Editing Persian language (section)

==History==
In general, the Iranian languages are known from three periods: namely Old, Middle, and New (Modern). These correspond to three historical eras of [[History of Iran|Iranian history]]; Old era being sometime around the [[Achaemenid Empire]] (i.e., 400–300 BC), Middle era being the next period most officially around the [[Sasanian Empire]], and New era being the period afterward down to present day.<ref name=EI-IL-vi>{{harvnb|Skjærvø|2006}} vi(2). Documentation.</ref>

According to available documents, the Persian language is "the only Iranian language"<ref name="Lazard"/> for which close philological relationships between all of its three stages are established and so that Old, Middle, and New Persian represent<ref name="Lazard"/><ref name=EI-IL-vi(2)/> one and the same language of Persian; that is, New Persian is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian.<ref name=EI-IL-vi(2)>cf. {{harvnb|Skjærvø|2006}} vi(2). Documentation. Excerpt 1: "Only the official languages Old, Middle, and New Persian represent three stages of one and the same language, whereas close genetic relationships are difficult to establish between other Middle and Modern Iranian languages. Modern Yaḡnōbi belongs to the same dialect group as Sogdian, but is not a direct descendant; Bactrian may be closely related to modern Yidḡa and Munji (Munjāni); and Wakhi (Wāḵi) belongs with Khotanese.'' Excerpt 2: ''New Persian, the descendant of Middle Persian and official language of Iranian states for centuries."</ref> Gernot Windfuhr considers new Persian as an evolution of the Old Persian language and the Middle Persian language<ref>{{cite book |last=Comrie |first=Bernard |title=The Major Languages of South Asia, the Middle East and Africa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5IXJ1RbE8-8C |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-93257-3}}, p. 82. "The evolution of Persian as the culturally dominant language of major parts of the Near East, from Anatolia and Iran, to Central Asia, to northwest India until recent centuries, began with the political domination of these areas by dynasties originating in southwestern province of Iran, Pars, later Arabicised to Fars: first the Achaemenids (599–331 BC) whose official language was Old Persian; then the Sassanids (c. AD 225–651) whose official language was Middle Persian. Hence, the entire country used to be called Perse by the ancient Greeks, a practice continued to this day. The more general designation 'Iran(-shahr)" derives from Old Iranian aryanam (Khshathra)' (the realm) of Aryans'. The dominance of these two dynasties resulted in Old and Middle-Persian colonies throughout the empire, most importantly for the course of the development of Persian, in the north-east i.e., what is now Khorasan, northern Afghanistan, and Central Asia, as documented by the Middle Persian texts of the Manichean found in the oasis city of Turfan in Chinese Turkistan ([[Xinjiang|Sinkiang]]). This led to certain degree of regionalisation".</ref> but also states that none of the known Middle Persian dialects is the direct predecessor of Modern Persian.<ref>Comrie, Bernard (1990) ''The major languages of South Asia, the Middle East and Africa'', Taylor & Francis, p. 82</ref><ref>Barbara M. Horvath, Paul Vaughan, ''Community languages'', 1991, p. 276</ref> Ludwig Paul states: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian."<ref>L. Paul (2005), "The Language of the Shahnameh in historical and dialectical perspective", p. 150: "The language of the Shahnameh should be seen as one instance of continuous historical development from Middle to New Persian.", ''in'' {{cite book |last1=Weber |first1=Dieter |last2=MacKenzie |first2=D. N. |title=Languages of Iran: Past and Present: Iranian Studies in Memoriam David Neil MacKenzie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4sz3YuyMJ5gC |year=2005 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-05299-3 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=17 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117165501/https://books.google.com/books?id=4sz3YuyMJ5gC |url-status=live}}</ref>

The known history of the Persian language can be divided into the following three distinct periods:

