International Journal of Educational Research and Technology

Volume 2, Issue 2, December 2011: 80 - 86

ISSN 0976-4089
Journal’s URL: [Link]/[Link]
Original Article
The Influence of Persian Language and Literature on Arab Culture
Mohammad Khosravi Shakib
Department of Persian Language and Literature, Human Science Faculty, Lorestan University, I. R. Iran.
E- Mail: Khosravi_fafa@[Link]

ABSTRACT
With the rise of Persian influence, the roughness of Arab life was softened and there opened an era of culture, toleration, and
scientific research. The practice of oral tradition was also giving place to recorded statement and historical narrative, a change
hastened by the scholarly tendencies introduced from the East.

INTRODUCTION
In the early days of the Prophet’s mission, there were only seventeen men in the tribe of Quraysh, who
could read or write. (Professor Edward Browne, 2002). It is said that Mo’allaqat, the seven Arabic
poems written in pre-Mohammedan times and inscribed in gold on rolls of coptic cloth and hung up on
the curtains covering the Ka’aba were selected by the Iranian Hammad who seeing how little the Arabs
cared for poetry urged them to study the poems.
In this period, Hammad knew more than any one else about the Arabic poetry. Before the advent of
Islam, the Arabs had a negligible literature and scant poetry. It was the Iranians who after their
conversion to Islam, feeling the need to learn the language of the Qur’an, began to use that language for
other purposes.
The knowledge of Arabic was essential and indispensable for religious worship, and the correct
reading of the Qur’an was impossible without it. In the first century of Islamic ascendancy, the Arabs
did not produce anything of literary value. If any poetry was composed, it was on the old pagan models
and celebrated the poets’ amatory adventures, in stereotyped fashion, rather than the victories of
Islam.
They adopted the pattern of the Sassanians for the administration of their state. They took the postal
system of the Sassanids, and with these adoptions went many Farsi (Persian) terms into the day-to-day
vernacular of the Arabs and they were arabicized. In time, they were unrecognizable. Farsi (Persian)
words abounded everywhere. Inside the houses as outside they had to make use of "Persian means of
comfort" and with them went the Persian terms for them. (The Legacy of Persia) As Professor Ed
Browne says:
Politically, it is true Persia ceased for a while to enjoy a separate national existence, being merged in
that great Mohammedan Empire which stretched from Gibraltar to the Jaxartes but in the intellectual
domain she began to assert the supremacy to which the ability and subtlety of her people entitled her.
(Browne,2002)
Even the form of State Organization were largely from Iranian models. Al-Fakhri, speaking about the
organization of divans or Government offices states:
In the year 636 A.D. during the caliphate of Umar, he seeing how conquest succeeded conquest and
how the treasures of the Persian Kings were passing into their possessions and how the loads of gold,
silver, precious stones and sumptuous raiments continually followed one another, deemed it good to
distribute them amongst the Muslims and to divide these riches between them, but knew not how he
should do or in what manner affect this.
Now there was in Madina a certain Persian Marzuban who seeing Umar’s bewilderment said to him, ‘0,
Commander of the Faithful, Verily the Kings of Persia had an institution, which they called the divan,
where was recorded all their income and expenditure, nothing being excepted therefrom and there,
such as were entitled to pensions were arranged in grades so that no error might creep in, and Umar’s
attention was aroused, and he said, Describe it to me. So the Marzuban described it, and Umar
understood and instituted the divans. (ibid. p. 205)

