictionary
  3. ^ Sakhr: Lisan al-Arab
  4. ^ Amazon: The Political Language of Islam (Emergent Literatures)
  5. ^ a b Encyclopædia Iranica, "Ajam, p.700"
  6. ^ (Encyclopædia Iranica, "Ajam", Bosworth)
  7. ^ گفتمش چو دیوانه بسی گفتی و اکنون پاسخ شنو ای بوده چون دیوان بیابان عیب ار چه کنی اهل گرانمایه عجم را چه بوید شما خود گلهء غر شتربان Jalal Khaleqi Motlaq, "Asadi Tusi", Majaleyeh Daneshkadeyeh Adabiyaat o Olum-e Insani(Literature and Humanities Magazine), Ferdowsi University, 1357(1978). page 71.
  8. ^ Encyclopedia Iranica, "IRANIAN IDENTITY iii. MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC PERIOD" by Ahmad Ashraf
  9. ^ Martin van Bruinessen. "Nationalisme kurde et ethnicités intra-kurdes", Peuples Méditerranéens no. 68-69 (1994), 11-37.
  10. ^ Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Stefan Sperl, The Kurds, 250 pp., Routledge, 1992, ISBN 0-415-07265-4, 9780415072656 (see p.38)
  11. ^ Mahmood Reza Ghods, A comparative historical study of the causes, development and effects of the revolutionary movements in northern Iran in 1920-21 and 1945-46. University of Denver, 1988. v.1, p.75.
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ Names Database: Ajam Surname
  14. ^ The Book.documents on the Persian gulf's name.names of Iran.pp.23-60 Molk e Ajam= Persi . Molk-e-Jam and Molouk -e-Ajam(Persian Kings). عجم - تهران 2010 ISBN 978-600-90231-4-1PAGE 23-60...
  15. ^ A. J. Racy, "Making Music in the Arab World", Published by Cambridge University Press, 2004. pg 110.
  16. ^ Manorma Sharma, "Musical Heritage of India", APH Publishing Corporation, 2007.