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Ostanes

Ostanes

Osthanes was a legendary pre-Islamic sage who, according to some sources, was from Alexandria, though he was Persian according to other accounts. He is frequently cited in Arabic and Persian alchemical literature as an authority on alchemy. An Arabic alchemical treatise titled Kitab al-Fusul al-ithnay ‘ashar fi 'ilm al-hajar al-mukarram (The Book of the Twelve Chapters on the Honourable Stone) is attributed to him.

Sources

- Manfred Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam, Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abteilung I, Erg?nzungsband VI, Abschnitt 2 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972), p. 184
- Georges C. Anawati, 'Arabic Alchemy' in Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, ed. by Roshdi Rashed (London: Routledge, 1996), volume 3, p. 862.

Iran

Iran (Persian: ايران) is a Middle Eastern country located in Southwest Asia bordering Armenia, Azerbaijan including its Nakhichevan exclave and Turkmenistan to the north, Pakistan and Afghanistan to the east, Turkey and Iraq to the west. Until 1935 the country was referred to in the West as Persia. In 1959, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi announced that both terms could be used. In 1979, the Iranian revolution established a theocratic Islamic Republic, changing the country's official name to the Islamic Republic of Iran (جمهوری اسلامی ايران). Dispute exists as to the country's current official name.

History

Sometime around 1500 to 1000 BC, the Iranian nomads of Indo-European stock emigrated to the Iranian plateau possibly from Central Asia. In 8th century BC, the first Iranian government was established under the Median dynasty and under the following dynasty, the Achaemenids, Iranians built the first world empire. Their empire emerged in the 6th century BC under Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, who called himself "King of Iran and beyond". Indeed, the name Persia is derived from Persis, the ancient Greek name for the empire. The Achaemenid dynasty was followed by the Parthian and Sassanid dynasties as Persia's greatest pre-Islamic empires. Alexander the Great first conquered Persia in 331 BC, followed by Islam's Arab forces in the 7th century, and Genghis Khan, and lastly, Tamerlane who conquered a significant portion of Persia in the middle ages. middle ages The 9th century saw the rise of the Saffarids and then other lines of kings or shahs. During the 19th century Persia came under increasing pressure from both Russia and the United Kingdom, leading to a process of modernization that continued into the 20th century. By the 20th century Iranians were longing for a change and thus followed the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905/1911. In 1953 Iran's elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, was removed from power in a complex plot orchestrated by British and US intelligence agencies (dubbed "Operation Ajax"). Many scholars suspect that this ouster was motivated by British-US opposition to Mosaddeq's attempt to nationalize Iran's oil. Following Mosaddeq's fall, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Iran's monarch) grew increasingly dictatorial. With strong support from the USA and the UK, the Shah further modernized Iranian industry but crushed civil liberties. His autocratic rule, including systematic torture and other human rights violations, led to the Iranian revolution and overthrow of his regime in 1979. After more than a year of political struggle between a variety of different groups, an Islamic republic was established under the Ayatollah Khomeini by a revolution. The new theocratic political system instituted some conservative Islamic reforms and engaged in an anti-Western course. In particular Iran distanced itself from the United States due to the American involvement in the 1953 coup, which supplanted an elected government with the Shah's repressive regime. It also declared its refusal to recognize the existence of Israel as a state. The new government inspired various groups considered by a large part of the Western World to be fundamentalist. As a consequence some countries, currently led by the USA, consider Iran to be a hostile power. In 1980 Iran was attacked by neighbouring Iraq and the destructive Iran-Iraq War continued until 1988. The struggle between reformists and conservatives over the future of the country continues today through electoral politics and was a central Western focus in the 2005 Elections where Conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad triumphed.

