Balash ( Middle Persian : 𐭥𐭥𐭣𐭠𐭧𐭱𐭩, Wardākhsh/Walākhsh ) was the Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 484 to 488. He was the brother and successor of Peroz I ( r. 459–484 ), who had been defeated and killed by a Hephthalite army.
34-746: Balāsh ( بلاش ) is the New Persian form of the Middle Persian Wardākhsh/Walākhsh ( Inscriptional Pahlavi : 𐭥𐭥𐭣𐭠𐭧𐭱𐭩 wrdʾḥšy; late Book Pahlavi forms gwlḥš- Gulakhsh- and Gulāsh- ). The etymology of the name is unclear, although Ferdinand Justi proposes that Walagaš , the first form of the name, is a compound of words "strength" ( varəda ), and "handsome" ( gaš or geš in Modern Persian). The Greek forms of his name are Blases ( Βλάσης ) and Balas ( Βάλας ). In 484, Peroz I ( r. 459–484 )
68-468: A dictionary called Words of Scientific Association ( لغت انجمن علمی ), which was completed in the future and renamed Katouzian Dictionary ( فرهنگ کاتوزیان ). The first academy for the Persian language was founded on 20 May 1935, under the name Academy of Iran . It was established by the initiative of Reza Shah Pahlavi , and mainly by Hekmat e Shirazi and Mohammad Ali Foroughi , all prominent names in
102-417: A literary language considerably different from the spoken Persian of the time. This became the basis of what is now known as "Contemporary Standard Persian". There are three standard varieties of modern Persian: All these three varieties are based on the classic Persian literature and its literary tradition. There are also several local dialects from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan which slightly differ from
136-497: A mild and tolerant ruler. He was very tolerant of Christianity , which earned him a reputation among Christian authors, who described him as a mild and generous monarch. Nevertheless, it would seem that Balash was only a nominee of the powerful nobleman and de facto ruler Sukhra. At the announcement of the death of Peroz, the Iranian nobles of Sasanian Armenia , including the prominent nobleman Shapur Mihran, had become eager to go to
170-561: A new force and stopped the Hephthalites from achieving further success. Peroz' brother, Balash, was elected as shah by the Iranian magnates, most notably Sukhra and the Mihranid general Shapur Mihran . Immediately after ascending the throne, Balash sought peace with the Hephthalites, which cost the Sasanians a heavy tribute. Little is known about Balash, but he is perceived by eastern sources as
204-643: A series titled Bibliotheca geographorum Arabicorum was published by Brill, Lugduni-Batavora (Leiden) in the 1870s. An edition of Istakhri's MS text was produced for the first volume under the Latin title Viae Regnorum descriptio ditionis Moslemicae - "Description of Roads of the Kingdoms in Muslim territories". In 1927, the editor Theodore Noldeke produced a second edition. In 1845, the German orientalist A. D. Mordtmann published
238-566: Is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian (8th/9th centuries), Classical Persian (10th–18th centuries), and Contemporary Persian (19th century to present). Dari is a name given to the New Persian language since the 10th century , widely used in Arabic (see Istakhri , al-Maqdisi and ibn Hawqal ) and Persian texts. Since 1964, Dari has been the official name in Afghanistan for
272-545: Is given in a notice attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (cited by Ibn al-Nadim in Al-Fehrest ). According to him, " Pārsī was the language spoken by priests, scholars, and the like; it is the language of Fars ." This language refers to the Middle Persian . As for Dari , he says, "it is the language of the cities of Madā'en; it is spoken by those who are at the king's court. [Its name] is connected with presence at court. Among
306-502: Is the most widely spoken. "New Persian" is the name given to the final stage of development of Persian language. The term Persian is an English derivation of Latin Persiānus , the adjectival form of Persia , itself deriving from Greek Persís ( Περσίς ), a Hellenized form of Old Persian Pārsa ( 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿 ), which means " Persia " (a region in southwestern Iran corresponding to modern-day Fars province ). According to
340-538: The Encyclopædia Iranica notes that the Iranian, Afghan and Tajiki varieties comprise distinct branches of the Persian language, and within each branch a wide variety of local dialects exist. The following are some languages closely related to Persian, or in some cases are considered dialects: Standard Persian is the standard variety of Persian that is the official language of the Iran and Tajikistan and one of
374-455: The Kalila wa Dimna . The language spread geographically from the 11th century on and was the medium through which among others, Central Asian Turks became familiar with Islam and urban culture. New Persian was widely used as a trans-regional lingua franca , a task for which it was particularly suitable due to its relatively simple morphological structure and this situation persisted until at least
