Persianization

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Persianization (/ˌpɜːrʒəˌnaɪˈzeɪʃən/) or Persification (/ˌpɜːrsɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/; Persian: پارسی‌سازی), is a sociological process of cultural change in which a non-Persian society becomes "Persianate", meaning it either directly adopts or becomes strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art, music, and identity as well as other socio-cultural factors. It is a specific form of cultural assimilation that often includes a language shift. The term applies not only to cultures, but also to individuals, as they acclimate to Persian culture and become "Persianized" or "Persified".

Historically, the term was commonly applied to refer to changes in the cultures of non-

Iranian plateau (also known as Persia), such as Anatolia and the Indian subcontinent
.

History

Pre-Islamic period

Unlike the

Stateira II and made subjects cast themselves on their faces when approaching him, in Persian-style, known to Greeks as the custom of proskynesis, a symbolic kissing of the hand that Persians paid to their social superiors. Persian dress and practices were also observed by Peucestas, who was later made satrap of Persis, where he conciliated the favour of the Persians to his rule in exchange for those of the Macedonians.[3]

Early Islamic period to 15th century

After the fall of the

Byzantine coins, and the Pahlavi script
on the coinage was replaced with Arabic.

The

Abbasids, after 750, established their capital in what is now Iraq, eventually at Baghdad. A shift in orientation toward the east is discernible, which was encouraged by increased receptiveness to Persian cultural influence and the roots of the Abbasid revolution in Khorasan, now in Afghanistan[5] A proverb complained about the Persianization of morals by Turks.[6]

16th to 18th centuries

Two major powers in

Eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia and other regions. Many khans, begs and other rulers adopted Persian customs and clothing and patronized Persian culture. They founded the city of Derbent in the North Caucasus (now in Dagestan, Russia
). Many ethnic peoples adopted many aspects of Persian culture and contributed to their persianization.

Modern era

In modern times, the term is often used in connection with non-Persian speakers like the

Azeris[7] and the Kurds.[8]

It has been argued that modern

Pan-Turkist intentions, caused a small group of Azerbaijani intellectuals to become the strongest advocates of the territorial integrity of Iran.[9] After the constitutional revolution in Iran, a romantic nationalism was adopted by Azerbaijani Democrats as a reaction to the pan-Turkist irredentist policies emanating from modern Turkey and threatening Iran's territorial integrity.[9] It was during this period that Iranism and linguistic homogenization policies were proposed as a defensive nature against all others.[9] Contrary to what one might expect, foremost among innovating this defensive nationalism were Iranian Azerbaijanis.[9] They viewed that assuring the territorial integrity of the country was the first step in building a society based on law and modern state.[9] Through this framework, their political loyalty outweighed their ethnic and regional affiliations.[9] The adoptions of this integrationist policies paved the way for the emergence of the titular ethnic group's cultural nationalism.[9]

According to Tadeusz Świętochowski, in 1930s, the term was used to describe the official policy pursued by Reza Shah Pahlavi to assimilate the ethnic minorities in Iran (Iranians as well as Non-Iranians). In particular, within this policy the Azerbaijani language was banned for use on the premises of schools, in theatrical performances, religious ceremonies and in the publication of books.[10] Swietochowski writes:

The steps that the Teheran regime took in the 1930s with the aim of Persianization of the Azeris and other minorities appeared to take a leaf from the writings of the reformist-minded intellectuals in the previous decade. In the quest of imposing national homogeneity on the country where half of the population consisted of ethnic minorities, the Pahlavi regime issued in quick succession bans on the use of Azeri on the premises of schools, in theatrical performances, religious ceremonies, and, finally, in the publication of books. Azeri was reduced to the status of a language that only could be spoken and hardly ever written. As the Persianization campaign gained momentum, it drew inspiration from the revivalist spirit of Zoroastrian national glories. There followed even more invasive official practices, such as changing Turkic-sounding geographic names and interference with giving children names other than Persian ones. While cultivating cordial relations with Kemalist Turkey, Reza Shah carried on a forceful de-Turkification campaign in Iran.[10]

