Ajam

During the Umayyad period, the term developed a derogatory meaning as the word was used to refer to non-Arab speakers (primarily Persians) as illiterate and uneducated. Arab conquerors in that period tried to impose Arabic as the primary language of the subject peoples throughout their empire. Angry with the prevalence of the Persian language in the Divan and Persian society, Persian resistance to this mentality was popularised in the final verse of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh; this verse is widely regarded by Iranians as the primary reason that they speak Persian and not Arabic to this day.^[8] Under the Umayyad dynasty, official association with the Arab dominion was only given to those with the ethnic identity of the Arab and required formal association with an Arab tribe and the adoption of the client status (mawālī, another derogatory term translated to mean "slave" or "lesser" in this context).^[9] The pejorative use to denote Persians as "Ajam" is so ingrained in the Arab world that it is colloquially used to refer to Persians as "Ajam" neglecting the original definition and etymology of the word.

Colloquial use

According to Clifford Edmund Bosworth, "by the 3rd/9th century, the non-Arabs, and above all the Persians, were asserting their social and cultural equality (taswīa) with the Arabs, if not their superiority (tafżīl) over them (a process seen in the literary movement of the Šoʿūbīya). In any case, there was always in some minds a current of admiration for the ʿAǰam as heirs of an ancient, cultured tradition of life. After these controversies had died down, and the Persians had achieved a position of power in the Islamic world comparable to their numbers and capabilities, "ʿAjam" became a simple ethnic and geographical designation."^[10] Thus by the ninth century, the term was being used by Persians themselves as an ethnic term, and examples can be given by Asadi Tusi in his poem comparing the superiority of Persians and Arabs.^[11] Accordingly: "territorial notions of 'Iran' are reflected in such terms as irānšahr, irānzamin, or Faris, the Arabicized form of Pārs/Fārs (Persia). The ethnic notion of 'Iranian' is denoted by the Persian words Pārsi or Irāni, and the Arabic term Ahl Faris (inhabitants of Persia) or ʿAjam, referring to non-Arabs, but primarily to Persians as in molk-e ʿAjam (Persian kingdom) or moluk-e ʿAjam (Persian kings)."^[12]

According to The Political Language of Islam, during the

]

In the Persian Gulf region today, people still refer to Persians as Ajami, referring to Persian carpets as sajjad al Ajami (Ajami carpet), Persian cat as Ajami cats, and Persian kings as Ajami kings.^[7]

Notable examples

• The ethnic Persian community in Kuwait and Bahrain are called Ajami.
• 'Ajam was used by the Ottomans to refer to the Safavid dynasty.^[13]
• The Abbasid
  Arax and Shirvan
  ).
• The Kurdish historian,
  Sharaf Khan Bidlisi, uses the term Ajam in his book Sharafnama (1597 CE) to refer to the Shia Persians.^[14]
• In the Eastern Anatolia Region, Azerbaijanis are sometimes referred to as acem (which is the Turkish translation of Ajam).^[15]
• Mahmood Reza Ghods claimed modern Sunni Kurds of Iran use this term to denote Persians, Azeris and Southern Kurds.^[16] According to Sharhzad Mojab, Ecem (derived from the Arabic ‘ajam) is used by Kurds to refer to Persians and, sometimes, Turks.^[17]
• Adjam, Hajjam, Ajaim, Ajami, Akham (as Axam in Spain for ajam), Ayam in Europe.
• In Turkish, the word acem refers to Iran and Iranian people.^[18]
• It is also used as a surname.^[19]

See also

• Ajami (disambiguation)
• Barbarian – which came to refer to people who spoke neither Greek nor other "civilized" languages (such as Latin), and derived from a root meaning "speaking incomprehensibly" or "babbling"
• Nemets – the name given to Germany or the German people in many Slavic languages, with a similar derivation to Ajam
• 'Ajam of Kuwait
• Ajam of Bahrain
• Ajam of Iraq

References

1. ^ "Sakhr: Multilingual Dictionary". Retrieved 6 February 2017.
2. ^
   ISBN 0226476936
   .
3. ^ Frye, Richard Nelson; Zarrinkoub, Abdolhosein (1975). "Section on The Arab Conquest of Iran". Cambridge History of Iran. 4. London: 46.
4. ^ "Sakhr: Lisan al-Arab". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
5. ^ "Sakhr: Multilingual Dictionary". Retrieved 6 February 2017.
6. ^ ^{a b} "Ajam", Encyclopædia Iranica, p.700. Archived 2007-12-15 at the Wayback Machine
7. ^
   ISBN 978-600-90231-4-1
8. ^ Firdawsī; Davis, Dick (2006). Shahnameh: the Persian Book of Kings. New York: Viking.
9. ISBN 1-57003-518-0
   .
10. ^ "Ajam", Encyclopædia Iranica, Bosworth
11. ^

    گفتمش چو دیوانه بسی گفتی و اکنون
    پاسخ شنو ای بوده چون دیوان بیابان
    عیب ار چه کنی اهل گرانمایه عجم را
    چه بوید شما خود گلهء غر شتربان

    Jalal Khaleqi Motlaq, "Asadi Tusi", Majaleyeh Daneshkadeyeh Adabiyaat o Olum-e Insani [Literature and Humanities Magazine], Ferdowsi University, 1357 (1978). page 71.

12. ^ Ashraf, Ahmad, "Iranian Identity iii. Medieval Islamic Period", Encyclopedia Iranica
13. ^ Martin van Bruinessen. "Nationalisme kurde et ethnicités intra-kurdes", Peuples Méditerranéens no. 68-69 (1994), 11–37.
14. ISBN 978-0-415-07265-6
    (see p.38)
15. ^ (in Turkish) Qarslı bir azərbaycanlının ürək sözləri. Erol Özaydın
16. ^ Mahmood Reza Ghods, A comparative historical study of the causes, development and effects of the revolutionary movements in northern Iran in 1920–21 and 1945–46. University of Denver, 1988. v.1, p.75.
17. ^ Mojab, Shahrzad (Summer 2015). "Deçmewe Sablax [Going Back to Sablagh] by Shilan Hasanpour (review)". The Middle East Journal. 69: 488–489.
18. ^ "Turkish Language Association: Acem".
19. ^ "Names Database: Ajam Surname". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2017.

External links

• Unearthing a Long Ignored African Writing System, One Researcher Finds African History, by Africans