Dari and Farsi; two distinct languages

[Algazel]

Dari and Farsi; two distinct languages


Today, a large number people think that Dari and Farsi (Persian) belong to one language with two different dialects. In fact, Farsi or Persian is a developed form of Pahlawi language (mainly from Sasanid Pahlawi), while Dari developed from Soghdi, Partawi and Takhari languages. Dari existed before the formation of Farsi language, at the time when the people of Parthia or Persia used to speak in Pahlawi (the first form of Farsi).

In order to clarify this point and to give more details about the backgrounds of these two languages, let’s have a glance on the histories of ancient Ariana and Persia.



History

The land which is known today as Afghanistan, is a major part of Khorasan and the ancient Ariana. The very first Aryan civilisation began in the first millennium of BC during the Bronze Age. However, the archaeological excavations from different parts of Afghanistan, such as Ghazni and Hindukush regions, show that there were people living in these regions from the Palaeolithic period, about 100,000 to 50,000 BC.

The great civilization of Aryan people started before 5,000 BC in Balheka or Bokhdi, today called Balkh (a city located in the North of Afghanistan). Yama or Jamshid is known as the first King ruling in this region, who invented the festival of Nawroz. Various empires such as Peshdadadian, Kayan, Aspa and others reigned mostly in the North and South regions of Oxus river (alternate names: Jaihoon, Amu Darya). The people of those regions practiced the Zoroastrian and Meetric religions. In the sacred book of Avesta, in the sacerdotal writings of Rig-Veda, the name of such regions are mentioned, such as Balheka (refer to Balkh), Kubha (refer to Kabul), etc. The great politico-religious leader, Zarathustra Spitama (Zoroaster), lived in Balkh.

According to some very old valuable books, a group of Aryan people moved from Takharistan/ Balkh towards the west: to the land of Persia; as a result the transfer of culture and civilization of Ariana to that territory. Later on, great Dynasties such as Achaemenids (522-330 BC) and Sasanids (241-500 AC) conquered these regions and spread the culture and civilization of Ariana to all the other territories. At the beginning of 1st century, the word Ariana was used for the following regions:
- Takharistan/ Balkh/ Bokhdi (North of Afghanistan) and after the Alexander’s invasion, it was called as Bactria or Bakhtar
- Kabulistan and Ghazna (central parts of Afghanistan)
- Bukhara, Samarqand and Merv (Tajikistan and Uzbekistan)
- Hari (Major Eastern parts of Iran, and western parts of Afghanistan)
- Seestan and Gandahara (South east of Iran, Southern parts of Afghanistan including the Balochistan areas of Pakistan up to the Sindh river)

Alexander of Macedon occupied the regions of Oxus river between 330-300 BC and influenced the people of Takharistan (Balkh) by the Geek civilization, which was later called as Greco-Bactrian civilization. In fact, Bactria is a western word used for Takharistan. The famous Ay-Khanom city, which was discovered during the 1930s in North of Afghanistan, belongs to that period.

The great Dynasty of Kushans (135 BC – 130 AC) came into being in Ariana. Kanishka, the most famous Kushan ruler, transferred the capital of his kingdom from Balkh to Kapisa and Bagram (cities near Kabul). The region of Ariana was later divided to three main regions: Khorasan (Afghanistan), Parthia or Persia (Iran) and Bukhara (Tajikistan and Uzbekistan); even though empires in one region invaded and reigned on the other territories for several years.



A brief look at the languages spoken at that time

The people of Ariana spoke in various Avestian languages, mainly resembling to Sanskrit. The main languages spoken in Ariana were Takhari, Partawi (Pahlawi Ashkani) and Soghdi, while Pahlawi Sasani (the old Farsi) was common in the religious courts of Sasanid Kingdom in Persia.

Those languages were written mostly in the transcript language of “Khroshti”, from right to left. It was widely used in the whole formal and religious writings. The Khroshti transcript was common from 1000 BC up to the end of Kushan Dynasty, until Dari replaced the other languages. During the Kushan dynasy, these languages were extended from Takharistan/ Bukhdi to all over Kabulistan, Seestan, Gandahara and Ghazna. Dari replaced all these languages of Takhari, Partawi and Soghdi at the end of Kushans Empire, or probably short after that.

Another transcript language was “Arâmi”, which became famous during the Sasanid dynasty in Persia. The Pahlawi language was mostly written in this transcript language. In fact, Farsi (Persian) was developed from Pahlawi and Arami languages.

I would like to mention that Pashto also existed at that period, but it was limited to some tribes in Gandahara (Qandahar) and never used in official and formal affairs.



Dari and Pahlawi (the old Farsi)

In fact Dari was spoken before the Islamic period in Bactria, Bukhara and in the courts of Sasanid kings in Persia. Dari is almost 2,000 years old, which was developed from Takhari, Partawi (Pahlawi Ashkani) and Soghdi languages. One of the most authentic clues is the Manuscript writings on a stone found in Baghlan (a city in Afghanistan). There are almost 160 words in 25 lines of Takhari language written in the Greek transcripts. In these manuscripts, one can clearly see the familiarities of Dari and Takhari languages. So there’s no doubt that Dari was developed from Takhari language in Bactria just after the Kushan Dynasty, and reached to its peak during the Islamic period.

Concerning Pahlawi, the old Farsi language, it was the language of Zoroastrian religious leaders, mostly spoken in Persian regions.

Abdullah ibn Muqaffa writes in his book “Al-Fehrest” (378 JC) that: “Pahlawi refers to Pahla, the language of Five cities: Esfahan, Ray, Hamadan, Mah Nawand and Azerbaijan. But Dari was the language of citizens (people of cities) and people in the kings’ courts used to speak in Dari. It is the language of Khorasan people and East, mostly that of the people of Balkh. While Farsi was the language of religious people, by which the people of Pars (Iran) communicated.”

We can clearly see that Abdullah ibn-Muqaffa had determined the area of Pahlawi language to all the main cities of Persia (Iran), and calls Dari the language of citizens, courts and kings. In another place, he writes that Dari was also common during the Achaemenid and Sasanid dynasties in the cities of Madayn (cities in Iran). So we can easily conclude that Dari had a great influence on Pahlawi and even later on Farsi.