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#1732851295410408-565: The Oxford English Dictionary , the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari . The majority of scholars believes Dari refers to the Persian word dar or darbār "court" ( دربار ) as it was the formal language of the Sasanian dynasty . The original meaning of the word dari
442-611: The Sultanate of Rum , Delhi Sultanate , the Shirvanshahs , Safavids , Afsharids , Zands , Qajars , Khanate of Bukhara , Khanate of Kokand , Emirate of Bukhara , Khanate of Khiva , Ottomans and also many Mughal successors such as the Nizam of Hyderabad . Persian was the only non-European language known and used by Marco Polo at the Court of Kublai Khan and in his journeys through China. In
476-633: The " Persianized " Turko-Mongol dynasties during the 12th to 15th centuries, and under restored Persian rule during the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian during this time served as lingua franca of Greater Persia and of much of the Indian subcontinent . It was also the official and cultural language of many Islamic dynasties, including the Samanids, Buyids , Tahirids , Ziyarids , the Mughal Empire , Timurids , Ghaznavids , Karakhanids , Seljuqs , Khwarazmians ,
510-570: The 19th century, under the Qajar dynasty , the dialect that is spoken in Tehran rose to prominence. There was still substantial Arabic vocabulary, but many of these words have been integrated into Persian phonology and grammar. In addition, under the Qajar rule numerous Russian , French , and English terms entered the Persian language, especially vocabulary related to technology. The first official attentions to
544-474: The 19th century. In the late Middle Ages, new Islamic literary languages were created on the Persian model: Ottoman Turkish , Chagatai , Dobhashi and Urdu, which are regarded as "structural daughter languages" of Persian. "Classical Persian" loosely refers to the standardized language of medieval Persia used in literature and poetry . This is the language of the 10th to 12th centuries, which continued to be used as literary language and lingua franca under
578-519: The 9th-century. The language is a direct descendant of Middle Persian, the official, religious and literary language of the Sasanian Empire (224–651). However, it is not descended from the literary form of Middle Persian (known as pārsīk , commonly called Pahlavi), which was spoken by the people of Fars and used in Zoroastrian religious writings. Instead, it is descended from the dialect spoken by
612-456: The Iranian shah should, in person, administer Armenia and through the aid of governors or deputies. In 485, Balash appointed Vahan Mamikonian as the marzban of Armenia. A few months later, a son of Peroz named Zarer rose in rebellion. Balash, with the aid of the Armenians, put down the rebellion, captured and killed him. In 488, Balash, who was an unpopular figure among the nobility and clergy,
646-567: The Persian spoken there. New Persian is a member of the Western Iranian group of the Iranian languages , which make up a branch of the Indo-European languages in their Indo-Iranian subdivision . The Western Iranian languages themselves are divided into two subgroups: Southwestern Iranian languages, of which Persian is the most widely spoken, and Northwestern Iranian languages, of which Kurdish
680-822: The Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon to elect a new sovereign. This had allowed the Armenians under Vahan Mamikonian to proclaim independence from the Sasanians. Given the situation of the weakness in Iran, Balash did not send an army to fight the rebels, which forced him to conclude peace with the Armenians. The conditions of the peace were: all existing fire-altars in Armenia should be destroyed and no new ones should be constructed; Christians in Armenia should have freedom of worship and conversions to Zoroastrianism should be stopped: land should not be allotted to people who convert to Zoroastrianism;
714-593: The court of the Sasanian capital Ctesiphon and the northeastern Iranian region of Khorasan , known as Dari. Khorasan, which was the homeland of the Parthians, was Persianized under the Sasanians. Dari Persian thus supplanted the Parthian language , which by the end of the Sasanian era had fallen out of use. New Persian has incorporated many foreign words, including from eastern northern and northern Iranian languages such as Sogdian and especially Parthian. The mastery of
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#1732851295410748-428: The languages of the people of Khorasan and the east, the language of the people of Balkh is predominant." New Persian is conventionally divided into three stages: Early New Persian remains largely intelligible to speakers of Contemporary Persian, as the morphology and, to a lesser extent, the lexicon of the language have remained relatively stable. New Persian texts written in the Arabic script first appear in