===Old Persian===
{{Main|Old Persian}}
[[File:Persépolis. Inscription.jpg|thumb|right|An [[Old Persian]] inscription written in [[Old Persian cuneiform]] in [[Persepolis]], Iran]]
As a [[written language]], Old Persian is attested in royal [[Achaemenid Empire|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).{{sfn|Schmitt|2008|pp=80–1}}{{citation not found|date=January 2024}} Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now [[Iran]], Romania ([[Gherla]]),{{sfn|Kuhrt|2013|page=197}}{{sfn|Frye|1984|page=103}}{{sfn|Schmitt|2000|page=53}} [[Armenia]], [[Bahrain]], [[Iraq]], Turkey, and [[Egypt]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.avesta.org/op/op.htm |title=Roland G. Kent, Old Persian, 1953 |access-date=5 September 2015 |archive-date=19 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170719155757/http://avesta.org/op/op.htm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="OPGTL 6">Kent, R. G.: "Old Persian: Grammar Texts Lexicon", page 6. American Oriental Society, 1950.</ref> Old Persian is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages.<ref name=EI-IL-vi-vi(2)>{{harvnb|Skjærvø|2006|loc=vi(2). Documentation. Old Persian.}}</ref>

According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in [[Fars province|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 the official language of the Achaemenid kings.<ref name=EI-IL-vi-vi(2)/> 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 the area of [[Lake Urmia]] in the records of [[Shalmaneser III]].<ref name=EI-IL-vi-vi(1)>{{harvnb|Skjærvø|2006|loc=vi(1). Earliest Evidence}}</ref> The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain, but from a linguistic viewpoint the word matches Old Persian {{lang|peo-Latn|pārsa}} itself coming directly from the older word {{lang|peo-Latn|*pārćwa}}.<ref name=EI-IL-vi-vi(1)/> Also, as Old Persian contains many words from another extinct Iranian language, [[Median language|Median]], according to [[Prods Oktor Skjaervo|P. O. Skjærvø]] it is probable that Old Persian had already been spoken before the formation of the [[Achaemenid Empire]] and was spoken during most of the first half of the first millennium BCE.<ref name=EI-IL-vi-vi(2)/> [[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 [[Armenian language|language]] that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians.<ref>{{cite book |author=Xenophon |author-link=Xenophon |title=Anabasis |pages=IV.v.2–9 |title-link=Anabasis (Xenophon)}}</ref>

Related to Old Persian, but from a different branch of the Iranian language family, was [[Avestan]], the language of the [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] liturgical texts.

===Middle Persian===
{{Main|Middle Persian}}
[[File:Stone block with Paikuli inscription.JPG|thumb|[[Middle Persian]] text written in [[Inscriptional Pahlavi]] on the [[Paikuli inscription]] from between 293 and 297. [[Sulaymaniyah Museum|Slemani Museum]], [[Iraqi Kurdistan]].]]

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 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 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 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.<ref>Nicholas Sims-Williams, "The Iranian Languages", in Steever, Sanford (ed.) (1993), ''The Indo-European Languages'', p. 129.</ref> The [[endonym and exonym|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 province|Fars]]''. This is the origin of the name ''Farsi'' as it is today used to signify New Persian. Following 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 ''[[Middle Persian|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 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===
[[File:Rudaba.JPG|thumb|right|[[Ferdowsi]]'s ''[[Shahnameh]]'']]
"New Persian" (also referred to as Modern Persian) is conventionally divided into three stages:
*Early New Persian (8th/9th centuries)
*Classical Persian (10th–18th centuries)
*Contemporary Persian (19th century to present)

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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Jeremias |first=Eva M. |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam |title=Iran, iii. (f). New Persian |edition=New Edition, Supplement |year=2004 |volume=12 |isbn=90-04-13974-5 |pages=432}}</ref>