The Iranian writers try to declare this point as an inverse, and say that Farsi was never influenced by Dari. In fact, Dari developed in east, in Bactria or Takharistan, and Bukhara, and then emerged to the west into Persia (Iran). One of the great Iranian writers and poets, Mohammad Taqi Bahar, confesses and writes in his book “Sabk Shunasi” as: “….some people say that Dari is a developed dialect of Sughdi language, that the people of Bukhara, Samarqand and regions of Jaihun (Amu) river used to communicate in it for a long time. And some people, relying on the statements of Abdullah ibn-Muqaffa say that Dari was the language of cities and courts, and it was the softest and the most fluent language of the Sasanid period, and it contained mostly the eastern words, especially Balkhi words.” He then continues and gives his own point of view: “As after the coming of Islam, the people of Bukhara and Samarqand wrote many books in Dari, and the poets of Khorasan (Afghanistan) narrated poems in this language, so Dari came step by step from Khorasan to Iran. I can say as a conclusion that Dari is the language of Balkh and Bukhara.” But regretfully to say that recent Iranian writers try to hide this point of Mohammad Taqi Bahar, and deny any emergence of Dari language in Iran.

Today Dari and Farsi, both have different dialects. Kabuli, Herawi/ Herati, Takhari and Badakhshi are the main dialects of Dari. Farsi has several dialects such as Mazandarani, Giliki, Talishi, Lori, Tat or Eshtehadi, Dari or Garbri (which is totally different from Dari of Afghanistan and is spoken in Yazd, Kerman and other north-western parts of Iran), etc. The very formal dialect of Farsi resembles to Dari of Afghanistan, while the spoken accent of Farsi is completely different to that of Dari. Tajiki is more similar to the Takhari dialect of Dari, even the Tajikistan government in recent years has recognized their language as Dari, and not Farsi.



The reason of similarities between Dari and Farsi

After presenting the above mentioned points, some may ask then, that if Dari and Farsi are two different languages, so how they can have such deep similarities. I may present the answer under three points:

1. As we all agree that Dari developed in Bukhara and Balkh, and spread to Persia during Achaemenids and Sasanids, and moreover it contained a vast usage of Takhari, Soghdi and Partawi languages, so it naturally influenced the spoken language of Persians; Pahlawi. Pahlawi was obviously influenced by Dari, according to very old trustable sources, which were already mentioned in this text.
2. When Islam came to Persia (Iran) and Khorasan (Afghanistan), Arabic made a great influence and effect on both Farsi and Dari. Both languages have equal combination of Arabic words today. All the Islamic expressions and Quranic words, which didn’t exist in these languages, entered in these two languages. So Arabic created a big similarity between them.
3. After the Islamic invasions, great empires such as Tahirians, Ghaznavids, Samanids, Ghorids, Khwarazam-Shahyans, Temorids, etc. came into being whether in Persia or in Khorasan. But all of them conquered and invaded the territories of the other country. Obviously, each empire made an influence on the language of those people. It was like an action of mixing the two languages during these long periods of history.
.

[Algazel]

The naming of Dari

1. As Dari is an improved language from Takhari, some writers explain the modification of the Takhari word to Dari as Takhari > Takhri > Tahri > Dari, which this change of word has been viewed in various old books.
2. Some writers believe that Dari is derived from “Darra”, which means Valley. For the reason that Dari was born in the Valleys of Takharistan and Hindu Kush.
3. According to some old books, Dari is taken from the word “Dar” or “Darbaar”, which means the Courts of the Kings. As Dari was the official language spoken in the courts of Sasanids and Achaemenids, so it was called frequently as Dari.
4. In Burhan-e Qatey it’s mentioned that: “…..they say it was the words (language) of some cities mainly of Balkh, Badakhshan, Bukhara and Merv (Marwa)” So it again indicates that Dari was an independent language at that period, and common in the cities of Khorasan.



Dari’s influence on Indian subcontinent

Many great empires were born in Khorasan (Afghanistan) such as Ghaznavids, Moghols, etc. They all conquered most of the parts of Indian subcontinent and invaded up to Dehli and even further. As Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi attacked 17 times on India, and never lost the battles. Most of these empires developed the Dari literature and encouraged the poets, scientists and philosophers to write their works in Dari.

During many centuries, Dari made a great influence on Hindi, more precisely on Urdu. Urdu, which means Army, has a direct relation to the invasions of Khorasani Kings. It is in fact the Indian or Hindi language written in Arabic or Dari transcript. Dari found its way among the people of India, many people learned this language. It was a language of court during the Moghols. Great Khorasani poets moved to India with Kings, or they were born in India in a Khorasani origin family.

For example, Amir Khusraw Dehlawi, Abdul-Qadir Bedil, Ghani Kashmiri, Zebul Nissa Makhfi, Iqbal Lahori and others, who were the great poets of Dari language and who made the Indian School of Poetry in Farsi-Dari. Many Persian poets such as Kalim Kashani, Sa’eb Tabrizi, Talib Amili, etc. went to India and lived many years there.

Iranians have difficulty understanding the poems of those poets, while Afghans can understand it very easily. The reason is that they all have written their poems in Dari, using very old Dari expressions and phrases which are very comprehensible for Afghans.



The wrong usage of the term “Farsi” in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, people are used to call their language in a spoken and ordinary way as Farsi. The reason can be several points:

1. Safavids (1501-1736), a Persian Empire, made a great impression on the people of Afghanistan. It invaded most of the parts of Afghanistan, and tried to spread the Persian culture in these regions. They strictly influenced the people of Afghanistan by various means, e.g. using the word Farsi for their native language, etc.
2. Afghanistan having more Pashtoon population couldn’t work on Dari literature, while Iran, despite having the majority of Kurds, made lots of researches on Farsi. They published a wide series of books in Farsi, distributing them in Afghan regions, which of course influenced people’s minds.
3. Iranians translated most of their books in to foreign languages such as English, French and German, and introduced their own language as the principle language of Central Asia.
4. Afghanistan suffered 30 years of crisis, it didn’t let them to develop their own language, to do more researches on its literature and to publish the old valuable books.
5. Almost 42% of Afghanistan’s population is Pashtoons, and the great Khorasan region was renamed to Afghanistan in 17th century. Although the word “Afghan” was the surname of the second Ruler of Sasanid Dynasty, it is referred mostly to the Pashtoons. In consequence, Pashtoons tried to exclude Tajiks from the name of Afghanistan and referred them to Persians, as by calling their native language as Farsi. This wrong intention was however welcomed by Tajiks themselves.



The first poems narrated in Dari language

Abu Muwayed Balkhi has written the following religious verses in his Shahnama, reporting from Bahar Khorasani:

فرخته باذا روش
خنیذه گرشسپ هوش
همی پرست از جوش
انوش کن می انوش
دوست بذآگوش
به آفرین نهاذه گوش
همیشه نیکی کوش
(که) دی گذشت و دوش
شاها! خدایگانا!
به آفرین شاهی!

