Editing Persian language (section)

====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.