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In the finance department not only was the Iranian system adopted, but Farsi (Persian language) and
notation continued to be used till the time of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (about 700 A.D.) when as al-Balazuri tells
us:
Salih the scribe, son of a captive from Sistan, boasted to Zadan the son of Farukh, another Iranian who
was the chief scribe and accountant of the Revenue Office of Sawad that he could, if he pleased, keep
the accounts in Arabic and Hajjaj when heard about this ordered him to do so. Zadan’s son, Mardan
Shah, is reported to have said to him: "May God cut off thy stock from the world, as thou hast cut the
roots of the Persian tongue."
It is at this time that Abdul-Malik and his lieutenant, Hajjaj, tried to repress and curtail the foreign
influence, especially the Iranian, which was already so strongly at work, and to expel non-Arabs from
the Government Offices. (ibid. p. 205-206)
The Farsi words and terms started to enter into Arabic language and Arabicized in strange ways. Below
we mention only few
very common ways of Arabicization of Farsi (Persian) words:
1. By omitting one or several letters from either the beginning, the middle or the end of the original
Persian words. For example Bimarestan becomes Maristan, Pishpareh becomes Shafaraj and
Noshkhwar becomes Noshwar, Hazardastan becomes Hazar etc...
2. By adding letters to the original Persian words. For example rah becomes torrahat, panjeh becomes
fanjaz, pacheh becomes balgha and Setu becomes setuq.
3. By changing letters and these are many. (n) and (r) to (l) and (g) to (j) and they change (kh) to (h),
(p) to (f) or (b), and (k) to (gh) and (ch) to (sad) or (sh) and (sin) to (sad) and (t) to (ta) and (alif) to
(ayn) or (h) and (sh) to (z) and (zi) to (zal). For example they change zaryun to jaryal, kerdehban (a
loaf of bread) to jardabil, shabanak (a game) to shaflaqa, and gandeh-pir (and old man) to qandefil and
zaghar (a bird) to zaghala and garm (warm) to jarm and khorba to al herba and parand to farand or
barand and kartah (a dress) to qartaq, Chuba to Subaj or Subaq and obrah to hobary etc...
4. By changing k to ( j ) or ( gh ). For example luzinak (a kind of sweet) is changed to luzinaj or luzinagh
and gorbak (cat) becomes ghor-bagh or ghorbaj.
5. By writing one sole word in various ways differing little or much from the original Persian. For
example zavankal (a small man) is written in the following ways in Arabic zavankal, zavarak, zavanak
and tanparvar (a lazy man) becomes tanbur, tambal, tanbal, tendal and kehtar (smaller) becomes
jaytar, ja’dur, jaydary ja’bar ja’zar etc..
6. By conjugating not only the arbicized words but also, in some cases, the original Persian version. For
example from Persian jandara, they conjugate jandara, yojandaro from zinhar, zanhara yozanharo,
from bussidan (to kiss), bassa yabusso and from kushidan (to try) kasha, yakusho. (Addi Shirr, Persian
Arabicized words in Arabic, 1965)
7. There are cases where both the arabicized version of the Persian word and its literal translation are
used. For example Golab (rose water) is both used as jallab and as Ma’olvard. Zaban gonjishk (a tree) as
Benjeshk zowan and Lessan ol-Asafir, Panjangosht as Banjankosht and as Zu-Khamsato-Asabi’e, sepid
ruy as al-Asfidh-ruy and Al-Nahas-al-abyaz, Mahi-ye-Zahreh, as Mahi zahraj and Samm-ol-Samak.
8. Some words are transliteration of the Persian word such as: Khamseh Mostaragheh from Panjeh-ye-
Dozdideh, Moshahereh from Mahianeh, Nesf-ol-Nahar from Nim-ruz, al-Namal-al-faress from Mur-
cheh-Saveri, Maleeh from Namakeen, Beyt-ol-Nar from Ateshkadeh, Balut-al-Moluk from Shah-balut,
Sammol Himar from Khar-zahreh, Lessan-al-thowr from Gav-zaban, Reyhan al-Molk from Shah-
Esperam.
Many musical terms and the name of many musical instruments were borrowed from the Persian. This
continued and later after a lapse of time people forgot the origin of these many words that were
borrowed and adopted by the Arabs. The Iranian Nationalist Shu’ubiyya movement led the Arab faction
more and more to camouflage the Arab borrowings from the Iranians and so they confused the issue.
Today many of the borrowings of the Arabs from the Iranian civilization is surrounded by a haze,
because all the pertaining documents have been dastardly and willfully destroyed.
After the defeat of the Umayyids from the Persian forces under the leadership of Abu-Muslim (from
Khurasan), and the advent of Abbassid Caliphate (750 A.D.) and the subsequent change of the capital of
the Muslim Empire from Damascus to Baghdad, Iran acquired a position of importance. As Dozy writes:
The ascendancy of the Persians over the Arabs, that is to say of the conquered over the victors, had
already for a long while been in course of preparation. It became complete when the Abbassids, who