Arabs before the Islamic period have written these three verses in Tareekh-e Seestan:
آبست و نبیذ است
وعصارات زبیب است
سمیه روسپیذ است


Asad ibn-Abdullah, the governor of Balkh in 108 lunar hijri, passed the Amu River and tried to conquer those areas but was defeated by Amir Khatlan. In his return, the people of Balkh said the following poems:
از ختلان آمدیه
برو تباه آمدیه
آبار(ه) بازآمدیه
خشک و نزار آمدیه


It is said that the first poet in Dari language is Abu-Hafas Sughdi who lived in the first 7th century. And after him, Abul Abas Marwazi was the second poet who lived in Khorasan in the 8th century.



Dari from the view point of Poets

Ferdawsi Tusi, the gread poet of Ghaznavid period, writes in Shahnama:
کجا بیور از پهـــلوانی شمار
بود در زبان دری صد هزار

**

به تازی همی بود تا گاه نصـر
بدانگه که شد در جهان شاه نصر

بفرمـــــــــــود تا پارسی دری
نبشتند و کوتاه شــــــــــد داوری


Farukhi Seestani, the poet of Ghaznavid’s court, says:

دل بدان یافتی از من که نکو دانی خواند
مدحت خواجهء آزاده به الفــا ظ دری

خاصه آن بنده که مانندهء من بـــنده بود
مدح گوینده و دانندهء الفاظ دری


Nasir Khesraw Balkhi gives great value to Dari and writes:

من آنم که در پای خُوکان نریزم
مراین قیمیتی دُر، لفــظ دری را


Sozani, another poet, says:

صفات روی او آسان بود مرا گفتن
گهی به لفظ دری و گهی به شعر دری


Nizami Ganjawi, one of the greatest poets of Dari, says:

نظامی که نظم دری کار او اســت
دری نظم کردن سزاوار او اســــــت
هزار بلبل دستانسرای عاشـــق را
بباید از تو سخن گفتن دری آموخت


Sanayee, the great Sufi and poet of Ghaznavid period says:

شکر لله که ترا یافتم ای بحر ســـخا
از تو صفت زمن اشعار به الفاظ دری


Ansuri Balkhi, the Master Poet of Ghaznavid period narrates:

آیا به فضل تو نیکو شده معانی خیر
ویا به لفظ تو شیرین شده زبان دری


Sadi Sherazi, one of the ever greatest poets, says:

هزار بلبل دستان سرای عاشق را
بباید از تو سخن گفتن دری آموخت


Hafiz Sherazi, known as Bulbul-e Sheraz, says:

ز شعر دلکش حافظ کسی شود آگاه
که لطف طبع و سخن گفتن دری دان


Iqbal Lahori, the lover of Afghanistan and Dari literature says:

گرچه اردو در عذوبت شکر است
طرز گفتار دری شیرین تر است






Sources:
1. A Brief History of Afghanistan’s Literature, by Dr. Mohammad Halim Tanweer
2. “Afghanistan dar Masir-e Tareekh” (Afghanistan through history) by Mir Ghulam Mohammad Ghubar
3. Afghanistan, by Louis Dupree
4. Afghanistan’s history after Islam, by Dr. Abdul-Hai Habibi
5. Ariana Encyclopedia, published by Ministry of Culture
6. History of Afghanistan’s Literature, by Mohammad Haidar Jhobl
7. History of Iran’s Literature, by Dr. Zabeehullah Safa
8. History of Farsi’s literature, by Parwiz Khanlarey

[Mustafa]

The land Afghanistan is as complex as are its people. About 200 years ago Afghanistan became an independent nation under Ahmad Shah Durani. We can not make thoughtless statements on the relationship of Iran and Afghanistan for arguments sake. The two nations have a analgous relationships to each other. It is amazing that we are in the 21st century and we still argue about Afghan identity and history. I have spent most of my life researching the Afghan-Iranian gene pool, and found that they have the same ancestral roots. Other cultures from around the world have similar circumstances as do the Afghans and Iranians. I will briefly name some nations that fall in this category; England and Scotland, Germany and Austria, Pakistan-India and Bangladesh Italy-Sicily and Sardinia, North Korea and South Korea, Bella Russia and Russia, Albania-Montenegro and Kosova etc. The peoples of these nations share a common history and culture but hold affinity to their own distinction. Historically for thousands of years, Afghanistan and Iran have fallen under different groups of people. The reason for this was because both of the countries did not exist as separate nations, but was merely a geographical location on earth that people sought to prosper in. Archaeologist indicate that the first people who came to these parts of the planet where called the Aryans. They migrated from the Russian-Caucus via the Khorasan passage, a region between Northeastern Iran and Afghanistan, approximately between the modern cities of Mashed and Balkh. Aryans spread thorough these lands and called themselfs by the cities they established. Medes, Sodganas, Bactrians, Fars etc. They spoke the same language but of different dialects. This ancient language was preserved by an Aryan priest named Zoroaster in Persian (Zardasht) in a secret book called Avesta. Modern Afghan and Iranian Persian/Farsi, Pashto, Kurdish, Baluchi all are derivatives of this language. The Persian language had three stages; Old Persian spoken by the Achmianid Dynasty, Middle Persian spoken by the Sassanian Dynasty, Modern Persian that derived from Pahlavi in Khorasan is called Dari today. Both the Iranians and Afghans share this modern Farsi language. The confusion that Iranian speak Farsi Persian and Afghans speak Dari Persian is analogously as false as to say American speak American and the British speak English, this is also true for the Australians. The truth is both Afghans and Iranians speak the same language, and I will point out where the confusion is dormant. As indicated previously the Aryans established the city called Fars approximately where modern day Isfahan is located. Here, the Aryans became politically strong establishing commerce and trade. Soon their influence reached across Aryana (Afghanistan-Iran). They became known as the Achaemenids Dynasty and because of their wealth, political structure they organized a powerful military system attracting people from all over Aryana. Darius The Great extended this influence as far as China and Northern Greece. Getting back to the main idea, the Greeks had a city state system and when a city ruled over a land mass that land mass was named after that city. Much like if you would call America Washington D.C. The Achaemenids never considered Aryana to be called after their city Fars. Like in modern day politics Fars was a capital to the land it dominated, it was a region where power was centralized. The Greeks also pronounced Fars as Persia and that is what the western world has referred to this land as. Later, the borrowed Greek culture by the Romans and from them the British Empire to Modern day United States has enhanced its use of the word thorough the succession of western civilizations. To put it in a nutshell Farsi means Persia and visa-versa. As indicated before the Persian language went through three stages. The first stage was the Achaemenid-Persians whom I briefly introduced, the second and the third stage will produce our final thoughts on this subject. The second stage of the Persian language and culture came after the fall of the Achaemenid Dynasty by Alexander the Great. Here, Greek culture and language influenced the Persian language receiving many Greek loan words. After the death of Alexander, Aryana was Hellenized or (Greekized). Many factions tried to take control of this land. The land had split under three Greco-Perso ruling powers; the Selecuids, the Parthnians and the Bactrians. The Parthnians were unique in that even though they had Greek influences they held national pride in old Achaemenid traditions, in hope to rebound anther empire from Aryana. The Parthnians were successful later calling themselves the Sassianian Empire. Here is where Middle Persian/Farsi took stage. During the third stage when the Arabs arrived, they called the language Pahlavi. This was because they took control of Arayna's central power territory, the state of Khorasan also known as (Parthia). The Arabs orally pronounced Parthia as Pahlavi which is commonly used and mis-used by writers today. Parthia was the Greco-Roman pronunciation. The last stage is the invention of modern Persian/Farsi called Dari, which became the language of the kings royal courts. The Arabs had brought Persian/Farsi to a near extinction when poets concealed nationalism amongst Aryans to revive their language and culture from total Arabization. One man in particular whom brought a sense of dignity to the demoralized Aryans was Frowdosi Tossi of Khorasan. He reinvented Persian/Farsi by using Arabic letters writing a glories story about the ancient kingdoms of Aryana. This intern brought a sense of unity and nationalism revolutionizing Persian/Farsi into what is Dari-Persian/Farsi. Dari is the modern literal Persian/Farsi and has derived into several dialects. Like English, we could hear many variations from different regions. Some are close and others sound distinct. For example when you hear Australian or Jamaican you might not understand it if your from London, but it is still a literal English language. Farsi has the same properties, if your from Tehran and I am from Kabul there is a distinction in our language, but it is still literally Farsi. Back to my English analogy, as Shakespearian English from England is the foundation to all English dialects spoken, so is Dari-Persian/Farsi from Khorasan the source to all Persian/Farsi dialects spoken. Afghani Farsi is somewhat more closer to literal Dari Persian/Farsi then probably Tehrani, but is still not pure. The closeness of Hareti (Afghan), Mashedi (Iran), Kabuli (Afghan) to Dari-Persian/Farsi has to do with its proximity to Khorasan where the language was reinvented and conserved. Preservation from the influence of other languages is anther factor. Kabuli-Persian/Farsi has loan words from Uzbek, Pashto and even some Indian; Tehrani-Persian/Farsi has loan words from Azari, Armenian and etc. Each Persian/Farsi speaking region will have loan words from a geographically close neighboring nation. Languages like Pashto, Kurdish and Baluchi are close to Persian/Farsi but have become distinct Aryana languages of their own. These languages were all one language with Persian/Farsi during the arrival of the Aryans, but was less influenced by Persian/Farsi during its development phase in Aryana and took its own course. Theory suggests that this was because of its geographical remoteness in Aryana. In closing Dari is the new third stage of Persian/Farsi used today. When an Afghan says he is speaking Farsi he is one hundred percent correct, he is speaking Afghani-Farsi dialect and an Iranian is speaking his or her dialect, they all speak Dari-Farsi/Persian dialects. One more thing, the shah of Iran in the early 1900’s summonsed the Europeans to stop referring to it as Persia and call it by its original name “Elm- A – Aryan”, which means in English “Land Of The Aryans”.
by Doctor Ariazad

