A HISTORY OF PERSIAN LITERATURE

Persian literature is the jewel in the crown of Persian culture. It has profoundly influenced the literatures of Ottoman
Turkey, Muslim India and Turkic Central Asia and been a source of inspiration for Goethe, Emerson, Matthew Arnold and
Jorge Luis Borges among others. Yet Persian literature has never received the attention it truly deserves.

A History of Persian Literature answers this need and offers a new, comprehensive and detailed history of its subject. This
20-volume, authoritative survey reflects the stature and significance of Persian literature as the single most important
accomplishment of the Iranian experience. It includes extensive, revealing examples with contributions by prominent
scholars who bring a fresh critical approach to bear on this important topic.

Five volumes have already been published by I.B. Tauris: Volume I: A General Introduction to Persian Literature, edited
by Professor J.T.P de Bruijn; Companion Volume I: The Literature of Pre-Islamic Iran, edited by Professors Ronald E.
Emmerick and Maria Macuch; Companion Volume II: Oral Literature of Iranian Languages, edited by Professors Philip G.
Kreyenbroek and Ulrich Marzolph; and Persian Historiography, edited by Professor Charles Melville; Literature of the
Early Twentieth Century From the Constitutional Period to Reza Shah, edited by Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab.

The next volume to be published is Volume II: Persian Poetry in the Classical Era, 800-1500 (panegyrics or qaside, short
lyrics or ghazal, quatrains or robâ’i), edited by Ehsan Yarshater and Mohsen Ashtiany.

https://cfis.columbia.edu/history-persian-literature

Persian Language & Literature

A Brief History of Persian Literature

The Persian Language

The Old Persian of the Achaemenian Empire, preserved in a number of cuneiform inscriptions, was an Indo-European
tongue with close affinities with Sanskrit and Avestan (the language of the Zoroastrian sacred texts). After the fall of the
Achaemenians the ancient tongue developed, in the province of Pars, into Middle Persian or Pahlavi (a name derived from
Parthavi - that is, Parthian). Pahlavi was used throughout the Sassanian period, though little now remains of what must once
have been a considerable literature. About a hundred Pahlavi texts survive, mostly on religion and all in prose. Pahlavi
collections of romances, however, provided much of the material for Ferdowsi's Shahnameh.

After the Arab conquest a knowledge of Arabic became necessary, for it was not only the language of the new rulers and their
state, but of the religion they brought with them and -later- of the new learning. Though Pahlavi continued to be spoken in
private life, Arabic was dominant in official circles for a century and a half. With the weakening of the central power, a
modified form of Pahlavi emerged, with its Indo-European grammatical structure intact but simplified, and with a large
infusion of Arabic words. This was the Modem Persian in use today.

Arabic continued to be employed in Iran, though on a decreasing scale, as Latin was used in Europe -that is, as a language of
the learned. As such it was employed by Abu Ali Sina (Avicenna), al-Biruni, Rhazes, Al Ghazali and others; indeed, many of
the most famous names in Arabic literature are those of men of Persian birth. But in general the use of Arabic declined;
Persian developed rapidly to become the vehicle of a great literature, and before, long spread its influence to neighboring
lands. In India, Persian language and poetry became the vogue with the ruling classes, and at the court of the Moghul
emperor Akbar Persian was adopted as the official language; spreading thence and fusing later with Hindi, it gave rise to the
Urdu tongue.

To the west of Iran, Persian heavily influenced the language and literature of Turkey; Turkish verse was based on Persian
models as regards form and style, and borrowed an extensive vocabulary.

A notable feature of Persian is the small extent to which it has changed over the thousand years or more of its existence as a
literary language. Thus the poems of Roudaki, the first Persian poet of note, who died in the year 941 CE, are perfectly
intelligible to the modem reader. Persian literature too has a number of noteworthy characteristics, the most striking of
which is the exceptional prominence of poetry. Until quite recently there was practically no drama, and no novels were
written; prose works were mostly confined to history, geography, philosophy, religion, ethics and politics, and it was poetry
that formed the chief outlet for artistic expression. Classical Persian literature was produced almost entirely under royal
patronage whence the frequency of panegyric verse. An influence of at least equal strength was religion, and in particular
Sufism, which inspired the remarkably high proportion of mystical poetry.

Persian Poetry
Classical Persian poetry is always rhymed. The principal verse forms are the Qasideh, Masnavi, Qazal and Ruba'i. The qasida
or ode is a long poem in monorhyme, usually of a panegyric, didactic or religious nature; the masnavi, written in rhyming
couplets, is employed for heroic, romantic, or narrative verse; the ghazal (ode or lyric) is a comparatively short poem, usually
amorous or mystical and varying from four to sixteen couplets, all on one rhyme. A convention of the ghazal is the
introduction, in the last couplet, of the poet's pen name (takhallus). The ruba'i is a quatrain with a particular metre, and a
collection of quatrains is called "Ruba'iyyat" (the plural of ruba'i). Finally, a collection of a poet's ghazals and other verse,
arranged alphabetically according to the rhymes, is known as a divan.

A word may not be out of place here on the peculiar difficulties of interpreting Persian poetry to the western reader. To the
pitfalls common to all translations from verse must be added, in the case of Persian poetry, such special difficulties as the
very free use of Sufi imagery, the frequent literary, Koranic and other references and allusions, and the general employment
of monorhyme, a form highly effective in Persian but unsuited to most other languages. But most important of all is the fact
that the poetry of Persia depends to a greater degree than that of most other nations on beauty of language for its effects.
This is why much of the great volume of "qasidas in praise of princes" can still be read with pleasure in the original, though It
is largely unsuited to translation. In short, the greatest charm of Persian poetry lies, as Sir E. Denison Ross remarked, in its
language and its music, and consequently the reader of a translation "has perforce to forego the essence of the matter".

In the following brief sketch of the vast field of Persian literature we cannot hope to do more than mention a few of the most
eminent authors, and to devote a paragraph or two each to the most famous of all.
Early Literature
Though existing fragments of Persian verse are believed to date from as early as the eighth century CE, the history of Persian
literature proper begins with the lesser dynasties of the ninth and tenth centuries that emerged with the decline of the
Caliphate. The most important of these were the Samanids, who established at Bokhara the first of many brilliant courts that
were to patronize learning and letters. Here Abu Ali Sina, better known in the west as Avicenna, developed the medicine and
philosophy of ancient Greece, and wrote numerous works that were to exercise considerable influence not only in the East
but in Europe -where, translated into Latin, they were in use as late as the seventeenth century. Avicenna wrote mostly in
Arabic, but composed an encyclopaedia -- the Danish Nameh-ye Ala'i - in Persian.

The most famous of the court poets were Rudaki and Daqiqi. Rudaki, generally regarded as the first of the great Persian
poets, wrote a very large quantity of verse, of which but little has survived. His style direct, simple and unadorned - was to
appear unpolished to some of the over-elaborate versifiers of later ages, but appeals more to modem tastes. Daqiqi, a
composer of epics, was commissioned to write a work on the ancient kings of Persia, but only completed a thousand couplets
before his death. Some of these were later incorporated in the celebrated Shahnameh.

The Ghaznavid and early Seljuq Periods

It is said that four hundred poets were attached to the court of Sultan Mahmoud; of these, the most notable were Unsuri, the
greatest of Mahmoud's panegyrists, followed by Farrukhi, Manouchehri and Asadi. Of the prose writers, the most celebrated
was Biruni, author of the "Chronology of Ancient Nations", who wrote exclusively in Arabic.

The Seljuq era, regarded as the second classical period of Persian literature, is one rich both in prose and poetry. Famous
prose works include Ghazali's influential Revivification of the Religious Sciences in Arabic and its Persian summary entitled
Kimiya-ye Sa'adat (The Alchemy of Happiness); Baihaqi's History of the Ghaznavids: the Siasat Nameh, a treatise on the art
of government by Nizam ul-Mulk, vizier to Alp Arslan and Malik Shah; the entertaining Qabus Nameh of Kai Kawous,
translated by Professor Levy as "A Mirror for Princes"; the collection of animal fables of Indian origin entitled Kalila va
Dimna by Nasr Ullah; the charming Chahar Maqala or Four Discourses of Nizami Aruzi; the Fars Nameh of Ibn al-Balkhi,
and the noted treatise on poetics of Rashid-i Vatvat. Four of the above works - the Chahar Maqala, the History of Baihaqi,
the Qabus Nameh and the Siasat Nameh - are considered by the poet Bahar as the four great masterpieces of early Persian
prose.

A number of authors of this period wrote both prose and poetry. One of the most brilliant of these was Nasir-i Khosrow,
writer of some fifteen works in prose and 30,000 verses, of which less than half have survived. His best known prose work is
the Safar Nameh, an account of his journey to Egypt. Most of Nasir-i Khosrow's poems are lengthy odes, mainly on religious
and ethical subjects; they are noted for their purity of language and dazzling technical skill. In the opinion of the scholar
Mirza Mohammad Qazvini, the name of Naser Khosrow should be added to those of the six poets - Ferdowsi, Khayyam,
Anvari, Rumi, Saadi, and Hafez - whom "practically all" agree to consider the six greatest Persian poets, each in his special
field. Other famous poetry of the period includes the work of the mystics Ansari, Abu Sa'id and Baba Taher of Hamadan;
the odes of Qatran; Gorgani's romantic epic Vis o Ramin, and the Divans of Masoud-e Saad-e Salman and Rumi. Seven other
poets of the period are of outstanding fame and brilliance; these are Khayyam, Sana'i, Moezzi, Anvari,
Khaqani, Nizami and Attar.