Politics

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran is a constitutional Islamic Republic, whose political system is laid out in the 1979 constitution. Iran's makeup has several intricately connected governing bodies, some of which are democratically elected and some of which are appointed by religious leaders. The concept of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurist) plays an influential role in the governmental structure. The Supreme Leader of Iran is responsible for the delineation and supervision of "the general policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran." In the absence of a single leader, a council of religious leaders is appointed. The Supreme Leader is commander-in-chief of the armed forces; he alone can declare war. He has the power to appoint and dismiss the leaders of the judiciary, the state radio and television networks, and the supreme commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He also appoints six of the twelve members of the Council of Guardians. He, or the council of religious leaders, are elected by the Assembly of Experts, on the basis of their qualifications and the high popular esteem in which they are held. Twelve jurists comprise the Council of Guardians, six of whom are appointed by the Supreme Leader. The head of the judiciary recommends the remaining six, which are officially appointed by Parliament. The Council of Guardians is vested with the authority to interpret the constitution and determines if the laws passed by Parliament are in line with sharia (Islamic law) and the Iranian constitution; if a law passed by Parliament is deemed incompatible, it is referred back to Parliament for revision. After the office of Leadership, the President of Iran is the highest official in the country. His is responsibile for implementing the Constitution and acting as the head of the executive, except in matters directly concerned with the Leadership. All presidential candidates must be approved by the Council of Guardians prior to running, and are elected to a 4-year term. After his election, the president appoints and supervises the 21-member Council of Ministers (who must then be confirmed by Parliament), coordinates government decisions, and selects government policies to be placed before the parliament. Eight vice presidents serve under the president. The unicameral Iranian parliament consists of 290 members elected to a 4-year term (approved by the Council of Guardians before running). It drafts legislation, ratifies international treaties, and approves the country's budget. All legislation from the assembly must be reviewed by the Council of Guardians. The Assembly of Experts, which meets for one week every year, consists of 86 "virtuous and learned" clerics elected by the public to eight-year terms. Like presidential and parliamentary elections, the Council of Guardians determines eligibility to run for a seat in this assembly. The head of the judiciary is appointed by the Supreme Leader, who in turn appoints the head of the Supreme Court and the chief public prosecutor. Public courts deal with civil and criminal cases. "Revolutionary" courts try certain categories of offenses, including crimes considered against national security or the republic and narcotics smuggling. Decisions rendered in these courts are final and cannot be appealed. The Special Clerical Court, which functions independently of the regular judicial framework and is accountable only to the Supreme Leader, handles crimes allegedly committed by clerics, although it has also taken on cases involving lay people.

Administrative divisions

Provinces

Iran consists of 30 provinces: Provinces are governed from a local center, mostly the largest local city. Provincial authority is headed by a governor (استاندار: ostāndār), who is installed by the Minister of Interior subject to approval of the cabinet. Until 2004 there were 28 provinces. A law passed that year split the province of Khorasan into three new provinces: North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, and South Khorasan.

Major cities

Iran's top four largest cities are: Image:Meydoon sadeghiyeh.jpg|Tehran: 8,601,473 (2005 pop.) Image:Nadershahtomb.jpg|Mashad: 2,307,177 (2005 pop.) Image:IMG 0414 resize.jpg|Isfahan: 1,547,164 (2005 pop.) Image:Poets tomb tabriz.jpg|Tabriz: 1,424,641 (2005 pop.) See also: List of cities in Iran.

Geography

List of cities in Iran Iran borders Azerbaijan (length of border: 432 km / 268 mi ) and Armenia (35 km / 22mi) to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan (992 km / 616 mi) to the northeast, Pakistan (909 km / 565 mi) and Afghanistan (936 km / 582 mi) to the east, Turkey (499 km / 310 mi) and Iraq (1,458 km / 906 mi) to the west, and finally the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the south. Iran's total land mass is 1,648,000 km² / ≈636,300 mi² (Land: 1,636,000 km² / ≈631,663 mi², Water: 12,000 km² / ≈4,633 mi²). Iran's landscape is dominated by rugged mountain ranges that separate various basins or plateaus from one another. The populous western part is the most mountainous, with ranges such as the Zagros and Alborz Mountains, the latter of which also contains Iran's highest point, the Damavand at 5,671 m (18,606 ft). The eastern half consists mostly of uninhabited desert basins with the occasional salt lake. The only large plains are found along the coast of the Caspian Sea and at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, where Iran borders on the mouth of the Arvand river (Shatt al-Arab). Smaller, discontinuous plains are found along the remaining coast of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman. The Iranian climate is mostly arid or semiarid, though subtropical along the Caspian coast. Iran is considered to be one of the fifteen states that comprise the so-called "Cradle of Humanity".