[Saeed]

There is a discussion by Afhgan-Knight jan which I haven't gotten the chance yet to fully read, but from teh looks of it, your topic also is dealing with the exact same topic...

http://www.afghanforums.com/showthre...&threadid=4107

If you agree, pm me, so I can merge the two topics in order to keep the discussion in one place.

[Algazel]

You can merge his topic in that forum, i don't have anything to say in that issue.

But his article is based on Wrong Iranian claims, as it is written by an Iranian writer. One of my first objectives for writing such a long text, was to show the false and incorrect points of Iranian's claims, who try to call Dari as a Sub-language or a Dialect of Farsi.

The above article has no reference to any Old-Trustable sources of Farsi-Dari Literature. The writer has only given his own personal point of views, his text is not a Historical and Literal Research.

[Me-Crazy]

Originally posted by knowledge
The land Afghanistan is as complex as are its people. About 200 years ago Afghanistan became an independent nation under Ahmad Shah Durani. We can not make thoughtless statements on the relationship of Iran and Afghanistan for arguments sake. The two nations have a analgous relationships to each other. It is amazing that we are in the 21st century and we still argue about Afghan identity and history.

Thanks.
I enjoyed reading this.
=)

[Mustafa]

Originally posted by Afghan-Knight
But his article is based on Wrong Iranian claims, as it is written by an Iranian writer. One of my first objectives for writing such a long text, was to show the false and incorrect points of Iranian's claims, who try to call Dari as a Sub-language or a Dialect of Farsi.

The above article has no reference to any Old-Trustable sources of Farsi-Dari Literature. The writer has only given his own personal point of views, his text is not a Historical and Literal Research.

see thats where u get it wrong . its writen by a Afghan doctor who says in the text that he's from kabul ... and wut i can assume from your tone is that u wanna, at any cost, prove any iranian wrong, regardless of the meaning of wut they say...
u kinda really really wanna differentiate origins of afghans n iranians like u really hated them ... wuts this then if its not giving his own personal point-of-views possibly based on personal emotions ... ????

[Algazel]

Well, I checked on the net, in some places he was called Iranian, But I am not sure, so I do not stand on my point.

I am not trying to prove anything wrong. But I want to show the wrong claims. Can you please show me any reference source from his text? Has he given any reference to great old books of Farsi-Dari literature? His article is not based on any trustable reference and source. Thus, such type of article can be considered as personal view points.

Please go check the text that I have posted. Ash-21 gave u the link. I haven't written anything from my mind. Whatever I have written, is based on trustable old sources. I have cited the texts of two major books: Al-Fehrest, written by Ibn-Muqaffa in 7th century and Sabk Shunasee of Taqi Bahar. Only these two books complete refuse the whole text of Dr.Ayan.

Such type of text must be written according to Scholar and Research basis, not by giving any Examples of other languages such as British English or American English.

Thnx

[afghani_fikr]

I am really not that well informed about the historical events which took place in Afghanistan and Iran, but we, the afghan, we have been a very unstable nation for the couple of paste century, Mongols, British, Russian, and now American, and many more i guess before them, so this made us weak, and as we know Iran was pretty stable, now if we think about this, only Iran could have influence over our people, and education, and even political life.

That's why, now, most of us, we are saying that we speak persian, farsi, rather than saying we speak Dari.