The versatile Khayyam - "the only man known to me", says Bertrand Russell, "who was both a poet and a mathematician" - is
still perhaps the best known and most appreciated Persian poet in Europe and America. There was for long considerable
scepticism as to whether he was in fact the author of all or any of the quatrains attributed to him, but the discovery recently
of manuscripts more ancient than any of those previously known has removed these doubts.

Khayyam's poetry was largely neglected in Iran until the end of the nineteenth century, mainly no doubt owing to the
censure of orthodoxy. When Fitzgerald's translation made him suddenly popular in the west the Iranians began to reassess
his merits as a poet, and as we have seen, some native critics are now ready to accord him a place in the poetic Pantheon.
Since he uses imagery common to the Sufis, Khayyam has often been hailed as a Sufi himself; but while some of his
quatrains can be made to bear a mystical interpretation, the general impression of his work is one of hedonism tinged with a
gentle melancholy, born of acceptance of the tragic transience of life, the power of destiny and man's ultimate ignorance. The
attitude is that of a materialist rather than a deist; indeed, he has with some justice been compared to Lucretius.

Sana'i, who wrote in a style similar to that of Nasir-i Khosrow, was the author of two great Sufi epics, the prototypes of the
later masterpieces of Attar and Rumi, as well as of a huge divan. Mu'izzi, hailed by 'Abbas Ighbal as "one of the artistic
virtuosi of the Persian language", wrote mainly panegyric verse in a highly elaborate style. Anvari, author of numerous
poetical works, mostly panegyric, wrote in a difficult style, sometimes requiring a commentary; he is regarded by some as
one of the greatest Persian poets. The poetry of Khaqani is even more mannered. The last three poets mentioned - Mu'izzi,
Anvari and Khaqani - are all famous in Iran, mainly for their technical brilliance; but, being particularly difficult to translate,
they are less appreciated in the west. This is not the case with the next two poets to be mentioned.

Nizami, born at Ganja in the Caucasus in 1140, was a prolific writer famous especially for his Khamseh or Quintet, a series of
five great romances and epics. These consist of the Makhzan al-Asrar or Treasure House of Secrets, a mystical epic inspired
by Sana'i; the popular romances Khosrow o Shirin and Laila o Majnun; the Iskandar Nameh or Story of Alexander, and the
Haft Paikar, the life story of Bahram Gur. Nizami's style is original and, colorful; his works enjoyed great popularity, and
episodes from his romantic poems were favorite subjects for miniature painters.

Farid od-Din Attar, who was born possibly around 1136, was a great and an original poet who produced numerous religious
and didactic works. He was essentially a mystic, and as such exercised a great influence on Rumi. The best known of his
works, the Mantiq ut-Tair (translated by Fitzgerald as the Bird Parliament), is a mystical allegory in which the birds all set
off in search of the mythical Simorgh, whom they wish to make their king. The story, which symbolizes the quest of the soul
for union with God, ends with their discovery that they have no existence separate from the object of their search.

The Simorgh then addresses them thus:

Pilgrim, pilgrimage and road

Was but myself toward myself, and your
 Arrival but myself at my own Door...
Come, you lost atoms, to your center draw
And be the eternal mirror that you saw:
Rays that have wandered into darkness wide
Return, and back into your sun subside.

The Thirteenth Century as a New Chapter

The Thirteenth century produced two poetic geniuses of the first rank, Saadi and Rumi. It is also particularly notable for
histories, of which many were inspired by these singularly troubled times. Hamdullah Mostofi produced notable works both
of history and geography, as well as an epic, the Zafar Nameh or Book of Victory, in 75,000 couplets, and Nasir ud-Din Tusi
wrote on philosophy and logic. Three notable poets of the period are Iraqi, author of the mystical Lama'at or Flashes; Amir
Khosrow, known as "The Parrot of India" and author of no less than five divans, and Zakani the satirist.

Foremost in the ranks of historical works are Juvaini's Tarikh-e Jahan Gusha, an account of the Mongol conquests; the
history of Juzjani, an important source book for the history of Moslem India; Rashid ud-Din's great Jame ot-Tawarikh or
Universal History, and the History of Vassaf. The style of the period tended to over-ornateness; Juvaini, according to
Arberry, was "the most accomplished exponent of the prized art of verbal arabesque", while Vassaf "modeled his style on
Juvaini at his most intricate and verbose." Of the writings of this school Levy remarks that it was "so filled with metaphor,
allusion, and assonance, that the meaning was often lost in a tangle of verbiage". By contrast, the work of the conscientious
Rashid ud-Din, considered by Browne to be the best of all the Persian historians, is a model of clarity.

The Fifteenth Century onwards

The fifteenth century produced a number of notable historians -Nizam od-Din Shami, author of the Zafar Nameh (a history
of Timur); Yazdi, who wrote a work of the same name; Hafiz-e Abru, Khafi, Dowlatshah and Mir Khand, author of the
immense Rozat as-Safa or Garden of Purity. Other prose writers of note , include Davvani, author of the Akhlaq-e Jalali, and
Kashefi, who produced an elaborate prose paraphrase of Kalila va Dimna known as Anvar-e Suhaili (The Lights of Canopus).
Fifteenth century poets include the Sufis Maghribi and Qasim-e Anvar, Katibi, the saintly Ni'mat Allah Vali, and Jami.

Jami, "universally regarded as the last eminent figure in the history of classical Persian literature" (Arberry) was born in
1414. A man of considerable erudition as well as of poetic genius, Jami produced some forty-five works, of which the best
known are the Baharistan, the Divan, and the Haft Aurang or Seven Thrones, a series of four didactic works and three
romances (Salaman o Absal, Yosef o Zoleikha and Laila o Majnoun) which he intended to rival the work of Nizami.

After Jami, who died shortly before the rise of the Safavis, Persian poetry is generally considered to have fallen into decline.
There were indeed no poets of the very first rank after the fifteenth century, yet in this long period there was no lack of
writers and poets of talent, some of them of great eminence.

Of the poets immediately following Jami, his nephew Hatif was a noted writer of romantic and historical epics; also famous
were his pupils Asafi, Fighani (who earned himself the title of "The Little Hafiz"), Ahli and the Sufi poet Hilali. Later in the
sixteenth century came the poets Hayrati, Kasimi, Kashi the panegyrist, Shani, Fasihi and Shafai.

Saeb (born 1677), the greatest literary figure of the seventeenth century, is considered by some to be the best Persian poet
after Jami. In early life he spent some time in India as court poet to the Moghul emperor Shah Jahan, and returned to Iran
to become poet laureate to Shah Abbas II. Saeb was a vivid and original poet who infused fresh life into the old forms and
founded a new school. Also of note was his contemporary Fayyaz. A famous prose writer of the eighteenth century was Azar,
author of the Atesh Kadeh (a biographical dictionary containing the lives of over 800 poets) as well as of a divan and a
romantic epic. The prolific writer Hazin produced histories and an autobiography, as well as four divans. Also worthy of note
is the poet Nejat.

In the nineteenth century Saba, poet laureate to Fath Ali Shah, composed a divan and an epic called the Shahanshahnameh;
as a poet he was excelled by Neshat, also author of a divan. Qaani (died 1853), the best writer of the nineteenth century and
 perhaps the most outstanding since Jami, was one of Iran's most brilliant and melodious poets. Well-known prose works of
the period include Nasir ud-Din Shah's diaries of his three journeys to Europe and the literary biographies of the poet Reza
Quli Khan. This period was marked by the increasing influence of European literature, noticeable in the works of the poet
Shaybani and others.

The real revival of Persian letters came in the early twentieth century, when the growing desire for reform inspired
numerous satires. One of the most outstanding figures of this period was Iraj Mirza (died 1926), a poet of great talent and
champion of the emancipation of women. Other noted poets were Adib, Bahar, Lahuti, Shahryar, Aref and the poetess Parvin
E'tesami. Poets of more recent decades include Nima Yoshij, Ra'di, Khanlari, Islami, Gulchin, Ahmad Shamlou, Mehdi
Akhavan Sales, Mas'ud Farzad, Sohrab Sepehri, Fereidoon Moshiri and the poetess Forough Farrokhzad. Some of
these poets have introduced verse forms new to Persian literature. Here should not be forgotten the great works of Sadeq
Hedayat, Samad Behrangi, Sadeq Choubak and many others who enriched the persian literature.
http://www.iranchamber.com/literature/articles/history_literature.php

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Iran Review > About Iran > Art