====Early New Persian====
New Persian texts written in the [[Arabic script]] first appear in the 9th-century.{{sfn|Paul|2000}} The language is a direct descendant of Middle Persian, the official, religious, and literary language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651).{{sfn|Lazard|1975|p=596}} 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 province|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 [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]], known as Dari.{{sfn|Paul|2000}}{{sfn|Perry|2011}} The region, which comprised 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.{{sfn|Paul|2000}} New Persian has incorporated many foreign words, including from [[Eastern Iranian languages|eastern]] northern and northern Iranian languages such as [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] and especially Parthian.{{sfn|Lazard|1975|p=597}}
[[File:Persian notes on Quranic booklets, written by a native of Tūs called Ahmad Khayqānī (905 CE).jpg|thumb|Persian notes on [[Quran]]ic booklets, written by a native of [[Tus, Iran|Tus]] called Ahmad Khayqani in 292 AH (905 CE).]]
[[File:کتاب الابنیه عن الحقایق الادویه، برگی از دستنویس محفوظ در کتابخانه ملی اتریش در وین.jpg|thumb|A page from a manuscript of "Kitab al-Abniya 'an Haqa'iq al-Adwiya" by [[Abu Mansur Muwaffaq]], Copied by [[Asadi Tusi]] in 447 AH (1055 CE).]]
The transition to New Persian 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).<ref name="Public Domain">Jackson, A. V. Williams. 1920. Early Persian poetry, from the beginnings down to the time of Firdausi. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp.17–19. (in [https://archive.org/stream/earlypersianpoet00jackuoft/earlypersianpoet00jackuoft_djvu.txt Public Domain])</ref> 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.<ref>Jackson, A. V. Williams.pp.17–19.</ref>

The first poems of the Persian language, a language historically called Dari, emerged in present-day Afghanistan.<ref name=Adamec>{{cite book |last=Adamec |first=Ludwig W. |title=Historical Dictionary of Afghanistan |year=2011 |publisher=Scarecrow |isbn=978-0-8108-7815-0 |edition=4th Revised |page=105}}</ref> 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 the ''[[Kalīla wa-Dimna|Kalila wa Dimna]]''.<ref name="Persian literature"/>

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.<ref name="turkiclanguages.com">Johanson, Lars, and Christiane Bulut. 2006. [http://www.turkiclanguages.com/www/Johanson2006Cont.pdf Turkic-Iranian contact areas: historical and linguistic aspects] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002000524/http://www.turkiclanguages.com/www/Johanson2006Cont.pdf |date=2 October 2011}}. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.</ref> In the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on the Persian model: [[Ottoman Turkish language|Ottoman Turkish]], [[Chagatai language|Chagatai Turkic]], [[Dobhashi|Dobhashi Bengali]], and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter languages" of Persian.<ref name="turkiclanguages.com"/>

====Classical Persian====
{{See also|List of Persian-language poets and authors}}
[[File:Kalila wa Dimna 001.jpg|right|thumb|[[Panchatantra|''Kalilah va Dimna'']], an influential work in Persian literature]]
"Classical Persian" loosely refers to the standardized language of [[medieval Persia]] used in [[Persian literature|literature]] and [[Persian poetry|poetry]].
This is the language of the 10th to 12th centuries, which continued to be used as literary language and [[lingua franca]] under the "[[Persianized]]" Turko-Mongol dynasties during the 12th to 15th centuries, and under restored Persian rule during the 16th to 19th centuries.<ref><!--"Classical Persian" in reference to the language is almost nerver used, at least not in published sources, but -->
according to [http://www.iranchamber.com/literature/articles/persian_language.php iranchamber.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180629102420/http://www.iranchamber.com/literature/articles/persian_language.php |date=29 June 2018}} "the language (ninth to thirteenth centuries), preserved in the literature of the Empire, is known as Classical Persian, due to the eminence and distinction of poets such as Roudaki, Ferdowsi, and Khayyam. During this period, Persian was adopted as the lingua franca of the eastern Islamic nations. Extensive contact with Arabic led to a large influx of Arab vocabulary. In fact, a writer of Classical Persian had at one's disposal the entire Arabic lexicon and could use Arab terms freely either for literary effect or to display erudition. Classical Persian remained essentially unchanged until the nineteenth century, when the dialect of Teheran rose in prominence, having been chosen as the capital of Persia by the Qajar Dynasty in 1787. This Modern Persian dialect became the basis of what is now called Contemporary Standard Persian. Although it still contains a large number of Arab terms, most borrowings have been nativized, with a much lower percentage of Arabic words in colloquial forms of the language."</ref>