[Saeed]

Originally posted by Afghan-Knight
The reason of the similarities between Dari and Farsi

After presenting the above mentioned points, some may ask then, that if Dari and Farsi are two different languages, so how they can they have such deep similarities. I may present the answer under three points:

1. As we all agree that Dari developed in Bukhara and Balkh, and spread to Persia during Achaemenids and Sasanids, and moreover it contained a vast usage of Takhari, Soghdi and Partawi languages, so it naturally influenced the spoken language of Persians; Pahlawi. Pahlawi was obviously influenced by Dari, according to very old trustable sources that we presented them before in this text.
2. When Islam came to Persia (Iran) and Khorasan (Afghanistan), Arabic made a great influence and effect on both Farsi and Dari. Both languages have equal combination of Arabic words today. All the Islamic expressions and Quranic words, which didn’t exist in these languages, entered in these two languages. So Arabic created a big similarity between them.
3. After the Islamic invasions, great empires such as Tahirians, Ghaznavids, Samanids, Ghorids, Khwarazam-Shahyans, Temorids, etc. came into being whether in Persia or in Khorasan. But all of them conquered and invaded the territories of the other country. Obviously, each empire made an influence on the language of those people. It was like an action of Mixing the two languages during these long periods of history.

My appologies for the late response however thanks for the patience. On to the response.

The topic is titled "Dari and Farsi; two distinct languages", however the details with historical backings work to claim that the 2 labels point to two different matters. The historical aspect of it I shall not dispute as I operate on the basis of trusting and giving oponents in a discussion/debate the benefit of the doubt if they manage to present their points in what seems to be a well researched intelligent manner, unless I find something that I can really easily point out. In this case for the continuity and the cream of the discussion shall go with all of it, but as I mentioned, they prove language A is different from language B, and then they prove that the historical labels assigned to language A and language B are in actuality referring to 2 different languages that they are. That's great, however the flaw rises when we go back to the topic matter which is intended on proving that the languages in place in today's world as well as recent history are indeed 2 different languages. That means the presented matter make the claim for what is entirely irrelated to the claim they make, as over time the label "Farsi" has been used to refer to a subsect of Dari (the same can be claimed otherwise as is the case in today's world with Iranian writers claiming that Dari is a subsect of Farsi, while I do agree that Dari is indeed the older label referring to the languages spoken today).

The label Dari is not disputed by any Afghan nor Iranian writers as it is a historical label, and Farsi over a period of time has been infused into the labelling process. It is only used in different separated context to not point out differences in language, rather dialect. When you separate two languages, the source is entirely irrelated as well as most of the historical factors relating to political demographics. What is key is the literature developed by the efforts of the residents of a general area, and where possible gramatically related differences. When one tries to make a claim for separation and division between languages, it is fair to present linguistic related matters. In this case, yes there exist a few differences in today's Iranian brand of whatever label you wish to call the language (Farsi/Dari), and Afghanistan's version, and the main difference resides around the fact that Iranian Dari has incorporated the present continuous tense, a factor missing in Afghanistan's Dari.

The past continuous tense in English is presented in verbs through -ing postfix, and this is lacked in Afghanistan's Dari. In turn it is substituted with the incorporation of "to do" and other similar verbs. This in Iranian Dari is solved with incorporation of "to have" i.e. "dashtan" alongside verbs.
An example would be tanslation of "I am readING":
Afghan - "man khwanda merawam" ("man mekhwanam" is a simple present tense of 'I read')
Iran - "man daram mekhwanam"

This was the biggest gramatical difference last I checked, however that is a changing case thus could be wrong now. One can canclude that both languages of today's world are the same, and of the same origin. What differs is the agreement on the label. You and I might argue that the initial label would be Dari while others might make the case for Farsi. Either way, both labels point to the same thing today. However that being said, Iranians do despise belonging to others whom might share their similar interests and aspect of nationalism, and also despise the influence of the Arab cultures through the spread of Islam. It is for this reason that today's Iranian language majors work hard to separate obvious Arabic content from the language, which in turn leads them to recreate or substitute the missing parts. Due to this drive for separation, they also promote the label Farsi, and all stand united at it, although no intelligent individual in the area will dispute that Dari is another if not the historical term referring to the language.

All this was poorly written by me, but in short, it simply boils down to:

The borders of Afghanistan and Iran as well as the other surrounding states are meaningless and bound to shift. The people of the region on the other represent a civilisation in place in that region of the world with extremely rich history. The language spoken for a wide area, thanks in large part to unified kingdoms, is the same, and differ in dialect as is the case today. There may have been another language present in the areas of today's Iran many centuries ago, but that fact is meaningless when today's language in both nations is of the same family. They may have taken a label with absolute no historical literary relationship to describe their label, in their quest of achieving modern day nationalism, but that does not separate the language. Dari and Farsi in todays Iran and Afghanistan along with several other regions is the same, however the dialect has eveloved to differ in some ways and this will continue to be true for many generations to come as it's a natural evolution process. Claiming that the languages are different on the basis of some language scholars working to create separation to represent political border lines is completely absurd in my opinion. If Afghanistan had a proper government in place and was stable etc, I would have not been surprised if I were to see education ministers in Afghanistan doing the exact same thing Iran's education ministry tries to accomplish today.

As per the claim of Iranians claiming things, anyone on the face of this earth has the right to claim whatever they wish. It is the readers' responsibility to sift through and root out false claims. That may not be fair, however all the best to Iran's and Iranians' ability to strongly promote the language their way. They publish thousands of books on a weekly basis while Afghans voluntarily burn them. It would be unfair to history if we were to sit here and claim they are wrong while doing nothing on our own parts. If modern day Iranians claim historical figures like Hafiz, they are free to do so, just as much as any modern day Afghan is free to do likewise if equally able. Who believes such pointless claims on the other hand is an different tale - normally people with a sense of nationalism--a concept which I define as a disease really surfacing through the 20th century.

If ever in doubt of what the nationalism related comment means in the context of the study of languages and their "differences", a quick test which would help you in my opinion is: Take 2 writers - a columnist and a poet - from Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, and get him/her to write an essay on any matter as well as a poem respectively. Do the exact same for 2 writers from Tehran, Iran. Swap their writings and you will see if it is a matter of simply dialect differences or actual linguistic ones. I have so far found no Iranian writers' works which I have been unable to read and comprehend (on some instances with reference to a Farsi dictionary for synonyms of words). The lone differences I have personally noticed are the preservation of historical formats of the language (Afghanistan's current day Dari being older styled compared to the more evolved and changed Iran version) and this is due to the state of the education process. Iran has been more stable state throughout the last century and that has allowed them to bring changes not seen in Afghanistan; language is included in that package of changes.

My appologies for not proof reading the above, and if there are any areas not understandable (as i presume there to be many), feel free to ask for clarifications.

[Algazel]

First of all let me present my apologies for lots of Grammatical mistakes and some unfair use of language style in some parts of my article. I corrected those errors in the second version, but did not post it here.