Climate

Iran's varied landscape produces several different climates. On the northern edge of the country (the Caspian coastal plain) the temperatures nearly fall below freezing and remain humid for the rest of the year. Summer temperatures rarely exceed 29°C (84°F). Annual precipitation is 680 mm (26 in) in the eastern part of the plain and more than 1700 mm (75 in) in the western side of the plain. At higher elevations to the west, settlements in the Zagros mountains basins experience lower temperatures. These areas have severe winters, with average daily temperatures below freezing and have heavy snowfall. The eastern and central basins are arid. They get less than 200 mm (8 in) of rain and have occasional desert. The average summer temperatures exceed 38°C (100°F). The coastal plains of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman in southern Iran have mild winters and experience very humid and hot summers. The Annual precipitation ranges from 135 mm to 355 mm (6 to 14 in).

Economy

Gulf of Oman Iran's economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil and other large enterprises, village agriculture, and small-scale private trading and service ventures. The current administration has continued to follow the market reform plans of the previous one and has indicated that it will pursue diversification of Iran's oil-reliant economy. Iran is attempting to diversify by investing revenues in other areas, including petrochemicals. Iran is also hoping to attract billions of dollars worth of foreign investment by creating a more favorable investment climate (i.e., reduced restrictions and duties on imports, creation of free-trade zones). Iran is OPEC's second largest oil producer and holds 10% of the world's proven oil reserves. It also has the world's second largest natural gas reserves (after Russia). The strong oil market in 1996 helped ease financial pressures on Iran and allowed for Tehran's timely debt service payments. Iran's financial situation tightened in 1997 because of lower oil prices. The subsequent rise in oil prices in 1999/2000 afforded Iran fiscal breathing room. Iranian budget deficits have been a chronic problem, in part due to large-scale state subsidies–totaling some $7.25 billion per year–including foodstuffs and especially gasoline. gasoline district.]] On March 20, 2006, Iran plans to participate in a new International Oil Bourse, trading oil priced as Petroeuros, rather than Petrodollars, as oil is traded in all other markets (as of 2005). This attempt to rebalance trading relationships in the world economy may trigger a series of far reaching consequences. A few observers, especially among peak oil production theorists who believe that an oil crisis is imminent, argue that there is a potential for a resource war with the United States of America over the flow of both dollars and oil. Others, including military leaders and peak oil theorists who believe that a crisis is further off, argue that the results of war game scenarios cast doubt on the argument that a war is the most likely result of the Oil Bourse. The services sector has seen the greatest long-term growth in terms of its share of GDP, but the sector remains volatile. State investment has boosted agriculture, however, with the liberalization of production and the improvement of packaging and marketing helping to develop new export markets. Large-scale irrigation schemes, together with the wider production of export-based agricultural items such as dates, flowers and pistachios, produced the fastest economic growth of any sector in Iran over much of the 1990s, although successive years of severe drought in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001 have held back output growth substantially. Agriculture remains one of the largest employers, accounting for 22% of all jobs according to the 1991 census. According to the U.N. World Drug Report for 2005, Iran has the highest proportion of opiate addicts in the world–2.8 percent of the population over age 15. Only two other countries–Mauritius and Kyrgyzstan–pass the 2 percent mark. With a population of about 70 million and some government agencies putting the number of regular users close to 4 million, Iran has no real competition as world leader in per capita addiction to opiates, including heroin.

Demographics

heroin

Ethnic groups

The majority of Iran's population speak one of the Iranian languages, though only Persian is an official language. While the number, percentage, and definition of the different Iranian peoples is disputed, the major ethnic groups and minorities in Iran include the Persians (51%), Azeris (24%), Gilaki and Mazandarani (8%), Kurds (7%), Arabs (3%), Baluchi (2%), Lurs (2%), Turkmen people (2%), Qashqai, Armenians, Persian Jews, Assyrians and others.

Religion

Assyrians Most Iranians are Muslims; 89% belong to the Shi'a branch of Islam, the official state religion, and about 10% belong to the Sunni branch, which predominates in most Muslim countries. Non-Muslim religious minorities include the Bahá'í Faith, Zoroastrians, as well as Jews, Christians, and Mandeans. The latter three are officially recognised minority religions and have reserved seats in the Majlis (Parliament). Iran's population size increased dramatically during the latter half of the 20th century. Iran hosts more than one million foreign refugees, more than any other country on earth.