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, [[Buyid dynasty|Buyids]], [[Tahirid dynasty|Tahirids]], [[Ziyarid dynasty|Ziyarids]], the [[Mughal Empire]], [[Timurid Empire|Timurids]], [[Ghaznavids]], [[Kara-Khanid Khanate|Karakhanids]], [[Seljuq dynasty|Seljuqs]], [[Khwarazmian dynasty|Khwarazmians]], the [[Sultanate of Rum]], [[Anatolian beyliks|Turkmen beyliks of Anatolia]], [[Delhi Sultanate]], the [[Shirvanshah]]s, [[Safavid dynasty|Safavids]], [[Afsharid dynasty|Afsharids]], [[Zand dynasty|Zands]], [[Qajar dynasty|Qajars]], [[Khanate of Bukhara]], [[Khanate of Kokand]], [[Emirate of Bukhara]], [[Khanate of Khiva]], [[Ottoman Empire|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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Persian authors of Asia Minor part 1 |author-last=Yazıcı |author-first=Tahsin |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/persian-authors-1 |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Iranica |year=2010 |quote=Persian language and culture were actually so popular and dominant in this period that in the late 14th century, Moḥammad (Meḥmed) Bey, the founder and the governing head of the Qaramanids, published an official edict to end this supremacy, saying that: "The Turkish language should be spoken in courts, palaces, and at official institutions from now on!” |access-date=6 July 2021 |archive-date=17 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117165233/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/persian-authors-1 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>John Andrew Boyle, ''Some thoughts on the sources for the Il-Khanid period of Persian history'', in [[Iran]]: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies, British Institute of Persian Studies, vol. 12 (1974), p. 175.</ref>