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owed their elevations to the Persians, ascended the throne. These princes made it a rule to be on their
guard against the Arabs, and to put their trust only in Persians, especially those of Khurasan with
whom, therefore they had to make friends. The most distinguished personages at court were
consequently Persians. The famous Barmakides were descended from a Persian noble, who had been
superintendent of the Fire-Temple of Balkh. Afshin, the all-powerful favorite of the Caliph al-Mu’tasim
was a scion of the princes of Usrushna in Transoxania. (Professor Edward Browne, opt. cit, Vol. I, p.
252)
Sir William Muir writes that:
To the same source may be attributed the ever increasing laxity at Court, of manners and morality and
also those transcendental views that now sprung up of the divine imamate, or spiritual leadership, of
some member of the House of Ali, as well as the rapid growth of free thought. (ibid. p. 251-252)
Arabic remained the official language of state-correspondence and also of theology and science, with
the result that many of the eminent scientists and theologians of Islam (as we have already seen) were
Iranians. These Iranians began to bring Farsi terms into the Arabic language.
Many Arabic philosophical and scientific terms are those coined by Iranian scientists and philosophers
who published their work in Arabic. Von-Kremer tells us about this influence of Iran which so largely
molded not only the organization of the Church and State but, in "Abbassid" times, even the fashion of
dress, food, music, and the like. He says:
Persian influence increased at the Court of the Caliphs, and reached its zenith under al-Hadi, Harun al-
Rashid, and al-Ma’mun. Most of the ministers of the last were Persians or of Persian extractions. In
Baghdad Persian fashions continued to enjoy an increasing ascendancy. The old Persian festivals of
Nowruz and Mehrigan were celebrated. Persian raiment was the official court dress, and the tall black
conical Persian hats (qalansuwa, pl. qalanis) were already prescribed as official by the second Abbasid
caliph in 770 A.D. At the court, the customs of Sassanians were imitated and garments decorated with
golden inscription were introduced which it was the exclusive privilege of the ruler to bestow. (ibid.
Vol. I, p. 259)
Professor Edward G. Browne summarizes the extent of Iranian’s contribution to Arabian science as
follows:
Take from what is generally called Arabian science from exegesis, tradition, theology, philosophy,
medicine, lexicography, history, biography, even Arabic grammar the work contributed by Persians
and the best part is gone. (Ed Browne, Vol. I, p. 204)
A brief catalogue of names show the debt of Arabic science and art to persons of Iranian descent.
Abu-Isshaq, the Iranian was the first biographer of the prophet, Ibn al-Muqaffa’, the Iranian convert,
was one of the most brilliant masters of the Arabic tongue who translated from Pahlavi, the Indian
work known as Kalilah and Dimina, Ibn Khordadbeh, who was of Iranian descent, was the best Arabic
philologist and grammarian, Abul-Faraj-e-Isfahani wrote the great "Book of Songs" in 21 volumes
which is called "the Divan of the Arabs".
Sibawayh the Iranian, wrote the most authentic and best known Arabic grammar, Ibrahim Musseli, the
singer-musician who was born of Iranian parents introduced some of the best music and songs to the
court of Harun-al-Rashid.
The same is true of Tabari, the greatest historian of the early Islam. Of physicians and philosophers and
scientists who have enriched Arabic medicine and thought there is a very long list among whom one
can enumerate Al-Biruni, Ibn-Sina, Razi, Ali Abbas, Abu-Mansur Mowafagh, Farabi, Abu-Ma’shar Balkhi,
Al Khwarazmi, Al Farghani, al Isfahani, Kashani, Mahani, Tusi, Ghazali, Omar Khayyam Neshaburi, etc...
As Professor M. Jan Rypka, the Czech Orientalist, states:
The Iranians transformed all Arabism into Persianism and this in turn, thanks to the universal diffusion
of Islam, acquired a cosmopolitan character....among the literatures of Islamic people, the Persian
literature is reputed as the most beautiful for its poetry. The Persians possess in general a very
developed artistic sense. I even say that the Iranians are the French of the East. For both the literary
and artistic production is very extensive and has an immeasurable value.
He says that:
it is not just haphazardly that the Persian literature occupies a place of honor in the poetical
productions of the people of Islam. Such illustrious names as Firdowsi, Omar Khayyam, Sa’adi and
Hafez, prove well, that this repute is not local matter but it passes over the frontiers of Iran and even
those of Islam and penetrates into the world literature. (Rene Grousset, L'ame de l'Iran, p. 102)