Persian Literature
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2009

Compiled By: Firouzeh Mirrazavi

Deputy Editor of Iran Review
Persian literature spans two and a half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources
have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian
language has been the national language through history.
As one of the great literatures of mankind the Persian literature has its roots in surviving works in Old Persian or
Middle Persian dating back as far as 522 BCE, the date of the earliest surviving Achaemenid inscription, the Bisotun
Inscription. The bulk of the surviving Persian literature, however, comes from the times following the Islamic conquest
of Persia circa 650 CE. After the Abbasids came to power (750 CE), the Persians became the scribes and
bureaucrats of the Islamic empire and, increasingly, also its writers and poets.
Persians wrote both in Persian and Arabic; Persian predominated in later literary circles. Persian poets such as Sa'di,
Hafiz , Rumi and Omar Khayyam are well known in the world and have influenced the literature of many countries.
Pre-Islamic Persian literature
Very few literary works survived from ancient Persia. This is partly due to the destruction of the library at Persepolis.
Most of what remains consists of the royal inscriptions of Achaemenid kings, particularly Darius I (522–486 BC) and
his son Xerxes. Zoroastrian writings mainly were destroyed in the Islamic conquest of Persia. The Parsis who fled to
India, however, took with them some of the books of the Zoroastrian canon, including some of the Avesta and
ancient commentaries (Zend) thereof. Some works of Sassanid geography and travel also survived albeit in Arabic
translations.
No single text devoted to literary criticism has survived from pre-Islamic Persia. However, some essays in Pahlavi
such as "Ayin-e name nebeshtan" (Principles of Writing Book) and "Bab-e edteda’I-ye" (Kalileh o Demneh) have
been considered as literary criticism (Zarrinkoub, 1959).
Some researchers have quoted the Sho'ubiyye as asserting that the pre-Islamic Persians had books on eloquence,
such as 'Karvand'. No trace remains of such books. There are some indications that some among the Persian elite
were familiar with Greek rhetoric and literary criticism (Zarrinkoub, 1947).
Persian literature of the medieval and pre-modern periods
While initially overshadowed by Arabic during the Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphates, New Persian soon became
a literary language again of the Central Asian lands. The rebirth of the language in its new form is often accredited to
Ferdowsi, Unsuri, Daqiqi, Rudaki, and their generation, as they used pre-Islamic nationalism as a conduit to revive
the language and customs of ancient Persia.
In particular, says Ferdowsi himself in his Shahnama:
"For thirty years, I endured much pain and strife,
with Persian I gave the Ajam verve and life".
Poetry
So strong is the Persian aptitude for versifying everyday expressions that one can encounter poetry in almost every
classical work, whether from Persian literature, science, or metaphysics. In short, the ability to write in verse form
was a pre-requisite for any scholar. For example, almost half of Avicenna's medical writings are in verse.
Works of the early era of Persian poetry are characterized by strong court patronage, an extravagance of panegyrics,
and what is known as "exalted in style". The tradition of royal patronage began perhaps under the Sassanid era and
carried over through the Abbasid and Samanid courts into every major Persian dynasty. The Qasida was perhaps the
most famous form of panegyric used, though quatrains such as those in Omar Khayyam's Ruba'iyyat are also widely
popular.
Khorasani style, whose followers mostly were associated with Greater Khorasan, is characterized by its supercilious
diction, dignified tone, and relatively literate language. The chief representatives of this lyricism are Asjadi, Farrukhi
Sistani, Unsuri, and Manuchehri. Panegyric masters such as Rudaki were known for their love of nature, their verse
abounding with evocative descriptions.
Through these courts and system of patronage emerged the epic style of poetry, with Ferdowsi's Shahnama at the
apex. By glorifying the Iranian historical past in heroic and elevated verses, he and other notables such as Daqiqi
and Asadi Tusi presented the "Ajam" with a source of pride and inspiration that has helped preserve a sense of
identity for the Iranian peoples over the ages. Ferdowsi set a model to be followed by a host of other poets later on.
The thirteenth century marks the ascendancy of lyric poetry with the consequent development of the ghazal into a
major verse form, as well as the rise of mystical and Sufi poetry. This style is often called "Araqi style", (western
provinces of Iran were known as Araq-e-Ajam or Persian Iraq) and is known by its emotional lyric qualities, rich
meters, and the relative simplicity of its language. Emotional romantic poetry was not something new however, as
works such as Vis o Ramin by Asad Gorgani, and Yusof o Zoleikha by Am'aq Bokharai exemplify. Poets such as
Sana'i and Attar (who ostensibly have inspired Rumi), Khaqani Shirvani, Anvari, and Nezami, were highly respected
ghazal writers. However, the elite of this school are Rumi, Sadi, and Hafez.
In the didactic genre one can mention Sanai's Hadiqat-ul-Haqiqah (Garden of Truth) as well as Nezami's Makhzan-
ul-Asrār (Treasury of Secrets). Some of Attar's works also belong to this genre as do the major works of Rumi,
although some tend to classify these in the lyrical type due to their mystical and emotional qualities. In addition, some
tend to group Naser Khosrow's works in this style as well; however the true gem of this genre is Sadi's Bustan, a
heavyweight of Persian literature.
After the fifteenth century, the Indian style of Persian poetry (sometimes also called Isfahani or Safavi styles) took
over. This style has its roots in the Timurid era and produced the likes of Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, and Bhai Nand Lal
Goya
The most significant essays of this era are Nizami Arudhi Samarqandi's "Chahār Maqāleh" as well as Zahiriddin Nasr
Muhammad Aufi's anecdote compendium Jawami ul-Hikayat. Shams al-Mo'ali Abol-hasan Ghaboos ibn Wushmgir's
famous work, the Qabus nama (A Mirror for Princes), is a highly esteemed Belles-lettres work of Persian literature.
Also highly regarded is Siyasatnama, by Nizam al-Mulk, a famous Persian vizier. Kelileh va Demneh, translated from
Indian folk tales, can also be mentioned in this category. It is seen as a collection of adages in Persian literary
studies and thus does not convey folkloric notions.
Among the major historical and biographical works in classical Persian, one can mention Abolfazl Beyhaghi's famous
Tarikh-i Beyhaqi, Lubab ul-Albab of Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi (which has been regarded as a reliable
chronological source by many experts), as well as Ata al-Mulk Juvayni's famous Tarikh-i Jahangushay-i Juvaini
(which spans the Mongolid and Ilkhanid era of Iran). Attar's Tadkhirat al-Awliya ("Biographies of the Saints") is also a
detailed account of Sufi mystics, which is referenced by many subsequent authors and considered a significant work
in mystical hagiography.
The oldest surviving work of Persian literary criticism after the Islamic conquest of Persia is Muqaddame-ye
Shahname-ye Abu Mansuri, which was written in the Samanid period. The work deals with the myths and legends of
Shahname and is considered the oldest surviving example of Persian prose. It also shows an attempt by the authors
to evaluate literary works critically.
One Thousand and One Nights is a medieval folk tale collection which tells the story of Scheherazade, a Sassanid
queen who must relate a series of stories to her malevolent husband, King Shahryar (Šahryār), to delay her
execution. The stories are told over a period of one thousand and one nights, and every night she ends the story with
a suspenseful situation, forcing the King to keep her alive for another day. The individual stories were created over
several centuries, by many people from a number of different lands.
The nucleus of the collection is formed by a Pahlavi Sassanid Persian book called Hazār Afsānah (Thousand Myths),
a collection of ancient Indian and Persian folk tales.
During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the eighth century, Baghdad had become an important
cosmopolitan city. Merchants from Persia, China, India, Africa, and Europe were all found in Baghdad. During this
time, many of the stories that were originally folk stories are thought to have been collected orally over many years
and later compiled into a single book. The compiler and ninth-century translator into Arabic is reputedly the storyteller
Abu Abd-Allah Muhammad el-Gahshigar. The frame story of Shahrzad seems to have been added in the fourteenth
century.
The influence of Persian literature on World literature
William Shakespeare referred to Iran as the "land of the Sophy". Some of Persia's best-beloved medieval poets were
Sufis, and their poetry was, and is, widely read by Sufis from Morocco to Indonesia. Rumi (Maulānā) in particular is
renowned both as a poet and as the founder of a widespread Sufi order. The themes and styles of this devotional
poetry have been widely imitated by many Sufi poets.
Many notable texts in Persian mystic literature are not poems, yet highly read and regarded. Among those are
Kimiya-yi sa'ādat and Asrar al-Tawhid.
Afghanistan and the Transoxiana can claim to be the birthplace of Modern Persian. Most of the great patrons of
Persian literature such as Sultan Sanjar and the courts of the Samanids and Ghaznavids were situated in this region,
as were writers such as Rudaki, Unsuri, and Ferdowsi. As such, this rich literary heritage continues to survive well
into the present in countries like Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
With the emergence of the Ghaznavids and their successors such as the Ghurids, Timurids and Mughal Empire,
Persian culture and its literature gradually moved into the vast Indian subcontinent. Persian was the language of the
nobility, literary circles, and the royal Mughal courts for hundreds of years. (In modern times, Persian has been
generally supplanted by Urdu, a heavily Persian-influenced dialect of Hindustani.)
Under the Moghul Empire of India during the sixteenth century, the official language of India became Persian. Only in
1832 did the British army force the Indian subcontinent to begin conducting business in English. (Clawson, p.6)
Persian poetry in fact flourished in these regions while post-Safavid Iranian literature stagnated. Dehkhoda and other
scholars of the 20th century, for example, largely based their works on the detailed lexicography produced in India,
using compilations such as Ghazi khan Badr Muhammad Dehlavi's Adat al-Fudhala Ibrahim Ghavamuddin Farughi's
Farhang-i Ibrahimi, and particularly Muhammad Padshah's Farhang-i Anandraj. Famous South Asian poets and
scholars such as Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, Mirza Ghalib and Muhammad Iqbal of Lahore found many admirers in Iran
itself.
Persian literature was little known in the West before the nineteenth century. It became much better known following
the publication of several translations from the works of late medieval Persian poets, and it inspired works by various
Western poets and writers.
• In 1819, Goethe published his West-östlicher Divan, a collection of lyric poems inspired by a German translation of
Hafiz (1326–1390).
• The German essayist and philosopher Nietzsche was the author of the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–1885),
referring to the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster (circa 1700 BCE).
• A selection from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (935–1020) was published in 1832 by James Atkinson, a physician
employed by the British East India Company.
• A portion of this abridgment was later versified by the British poet Matthew Arnold in his 1853 Rustam and Sohrab.
• The American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was another admirer of Persian poetry. He published several essays in
1876 that discuss Persian poetry: Letters and Social Aims, From the Persian of Hafiz, and Ghaselle.
Perhaps the most popular Persian poet of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was Omar Khayyam (1048–
1123), whose Rubaiyat was freely translated by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. Khayyam is esteemed more as a
scientist than a poet in his native Persia, but in Fitzgerald's rendering, he became one of the most quoted poets in
English. Khayyam's line, "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou", is known to many who could not say who wrote it,
or where.
The Persian poet and mystic Rumi (1207–1273) (known as Molana in Iran) has attracted a large following in the late
twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Popularizing translations by Coleman Barks have presented Rumi as a
New Age sage. There are also a number of more literary translations by scholars such as A.J. Arberry.
The classical poets (Hafiz, Sa'di, Khayyam, Rumi, Nezami and Ferdowsi) are now widely known in English and can
be read in various translations. Other works of Persian literature are untranslated and little known.
During the last century, numerous works of classical Persian literature have been translated into Swedish by baron
Eric Hermelin. He translated works by, among others, Farid al-Din Attar, Rumi, Ferdowsi, Omar Khayyam, Sa'adi and
Sana'i. Influenced by the writings of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, he was especially attracted to the
religious or Sufi aspects of classical Persian poetry.
More recently Rumi, Hafiz, Fakhruddin 'Iraqi and Nizami Aruzi are available in translation by Ashk Dahlén, scholar in
Iranian Studies, who has made Persian literature known to a wider audience in Sweden.
During the last century, numerous works of classical Persian literature have been translated into Italian by
Alessandro Bausani (Nizami, Rumi, Iqbal, Khayyam), Carlo Saccone ('Attar, Sana'i, Hafiz, Nasir-i Khusraw, Nizami,
Ahmad Ghazali), Angelo Piemontese (Amir Khusraw Dihlavi), Pio Filippani-Ronconi (Nasir-i Khusraw, Sa'di),