1. Your first point was that you were emphasizing to differenciate two languages only from their Grammar and Structure parts, and not from their Historical roots and backgrounds.

I did not deny the deep similiarities between those two languages. If we go back on their basic and old version languages, Pahlawi (for Farsi) and Takhari, Partawi and Soghdi (for Dari), you will even find great similiarities among those languages. All those languages had very much familiarities, both from the point of vocabulary and style of expression, despite they were spoken in different regions and sometimes in different periods. But you cannot call those languages the same.

Both Dari and Farsi has the same root, for easiness of expression, writers of both countries have used the term Farsi-Dari or Parsi-Dari, but NOT Farsi-e Dari (which would mean Farsi of Dari, and would make Farsi a sublanguage of Dari). Both languages relate to Indo-eurpean family, have a large share of vocabularies, etc. But it does not make them being a Dialect of the other language.

Originally posted by AsH-21
The label Dari is not disputed by any Afghan nor Iranian writers as it is a historical label, and Farsi over a period of time has been infused into the labelling process.

I think you are slightly going far from the point. It seems that you haven't read the original old literature books in Farsi-Dari. Those writers who lived in the western parts have always used the word Parsi, while in other text books you will find the usage of the term Dari. I gave a reference from one of the old literature books of Farsi-Dari, Al-Fehrest, written by Abdullah ibn Muqaffa which clearly declares the use of the two terms. If you read other books like Tareekh-e Baihaqee, Tareekh-e Tebari, Tareekhul Muluk-e wa Rusul, etc. you will find out my point. An Afghan can easily understand those old literature books, while an Iranian will have lots of difficulties in understanding the meaning of some expressions, terms, words, etc. But it does not go to Dialect.

Originally posted by AsH-21
the main difference resides around the fact that Iranian Dari has incorporated the present continuous tense, a factor missing in Afghanistan's Dari.

The past continuous tense in English is presented in verbs through -ing postfix, and this is lacked in Afghanistan's Dari. In turn it is substituted with the incorporation of "to do" and other similar verbs. This in Iranian Dari is solved with incorporation of "to have" i.e. "dashtan" alongside verbs.
An example would be tanslation of "I am readING":
Afghan - "man khwanda merawam" ("man mekhwanam" is a simple present tense of 'I read')
Iran - "man daram mekhwanam"

Have you ever noticed this point in books written before the 18th century? I am sure you haven't. Because it is one of the recent changes that Iranians have brought up in their language. You will never find such use of Present Continuous Tense in old books. Again, we conclude two different points:
- Dari was used as the formal language at those times that had affected Farsi
- Farsi and Dari were two distinct languages and have recieved many changes and evolutions during these years

In Dari, in Afghanistan, we haven't made this change in our language as Iranians have done. We do not use the verb "daashtan" before another verb to indicate the Continuous form, instead we use the expression "Dar haal-e", AND NOT THE VERB "RAFTAN" (as you used it). It does not mean that we cannot express the Present Continuous Tense, but we don't have any different Grammatical form for such a tense. As we say: man dar haale naweshtan hastam. Although, some Afghans have recently started to use the same rule of Iranian language (Farsi) and they use the same term "daaram meneweesam".

So in this case, if you are asking me to present linguistic difference in order to justify my claim, I think you already got the result. The linguistic/ grammatical differences can be created in a period of time, which cannot be INDIVIDUALLY a trustable reason to differ two languages that have similar roots. You have to go back to their historical backgrounds and examine their dependance or independance, whether they developed as two distinct languages or as two different Dialects

Originally posted by AsH-21
Claiming that the languages are different on the basis of some language scholars working to create separation to represent political border lines is completely absurd in my opinion.

Who believes such pointless claims on the other hand is an different tale - normally people with a sense of nationalism--a concept which I define as a disease really surfacing through the 20th century.
[/B]

It might be my personal Nationalist feelings that encouraged me to search about the fact of differences between the two languages, but I am not giving a wrong claim.

I refuse your point for Political reasons. This point (differences between Dari and Farsi languages) has been a hot dispute between the scholars and writers of the two countries. If you go back and study the life and biographies of our great Scholars, Writers and Historians, you will find them completely individual and independant from the Government's influence. They all have done their reseachs in a liberal way, without any political pressure imposed by the Government on them. Most of them even were exiled and imprisonned during their life, as they were accused by the Government of Afghanistan. I can give you the name of the following personalities:
- Mir Ghulam Mohammad Ghubar
- Mohammad Anis
- Moh. Haidar Zhoble/ Jhoble
- Ustad Khalilullah Khalili
- Ahmad Ali Kohzad

So the Government of Afghanistan had never forced them to do their researches for any Political points.

While in inverse, the Iran Government has tried to introduce Dari as a sub-language of Farsi to have it's influence in the Central Asia. Seperating Pahlawi into three forms: Old, Middle and New Pahlawi (Farsi), try to change the whole facts of Farsi-Dari literuate's history.


For the rest, I am agree with you. Moreover, accross from the scholaric studies, everyone has its own way of thinking and personal believes.

[روحینا]

great job afg knight jan, by ur permission i would like to add a few poems regarding this valuble topic :

befarmood taa farsi dari
naveshtand o khotah shod dawari

(ferdawsi)

kherad nama ha ra ze lafz dari
ba yonani zaban kard kotagari

(nezami)

cho andalib fasahat froshad ay hafiz
tu qadr o ba sokhan goftan dari beshkan

(hafiz)

[Unregistered]

dari and farsi are both Iranic languages based off of the Indo-Iranian sub-group of the Indo-European language family.

Both are spoken in the same area of the world and have much more in common than they do not.

so who cares?

[Zezima]

dari and farsi are both Iranic languages based off of the Indo-Iranian sub-group of the Indo-European language family.

Both are spoken in the same area of the world and have much more in common than they do not.

so who cares?

Admins please listen to a fellow countryman and ban this clown who is trying to divide us Afghans.

[Unregistered]

actually I am not.

I am stating that you shouldnt be concerned with the differences between Dari and Farsi, as such things are trivial. Concentrating on the minute differences between two Iranic languages is what divides Afghans, not some random dude on the internet such as myself.