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According to Mr. Rene Grousset:

The Mazdean spiritualism has found its crowning in Islam, as in the Occident, the Plutonian
spiritualism found its crowning in Christianity. There, as in here, one notices a brief apparent rupture,
but a real continuity. Iran enters in earnest into Islam and finds in it Iran. Better still, it finds new
means of action, a new emanation because Islamization of Iran had for its counter-attack, in a large
measure, the penetration of Iranian spirit into vast sectors of the Islamic world.
Besides, history is unanimous in recognizing the capital role that the Iranian thinkers, authors and
artists as well as the Iranian administrators have played in the Abbassid civilization as much at the
court of the Arab Caliphs as at the courts of Turkish Sultanates. (ibid.)
Mr. Arthur Jeffery, Professor of Semitic languages in the School of Oriental studies in Cairo, in an
introduction to his book called "The Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran" mentions that:
The contact between Arabia and the Sassanian Empire of Persia were very close in the period
immediately preceding Islam. The Arab Kingdom centering in al-Hira on the Euphrates had long been
under Persian influence and was a prime center for the diffusion of Iranian culture among the Arabs,
and in the titanic struggle between the Sassanian and Byzantine Empire, where al-Hira had been set
against the Kingdom of Ghassan, other Arab tribes became involved and naturally came under the
cultural influence of Persia. The Court of the Lakhmides at al-Hira was in pre-Islamic times a famous
center of literary activity. The Christian poet Adi ibn Zaid lived long at this court, as did the almost
Christian Al-Asha. Their poems are full of Persian words. (Ibn Qutaiba gives examples of other poets
showing how great the Iranian influence was on the poetry of that period)
Other poets also, such as Tarafa and his uncle Mutalammis, al-Harith ibn Hilliza, Amr ibn Kulthum, etc...
had more or less connection with al-Hira, while in some accounts we find Abid ibn al-Abras and others
there. There is some evidence to suggest that it was from al-Hira that the art of writing spread to the
rest of Arabian peninsula. (Rothstein, Lokhmides, p. 27)
The Iranian influence was not merely felt along the Mesopotamian areas. It was an Iranian general and
Iranian influence which overthrew the Abyssinian suzerainty in S. Arabia during Muhammad’s lifetime,
and there is even a suspicion of Iranian influence in Mecca itself.
How far cultural influence penetrated the peninsula we have little means of telling, but it will be
remembered that one of Muhammad’s rivals was a Nadir ibn al-Harith, who frequently drew away the
Prophet’s audiences by his tale of Rustam and Isfandiayar. (Nadhr is supposed to be the person
referred to in Sura XXXI, verse 5)
Professor Arthur Jeffrey enumerates over 40 Farsi words in Quran among them the following: Ebriq
(from Abriz), Estabraq, Barzakh, Borhan, Tanur, Jizya, Junah (from gonah) Darasa, Dirham, Din, Dinar,
Rezq, Rauza, Zabania, Zarabi, Zakat, Zanjabil, Zur, Sejjil, Seraj, Soradaq, Serbal, Sard and Zard, Sondos,
Suq, Salaba, Abqari, Efrit, Forat, Firdaus, Fil, Kafur, Kanz, Maeda, al Majus, Marjan, Mask, Noskha, Harut
and Marut, Vareda, Vazir, Yaqut, Qamis. (Professor Arthur Jeffrey, The Vocabulary of the Quran,
Introduction)
According to Ahmad Amin, the Egyptian Scholar the Persian adab (Literature) penetrated Arab adab in
several ways:
1. Many of the Iranian converts to Islam learned Arabic language and their children began to write
Arabic poetry. Many Iranian poets appeared during the Umayyids who wrote Arabic verses, one of
these was Zyad al-A’ajam who was born in Isfahan and resided in Khorasan. Abol-Faraj-Isfahani in Al-
Aghani tells us that "the reason why they nicknamed him al-A’ajami was that he talked Arabic without
the proper Arabic accent like the Persian language but his poems were very fine.
Another family of poets were Yasars who were indeed among the greatest and the most well-known
Persian who recited Arabic [Link] of the sons of Yasar of Nesa, Esma’il, Mohammed, and
Ibrahim, were writing Arabic poetry and yet they were excessively devoted to Iran.
2. Other Iranians who wrote Arabic poetry were Abol-Abbas A’ajami and Musa Shahavat from
Azarbaijan. All these poets, although wrote Arabic poetry they were brought up in Iran and were
transferring Persian adab into Arabic. They were in fact, used to express Persian adab in Arabic frame.
The idea behind these poems were Iranian and it was the Persian soul and Persian idioms and manners
of expressions that were being reflected into Arabic and arabicized and so enriched the Arabic
language.
Ahmad Amin writes "at a glance one can see that the Arabs in every point or every way they turned or
for every necessity of life were obliged to use Persian words. Besides the words themselves they