Riccardo Zipoli (Kay Ka'us, Bidil), Maurizio Pistoso (Nizam al-Mulk), Giorgio Vercellin (Nizami 'Aruzi), Giovanni Maria
D'Erme ('Ubayd Zakani, Hafiz), Sergio Foti (Suhrawardi, Rumi, Jami), Rita Bargigli (Sa'di, Farrukhi, Manuchehri,
'Unsuri). A complete translation of Firdawsi's Shah-nama was made by Italo Pizzi in XIX century.
Contemporary Persian literature
In the nineteenth century, Persian literature experienced dramatic change and entered a new era. The beginning of
this change was exemplified by an incident in the mid-nineteenth century at the court of Nasereddin Shah, when the
reform-minded prime minister, Amir Kabir, chastised the poet Habibollah Qa'ani for "lying" in a panegyric qasida
written in Kabir's honor. Kabir saw poetry in general and the type of poetry that had developed during the Qajar
period as detrimental to "progress" and "modernization" in Iranian society, which he believed was in dire need of
change. Such concerns were also expressed by others such as Fath-'Ali Akhundzadeh, Mirza Aqa Khan Kermani,
and Mirza Malkom Khan. Khan also addressed a need for a change in Persian poetry in literary terms as well, always
linking it to social concerns.
The new Persian literary movement cannot be understood without an understanding of the intellectual movements
among Iranian philosophical circles. Given the social and political climate of Persia (Iran) in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, which led to the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906–1911, the idea that change in
poetry was necessary became widespread. Many argued that Persian poetry should reflect the realities of a country
in transition. This idea was propagated by notable literary figures such as Ali-Akbar Dehkhoda and Abolqasem Aref,
who challenged the traditional system of Persian poetry in terms of introducing new content and experimentation with
rhetoric, lexico-semantics, and structure. Dehkhoda, for instance, used a lesser-known traditional form, the
mosammat, to elegize the execution of a revolutionary journalist. 'Aref employed the ghazal, "the most central genre
within the lyrical tradition, to write his "Payam-e Azadi" (Message of Freedom).
Some researchers argue that the notion of "sociopolitical ramifications of esthetic changes" led to the idea of poets
"as social leaders trying the limits and possibilities of social change."
An important movement in modern Persian literature centered on the question of modernization and Westernization
and whether these terms are synonymous when describing the evolution of Iranian society. It can be argued that
almost all advocates of modernism in Persian literature, from Akhundzadeh, Kermani, and Malkom Khan to
Dehkhoda, 'Aref, Bahar, and Rafat, were inspired by developments and changes that had occurred in Western,
particularly European, literatures. Such inspirations did not mean blindly copying Western models but, rather,
adapting aspects of Western literature and changing them to fit the needs of Iranian culture.
Following the pioneering works of Ahmad Kasravi, Sadeq Hedayat and many others, the Iranian wave of comparative
literature and literary criticism reached a symbolic crest with the emergence of Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub, Shahrokh
Meskoob, Houshang Golshiri and Ebrahim Golestan.
Literary criticism
Pioneers of Persian literary criticism in nineteenth century include Mirza Fath `Ali Akhundzade, Mirza Malkom Khan,
Mirza `Abd al-Rahim Talebof and Zeyn al-`Abedin Maraghe`i.
Prominent twentieth century critics include:
• Allameh Dehkhoda
• Badiozzaman Forouzanfar
• Mohammad-Taqi Bahar
• Jalal Homaei
• Mohammad Moin
• Saeed Nafisi
• Parviz Natel-Khanlari
• Sadeq Hedayat
• Ahmad Kasravi.
• Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub
• Shahrokh Meskoob
Saeed Nafisi analyzed and edited several critical works. He is well known for his works on Rudaki and Sufi literature.
Parviz Natel-Khanlari and Gholamhossein Yousefi, who belong to Nafisi's generation, were also involved in modern
literature and critical writings. Natel-Khanlari is distinguished by the simplicity of his style. He did not follow the
traditionalists, nor did he advocate the new. Instead, his approach accommodated the entire spectrum of creativity
and expression in Persian literature.
Contemporary Persian literary criticism reached its maturity after Sadeq Hedayat, Ebrahim Golestan, Houshang
Golshiri, Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub and Shahrokh Meskoob. Among these figures, Zarrinkoub held academic
positions and had a reputation not only among the intelligentsia but also in academia. Besides his significant
contribution to the maturity of Persian language and literature, Zarrinkoub boosted comparative literature and Persian
literary criticism. Zarrinkoub's Serr e Ney is a critical and comparative analysis of Rumi's Masnavi. In turn, Shahrokh
Meskoob worked on Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, using the principles of modern literary criticism.
Mohammad Taghi Bahar's main contribution to this field is his book called Sabk Shenasi (Stylistics). It is a pioneering
work on the practice of Persian literary historiography and the emergence and development of Persian literature as a
distinct institution in the early part of the twentieth century. It contends that the exemplary status of Sabk-shinasi
rests on the recognition of its disciplinary or institutional achievements. It further contends that, rather than a text on
Persian ‘stylistics’, Sabk-shinasi is a vast history of Persian literary prose, and, as such, is a significant intervention in
Persian literary historiography.
Jalal Homaei, Badiozzaman Forouzanfar and his student, Mohammad Reza Shafiei-Kadkani, are other notable
figures who have edited a number of prominent literary works.
Critical analysis of Jami's works has been carried out by Ala Khan Afsahzad. His classic book won the prestigious
award of Iran's Year Best book in the year 2000.
Persian short stories
Historically, the modern Persian short story has undergone three stages of development: a formative period, a period
of consolidation and growth, and a period of diversity.
The formative period was ushered in by Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh's collection Yak-i Bud Yak-i Nabud (1921; tr. H.
Moayyad and P. Sprachman as Once Upon a Time, New York, 1985), and gained momentum with the early short
stories of Sadeq Hedayat (1903–51). Jamalzadeh (1895–1997) is usually considered as the first writer of modern
short stories in Persian. His stories focus on plot and action rather than on mood or character development and in
that respect are reminiscent of the works of Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry. In contrast, Sadeq Hedayat, the
writer who introduced modernism to Persian literature, brought about a fundamental change in Persian fiction. In
addition to his longer stories, "Boof-e kur" (his masterpiece) and "Haji Aqa" (1945), he wrote collections of short
stories including She Ghatra Khun (Three Drops of Blood, 1932; tr. into French by G. Lazard as Trois gouuttes de
sang, Paris 1996) and Zende be Gur (Buried Alive, 1930). His stories were written in a simple and lucid language,
but he employed a variety of approaches, from realism and naturalism to surrealistic fantasy, breaking new ground
and introducing a whole range of literary models and presenting new possibilities for the further development of the
genre. He experimented with disrupted chronology and non-linear or circular plots, applying these techniques to both
his realistic and surrealist writings. Unlike Hedayat, who focused on the psychological complexity and latent
vulnerabilities of the individual, Bozorg Alavi depicts ideologically motivated personages defying oppression and
social injustice. Such characters, seldom portrayed before in Persian fiction, are Alavi's main contribution to the
thematic range of the modem Persian short story. This commitment to social issues is emulated by Fereydun
Tonokaboni (b. 1937), Mahmud Dawlatabadi (b. 1940), Samad Behrangi (q.v.; 1939–68), and other writers of the left
in the next generation.
Sadeq Chubak was one of the first authors to break the taboo. Following the example of William Faulkner, John
Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell, and Ernest Hemingway, his blunt approach appears in the early short story collections
Khayma Shab-bazi (The Puppet Show, 1945) and Antar-i ke Luti-ash Morda Bud (1949; tr. P. Avery as "The Baboon
Whose Buffoon was Dead", New World Writing 11, 1957, pp. 14–24), Later stories like "Zir-e Cheragh-e Ghermez",
"Pirahan-e Zereski", and "Chera Darya Tufani Shoda Bud" describe the naked bestiality and moral degradation of the
personages with no trace of squeamishness. His short stories mirror rotting society, populated by the crushed and
the defeated. Chubak picks marginal characters—vagrants, pigeon-racers, corpse-washers, prostitutes, and opium
addicts—who rarely appear in the fiction of his predecessors, and whom he portrays with vividness and force. His
readers come face to face with grim realities and incidents that they have often witnessed for themselves in everyday
life but have shunned out of their mind through complacency.
A distinctive trait of post-war Persian fiction in all the three stages of development is the attention devoted to
narrative styles and techniques. In matters of style two main trends prevail. Some authors, like Chubak and Al-e
Ahmad, follow colloquial speech patterns; others, such as Ebrahim Golestan (b. 1922) and Mohammad
Etemadzadeh "Behazin" (b. 1915), have adopted a more literary and lyrical tone. Although the work of all four writers
stretch into later periods, some brief remarks about their differing techniques, which delineated future paths, need
mentioning at the outset. Golestan experimented with different narrative styles, and it was only in two late collections
of stories, Juy o Divar o Teshna (The Stream and the Wall and the Parched, 1967) and Madd o Meh (The Tide and
the Mist, 1969) that he managed to find a style and voice of his own. His poetic language draws inspiration both from
syntactical forms of classical Persian prose and the experiments of modernist writers, most notably Gertrude Stein.
The influence of modernism is evident also in the structure of Golestan's short stories, in which the traditional linear
plot line is abandoned in favor of disrupted chronology and free association of ideas. Contrary to most other modern
Persian authors, Golestan pays little heed to the state of the poor and the dispossessed. Instead, his short stories
are devoted to the world of Persian intellectuals, their concerns, anxieties and private obsessions. Golestan's brand
of modernism has influenced the later generation of writers like Bahman Forsi (b. 1933) and Houshang Golshiri (b.
1937). Although the stories of Behazin show similar indebtedness to classical Persian models, he does not follow
Golestan's modernist experiments with syntax. Behazin is an author whose stories, delivered in a lucid literary style,
express his leftist social beliefs. In some of his later works like the short story collection Mohra-ye Mar (The Snake
Charm, 1955), he turns to literary allegory, imbuing ancient tales with a new message, a technique, which allows him
to express his critical views obliquely. Behazin's predecessors in the sub-genre of the allegorical tale were Hedayat
(in Ab-e Zendegi, 1931) and Chubak ("Esa'a-ye Adab" in the collection Khayma-Shab-Bazi).
The second period in the development of the modern Persian short story began with the coup of 19 August 1953,
and ended with the revolution of 1979. Jalal Al-e Ahmad is among the proponents of new political and cultural ideas
whose influence and impact straddle the first and the second periods in the history of modern Persian fiction. His
writings show an awareness of the works of Franz Fanon and the new generation of third-world writers concerned
with the problems of cultural domination by colonial powers. Al-e Ahmad, Behazin, Tonekaboni, and Behrangi can all
be described as engaged writers because most of their stories are built around a central ideological tenet or thesis
and illustrate the authors' political views and leanings. Among poets of this period, Forough Farrokhzad (1935–1967)
has a special place as the first female poet of the Persian language acclaimed by her contemporaries and who left a
lasting legacy despite her short life. Her legacy and influence is not primarily (or uniquely) political; however, she was
among the first women able to set a personal and original mark. In this sense she is elevated to iconic status.
Another notable author from this period is Simin Daneshvar (b. 1921), the first woman writer of note in contemporary
Persian literature. Her reputation rests largely on her popular novel Savusun ("The Mourners of Siyāvosh," 1969).
Simin Daneshvar's short stories deserve mention because they focus on the plight and social exclusion of women in
Persian society and address topical issues from a woman's point of view.
Gholam Hossein Saedi's (1935–85) short stories, which he called ghessa, often transcend the boundaries of realism
and attain a symbolic significance. His allegorical stories, which occasionally resemble folkloric tales and fables, are
inhabited by displaced persons, trapped in dead ends (Sepanlu, p. 117). They emphasize the anxieties and the
psychological perturbations of his deeply troubled characters. Sadeghi (1936–84) was yet another author who
focused on the anxieties and secret mental agonies of his characters.
Hooshang Golshiri (1937-2000) and Asghar Elahi (b. 1944) created memorable psychological portraits through
interim monologue and stream of consciousness techniques. Golshiri, the author of the long story "Shazda Ehtejab"
(Prince Ehtejab, 1968), is particularly noted for his successful experiments with extended interior monologues. A
bold, innovative writer eager to explore modern methods and styles, Golshiri uses stream of consciousness narrative
to reassess familiar theories and events.
Period of diversity
Poetry
Of the hundreds of contemporary Persian poets (classical and modern), notable figures include Mehdi Akhavan-
Sales, Simin Behbahani, Forough Farrokhzad, Mohammad Zohari, Bijan Jalali, Siavash Kasraie, Fereydoon Moshiri,
Nader Naderpour, Sohrab Sepehri, Mohammad-Reza Shafiei-Kadkani, Ahmad Shamlou, Nima Yushij, Manouchehr