Mughal Empire

The

Persian culture, converted to Islam and resided in Turkestan, and they were the ones responsible for the spread of Persian and Islamic culture to Central Asia. At the height of their power around 1700, they controlled most of the Indian Subcontinent and Afghanistan and spread Persian culture throughout, just as their predecessors the Turkic Ghaznavids and the Turko-Afghan Delhi Sultanate had done. In general, from its earliest days, Persian culture and language was spread in South Asia by various Persianised Central Asian Turkic and [[]] dynasties.[11]

Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, identified his lineage as Timurid and Chagatai Turkic, and his origin, milieu, training and culture were Persian culture. He was largely responsible for the fostering of the culture by his descendants and for the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian Subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic and historiographical results. Many works of art such as the Taj Mahal, Humayun's Tomb and the Badshahi Mosque are of Persian Islamic architecture, with Persian names. Persian was the official language of the Mughal courts.

By country

Afghanistan

By 1964, the Afghanistan Constitution cited Dari as one of its two official languages alongside Pashto.[12] Although the latter is the designated national language, Dari remains the lingua franca.[12] There are modern initiatives that attempt to "Pashto-ize" all governmental communication.

Kabulis", the long-established families from Kabul (usually Pashtuns
completely immersed in Persian culture). Persianization is also reinforced by the incidence of urbanization in the country, which influenced the characteristics of the
de-tribalization". [citation needed
] The Hazara ethnic group speak a dialect of Farsi called Hazaragi. Possibly Hazaras used to speak their previous native language that contained more of their native Turkic and Mongolic words within the vocabulary (before Hazaragi). However over the course of centuries, as the native language got extinct (just like some of the other Turkic and Mongolic languages that got extinct), the Hazaras adopted Hazaragi, a dialect of the Farsi language, hence the result of Persianization. There are many Turkic and Mongolic words still preserved and used in the Hazaragi vocabulary.[14]

India

Indian culture
as a whole.
Main articles: Indo-Persian culture and Persian language in the Indian subcontinent

Medieval India during the Mughal Empire was heavily influenced by the Persian language and culture.[15] The resulting Indo-Persian culture produced poets, such as Amir Khusrau.[16] The influence of Persian on Old Hindi led to the development of the Urdu language, which in the present-day is an official language of India, also having official status in certain Indian states and territories, such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Telangana and West Bengal.[16][17]

Pakistan

See also: Persian and Urdu

Geographically,

British India era as well as after the partition of India
.

The presence of

Afghanistan conflict
.

Tajikistan

In March 2007, the

Tajik President, Emomali Rahmon changed his surname to from Rakhmonov to Rahmon, getting rid of the Russian "-ov" ending.[18] and removed his patronymic of Sharipovich out of respect for Tajik culture.[19][20] Following the move, a large number governments officials and civil servants Tajikified their own names. In April 2016, this practice became officially mandated by law.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ Bhatia, Tej K., The handbook of bilingualism, (2004), p.788-9
  2. ^ Ravandi, M., The Seljuq court at Konya and the Persianisation of Anatolian Cities, in Mesogeios (Mediterranean Studies), vol. 25-6 (2005), pp157-69
  3. Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, xiii. 4
  4. ^ Hawting G., The First Dynasty of Islam. The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661-750, (London) 1986, pp. 63-64
  5. ^ Kennedy H., The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, London, 1986, pp. 134-37
  6. ISBN 978-0-7352-2115-4
    .
  7. ISBN 0-312-15971-4
    .
  8. ^ Margaret K., The official Persianization of Kurdish, Paper presented at the Eighth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Leeds, England, (August 1975).
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Touraj Atabaki, "Recasting Oneself, Rejecting the Other: Pan-Turkism and Iranian Nationalism" in Van Schendel, Willem (Editor). Identity Politics in Central Asia and the Muslim World: Nationalism, Ethnicity and Labour in the Twentieth Century. London, GBR: I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited, 2001:

    As far as Iran is concerned, it is widely argued that Iranian nationalism was born as a state ideology in the Reza Shah era, based on philological nationalism and as a result of his innovative success in creating a modern nation-state in Iran. However, what is often neglected is that Iranian nationalism has its roots in the political upheavals of the nineteenth century and the disintegration immediately following the Constitutional revolution of 1905–9. It was during this period that Iranism gradually took shape as a defensive discourse for constructing a bounded territorial entity – the "pure Iran" standing against all others. Consequently, over time there emerged among the country's intelligentsia a political xenophobia which contributed to the formation of Iranian defensive nationalism. It is noteworthy that, contrary to what one might expect, many of the leading agents of the construction of an Iranian bounded territorial entity came from non Persian-speaking ethnic minorities, and the foremost were the Azerbaijanis, rather than the nation's titular ethnic group, the Persians.