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adopted the phrase-making ideas and expressions used by the Persians in explaining various matters
or in defining things.
3. The third way of the influence of Persian adab in Arabic adab was through the moral sayings of
Iranians. The Islamic morals was influenced in three ways: first by the edicts of the religion and verses
of Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet, second by the Greek philosophy, and third by the short stories
concerning the biography of the ancient kings of Iran and their ministers and philosophers.
The Iranian maxims and proverbs were translated in profusion into Arabic. The result of many years of
experience were summarized in a few sentences. Hassan Bosry, the Iranian, in Umayyid times
translated many of these philosophic sayings of Iranian kings into Arabic.
Many Persian axioms and maxims were translated by Ibn - Qotaybeh in "Oyun-al-Akhbar" and by
Tartush in "Seraj-al-Moluk" and by Jahiz in "Kitab-al-taj," and by Ibn Abdaryeh in "Al-Iqd-al-Farid". Ibn
Moqaffa’ in his "Kitab al Adab al Kabir" propagated the Iranian wisdom and adab into Arabic language.
4. The fourth way by which the Persian adab penetrated into Arabic language was through its music.
The Arabs copied their songs from Iranian models and sang their poems to the rhythm of these songs.
Iranians had a great influence in Arabic music and songs. (Dr. Ahmad Amin, Partow-i-Iran)
The Iranian Bazms or "pleasure parties" influenced Arabic life a great deal. The Iranian Bazms were
not only limited to musical entertainments but were literary gatherings. In these parties poetry was
recited and they matched verses with songs. Besides these, literary parties had many other advantages.
In these parties they told very fine literary tales and delivered fine speeches and told very amusing
jokes. Poets and scholars, in the hope of gaining promotion to higher and better positions contested
each other in these parties and innovations were offered by these participants whereby enriching the
literature of the country.
5. The fifth way through which Iranian adab enriched Arabic was through the style and manner of
writing letters and edicts and orders to each official according to his position and status in the
hierarchy of the government. How to address Kings, princes, ministers, officials, and in general, how to
preface an edict or official proclamation etc...
The first scribe of Islam, who tried to create a special style in writing official correspondence, was the
Iranian Abdol-Hamid Katib, the scribe of Marvan ibn Mohammed the last Umayyid Caliph. Ibn-
Khalakan says that:
Abdol-Hamid was a mavali from Anbar. He is the first who increased the size of the letters and began
the letters with the praise of God. He is the first who opened the buds of erudition, and simplified the
scribes task and freed the poetry from certain set rules and formulas. He was the master of all the
scribes and the best teacher and guide for them.
Ibn Halale Askary in his book called "Divan al Ma’ani" says:
who ever learns the erudition in one language and,then learns another language, can easily transfer
that science to the new language. Abdol-Hamid, the well-known Katib who has formulated the
principles of the science of composition, has transferred this science from Persian into Arabic.
The persons who translated the Persian work into Arabic are according to Ibn-Nadim (Al-Fihrist) the
following:
1 - Abdullah Ibn Muqaffa’
2 - Nowbakht
3 - Mussa and Yusef the sons of Khalid
4 - Abol-Hassan Ali-Ibn-Ziyad
5 - Hassan-ibn-Sahl
6 - Balazari
7 - Isshaq-ibn-Jahm-Barmaki
8 - Mohammed-ibn-Qassim
9 - Hasham-ibn-Salim
10 - Jibillat-ibn-Salim
11 - Musa-ibn-Issa Kurdi
12 - Zaduyeh ibn Shahury Isfahani
13 - Mohammed-ibn-Bahram-ibn Motyar Isfahani
14 - Bahram-ibn-Mardan Shah
15 - Omar-ibn-Farkhan