===== Use in Asia Minor =====
[[File:Ottoman miniature painters.jpg|thumb|left|Persian on an [[Ottoman miniature]]]]
A branch of the Seljuks, the [[Sultanate of Rum]], took Persian language, art, and letters to Anatolia.<ref name="Sigfried J 1994. p 734">{{cite book |last=de Laet |first=Sigfried J. |title=History of Humanity: From the seventh to the sixteenth century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvlthkbFU1UC&pg=PA734 |year=1994 |publisher=UNESCO |isbn=978-92-3-102813-7 |access-date=18 April 2016 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727115400/https://books.google.com/books?id=PvlthkbFU1UC&pg=PA734 |url-status=live}}, p 734</ref> They adopted the Persian language as the [[official language]] of the empire.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ágoston |first1=Gábor |last2=Masters |first2=Bruce Alan |title=Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYdCxumFcC&pg=PA322 |year=2010 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-1025-7 |access-date=18 April 2016 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801124343/https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYdCxumFcC&pg=PA322 |url-status=live|page=322}}</ref> The [[Ottoman Empire|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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wastl-Walter |first=Doris |title=The Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gsm72h9u_IC&pg=PA409 |year=2011 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-0-7546-7406-1 |page=409 |access-date=21 October 2019 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801123640/https://books.google.com/books?id=6gsm72h9u_IC&pg=PA409 |url-status=live}}</ref> The educated and noble class of the Ottoman Empire all spoke Persian, such as Sultan [[Selim I]], despite being Safavid Iran's archrival and a staunch opposer of [[Shia Islam]].{{sfn|Spuler|2003|p=68}} It was a major literary language in the empire.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=Franklin D. |title=Rumi – Past and Present, East and West: The Life, Teachings, and Poetry of Jalâl al-Din Rumi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PFsQBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT340 |year=2014 |publisher=Oneworld Publications |isbn=978-1-78074-737-8 |page=340 |access-date=21 October 2019 |archive-date=26 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226000058/https://books.google.com/books?id=PFsQBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT340 |url-status=live}}</ref> Some of the noted earlier Persian works during the Ottoman rule are [[Idris Bitlisi|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.{{sfn|Spuler|2003|p=68}} After a period of several centuries, [[Ottoman Turkish language|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.{{sfn|Spuler|2003|p=69}} However, the number of Persian and Arabic loanwords contained in those works increased at times up to 88%.{{sfn|Spuler|2003|p=69}} In the Ottoman Empire, Persian was used at the royal court, for diplomacy, poetry, historiographical works, literary works, and was taught in state schools, and was also offered as an elective course or recommended for study in some ''[[madrasa]]s''.<ref>
* Chapter "Imperial Ambitions, Mystical Aspirations: Persian Learning in the Ottoman World" by Inan, Murat Umut. In Green, Nile (ed.), 2019, The Persianate World: The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca. University of California Press. pp. 88–89. "As the Ottoman Turks learned Persian, the language and the culture it carried seeped not only into their court and imperial institutions but also into their vernacular language and culture. The appropriation of Persian, both as a second language and as a language to be steeped together with Turkish, was encouraged notably by the sultans, the ruling class, and leading members of the mystical communities."
* Chapter "Ottoman Historical Writing" by Tezcan, Baki. In Rabasa, José (ed.), 2012, The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 3: 1400–1800 The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 3: 1400–1800. Oxford University Press. pp. 192–211. "Persian served as a 'minority' prestige language of culture at the largely Turcophone Ottoman court."
* ''Learning to Read in the Late Ottoman Empire and the Early Turkish Republic'', B. Fortna, page 50;"''Although in the late Ottoman period Persian was taught in the state schools....''"
* ''Persian Historiography and Geography'', Bertold Spuler, page 68, "''On the whole, the circumstance in Turkey took a similar course: in Anatolia, the Persian language had played a significant role as the carrier of civilization.[..]..where it was at time, to some extent, the language of diplomacy...However Persian maintained its position also during the early Ottoman period in the composition of histories and even Sultan Salim I, a bitter enemy of Iran and the Shi'ites, wrote poetry in Persian. Besides some poetical adaptations, the most important historiographical works are: Idris Bidlisi's flowery "Hasht Bihist", or Seven Paradises, begun in 1502 by the request of Sultan Bayazid II and covering the first eight Ottoman rulers..''"
* ''Picturing History at the Ottoman Court'', Emine Fetvacı, page 31, "''Persian literature, and belles-lettres in particular, were part of the curriculum: a Persian dictionary, a manual on prose composition; and Sa'dis "Gulistan", one of the classics of Persian poetry, were borrowed. All these title would be appropriate in the religious and cultural education of the newly converted young men.''
* ''Persian Historiography: History of Persian Literature A, Volume 10'', edited by Ehsan Yarshater, Charles Melville, page 437;"...Persian held a privileged place in Ottoman letters. Persian historical literature was first patronized during the reign of Mehmed II and continued unabated until the end of the 16th century.
* Chapter ''Imperial Ambitions, Mystical Aspirations: Persian learning in the Ottoman World'', Murat Umut Inan, page 92 (note 27), edited by [[Nile Green]], (title: ''The Persianate World The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca''); "Though Persian, unlike Arabic, was not included in the typical curriculum of an Ottoman madrasa, the language was offered as an elective course or recommended for study in some madrasas. For those Ottoman madrasa curricula featuring Persian, see Cevat İzgi, Osmanlı Medreselerinde İlim, 2 vols. (Istanbul: İz, 1997),1: 167–69."</ref>

===== Use in the Balkans =====
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 the northern part of Greece).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Inan |first1=Murat Umut |editor1-last=Green |editor1-first=Nile |editor1-link=Nile Green |title=The Persianate World The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca |date=2019 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=85–86 |chapter=Imperial Ambitions, Mystical Aspirations: Persian learning in the Ottoman World}}</ref>