Culture

earth and guardians of an ancient and sophisticated culture.]] Like all ancient civilizations, culture constitutes the focal point and heart of Iranian civilization. The art, music, architecture, poetry, philosophy, traditions, and ideology of Iran have made it a continuously important nation in the global community. In fact, many Iranians believe their culture to be the one and only reason why their civilization has continuously survived thousands of years of plethoric calamities.

Miscellaneous topics

Notes and references

-
-
- Please note that the numbers are according to the 2004 edition of CIA's The World Factbook. Different claims include higher numbers for Persian-speaking groups and respectively lower numbers for Turkic-speaking groups or vice versa. Some people in the first group claim that the CIA statistics are based on guesses made around 1964, while the CIA claims that their numbers are based on information from January 2004.
-
- Additional references and bibliography can be found in the more detailed articles linked to in this article.

External links

Official Government Links

The following websites belong to the various branches of government, or are directly operated by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- [http://www.leader.ir Official site of the Supreme Leader], [http://www.wilayah.org/ (Qom office)]
- [http://www.president.ir Presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran] - Official website.
- [http://www.irisn.com/ The Council of Guardians], Official website.
- [http://mellat.majlis.ir/ The Majlis], Iran's parliament. [http://www.majlis.ir/ (2)].
- [http://www.iranjudiciary.org/ The Judiciary of The Islamic Republic of Iran]
- [http://www.mfa.gov.ir Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
- [http://www.ershad.gov.ir/ Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance]
- [http://www.mod.ir/ Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces]
- [http://www.freezones.ir/ Secretariat of The High Council of Iran Free Trade Industrial Zones]
- [http://www.iranculture.org Secretariat of The High Council of The Cultural Revolution]
- [http://www.spk-gov.ir/ Official Spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran]
- [http://www.aeoi.org.ir/ Islamic Republic of Iran Atomic Energy Organization]
- [http://www.iranmiras.ir/ Islamic Republic of Iran Cultural Heritage Organization]
- [http://www.rcs.ir/en Islamic Republic of Iran Red Crescent Society]
- [http://www.irib.com Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting], official website.
- [http://www.shahid.ir/ Bonyad e Shahid Foundation]
- [http://www.iran-bonyad.com/ Bonyad e Mostazafeen Foundation]

Persian language

Persian (فارسی = Fârsi ... پارسی = Pârsi), (local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan: ‘Fârsi’), ‘Pârsi’ (older local name, but still used by some speakers), Tajik (a Central Asian dialect) or Dari (another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan), is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, and elsewhere. Prior to British colonization, Persian was also widely used as a second language in the Indian subcontinent; it took prominence as the language of culture and education in several Muslim courts in the subcontinent throughout the Middle Ages and became the official court language under the Mughal emperors. Evidence of its former rank in the region can still be seen by the extent of its influence on Hindi or Urdu, as well as the popularity that Persian literature still enjoys in the region. Persian or its dialects have official-language status in the countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. There are 61-71 million native speakers [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90035]. It belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is of the Subject Object Verb type.

History

Persian is a member of the Indo-European family of languages, and within that family it belongs to the Indo-Iranian (Aryan) branch. Scholars believe the Iranian sub-branch consists of the following chronological linguistic path: Old Persian (Avestan and Achaemenid Persian) → Middle Persian (Pahlavi, Parthian, and Sassanids Persian) → Modern Persian (Dari, c. 900 to present Persian). Old Persian, the main language of the Achaemenid inscriptions, should not be confused with the non-Indo-European Elamite language (see Behistun inscription). Over this period, the morphology of the language was simplified from the complex conjugation and declension system of Old Persian to the almost completely regularized morphology and rigid syntax of Modern Persian, in a manner often described as paralleling the development of English. Additionally, many words were introduced from neighboring languages, including Aramaic and Greek in earlier times, and later Arabic and to a lesser extent Turkish. In more recent times, some Western European words have entered the language (notably from French and English). The language itself has greatly developed during the centuries. Due to technological developments, new words and idioms are created and enter into Persian like any other language. In Tehran the Academy of Persian Language and Literature is a center that evaluates the new words in order to initiate and advise their Persian equivalents. In Afghanistan, the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan does the same for Afghan Persian (among other languages).