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Besides these translators, there were other Iranians, who after learning Arabic well, transferred and
propagated the Iranian literary and spiritual themes (which they had mastered by studying the Persian
works), among the Arabs. Every Iranian writer after studying the Persian works with care took the
theme and the idea from them and projected them into Arabic. These indirect Persian works that were
projected into Arabic influenced Arabic science, literature, poetry and vocabulary and enriched the
language. Many of the Iranians could speak both languages fluently and therefore could enrich the
Arabic language by expressing and translating the existent Farsi (Persian) adab into Arabic.
At the same time there were many Arabs who learned Farsi and thereby obtained a first hand
knowledge of the Persian erudition and transliterated it into Arabic tongue. One of these Arabs who
learned Farsi was Etabi. Teyfur tells us about him that he knew Persian and travelled a great deal in
Iran and visited Neishabur and Marv and other cities and in various old libraries found old Persian
books that he translated into Arabic. Teyfur tells us that "I asked him O’Aba Amr" why are you
translating Persian works into Arabic?
He replied "Can one find literary styles and meanings and ideas anywhere else but in Persian books.
The Arabic words are ours and the meaning and ideas belong to the Persians, who propagate them
with a great deal of erudition." Etabi who was educated in Persia, wrote very fine poetry that people
loved and recited in the form of songs. He also wrote quite a good number of proverbs and short
wisdoms, that were similar to those of Ibn Moqaffa’s. All these helped to enrich the Arabic literature in
Abbasid times with the philosophy, science, philology and erudition of Iran The Iranian poets also
wrote Arabic verses.
Some of these Persian poets have recited very fine poems in Arabic. Among these one can count Bashar
and Abu Navas on the one hand and Abol-Atahiya and Saleh ibn Abdul-Qaddus on the other.
Among the books translated from Farsi into Arabic one can enumerate the following two that had far-
reaching effects in the literature of various countries both in the East and the West.
The first is the famous "Kalileh and Dimna." We are told that this book was brought to Iran in the reign
of Khosrow I, Anushirvan, by Borzuya from India and was translated into Pahlavi. The source of this
book is supposed to be the Indian "Panca tantra" meaning "the five occassions to be wise."
It is said that Borzuya while translating this work into Pahlavi added several chapters and a series of
fables to it. This Pahlavi version unfortunately is lost. However, the book was translated by the erudite
Iranian convert, Ibn Muqaffa’ into Arabic. Since Iranians were very fond of these types of books, this
book was translated several times from Arabic into modern Farsi.
Ibn Nadim who wrote his very famous Al-Fihrist about the time when the Kalileh and Dimna was
translated from Pahlavi into Arabic by Ibn Muqaffa’ states that:
About the origin of Kalileh and Dimna there is a divergence of opinion. Some believe it to have been
made in India and this is mentioned in the preface to the book (as translated by Ibn Muqaffa’) but some
believe, it was originally made by Ashkani (Parthian) kings and Indians have attributed it to
themselves. According to another version, Iranians have made the book and Indians have attributed it
to themselves and there are those who have said that Bozorgmehr the philosopher (Vizier of
Anushirvan) has made part of it and Allah Knowest best. (Al-Fihrist)
The second is the book of Hezar Afsaneh (or a thousand tales) which was translated into Arabic in
early Abbassid period. Again the original book is lost but the Arabic version of the book with many
additions and alteration that it has received by various editors, appears today in the form of "A
Thousand and One Night," better known in English literature as "Arabian Nights".
Shahriyar and Scheherzad that are the two personalities around which all the rest of the work is built,
as their name fully implies, are Iranians and the theme is indeed absolutely Persian. So are most of the
main tales recited by Scheherzad to save her own neck. We will come back to the importance of these
two works in Europe, when we discuss the influence of Iran in European literature.
According to Professor Edward Browne one could not exclude what Iranians have written in other
than their own language from their contribution to science and literature. As he says.
Persians have continued ever since the Mohammadan conquest, that is to say for more than twelve
hundred years, to use the Arabic language almost to the exclusion of their own in writing on certain
subjects, notably theology and philosophy, while during the two centuries immediately succeeding the
Arab invasion the language of the conqueror was, save amongst those who still adhered to the ancient
national faith of Zoroaster, almost the sole literary medium employed in Persia. To ignore this
literature, would be to ignore many of the most important characteristic manifestations of the Persian