Atashi, Houshang Ebtehaj, Mirzadeh Eshghi (classical), Mohammad Taghi Bahar (classical), Aref (classical), Parvin
Etesami (classical), and Shahriar (classical).
Classical Persian poetry in modern times
A few notable classical poets have arisen since the nineteenth century, among whom Mohammad Taghi Bahar and
Parvin Etesami have been most celebrated. Mohammad Taghi Bahar had the title "king of poets" and had a
significant role in the emergence and development of Persian literature as a distinct institution in the early part of the
twentieth century. The theme of his poems was the social and political situation of Iran.
Parvin Etesami may be called the greatest Persian poetess writing in the classical style. One of her remarkable
series, called Mast va Hoshyar (The Drunk and the Sober), won admiration from many of those involved in romantic
poetry.
Modern Persian poetry
With the emergence of newspapers in Iran, which opened the way for political and literary magazines, the written,
and consequently the literary language, was one of the essential elements of any movement towards the
modernisation of literature in general. The effects of this inevitable change are reflected in the works of such poets as
Iraj Mirza (1874-1925), Arif Qazvini (1882-1933) and Mirzadeh Eshqi (1893-1923). However, all their efforts in
changing the language, form and subject matter were the beginning of a real movement towards exploration and
experimentation in Persian poetry.
This movement was established through the revolutionary measures taken by Nima Youshij (Ali Esfandiyari, 1896-
1959) to establish a new perspective in Persian poetry. Prior to him, form was, directly or indirectly, the key to the
composition of a poem.
Nima Yushij is considered the father of modern Persian poetry, introducing many techniques and forms to
differentiate the modern from the old. Nevertheless, the credit for popularizing this new literary form within a country
and culture solidly based on a thousand years of classical poetry goes to his few disciples such as Ahmad Shamlou,
who adopted Nima's methods and tried new techniques of modern poetry.
The transformation brought about by Nima Youshij, who freed Persian poetry from the fetters of prosodic measures,
was a turning point in a long literary tradition. It broadened the perception and thinking of the poets that came after
him. Nima offered a different understanding of the principles of classical poetry. His artistry was not confined to
removing the need for a fixed-length hemistich and dispensing with the tradition of rhyming but focused on a broader
structure and function based on a contemporary understanding of human and social existence. His aim in renovating
poetry was to commit it to a "natural identity" and to achieve a modern discipline in the mind and linguistic
performance of the poet.
Nima held that the formal technique dominating classical poetry interfered with its vitality, vigor and progress.
Although he accepted some of its aesthetic properties and extended them in his poetry, he never ceased to widen his
poetic experience by emphasizing the "natural order" of this art. What Nima Youshij founded in contemporary poetry,
his successor Ahmad Shamlou continued.
The Sepid poem (which translates to white poem), which draws its sources from this poet, avoided the compulsory
rules which had entered the Nimai’ school of poetry and adopted a freer structure. This allowed a more direct
relationship between the poet and his or her emotional roots. In previous poetry, the qualities of the poet’s vision as
well as the span of the subject could only be expressed in general terms and were subsumed by the formal
limitations imposed on poetic expression.
Nima’s poetry transgressed these limitations. It relied on the natural function inherent within poetry itself to portray
the poet’s solidarity with life and the wide world surrounding him or her in specific and unambiguous details and
scenes. Sepid poetry continues the poetic vision as Nima expressed it and avoids the contrived rules imposed on its
creation. However, its most distinct difference with Nimai’ poetry is to move away from the rhythms it employed. Nima
Yioushij paid attention to an overall harmonious rhyming and created many experimental examples to achieve this
end.
Ahmad Shamlu discovered the inner characteristics of poetry and its manifestation in the literary creations of
classical masters as well as the Nimai’ experience. He offered an individual approach. By distancing himself from the
obligations imposed by older poetry and some of the limitations that had entered the Nimai’ poem, he recognized the
role of prose and music hidden in the language. In the structure of Sepid poetry, in contrast to the prosodic and
Nimai’ rules, the poem is written in more "natural" words and incorporates a prose-like process without losing its
poetic distinction. Sepid poetry is a developing branch of Nimai’ poetry built upon Nima Youshij's innovations. Nima
thought that any change in the construction and the tools of a poet’s expression is conditional on his/her knowledge
of the world and a revolutionized outlook. Sepid poetry could not take root outside this teaching and its application.
Soon Shamloo completely abandoned rhythm and rhyme and gave to his work the natural music of the Persian
language, using soft and harmonious words to make his poems different from ordinary prose. "The Fresh Air" and
"The Garden of Mirror" are two collections of his poems from this experimental period. Being in search of a poetical
identity, he began to employ some of the characteristics of classical Persian prose of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. He also created some compound words as well as new images. These attempts gave his poetry a
relatively independent character, but failed to make it more expressive and powerful. It was more his earlier simple
poems, with their politico-lyrical images, that justified his reputation among his admirers.
... On my shoulder is a dove
that drinks from your mouth,
On my shoulder is a dove
That refreshes my throat,
On my shoulder is a dove,
kind and graceful,
That talks to me of light,
And of Man, who is the god of all deities...
My bird of golden song
Nests in the foliage of your abode;
Sweetheart, put on your best dress,
Love is fond of us.
With you I follow my dreams in wakefulness,
I find my poetry in the truth of your brow.
You talk with me of light, and of Man,
Who has kinship with all the gods...
In the 1960s a new generation of poets appeared who, like Ahmad Shamloo, wrote prose poems, but tried hard to be
modern by experimenting with Dadaism, automatism, formalism, futurism, surrealism and other known and unknown
trends. They called themselves the New Wave Poets. One of them, Ahmad-Reza Ahmadi, was not even twenty when
his poems, because of their unusual, sometimes amazing, unyielding and wild imagery, caused controversy.
...I went up blue all the stairs;
The sky of our house was not the same as our neighbours,
I went down hungry all the stairs
To the depth of wheat.
Searching for the whiteness of the horse,
All over the wheat field I could see only one path,
Which my father, with his grey hair, trod.
I had crossed the wheat field alone,
I had seen the wheat
But still I could not say: My horse!
They reaped my horse.
Ahmadi’s poetry could not give him a place among the established poets, but it did encourage many poets to break
the boundaries of familiar and hackneyed imagery, pointing to a new poetical horizon.
According to Simin Behbahani, Sepid poetry did not received general acceptance before Bijan Jalali's works. He is
considered the founder of Sepid poetry according to Behbahani. Behbahani herself used the "Char Pareh" style of
Nima, and subsequently turned to ghazal, a free-flowing poetry style similar to the Western sonnet. Simin Behbahani
contributed to a historic development in the form of the ghazal, as she added theatrical subjects, and daily events
and conversations into her poetry. She has expanded the range of traditional Persian verse forms and produced
some of the most significant works of Persian literature in the twentieth century.
A reluctant follower of Nima Yushij, Mehdi Akhavan-Sales published his Organ (1951) to support contentions against
Nima Yushij's groundbreaking endeavors. But before long he realized that Nima and the modernists emulating him
had more to offer than a just a change in rhythm, rhyme, and the general application of the classical Arabic meters.
In Persian poetry, Mehdi Akhavan Sales has established a bridge between the Khorassani and Nima Schools. The
critics consider Mehdi Akhavan Sales as one of the best contemporary Persian poets. He is one of the pioneers of
free verse (new style poetry) in Persian literature, particularly of modern style epics. It was his ambition, for a long
time, to introduce a fresh style to Persian poetry.
Before coming to Tehran from his native city, Mashhad, in the province of Khorassan, he wrote ghazals and qasidas
in the classical style with quite remarkable skill. Soon he adopted Nima Youshij's views on form and his outlook
changed considerably. He could never alter the antique tone of the classics, though he occasionally used colloquial
and local words, giving an interesting, sometimes humorous, tone to his poems. His poetry has a pronounced
musical quality with its many puns, rhymes and inter-rhymes. In his poetry this music" with a mixture of colloquial and
literary language, sounds like a deliberate accompaniment of the lyre of lyricism with the drum of epic. His excessive
interest in rhyme produces many lines, which, though beautiful in themselves, are superfluous. Many of Akhavan
Saless's poems are outstanding in all aspects and will survive as the best poems of our time.
Ahmad Shamloo began his poetic career by writing sentimental, lyrical and patriotic prose poems. Having some
knowledge of the French language and literature, he abandoned the Persian classics and searched for inspiration in
the world of modern French poetry, as well as in the works of some other European poets in French translation. He is
deeply influenced by Paul Eluard, Garcia Lorca, Luis Aragon and the great Turkish poet, Nazim Hekmat. This
influence produced a new point of view and created a new poetical culture in which Shamloos poetry was
appreciated and understood by many who were keen to read modern poetry but could not understand and enjoy the
poems of Nima Youshij and of many others.
Forough Farrokhzad is important in the literary history of Iran for three reasons. First, she was among the first
generation to embrace the new style of poetry, pioneered by Nima Yushij during the 1920s, which demanded that
poets experiment with rhyme, imagery, and the individual voice. Second, she was the first modern Iranian woman to
graphically articulate private landscapes from a woman's perspective. Finally, she transcended her own literary role
and experimented with acting, painting, and documentary film-making.
Forough Farrokhzad, a poetess who published three books of poems, influenced by Tavallali and his followers,
especially Nosrat Rahmani, soon became famous. She was the first woman to be bold, even brave enough to write
about the hidden feelings of Iranian women. Her early poetry was weak in form and without any originality in imagery.
Later, however, her friendship with writers and poets like Ebrahim Golestan, Yadollah Roya'i Parviz Dariyoush,
Ahmad Shamloo and especially Ahmad-Reza Ahmadi, encouraged her to enter quite a different territory of poetical
vision. She also began to use broken metres, which are lines of unequal syllables in a poem. She would sometimes
let a line fall off the metre in one or two syllables and then return to it. It may or may not have been deliberate, but it
gave a fresh tone to the music of her poems.
A poet of Shamloos generation, who was also regarded as a modern artist, was Sohrab Sepehri. He began writing
prose poems using rather abstract symbolism. His experience with the colours and lines of stylised paintings gave a
visual dimension to some of his poems, making them musical pictures. The most notable feature in his poetry is
mysticism, a blend of Sufism, Zen-Buddhism and Zoroastrianism, through which the poet invites man to turn away
form his evil ways, regaining the innocence of a child in nature.
Later Sepehri almost stopped writing prose poetry and began loosely to use a few of the classical metres, which
suited the sad and mystical tone of his narration. He soon became fascinated with abstract images and allowed his
poetry to lose its most important element -its simplicity and lucidity of expression. Here are a few of those new
images:
Gradually on the wet height of meeting the monastery of light was built...
A throat in the cool thickness of wind was murmuring the loneliness of a friend...
It is morning, the ideal sparrow is chirping,
The autumn is disintegrating on the unity of the wall;
The passage of the exhilarating sun
Startles the mass of decay out of its sleep;
Between the tree and the green moment
The repetition of azure mixes with regret of speech...
Ah, the glance of motion
The mass of the repetitions finger
Closed the crack of my fervour...
This body without night and day
Behind the steep garden of figures
Slept like myth...
With his fascination with such abstract images, Sepehri, like Forough Farrokhzad, was, to a great extent, influenced
by Ahmad-Reza Ahmadi, and also by Yadollah Roya'i, the leader of an avant-garde group which called its style
"Volume", meaning image with more than one dimension.
Fereydoon Moshiri is best known as conciliator of classical Persian poetry with the New Poetry initiated by Nima
Yooshij. One of the major contributions of Moshiri's poetry, according to some observers, is the broadening of the
social and geographical scope of modern Persian literature.
 A poet of the last generation before the Islamic Revolution worthy of mention is Mohammad-Reza Shafiei-Kadkani
(M. Sereshk). Though he is from Khorassan and sways between allegiance to Nima Youshij and Akhavan Saless, in
his poetry he shows the influences of Hafez and Mowlavi. He uses simple, lyrical language and is mostly inspired by
the political atmosphere. He is the most successful of those poets who in the past four decades have tried hard to
find a synthesis between the two models of Ahmad Shamloo and Nima Youshij.
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Persian Language & Literature

