Persian poetry in the 13th and 14th centuries is like a fountain that rises high in the sky with remarkable exuberance, but it is bound to fall when it reaches its final height.

A language is primarily a means of communication between its speakers, but language has other functions and serves other purposes as well. It is the receptacle of the ideas and sentiments of its speakers and serves to record these in inscriptions, manuscripts, books, and so on. Language is also the medium of an art, in fact the greatest and the most expressive art of mankind, that is, the literary art.

Rugs and carpets are a language; they speak to us through their many warps and wefts, and for those who know how to listen, this is a magnificent story of love and endurance.

When considering the interaction between written sources and oral literature, one has to keep in mind the specific situation of Persian literature in the course of history.

A glance at how the Persian language emerged shows that Old Persian gradually evolved into Middle Persian by shedding its nominal inflection and simplifying its verbal system as well as discarding grammatical gender distinction and the dual. More than four hundred years of Sassanid rule with its centralizing tendency strengthened the case of this language and spread it beyond its original home, Persis or Fars in southern Iran, overwhelming some of the local languages and replacing them.

Arts & Culture Desk

Arts & Culture Desk

Persian palatial architecture was a self-consciously imperial architecture that united and subsumed numerous architectural and visual traditions, creating unity out of complexity. It imposed an integrative unity over its architectural, ornamental, and figural elements that presented the bloody business of building and maintaining an empire as natural, and even awe-inspiringly beautiful.

The emergence and spread of New Persian across greater Iran, Central Asia, and beyond to Anatolia, the Caucasus, and South Asia was undoubtedly one of the most profound developments in terms of literary and administrative dynamics in the medieval Islamic world.

Saharo-Sindian Region is located along the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. There mountain ranges are less high than in other parts of the country and the climate along the coasts in the south is subtropical. Elevation ranges from sea level to 2,000m.

A vast amount of Persian prose literature, in fields ranging from history to philosophy, was produced during the pre-modern period. This prose literature certainly has its value, and much of it is in print and read by Iranians today.

New (or Modern) Persian is one of members of a great family of Iranian languages spoken across Asia in both ancient and modern times.

Iranica Desk

Whether we are dazzled by the gleaming tile domes of Isfahan – an old city in central Iran – or the gem-like pages of the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp – one of the most famous illustrated manuscripts of the Shahnameh – or the lush silk brocades of Safavid robes, the 16th and 17th centuries stand out as one of the most brilliant periods in the history of Persian art.

Arts & Culture Desk