Vardar Yenicesi differed from other localities in the Balkans insofar as that it was a town where Persian was also widely spoken.<ref name="Green">{{cite book |last1=Inan |first1=Murat Umut |editor1-last=Green |editor1-first=Nile |editor1-link=Nile Green |title=The Persianate World The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca |date=2019 |publisher=University of California Press |page=86 |chapter=Imperial Ambitions, Mystical Aspirations: Persian learning in the Ottoman World}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Green"/> The difference was apparent to such a degree that the Ottomans referred to it as "Rumelian Persian" (''Rumili Farsisi'').<ref name="Green"/> As learned people such as students, scholars and literati often frequented Vardar Yenicesi, it soon became the site of a flourishing [[Persianate society|Persianate]] linguistic and literary culture.<ref name="Green"/> 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".<ref name="Green"/>

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]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Inan |first1=Murat Umut |editor1-last=Green |editor1-first=Nile |editor1-link=Nile Green |title=The Persianate World The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca |date=2019 |publisher=University of California Press |page=85 |chapter=Imperial Ambitions, Mystical Aspirations: Persian learning in the Ottoman World}}</ref>

===== Use in Indian subcontinent =====
{{Main|Persian language in the Indian subcontinent}}
{{See also|Persian and Urdu|Dobhashi}}
[[File:Agra India persian poem.jpg|thumb|Persian poem, [[Agra Fort]], India, 18th century]]
[[File:Agra castle India persian poem.jpg|thumb|Persian poem, ''Takht-e Shah Jahan'', [[Agra Fort]], India]]

The Persian language influenced the formation of many modern languages in West Asia, Europe, [[Central Asia]], and [[South Asia]]. Following the Turko-Persian [[Mahmud of Ghazni|Ghaznavid]] conquest of [[South Asia]], Persian was firstly introduced in the region by Turkic Central Asians.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=Clinton |last2=Ramsey |first2=Charles M. |title=South Asian Sufis: Devotion, Deviation, and Destiny |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EQJHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |year=2012 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-4411-5127-8 |page=18 |access-date=21 October 2019 |archive-date=11 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200211194610/https://books.google.com/books?id=EQJHAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Sigfried J 1994. p 734"/> For five centuries prior to the [[British Empire|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 Empire|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 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.<ref>{{cite Banglapedia |article=Persian |author=Abu Musa Mohammad Arif Billah}}</ref> A [[Bengali language|Bengali]] dialect emerged among the common [[Bengali Muslim]] folk, based on a Persian model and known as [[Dobhashi]]; meaning ''mixed language''. Dobhashi Bengali 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/longform/news/tale-two-languages-how-the-persian-language-seeped-bengali-1728421 |title=A Tale of Two Languages: How the Persian language seeped into Bengali |author=Sarah Anjum Bari |date=12 April 2019 |website=[[The Daily Star (Bangladesh)]] |access-date=2 March 2020 |archive-date=21 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621164456/https://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/longform/news/tale-two-languages-how-the-persian-language-seeped-bengali-1728421 |url-status=live}}</ref>