Rubaiyat Khayyam
Literal English translation in quatrain form by: Shahriar Shahriari

Page: 1 2 3 4 Page 1
In childhood we strove to go to school,

Our turn to teach, joyous as a rule

The end of the story is sad and cruel

From dust we came, and gone with winds cool.

Heaven is incomplete without a heavenly romance

Let a glass of wine be my present circumstance

Take what is here now, let go of a promised chance

A drumbeat is best heard from a distance.

This Old World we've named Cosmos by mistake

Is the graveyard of nights & days, no more awake

And a feast that hundred Jamshid's did break

And a throne that hundred Bahram's did make.

This clay pot like a lover once in heat

A lock of hair his senses did defeat

The handle that has made the bottleneck its own seat

Was once the embrace of a lover that entreat.

The palace where Jamshid held his cup

The doe and the fox now rest and sup

Bahram who hunted game non-stop

Was hunted by death when his time was up.

Tonight I shall embrace a gallon cup

With at least two cups of wine I'll sup

I'll divorce my mind and religion stop

With daughter of vine, all night I'll stay up.

 Alas the youthful fire is a dying ember

The spring of life has reached December

What is termed youth, I vaguely remember

But know not whence and how from life's chamber.

Those who went in pursuit of knowledge

Soared up so high, stretched the edge

Were still encaged by the same dark hedge

Brought us some tales ere life to death pledge.

They say in heaven are beautiful lovers

Sweet taste of wine in the air hovers

Fear not if succumbed to same earthly powers

In the end the same, one discovers.

O friend, for the morrow let us not worry

This moment we have now, let us not hurry

When our time comes, we shall not tarry

With seven thousand-year-olds, our burden carry.

Khayyam, if you are intoxicated with wine, enjoy!

If you are seated with a lover of thine, enjoy!

In the end, the Void the whole world employ

Imagine thou art not, while waiting in line, enjoy!

All my companions, one by one died

With Angel of Death they now reside

In the banquette of life same wine we tried

A few cups back, they fell to the side.

Drinking wine is my travail

Till my body is dead and stale

At my grave site all shall hail

Odor of wine shall prevail.

Once upon a time, in a potter's shop

I saw two thousand clay pot and cup

Suddenly a lone pot cried out, "stop!

Where the vendor, buyer, where my prop?"

The hands of fate play our game

We the players are given a name

Some are tame, others gain fame

Yet in the end, we're all the same.

The caravan of life shall always pass

Beware that is fresh as sweet young grass

Let's not worry about what tomorrow will amass

Fill my cup again, this night will pass, alas.

At dawn came a calling from the tavern

Hark drunken mad man of the cavern

Arise; let us fill with wine one more turn

Before destiny fills our cup, our urn.

