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Body of writings in New Persian (also called Modern Persian), the form of the Persian language written since the 9th century with a slightly extended form of the Arabic alphabet and with many Arabic loanwords. The literary form of New Persian is known as Farsī in Iran, where it is the country’s official language, and as Darī in Afghanistan (where it and Pashto are official languages); it is written with a Cyrillic alphabet by Tajiks in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. For centuries New Persian has also been a prestigious cultural language in western Central Asia, on the Indian subcontinent, and in Turkey.
Travelling its History
Ancient Iran
The Iranian languages belong, together with the Indo-Aryan languages of the Indian subcontinent, to one of the oldest branches of the Indo-European linguistic family. There exist documents written in the Old Iranian languages that have survived for nearly three millennia. The oldest texts are the Gāthās, short hymns written in an archaic form of an Old Iranian language called Avestan, named for the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism. prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra)
The only other Old Iranian language found in extant texts is the Old Persian used by the Achaemenian kings for inscriptions in cuneiform writing (6th–4th century BCE). These inscriptions contain royal edicts and similar texts composed in a very formal style; they contributed little to the development of literature in Iran. However, in some collateral sources (including the Bible) there are indications that epic literature existed in the oral tradition of reciters at court.
The conquest of the Achaemenian Empire by Alexander the Great about 330 BCE caused a radical break in Iranian culture. During the new era, which lasted until the Arab conquest of the 7th century CE, Iran was deeply influenced by Hellenism. Greek and Aramaic became the dominant languages. For almost 500 years Iranian languages were not used in writing. The oldest preserved documents that use Middle Iranian languages date only from the 3rd century CE. They consist of inscriptions of the Sāsānian kings and religious texts of the Manichaeans, the followers of the gnostic prophet Mani (3rd century CE). The most widely used written language was Middle Persian, better known as Pahlavi, which remained in use with the Zoroastrians into Islamic times.
The Arab Invasion
The Sāsānian empire, which at the beginning of the 7th century was still one of the two great powers in the Middle East, crumbled almost instantaneously when the Bedouin invaded Iran. The Sāsānian empire, which at the beginning of the 7th century was still one of the two great powers in the Middle East, crumbled almost instantaneously when the Bedouin invaded Iran. The Caliphate that came to be established was an Islamic state ruled by Arabs, but very soon non-Arabs who had assimilated themselves to the new situation began to participate in the affairs of the Muslim community. The contribution made by the descendants of the Sāsānian elite to the development of the political and administrative institutions of the Caliphate increased in the 8th century after Baghdad was founded as the capital of the ʿAbbāsid dynasty, close to the place where the Sāsānian kings once had their palace. Iranians contributed much to the development of the scholarly traditions of Islam.
The linguistic and literary sciences dealt primarily with the Qur ʾān and with the poetry of the pre-Islamic Arabs, both of which provided the norms for classical Arabic and its use in Arabic literature. During the early ʿAbbāsid period (8th–9th centuries), the activity of translators was lively. Particularly famous was the book of Indian fables known as Kalīlah wa Dimnah (“Kalīlah and Dimnah”). Ibn al-Muqaffa ʿ made an Arabic version during the 8th century that was later retranslated into Persian. He also translated the Khwatāy-nāmak (“Book of Kings”), a compilation of the stories about the kings of Iran put together in Sāsānian times.
The emergence of New Persian
In the 10th century they controlled most of eastern Iran and present-day Afghanistan. The Sāmānids belonged to the local Iranian aristocracy and even claimed a pedigree going back to the Sāsānian kings. Though they remained faithful to Islam, they did much to promote the literary use of Persian and the survival of Iranian traditions. Balʿ amī, one of their officials, adapted in Persian two important works by al-Ṭabarī, a native Persian writing in the early 10th century exclusively in Arabic: a commentary on the Qur ʾān and a huge chronicle of Islamic history that included an account of the ancient kings of Iran. At the same time, the writing of poetry in Persian was established as a court tradition. The works of the Sāmānids have been preserved only as fragments, but they show clearly that already in the 10th century most of the formal and generic characteristics of classical Persian poetry were in use.
Classical Poetry
The classical Persian poets and theoreticians saw the aim of their art primarily as the continuation of Arabic poetry in another language. For them, poems that were not written according to the rules of Arabic prosody did not count as serious poetry. It is difficult to assess in detail what has survived from pre-Islamic Iranian poetry because so little is known about oral Middle Persian poetry. One of the essential differences between classical Persian poetry and preIslamic literature was precisely the introduction of the recording in writing of poems composed on principles already evolved in Arabic philology.
The only form not conforming to the rule of monorhyme is the masnawi, or poem in couplets, in which each distich has a separate internal rhyme, which changes with each new distich (aabbcc and so on). In court poetry, the special form of the panegyric is the qaṣīdeh, its length varying between 15 and more than 100 distichs. Ghazals are much shorter poems, usually no more than 7 to 10 distichs.
