Shahram Nazeri, Charming Sorrow
verse by Hafiz

Semitic languages:

• Arabic
• Hebrew
• Ethiopic
• Aramaic/Syriac
• feature: 3-letter root of consonants (K-T-B)
  

Indo-European languages:

• Sanskrit and Indic languages (Hindi, etc.)
• Iranian languages (Persian, Pushto, Kurdish)
• Greek
• Latin and Romance languages
• Germanic languages
• cognates: father/vater/padre/pater/ Pers. pedar
  

Persian Language

• Old Persian: Avestan (Zoroastrian scripture), inscriptions of Achaemenid kings (Darius, Cyrus)
• Middle Persian: later Zoroastrian commentaries, histories of kings; influence of Aramaic (malik = shah)
  
• New Persian: in Arabic script, written from about 850.
  
• varieties: Farsi (Iran), Dari (Afghanistan), Tajik (Tajikistan, in Cyrillic script)
  
• vocabulary 40-60% Arabic in literary texts

Literary forms

• Qasidah (ode) and Ghazal (lyric), from Arabic, with monorhyme ending
  
• Ruba`i (quatrain), short verses for moral and mystical teachings (Ruba`iyyat of Omar Khayyam, made popular by FitzGerald in 19th cent.)
• Masnavi (couplets), used for epic (Firdawsi's Book of Kings or Shahnama) and romance (Nizami) and Sufi teachings (`Attar, Rumi)

Major locations: royal courts and Sufi groups
from Central Asia to the Balkans and South India

Factoid: in 16th century, Persian was a court language in India (Moghuls), Samarqand (Uzbeks), and Istanbul (Ottomans), but Turkish was the court language in Iran (Safavids) for some time

Marshall Hodgson (The Venture of Islam): Persian in some ways more important than Arabic for Islamic civilization