When the canary made its way to the field

Found the rose and wine smiling, kneeled,

In tongues its message in my ear it thus reeled

Hark, no moment in time did twice yield.

The day the stallion of time was tamed and trained

Venus and Jupiter were adorned and stained

This life for us was allotted and ordained

This was not our will; were thus chained and restrained.

Happily I walked with the tavern down the line

Passed an old drunk, holding a bottle of wine

"Do you not fear God?" was reproach of mine

said, "Mercy is God's sign, in silence I wine and dine."

The secrets eternal neither you know nor I

And answers to the riddle neither you know nor I

Behind the veil there is much talk about us, why

When the veil falls, neither you remain nor I.

I brought the cup to my lips with greed

Begging for longevity, my temporal need

Cup brought its to mine, its secret did feed

Time never returns, drink, of this take heed.

As the rising Venus and moon in the skies appear

To the goodness of quality wine, nothing comes near

I am amazed at the vendors of a liquid so dear

Where they'll buy a better thing, is not clear.

Some are thoughtful on their way

Some are doubtful, so they pray

I hear the hidden voice that may

Shout, "Both paths lead astray."

Like God, if this world I could control

Eliminating the world would be my role

I would create the world anew, whole

Such that the free soul would attain desired goal.

This cup was made by the Wise Lord

With love & care to the heights soared

The potter who shaped with such accord

To make and break the same clay, can also afford.

Good and evil, our moral prison,

Joy and sorrow passing like season,

Fate in the way of logic and reason

Is the victim of far worse treason.

Why treat thy slave so cold as ice?

Where is thy light to save me from vice?

Even with command of Paradise

Where is thy gift above my just price?

Hark! Feed me wine, if you really care

Turn into ruby my face of amber

Bathe me in wine when death me ensnare

With boards of vine my coffin bear.

Wherever you go in the land of God

Flowers bloom from kingly blood

Violet with its colourful shroud

Was a beauty mole on a face once proud.

 An old potter at his wheel

Clay and dirt mould and deal

My inner eye would reveal

My father's dust bears his seal.

The grass that grows by every stream

Like angelic smiles faintly gleam

Step gently, cause it not to scream

For it has grown from a lover's dream.

The Shahnameh
The Persian Epic as World Literature
Hamid Dabashi
Columbia University Press
 MAIN

 REVIEWS

 CONTENTS

 EXCERPT

 LINKS
 AWARDS
The Shahnameh, an epic poem recounting the foundation of Iran
across mythical, heroic, and historical ages, is the beating heart of
Persian literature and culture. Composed by Abu al-Qasem
Ferdowsi over a thirty-year period and completed in the year 1010,
the epic has entertained generations of readers and profoundly
shaped Persian culture, society, and politics. For a millennium,
Iranian and Persian-speaking people around the globe have read,
memorized, discussed, performed, adapted, and loved the poem.

In this book, Hamid Dabashi brings the Shahnameh to renewed

global attention, encapsulating a lifetime of learning and teaching
the Persian epic for a new generation of readers. Dabashi
insightfully traces the epic’s history, authorship, poetic significance,
complicated legacy of political uses and abuses, and enduring
significance in colonial and postcolonial contexts. In addition to
explaining and celebrating what makes the Shahnameh such a
distinctive literary work, he also considers the poem in the context
of other epics, such as the Aeneid or the Odyssey, and critical
debates over the concept of world literature. Arguing that
Ferdowsi’s epic and its reception broached an idea of world
literature long before nineteenth-century Western literary criticism,
Dabashi makes a powerful case that we need to rethink the very
notion of “world literature” in light of his reading of the Persian
epic.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies

and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is a
founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and
Society at Columbia University. Among his most recent books
are The World of Persian Literary Humanism (2015)
and Persophilia: Persian Culture on the Global Scene (2016).
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-shahnameh/9780231183444
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERSIA AND IRAN

Map of Iran and Central Asia

The names Iran and Persia are often used interchangeably to

mean the same country. Iran is the legal name.Persia, was an
ancient kingdom within Iran. Iran came to be known as Persia
in the West thanks to classical Greek authors during whose
time Persia was the dominant kingdom in Iran. To call all of
Iran 'Persia', would be like calling all of Britain 'England'.

The name 'Persia' comes from 'Pers' which is in turn the

European version of 'Pars' - an area that is today a province of
Iran (see the map at the bottom of this page). 2,500 years
ago, when the present provinces of Iran were kingdoms [at
one time Iran (then Airan) consisted of 240 kingdoms*], Pars
was known as Parsa, and the kings of Parsa established an
empire that came to be known in the West as the Persian
Empire - the largest empire the world have ever known to that
point. In those days, Parsa was the dominant kingdom of all
the Iranian or Aryan kingdoms.

[*Note: According to the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) Kârnâmak-i

 Ardeshir-i Pâpakân / Kârnâmag-î Ardashîr-î Babagân, Book of
the Deeds of Ardashir son of Babak / Babag, the Book of
Deeds, "there were in the territory of Iran two hundred and
forty princes" at the beginning of Parthian rule of Iran/Airan.
The dominant kingdom of Iran has at various times been Balkh
(Bactria), Mada (Media), Parsa (Persia), Parthava (Parthia) and
then Persia again. The king of the dominant kingdom was
called king-of-kings (shah-en-shah in modern terms) - an
emperor.]

EVOLUTION OF THE NAME IRAN

Iran is a relatively modern contraction of the name Airyana

Vaeja (the ancient homeland of the Airya or Aryans).

Over time, Airyana Vaeja became Airan-Vej, then Eran-Vej or

 Airan-Vej (the Parthians and Sassanians had a slightly different
pronunciation), then Eran or Airan, and finally Iran.

LOCATION OF ANCIENT IRAN

While we do not know the precise location of the originl Aryan

homeland, Airyana Vaeja, the Central Asian lands that are
today part of Tajikistan, north-eastern Afghanistan, and
southern Uzbekistan - all east of the northeast corner of
present day Iran - are strong candidates.

For a more detailed discussion on the possible location of

Airyana Vaeja, please see our page on the Location of the
Aryan Homeland, Airyana Vaeja.
Map showing Iran and Central Asia and the possible movement of the Persian-Aryans culminating in the
GROWTH OF IRAN & FORMATION OF PERSIA
Migration of Ancient Iranians & Growth of Greater Iran

From Airyana Vaeja the original Aryan homeland (possibly

quite small in size and extent), the Aryans migrated to
surrounding lands. In doing so, they formed fifteen additional
kingdoms listed in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian scriptures, in a
book called the Vendidad. We therefore call these kingdoms
the Vendidad Nations. Coincidentally or otherwise, we find that
the migrations extended along the Aryan Trade Roads known
commonly as the Silk Roads. [Click here for a map of the
sixteen Aryan nations.]

Since the Vendidad's list of nations does not include two Aryan
kingdoms, Parsa (Pars/Pers/Persia) or Mada (Media), we are
left to conclude that these nations had not been formed - at
least as autonomous kingdoms or nations in the fashion of the
other sixteen lands - at the time the list was assembled. Even
Iranian legends such as those contained in the poet Ferdowsi's
epic, the Shahnameh or Book of Kings, do not mention Persia
or Media during the early legendary phase. Instead,
Pars/Persia is mentioned in Shahnameh later in history in
connection with the invasion by Alexander. In the early Iranian
history phase, the Shahnameh makes first mention of a
greater Iranian nation, an empire, during the reign of King
Feridoon.

While the Shahnameh does not mention Persia during the reign
of King Feridoon, his sons married the daughters of the King of
Yemen (we presume this is the same Yemen as the one in the
south of the Arabian peninsula) thereby forming an alliance
between ancient Iran and Yemen. Feridoon's Iranian Empire
stretched from the borders of China to the borders of Europe
(say up to Greece), and was large enough for it to be divided
and administered by his three sons. Ferdowsi appears to locate
Feridoon's capital as being in the southern Caspian coastal
region, in or near Sari (in present-day Mazandaran, west of
Gorgan, Golestan). Despite its lateral size, Feridoon's ancient
Iranian Empire does not appear to have extended its western
borders in width to include the later southwest land where
Parsa would eventually be located, for we do not find mention
in the Shahnameh of lands south of what is today Kurdistan
and perhaps Lorestan (Narwan?).

During the reign of the subsequent Kayanian dynasty

(Zarathushtra lived during the reign of Kayanian King Vishtasp)
which assumed dominance over the Aryan nations,
the Shahnameh no longer has the capital of Greater Iran
located near Sari, but rather in Balkh (Bactria), in the north of
Afghanistan today.
Extent of Iran. Aryana

Ancient Airyana Vaeja grew to become a federation of nations

that classical Greek historian and geographer Strabo called
Aryana/Ariana (Avestan Airyana). Strabo describes the
different kingdoms/nations that constituted Aryana describing
its borders as stretching from the Indus to Persia-Media -
linked, as he noted, by a common language native to the
groups (and we might add, trade/commerce and other cultural
ties such as religion). In some ways the concept is similar to
the umbrella Hellenic nation where when the Greek-speaking
people moved or even asserted their independence from one
another, they still maintained a sense of shared identity.

Aryana eventually extended from Central Turkey in the west to

the Taklamakan Desert in the east, from the mid-Caspian
region in the north (the northern borders of the various
countries with names ending in -stan) to the Persian Gulf and
 the western Indus delta in the south. As we had mentioned
earlier, this region at one time included 240 kingdoms.

The borders of present-day Iran are a greatly contracted

version of Aryana engineered mainly by the British and the
Russians who successively carved of portions in their
expansions of the British and Russian Empires. The British and
Russian engineering of Iran's borders followed in the footsteps
of the earlier Arab invasion and then Ottoman expansion both
of which effectively removed the Tigris-Euphrates basin
(Eastern Iraq today) from the Greater Iranian domain.