Court Poetry. The first significant Persian poet was Rūdakī. He flourished in the 10th century, when the Sāmānids 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 is a versified translation (probably from the Arabic) of the fables collected in Kalīlah wa Dimnah.
Religious Poetry. In the 10th century the Ismāʿīlī branch of Shīʿism had come into power in Egypt and established the Fāṭimid dynasty. From Cairo intensive propaganda was targeted at the Sunni ʿAbbāsid caliphs of Baghdad. In the Sāmānid period, Ismāʿīlī missionaries gained a considerable influence over the intellectual elite of the eastern Iranian provinces, taking advantage of the new opportunities offered to them by the rebirth of Persian as a written language.
Classical Prose
In the classical tradition the concept of "literature" was almost synonymous with poetry. Prose was used for utilitarian purposes, particularly in scholarship, religion, and the affairs of government. In all these domains the Persian language was in competition with the more prestigious Arabic. In theology, science, and literary scholarship, Persian works were mostly popularized versions of more sophisticated works in Arabic, but this does not always mean that the former are of lesser interest.
Books -Siyāsat-nāmeh (The Book of Government) by Niẓām al-Mulk Qābūs-nāmeh (“The Book of Qābūs”) by ʿUnṣur al-Ma ʿālī Kay Kāʾūs The Chahār maqāleh (“Four Discourses”) by Niẓāmī ʿArūẕī Dārāb-nāmeh (“Book of Dārāb”) by Abū Ṭāhir Ṭarsūsī
The Mongol And Timurid Period
About 1220 the Mongols, led by Chinggis Khan, devastated Iran, especially in the east, where they destroyed several cities. Thirty years later a Mongol state was established in Iran by Chinggis Khan’s grandson Hülegü. Before the end of the 13th century, the Īl-Khans, as the new rulers were called (see Il-Khanid dynasty), had become Muslims and had assimilated Persian civilization, mainly as a result of their officials, most of whom were Iranians. Tabrīz, the capital of the Mongols, became a cultural centre where old traditions were safeguarded but innovations were also attempted. An important development during this period was the opening of contacts with China, which had also been incorporated into the Mongol empire.
Modern Iran
In the early decades of the 19th century, contacts between Iran and Europe rapidly increased, while two wars with Russia (1804–13 and 1826–28) made apparent Iran’s military weakness. Among enlightened members of the Qājār elite the necessity of reforms was deeply felt. This led to the first attempts at a modernization of Iranian society. These efforts were aimed primarily at strengthening the army through better training and equipment and through the assistance of foreign advisers. In general, these reforms sought to implement technical improvements.
Poetry remained a prominent form of literature in Iran through the early 21st century. Following various international trends in poetic expression, many different schools of poetry further developed the modernist principles introduced by Nima Yushij. Of the great classical poets, Omar Khayyam and Ḥāfeẓ in particular survived as respected figures from the past who are today still considered to be relevant to modern poets. The Islamic Republic of Iran, applying criteria of political, religious, and moral correctness, placed severe limits on the free expression of writers and poets, although there were brief periods when government censorship was relaxed. From the 1980s onward, a substantial Persian emigré literature emerged in the United States and Europe.
GREAT LITERATURE IN PERSIA
Sohrab and Rustum by: Matthew Arnold
Rostam was unaware that he had a son, Sohrab, by Princess Tahmina. He had not seen the Princess for many years. After years without any real knowledge of one another, Rostam and Sohrab faced each other in battle, fighting on opposing sides. Rostam did not recognise his own son, although Sohrab had suspicions that Rostam may be his father.They fought in single combat and Rostam wrestled Sohrab to the ground, stabbing him fatally. As he lay dying, Sohrab recalled how his love for his father – the mighty Rostam - had brought him there in the first place. Rostam, to his horror, realised the truth. He saw his own arm bracelet on Sohrab, which he had given to Tahmina many years before and which Tahmina had given to Sohrab before the battle, in the hope that it might protect him. But he realised the truth too late. He had killed his own son, ‘the person who was dearer to him than all others’. This is one of the most tragic episodes of the Shahname.
Looking for Your Face by: Rumi
From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face but today I have seen it Today I have seen the charm, the beauty, the unfathomable grace of the face that I was looking for Today I have found you and those who laughed and scorned me yesterday are sorry that they were not looking as I did I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty and wish to see you with a hundred eyes My heart has burned with passion and has searched forever for this wondrous beauty that I now behold I am ashamed to call this love human and afraid of God to call it divine Your fragrant breath like the morning breeze has come to the stillness of the garden You have breathed new life into me I have become your sunshine and also your shadow My soul is screaming in ecstasy Every fiber of my being is in love with you Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart and you have made radiant for me the earth and sky My arrow of love has arrived at the target I am in the house of mercy and my heart is a place of prayer”
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