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 [[Ghaznavids|Ghaznavid]] rule over the northwestern frontier of the [[Indian subcontinent|subcontinent]].<ref name="google2">{{cite book |title=The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab |author=Mir, F. |date=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520262690 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUPc5pDWKikC&pg=PA35 |page=35 |access-date=13 January 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209045039/https://books.google.com/books?id=EUPc5pDWKikC&pg=PA35 |archive-date=9 February 2018}}</ref> Employed by [[Punjabis]] in literature, Persian achieved prominence in the region during the following centuries.<ref name="google2"/> Persian continued to act as a courtly language for various empires in [[Punjab region|Punjab]] through the early 19th century serving finally as the official state language of the [[Sikh Empire]], preceding [[Punjab Province (British India)|British conquest]] and the decline of Persian in South Asia.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition 1911 Page 892">{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Ranjit Singh |volume=22 |page=892}}</ref><ref name="Grewal112">{{cite book |last=Grewal |first=J. S. |title=The Sikhs of the Punjab, Chapter 6: The Sikh empire (1799–1849) |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |series=The New Cambridge History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2_nryFANsoYC |isbn=0-521-63764-3 |page=112 |quote=The continuance of Persian as the language of administration. |access-date=29 July 2020 |archive-date=4 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504204555/https://books.google.com/books?id=2_nryFANsoYC |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fenech |first1=Louis E. |title=The Sikh Zafar-namah of Guru Gobind Singh: A Discursive Blade in the Heart of the Mughal Empire |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press (USA) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aUUfAQAAQBAJ&q=principal+language |isbn=978-0199931453 |page=239 |quote=We see such acquaintance clearly within the Sikh court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, for example, the principal language of which was Persian. |access-date=29 July 2020 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801142730/https://books.google.com/books?id=aUUfAQAAQBAJ&q=principal+language |url-status=live}}</ref>

Beginning in 1843, though, English and [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] gradually replaced Persian in importance on the subcontinent.<ref>{{cite book |title=Eternal Iran |year=2004 |last=Clawson |first=Patrick |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |page=6 |isbn=1-4039-6276-6}}</ref> Evidence of Persian's historical influence there can be seen in 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 language|Hindustani]]), [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]], and [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]].<ref name="google4">{{cite book |title=A Panorama of Indian Culture: Professor A. Sreedhara Menon Felicitation Volume |author1=Menon, A.S. |author2=Kusuman, K.K. |date=1990 |publisher=Mittal Publications |isbn=9788170992141 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z4JqgSUSXDsC&pg=PA87 |page=87 |access-date=13 January 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209045039/https://books.google.com/books?id=z4JqgSUSXDsC&pg=PA87 |archive-date=9 February 2018}}</ref> There is also a small population of Zoroastrian [[Irani (India)|Iranis]] in India, who migrated in the 19th century to escape religious execution in [[Qajar dynasty|Qajar Iran]] and speak a Dari dialect.

====Contemporary Persian====

===== Qajar dynasty =====
[[File:Persische dialekte Persian dialects.png|thumb|Persian dialects]]
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 language|Russian]], [[French language|French]], and English terms entered the Persian language, especially vocabulary related to technology.

The first official attentions to the necessity of protecting the Persian language against foreign words, and to the standardization of [[Persian alphabet|Persian orthography]], were under the reign of [[Naser al-Din Shah Qajar|Naser ed Din Shah]] of the [[Qajar dynasty]] in 1871.{{Citation needed|date=October 2014}} After Naser ed Din Shah, [[Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar|Mozaffar ed Din Shah]] ordered the establishment of the first Persian association in 1903.<ref name="Farhangestan"/> This association officially declared that it used Persian and [[Arabic]] as acceptable sources for coining words. The ultimate goal 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'' ({{lang|fa|راه‌آهن}}) for "railway", were printed in ''Soltani Newspaper''; but the association was eventually closed due to inattention.{{Citation needed|date=October 2014}}

A scientific association was founded in 1911, resulting in a dictionary called ''Words of Scientific Association'' ({{lang|fa|لغت انجمن علمی}}), which was completed in the future and renamed ''Katouzian Dictionary'' ({{lang|fa|فرهنگ کاتوزیان}}).<ref>{{cite book |title=برنامه‌ریزی زبان فارسی |publisher=روایت فتح |isbn=978-600-6128-05-4 |author=نگار داوری اردکانی |page=33 |year=1389}}</ref>

===== Pahlavi dynasty =====
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|Hekmat e Shirazi]] and [[Mohammad Ali Foroughi]], all prominent names in 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 language|Russian]], [[French language|French]], and [[Greek language|Greek]] loanwords whose widespread use in Persian during the centuries preceding the foundation of the Pahlavi dynasty had created 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".