Formation of Persia

A ninth century (844) BCE inscription that recorded a

successful military expedition by Assyrian King Shalmaneser III
(859-824 BCE) in the north-central Zagros ranges south of
Lake Urmia (in the northwest corner of today's Iran), states
that Shalmaneser exacted tribute from twenty-seven 'kings' or
chieftains of Parsua. Several authors feel that the
name Parsua was a precursor to the name Parsa (Persia). From
that time on, we find that inscriptions containing the name
Parsua, Parsumash / Parsamash or Parsuash gradually located
this group(s) further south. Another Assyrian inscription states
that Shalmaneser's successor, King Shamsi-Adad (823-810
BCE) destroyed 1,200 towns or settlements in Parsua in the
region of present day Kermanshah some three hundred and
fifty kilometres south of Lake Urmia. An eight century Assyrian
inscription from the time of King Sennacherib (705-681 BCE)
tells us that in 690 or 691 BCE the Parsumash and Anzan
(Anshan), i.e. Persians allied with the Elamites, attacked the
Assyrian city of Halule. The 7th Century BCE Assyrian
inscriptions of Sennacherib's grandson, King Ashurbanipal (668
- c. 627 BCE) also mentions the nation of Parsamash or
Parsumash which by then was apparently located along the
western slopes of the Zagros and Bakhtiyari mountains
bordering on Elam and perhaps extending as far south as the
region around present-day Masjed-e Soleyman. [The city-state
of Susa (today called Shush) was a part of Elam.] Elam is
some hundred kilometres south of Kermanshah and is,
together with Lorestan, in the mid-western border region of
Iran today.

Chishpish / Teispes (675-640 BCE) an early king of

the Achaemenid dynasty of Persian kings - the first recorded
Persian dynasty - as well as subsequent Achaemenian kings
including Cyrus, referred to themselves as kings of Anshan.
Anshan (Anzan) is said to have been a former Elamite city and
state to the southeast of Elam and possibly bordering Pars
where the Parsa/Parsi established their eventual homeland. If
the connection between Parsua, Parsumash / Parsamash or
Parsuash and Parsa/Pars/Pers/Persia is correct, then we do
have what appears to be a south-eastern movement by the
Persians some thousand kilometres from Urmia to Pars. If the
Persians were indeed migrants, then where was their original
home?

Greek historian Herodotus (c. 485-420 BCE ) in his Histories

notes 7.62: "The Medes had exactly the same equipment as
the Persians; and indeed the dress common to both is not so
much Persian as Median. They had for commander Tigranes, of
the lineage of the Achaemenids. These (the Medes & Persians)
were called anciently by all people Aryans." Herodotus (485 -
420 BCE ) says that the Median (and Persian) association as
Aryans was already 'ancient' in relation to the mid-first
millennium BCE, the time when he lived. The Persian
(Parsa/Parsi) kings themselves declare their Arya (Aryan)
lineage in their inscriptions. Today, in the north-western
Afghan province of Herat, anciently called Aria (Arya), we find
a people called the Parsiban (Parsi-ban could be a derivative
of the older Parsa-van, meaning 'people of the Parsa/Parsi'. We
are inclined to draw some connections between to two Parsis
rather than ascribing this homonym to coincidence.

The Persian migration theory is not universally accepted. There

are those who believe that the Persians were autochthonous or
aboriginal to the region of Pars. If so, the lack of mention of
Parsa/Pars in both the Vendidad list of nations and the
early Shahnameh, and well as the predominance of pre-Parsa
Elamite artefacts in the Pars area beg a reasonable
explanation. The Parsua, Parsumash / Parsamash or Parsuash
will also need to be re-identified.
Persian Rise to Dominance Over the Aryan Nations

About 2,500 years ago, the Parsa (Persians) rose to power to

became the dominant Aryan kingdom. Dominance amongst the
Aryans groups passed from the Medes to the Parsa (Persians)
when the Achaemenian king Cyrus the Great (Cyrus
II) established the Persian Empire in the sixth century BCE by
bringing the nations within the Aryan Empire ruled by the
Medes under overall Persian rule. The dominance of the Aryan
federation of nations had passed from Feridoon's dynasty (in
Gorgan-Mazandaran, i.e. central-north Aryana) to the
Kayanians (in Balkh i.e. mid-eastern Aryana) to the Medes (in
north-west Aryana) and now to the Persians (in south-western
Aryana).

Cyrus then added surrounding non-Aryan countries to his

Persian Empire - especially countries to the west of Persia and
Media. In this manner, the Persian Empire grew to include
lands that extended from the lower Indus valley in the
southeast corner, to Central Asia in the northeast, to Babylon
in the centre, Egypt and Ethiopia in the southwest, and Asiatic
Greece in the northwest. By the time Cyrus had finished
putting together the Persian Empire, it had become the largest
empire the world had ever known to that point in history.

The Achaemenid Persian Empire came to a close at the hands

of Alexander of Macedonia in 330 BCE. A general of
Alexander's established the Seleucid Empire which ruled over
the previous Persian Empire until the Seleucids were
overthrown by the Aryan Parthians in 248 BCE. Dominance of
the Iranian (Aryan) nations now passed on the
the Parthians. Parthia was a kingdom located in the northeast
of present day Iran (around today's Khorasan province).
Parthian rule lasted until it was replaced by the
Persian Sassanian dynasty in 226 CE. The Persians thus
 resumed dominance of Iran until they were yet again
overthrown - this time by the Arabs. The old noble and great
Iran thus died, perhaps forever. It continues to live, however,
in many hearts.

FIRST USE OF THE NAME IRAN

As we had noted at the outset of this article, the name of the

original Aryan homeland, Airyana Vaeja, evolved into Airan-
Vej, then Eran-Vej or Airan-Vej (the Parthians and Sassanians
had a slightly different pronunciation), then Eran or Airan, and
finally Iran. Classical Greek geographer Strabo, called the
collection - the federation - of nations united by the Aryan
language (and we add commerce, culture and religion),
Aryana/Ariana (Avestan Airyana - the Aryan nation). That
concept of autonomous nations or kingdoms within a greater
Iranian nation or empire - and one ruled by a king-of-kings
had existed from the earliest times in Aryan history.

We find the first use of the modern derivative of Aryana, Eran

or Airan, in the rock inscriptions of the Persian Sassanian kings
(who ruled from 226 to 651 ACE). These inscription can still be
seen at Naqsh-e-Rustam, a historical site containing royal
tombs, and some 12 km northwest of the ancient Persian
capital city ofPersepolis in Pars. In the inscriptions, King
Ardeshir I (226-241 ACE) is referred to as king of kings
of Eran. This was when the Persian Sassanian dynasty
displaced the Parthian Ashkanian kings as the Aryan king-of-
kings.

It was usual that when such a coup took place, for the various
Aryan nations or kingdoms to assert independence from central
authority and for the rebellion to be met with a strong
response from the coup leader to consolidate power.
 Ardeshir's son and successor King Shahpur (241-272 ACE)
moved to consolidate dominance as king of kings over the
other Aryan /kingdoms nations and to rebuild the Aryan
Empire to its former extent under theAchaemenid Persians. His
inscriptions refer to Eran and An-eran i.e. Aryan and non-
Aryan kingdoms, the latter being nations such as Syria and
Cilicia. The words Eran-shahr meaning 'place of the Aryans'
was also used by the Sassanians in describing the Iranian
nation. These words would evolve to Iran-shahr.

Continued Western Use of the name Persia for Iran

The West, influenced as it was by Greek and Latin literature,

continued to call Eran 'Persia', presumably out of habit or
because the rulers of Iran were Persians. That Western
tradition continued into the last century until the reign of
 Iranian king, Reza Shah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. In
1935 CE, Reza Shah asked those countries with whom Iran had
diplomatic relations, to stop using the name Persia and to
formally refer to his country as Iran. Some Euro-centric map-
makers and authors ignored this formal request and continued
to use Persia as the name instead of Iran.

Iranian Capital Moves to Tehran

At this time, Pars (Arabized as Fars - see below), the ancient

seat of the Persian Empire, was now a province like any other
province within Iran. Pars was no longer the seat of the Iran's
capital anyway, since in the years following the Arab invasion
of Iran, a 17th century CE Safavid dynasty king made his
residence in the north-central Iranian town of Tehran. Later, in
1795 CE, the subsequent Qajar dynasty kings formally made
Tehran Iran's capital, a position Tehran has held since then.
 That move finally brought to an end even a nominal notion of
Pars (Persia) being the seat of the greater Iranian government.
Local kingdoms ruled by kings eventually became provinces
ruled by governors.

PARS AND FARS

 Map of Modern Iran showing Pars / Fars

In the 7th century CE, the Arabs conquered Iran and converted
the mainly Zoroastrian population to Islam. The Arabs
 pronounced the name Pars as Fars (because Arabic does not
have the 'p' sound) and this version of the name has persisted
even after the departure of the Arabs. The more authentic
name is Pars and not Fars.

In the map of modern Iran at the right, the province of Fars

(old Pars or Parsa) can be seen in the bottom-centre or
southern Iran.

PARSI AND FARSI

Similarly as with Pars, the word 'Parsi' meaning 'of Pars' or

'Persian' was mispronounced by the Arabs as 'Farsi' [As with
the names 'English' or 'German', Parsi can mean the language
of Pars, or a person from Pars (it is used as a last name), or
for that matter, anything from Pars].
While the words Parsi and Farsi are synonymous, today the
Arabized name Farsi is used to mean the Persian language.
The initial wave of Zoroastrian refugees who fled to India after
the Arab invasion of Iran, now use of the authentic name
'Parsi' as their ethnic group name.