    ....

    In the middle of April 1918, the Ottoman army invaded Azerbaijan for the second time.

    ...

    Contrary to their expectations, however, the Ottomans did not achieve impressive success in Azerbaijan. Although the province remained under quasi-occupation by Ottoman troops for months, attempting to win endorsement for pan-Turkism ended in failure.

    ...

    The most important political development affecting the Middle East at the beginning of the twentieth century was the collapse of the Ottoman and the Russian empires. The idea of a greater homeland for all Turks was propagated by pan-Turkism, which was adopted almost at once as a main ideological pillar by the Committee of Union and Progress and somewhat later by other political caucuses in what remained of the Ottoman Empire. On the eve of World War I, pan-Turkist propaganda focused chiefly on the Turkic-speaking peoples of the southern Caucasus, in Iranian Azerbaijan and Turkistan in Central Asia, with the ultimate purpose of persuading them all to secede from the larger political entities to which they belonged and to join the new pan-Turkic homeland. It was this latter appeal to Iranian Azerbaijanis which, contrary to pan-Turkist intentions, caused a small group of Azerbaijani intellectuals to become the most vociferous advocates of Iran's territorial integrity and sovereignty. If in Europe 'romantic nationalism responded to the damage likely to be caused by modernism by providing a new and larger sense of belonging, an all-encompassing totality, which brought about new social ties, identity and meaning, and a new sense of history from one's origin on to an illustrious future',(42) in Iran after the Constitutional movement romantic nationalism was adopted by the Azerbaijani Democrats as a reaction to the irredentist policies threatening the country's territorial integrity. In their view, assuring territorial integrity was a necessary first step on the road to establishing the rule of law in society and a competent modern state which would safeguard collective as well as individual rights. It was within this context that their political loyalty outweighed their other ethnic or regional affinities. The failure of the Democrats in the arena of Iranian politics after the Constitutional movement and the start of modern state-building paved the way for the emergence of the titular ethnic group's cultural nationalism. Whereas the adoption of integrationist policies preserved Iran's geographic integrity and provided the majority of Iranians with a secure and firm national identity, the blatant ignoring of other demands of the Constitutional movement, such as the call for formation of society based on law and order, left the country still searching for a political identity.
  10. ^
    ISBN 0-231-07068-3
  11. ISBN 978-9231028137
    p 734
  12. ^
    ISBN 0691030065
    .
  13. ISBN 0520208935
    .
  14. ^ Monsutti, Alessandro (1 July 2017), "Hazāras", Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Brill, retrieved 29 April 2023
  15. ISBN 978-0-19-569880-0
    . Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  16. ^ a b Syed, Shahinda (30 May 2022). "From the Achaemenids to the Mughals: A look at India's lost Persian history". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  17. ^ "Urdu is the additional official language of which among the following states of India?1. Telangana2. Uttar Pradesh3. Bihar4. West BengalChoose the correct optio - GKToday". GK Today. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  18. ^ "Рахмонов стал Рахмон, Каримов остался Каримовым [Rahmonov Became Rahmon, Karimov Remained Karimoiv]". Avesta.Tj. Avesta News Agency. 13 April 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2016.[dead link]
  19. ^ "Президент Таджикистана сменил фамилию и подкорректировал имя". Сегодня. 22 March 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  20. ^ "Президент Таджикистана отрезал от своей фамилий Русское окончание (in Russian)". Lenta.ru. 21 March 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  21. ^ "Tajikistan Bans Giving Babies Russian-Style Last Names". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. RFE/RL. 30 April 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
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