782-563: The many Muslim territories he visited during the Abbasid era of the Islamic Golden Age . There is no consensus regarding his origin. Some sources describe him as Persian , while others state he was Arab . The Encyclopedia Iranica states: "Biographical data are very meager. From his nesbas (attributive names) he appears to have been a native of Eṣṭaḵr in Fārs, but it is not known whether he
816-462: The nationalist movement of the time. The academy was a key institution in the struggle to re-build Iran as a nation-state after the collapse of the Qajar dynasty. During the 1930s and 1940s, the academy led massive campaigns to replace the many Arabic , Russian , French , and Greek loanwords whose widespread use in Persian during the centuries preceding the foundation of the Pahlavi dynasty had created
850-495: The necessity of protecting the Persian language against foreign words, and to the standardization of Persian orthography , were under the reign of Naser ed Din Shah of the Qajar dynasty in 1871. After Naser ed Din Shah, Mozaffar ed Din Shah ordered the establishment of the first Persian association in 1903. This association officially declared that it used Persian and Arabic as acceptable sources for coining words. The ultimate goal
884-474: The newer speech having now been transformed from Middle into New Persian was already complete by the era of the three princely dynasties of Iranian origin, the Tahirid dynasty (820–872), Saffarid dynasty (860–903) and Samanid Empire (874–999), and could develop only in range and power of expression. Abbas of Merv is mentioned as being the earliest minstrel to chant verse in the newer Persian tongue and after him
918-595: The poems of Hanzala Badghisi were among the most famous between the Persian-speakers of the time. The first poems of the Persian language, a language historically called Dari, emerged in Afghanistan. The first significant Persian poet was Rudaki . He flourished in the 10th century, when the Samanids were at the height of their power. His reputation as a court poet and as an accomplished musician and singer has survived, although little of his poetry has been preserved. Among his lost works are versified fables collected in
952-687: The standard Persian. The Hazaragi dialect (in Central Afghanistan and Pakistan), Herati (in Western Afghanistan), Darwazi (in Afghanistan and Tajikistan), Basseri (in Southern Iran), and the Tehrani accent (in Iran, the basis of standard Iranian Persian) are examples of these dialects. Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan can understand one another with a relatively high degree of mutual intelligibility . Nevertheless,
986-417: The three are based on the Tehrani , Kabuli , and Bukharan varieties, respectively. Istakhri Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhri ( آبو إسحاق إبراهيم بن محمد الفارسي الإصطخري ) (also Estakhri , Persian : استخری , i.e. from the Iranian city of Istakhr , b. - d. 346 AH/AD 957) was a 10th-century travel author and Islamic geographer who wrote valuable accounts in Arabic of
1020-451: The two official languages of Afghanistan . It is a set of spoken and written formal varieties used by the educated persophones of several nations around the world. As Persian is a pluricentric language , Standard Persian encompasses various linguistic norms (consisting of prescribed usage ). Standard Persian practically has three standard varieties with official status in Iran , Afghanistan , and Tajikistan . The standard forms of
1054-524: Was defeated and killed by a Hephthalite army near Balkh . His army was completely destroyed, and his body was never found. Four of his sons and brothers had also died. The main Sasanian cities of the eastern region of Khorasan − Nishapur , Herat and Marw were now under Hephthalite rule. Sukhra , a member of the Parthian House of Karen , one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran , quickly raised
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1088-449: Was Persian". Istakhri's account of windmills is the earliest known. Istakhri met the celebrated traveller-geographer Ibn Hawqal , while travelling, and Ibn Hawqal incorporated the work of Istakhri in his book Kitab al-Surat al-Ard . Istakhri's two surviving works are: An 8-volume edition of works by medieval Arab geographers, edited by the Dutch orientalist Michael Jan de Goeje in
1122-588: Was deposed after a reign of just four years. Sukhra played a main role in Balash's deposition, and appointed Peroz's son Kavad as the new shah of Iran. New Persian New Persian ( Persian : فارسی نو , romanized : Fārsī-ye No ), also known as Modern Persian ( فارسی نوین ) is the current stage of the Persian language spoken since the 8th to 9th centuries until now in Greater Iran and surroundings. It
1156-484: Was to prevent books from being printed with wrong use of words. According to the executive guarantee of this association, the government was responsible for wrongfully printed books. Words coined by this association, such as rāh-āhan ( راهآهن ) for "railway", were printed in Soltani Newspaper ; but the association was eventually closed due to inattention. A scientific association was founded in 1911, resulting in
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