[payam]

U people are so un educated....go and a little learn more
dari is one of the accent and kind of farsi.....like isfahani//tehrani./ects
dari is an old kind of it that all iranian spoke with that in 700 yeas ago.......but mainly its the tajik kind of speaking not afghan!!!!!(pashtoons)-tajiks are 1 persian trieb....like mashhadi/isfahani/shirazi/ /ects
ofcource im tlaking about tajiks in afghanistan...cuase the base of dari is a zoroasterian kind and its spoken in yazd and kerman
all educated people know that.....also all educated tajik know that they are persian not afghan!!!!!afghan is just the name of 42% of afghanistan(pshtoons)... 30% are tajik(persian) and others are turk
u pashttons have ur own language....so its best to claim in that....not in our culture and history
from the time u separait iran zameen with the help of britishs its time to think about ur own culture....cuase narly hunderds years ago u separait urself of iranian and Pars and Arian culture
this phrase is good for u:
KHODA VA KHORMA RA BA HAM NEMITAVAN DASHT

so stop ur propagandas.....2 diffrent language!!!!!!!!!all afghan people in iran's uni accepted that its just an afghan-british propaganda

[payam]

loo at some propagandas:

1. Safavids (1501-1736), a Persian Empire, made a great impression on the people of Afghanistan. It invaded most of the parts of Afghanistan, and tried to spread the Persian culture in these regions. They strictly influenced the people of Afghanistan by various means, e.g. using the word Farsi for their native language, etc.
2. Afghanistan having more Pashtoon population couldn’t work on Dari literature, while Iran, despite having the majority of Kurds, made lots of researches on Farsi. They published a wide series of books in Farsi, distributing them in Afghan regions, which of course influenced people’s minds.
3. Iranians translated most of their books in to foreign languages such as English, French and German, and introduced their own language as the principle language of Central Asia.
4. Afghanistan suffered 30 years of crisis, it didn’t let them to develop their own language, to do more researches on its literature and to publish the old valuable books.
5. Almost 42% of Afghanistan’s population is Pashtoons, and the great Khorasan region was renamed to Afghanistan in 17th century. Although the word “Afghan” was the surname of the second Ruler of Sasanid Dynasty, it is referred mostly to the Pashtoons. In consequence, Pashtoons tried to exclude Tajiks from the name of Afghanistan and referred them to Persians, as by calling their native language as Farsi. This wrong intention was however welcomed by Tajiks themselves.

1-safavids was a iranian turkish dynasties...so its so clear they didnt have ny intrest about persian language
2-no pashtoons are working in people brains for hundrerds(cuase british said them)to clean farsi ffrom afghanistan...like what britishs did for farsi in india
3-4-5 are not related to topic

see even ur national song is in pashtoon.....so dont claim to our farsi....go all around the wrold nd see what the educated people think of ur calims!!!!!!!!!!
go and pay attention to ur own pashtoon....and dont tell me stupid things about our persian language

[payam]

my tajik brothers....u must not let these afghans make ur culture themself
persian speakers:

[payam]

@Wikimedia
Dari (دری) is the official name for the Persian language in Afghanistan, popularly and locally known as Farsi. "Dari" is an abbreviation of Darbārī, meaning "royal court", a reference to the court language of Sassanids.
Origin of the word "Dari"

There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari.

Some scholars say that it is derived from dara, meaning "valley", as it developed in the valleys of Hindu Kush mountains (located in northern Afghanistan)[1].

However, the majority of scholars believe that Dari refers to the Persian word darbār, meaning "Court", as it was the formal language of the Sassanids[2][1]. This opinion is supported by medieval sources and early Islamic historians[3].

Another similar opinion is referring Dari to the Achaemenid coins in Bactria, called Daric, which were disbributed by court. Here 'daric' means "golden" (Persian: دریک or زریک from 'زر' gold). This point is mentioned in the Persian book Yādgār-e Zarīrān.

[edit] Geographical distribution

Dari is the major language of Afghanistan, and is spoken in the northern and western parts, and the capital, Kabul, in the east. Approximately 60% of the population of Afghanistan are native speakers, though many are bilingual. The language serves as the means of communication between speakers of different languages in Afghanistan. Also, due to heavy Afghan immigration, there are thousands of Dari speakers around the world notably in North America, Australia and many European countries.

[edit] Grammar

The syntax of Dari does not differ greatly from Iran's Persian, but the stress accent is less prominent in Dari than in Iran's Persian. To mark attribution, spoken Dari uses the suffix -ra. The vowel system also differs from that of Iranian Persian, to some degree.

In addition, the major grammatical difference is the usage of continuous tense. In Iran's Persian, they use the verb “to have” (Persian: dāshtan) before any other verb to indicate a continuous action. While in Dari, they use the expression "dar hālé" (at the moment of), with the simple present or past tense to express a continuous state. Nevertheless, some Dari-speaking Afghans have recently adopted the structure used by Iranians.
Dari was the official language of the Sassanids' court. It emerged as the language of the Persians after the defeat of the Parthians by Ardeshir I in 226 CE. Dari is also referred to as Middle Persian. The term "middle" Persian suggests the existence of an Old Persian and a New Persian. Old Persian was the language of the Achaemenids, which was overshadowed by Greek after the conquests of Alexander the Great.

Dari came into existence in Khorasan (mostly in Northern regions i.e. Balkh) and in Transoxiana (North of Amu Darya and Bactrian regions) approximately 2000 years ago[citation needed]. It then emerged as the spoken language of Persian courts of Sassanids. The Muslim conquests again broke the continued chain of the Persian language and Arabic (for two hundred years, i.e. 7–8 century CE) became the official language. The Persians, however, did not forget their own language and little by little, Middle Persian was being shaped into New Persian but with the addition of a considerable amount of Arabic and Parthian words and was written in the Arabic script. This new style was the mother of both Farsi and Dari. "Farsi" is the local name of the Persian of Iran and "Dari" is the local name of the Persian spoken in Afghanistan.

The term Iran is derived from Aryānām Xšaθra. In the Avestan language (and Sanskrit), this is "the land of the Aryans", a people of the Central Asian Steppes who came down from beyond the Oxus river in about 2000 B.C. Pashtuns, Persians, and Kurds are among the descendants of these tribes. Most authors do not really distinguish between Iranian, Aryan, and Persian. They use these terms to mean either race, language, culture, or nationality. The modern term Iran is taken from the Middle Persian expression Erān Šahr (itself being a variation of the Old Persian and Avestan name Aryānām Xšaθra) which means the "land of the Aryans", and is actually the name given to the vast land between the Hindu Kush mountains and Mesopotamia (see also: Continental Iran). Persian is another confusing term, which not only applies to the modern citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but also to those who speak Persian (New Persian i.e. Farsi, Dari, and so on).

The Old, Middle, and New Persian are and represent the same language at three stages of its history. Persian originated in Persia (Persis of Greeks and Fars of Arabs) mostly in northeastern regions (i.e. Bactria), and is differentiated by dialectical features, still easily recognizable from the dialects prevailing in South, Central, and South Western Asia. The New Persian remains close to the Middle Persian in many respects. However, New Persian has taken many words from Arabic and Parthian, as opposed to Middle Persian which was influenced, to a lesser degree, by Aramaic. The grammatical structure has also undergone minor changes, mainly in relations to verbal morphology and syntax. For example, in New Persian as in German, verbs usually end a sentence.