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Mohammad Khosravi Shakib

genius, and to form an altogether inadequate judgement of the intellectual activity of that ingenius and
talented people. (Professor Edward Browne, Vol. I, p.3 and 4)
Islam brought with it the literary emancipation of the masses in Iran. The literature and bells - letters
were no longer the monopoly of a very limited class of religious students and court Scribes. It became
the property of all the nation. Everyone who had talent in reciting poetry could do so, and soon people
got to know the best poets and their works became known to all and sundry. Once a poet showed his
genius, he was acclaimed and as the Persian language became more and more universally accepted as
the language of mysticism and fine poetry, the Persian literature was diffused to all part of the Islamic
Empire especially in Asiatic countries.
As in Pre-Islamic times the Persian was the language of Persian Mithraists, Nestorians and Manicheans
who went to India, Turkestan and China, so during early Islamic period also the Persian language (Dary
dialect) became the language of Islamic missionaries in India, Turkestan, China and Indo-China and
Malayan states. Then followed the rage of Persian mysticism and like bon-fire it spread far and wide
and with it went the Farsi language.

Conclusion:
With the rise of Persian influence, the roughness of Arab life was softened and there opened an era of
culture, toleration, and scientific research. The practice of oral tradition was also giving place to
recorded statement and historical narrative, a change hastened by the scholarly tendencies introduced
from the East.

References
1. Walker, Benjamin. (1950). Persian Pageant: A Cultural History of Iran. Calcutta: Arya Press.
2. Mana Aghaee, (2007). Ketabshenasi-ye she'r-e zanan-e Iran (A Bibliography of Iranian Women Poets), Stockholm,
(Persian).
3. Aryanpur, Manoochehr. (1973). A History of Persian Literature. Tehran: Kayhan Press, 1973.
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IJERT VOL 2 [2] DECEMBER 2011 [86]  Society of Education, INDIA