Ibn al-Muqaffa, in his book Al-fihrist, lists the five languages of Persia at the end of the Sassanid rule:

* Pahlavi (Old Persian) – the language of Pahla country (ancient Media);
* Dari – the language of the Court and the capital (Ctesiphon) and the language of the eastern parts of Persia (Khorasan)[2]
* Parsi – language of the Zoroastrian religious leaders and scholars
* Khuzi of Khuzistan
* Suryani – spoken in Sawan

The last one was not Iranian but Semitic. Parsi was the official language of the Zoroastrian religion, which is said to be the vehicle of literature later known as Dari. As for Dari, it was the usual spoken language in the capital and in the court, and probably in a large part of the eastern regions of the empire. The differences between Parsi (Farsi) and Dari in accent, vocabulary, and expressions have evolved over time and is mostly like American English and British English. Today, Dari and Farsi are considered as two different dialects. By the 9th century, the Dari of Khorasan was the dominant speaking language of the Sassanian empire. In the Middle of the 8th century, Abu Muslim's Arab armies spoke Dari. And it is this language which kept a sense of unity among the Arabized Persians and thus emerged as a national identity through literature.

Dari was influenced by the Parthian, Sogdian and Takhari languages[citation needed]. Inscriptions that demonstrate this were found in Surkh Kotal of Baghlan (200km north of Kabul) in 1951. These inscriptions, written on a stone, were found in one of the Kushanian Temples, which date back 1,800 years 4. The inscriptions contain 160 words in 25 lines, and are in Takhari (Modern classification: Tokharian B: Western Tocharian: Kushan Tocharian), written in Greek script. In these inscriptions, the similarity between Tocharian and Dari can be noticed[citation needed]. Mohammad Taqi Bahar, a famous Iranian poet and scholar, wrote in Sabk-Shunasi (Volume 1):

Some people say that Dari is the same old Persian, others say that Dari is a dialect of the Soghdi language common in the north of Amu Darya and Samarkand. While others, relying on the statements of Abdullah ibn-e Muqaffa, believe that Dari was the language of the Capital [city]. It was the most fluent language of the Sassanid period and contained a large number of Eastern words, especially those of Balkh.[citation needed]

He continues:

As the people of Samarkand and Bukhara (regions in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) wrote text and poetry books in Dari after Islam and the poets of Khorasan also narrated their poems in this language, Dari came step by step from Khorasan to Persia (modern day Iran). I can say as a conclusion that Dari is the language of the people of Bukhara and Balkh.[citation needed]

With the advent of Islam, Arabic slowly replaced the Persian language. Pre-Islamic Persia is said to have had a strong poetic tradition, but little of it has survived, according to M. Boyce, because most of it was not written down. When Arabic became the scholarly language, Persian fell into disuse. Today, both Farsi and Dari contain equal combination of Arabic and Turkish vocabulary. The reason that Dari reserved its pure and original language style and expressions, while Farsi could not, is that the people of the eastern regions of Persia, Khorasan, had less contact and interaction with other foreign languages, although the language of the people of Transoxiana was affected by Russian. Farsi was influenced by some European languages — particularly by French — in the late years of the Qajar Dynasty and during the Pahlavi dynasty. An important difference between Dari and Farsi can be noticed after the 18th century. Before the 16th century, we do not observe any remarkable difference between the works written in different regions of Persia. Works written in Dari in India during the Moghul Empire had a different language style and usage of expressions than the works written in Farsi in Iran, whereas the language of the people of Khorasan reserved its old Khorasani style. Three distinct schools were created in Persian poetry and literature: Khorasani, Iraqi and Hindi.

From a historical viewpoint, Dari was a developed form of Parti or Parsawi or Parthian language (Ashkanian Pahlavi) having been influenced by Sogdian and Takhari languages. In comparison, Farsi was a developed form of Sassanid Pahlavi. In all, over Greater Iran (Persia) people called their spoken language Farsi, whereas they attributed the word "Dari" for a pure, original language with a correct structure. Zabihullah Safa, an Iranian scholar, reporting from the book "Burhān-é Qāté'" says: "Any word which does not have any error/mistake is called Dari e.g. اشکم و شکم، بگوی و گوی، اشتر و شتر, etc. So اشکم، بگوی and اشتر are Dari words. And some people believe that it was the language of some cities like Balkh, Bukhara, Badakhshan, and Merv". Another example can be Hafez Shirazi, a famous Persian poet who lived in Shiraz, one of the cities of contemporary Iran; he has called his language Parsi but has also called it Dari when trying to attribute his poems to a rich language.

The earliest Dari writing goes back to 752 in letter form. However, by the 10th century, a tremendous amount of literature was written and translated into Dari. The first attempts to revive Persian were in poetic form. Among the first poets according to Tarikh-i Sistan, were Abu Hafas Soghdi, Mohammad b. Wasif, and Hanzala of Badghis. The lubabu's-albab of Mohammad Awfi claims one Abbas of Merw as the first poet, who composed a poem in honor of Khalifa al-Ma'mun on the occasion of his entry into that city Merv in 809 A.D. Ibn Wasif, a secretary of Ya'qub al-Laith of the Saffarid dynasty, praised the sultan on his recent victory in Herat and Phoshanj in Arabic verses. Not understanding his secretary of chancery, Yaqub asked: "Why must something be recited that I can't understand?" Thus, Ibn Wasif, to please the sultan, began writing in Dari. Hanzala and Ibn Wasif were the leading men, in local Persian courts, who led the way for a patriotic literary revival. Much credit also goes to dynasties of Tahirids, Saffarids, Samanids, and Ghaznavids and patrons such as bin lays of Saffar, Nasr II of Saman and Sultan Mahmud and Mas'ud of Ghazna who had many poets at their courts.

[payam]

Political views on the language

Some people do not consider Afghan Persian itself to be a dialect or a language. They consider it to be the written language (written Persian, with no dialects), and Persian (locally: Fârsi) the spoken language (spoken Persian, which has many different dialects). It is also believed by some that Dari should not be called Afghan Persian, because:

* It already existed centuries before the creation of Afghanistan
* The term is also used by certain Tajikistani and Iranian scholars to refer to the Persian language, including Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
* Afghan (in its original meaning) refers to Pashtuns only, who do not speak Persian but Pashto

This variety of Persian spoken in Afghanistan is distinct from the language of the Zoroastrians who live in Yazd and Kerman, Iran, which is also called Dari (or Gabri).