Nomenclature

Persian, the more widely used name of the language in English, is an Anglicized form derived from Latin
- Persianus, < Latin Persia, < Greek Persis, a hellenized form of Old Persian Parsa. Farsi is the Arabicized form of Parsi, due to a lack of the /p/ phoneme in Standard Arabic. Its use in the English language is very recent (since the 1970s). Native Persian speakers typically call it "Fârsi" in modern usage. ISO, the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, and many other sources call the language Persian. The government of Afghanistan uses both "Dari" and "Persian" in English communications. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature as well as many lexicographers have announced that "Farsi" is not the appropriate term to use for the Persian language in English. In the ISO 639-1, the local names form the basis for the language codes and for this reason "fa" is the designation for the Persian language in that system.

Dialects and close languages

ISO 639-1 Communication is generally mutually intelligible between Iranians, Tajiks, and Persian-speaking Afghans; however, by popular definition:
- Dari is the local name for the eastern dialect of Persian, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, including Hazaragi — spoken by the Hazara people of central Afghanistan.
- Tajik could also be considered an eastern dialect of Persian, but, contrary to Iranian and Afghan Persian, it is written in the Cyrillic script. The following are some of the closely related languages of various Iranian peoples within modern Iran proper:
- Mazerooni, or Mazandarani, spoken in northern Iran mainly in the province of Mazandaran.
- Guilaki, or Gilaki — spoken in the province of Guilan.
- Talysh, or Talishi — spoken in northern Iran and southern parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
- Luri, or Lori — spoken mainly in the southwestern Iranian province of Lorestan.
- (a.k.a. Tati, or Eshtehardi) — spoken in parts of the Iranian provinces of East Azarbaijan, Zanjan and Qazvin.
- Dari or Gabri — spoken originally in Yazd and Kerman by the Zoroastrians of Iran. Also called Yazdi by some.
- Dzhidi or Judæo-Persian — a collection of languages or dialects spoken by the many varied and ancient Jewish communities throughout the former greatest extent of the Persian Empire, one of the many Jewish languages of Persian Jews.

Orthography

The vast majority of modern Persian text is written in a form of the Arabic alphabet. In recent years the Latin alphabet has been used by some for technological or internationalization reasons.

Arabic Alphabet

Modern Persian is normally written using a modified variant of the Arabic alphabet.

The adoption of the Arabic script

After the conversion of Persia to Islam (see Islamic conquest of Iran), it took approximately one hundred and fifty years before Persians adopted the Arabic alphabet as a replacement for the older alphabet. Previously, two different alphabets were used for the Persian language (Middle Persian, or Pahlavi, at that time): one was also called Pahlavi and was a modified version of the Aramaic alphabet, and the other was a native Iranian alphabet called Dîndapirak (literally: religion script).

Note: "independence" of Arabic and Persian languages

One should note that despite their shared standard alphabet, Persian and Arabic are entirely different languages: they are not closely genetically related (they belong to separate genetic language families, namely, Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic) and naturally have different phonology and grammar.

The features of the Persian variant

The Persian variant adds four letters to the Arabic alphabet for its use, due to the fact that four sounds that exist in Persian do not exist in Arabic. Additionally, it changes the shape of another two. Some people call this modified alphabet the Perso-Arabic alphabet. The additional four letters are: The letters different in shape are: The diacritical marks used in the Arabic script, a.k.a. harakat, are also used in Persian, although some of them have different pronunciations. For example, an Arabic Damma is pronounced as /u/, while in Persian it is pronounced as /o/. The Persian variant also adds the notion of a pseudo-space to the Arabic script, called a Zero-width non-joiner (ZWNJ) by the Unicode Standard. It acts like a space in disconnecting two otherwise-joining adjacent letters, but does not have a visual width.

Note: Spelling of Arabic words in Arabic and in Persian

It should also be noted that many Persian words with an Arabic root are spelled differently from the original Arabic word. Alef with hamza below ( إ ) always changes to alef ( ا ); teh marbuta ( ة ) usually, but not always, changes to teh ( ت ) or heh ( ه ); and words using various hamzas get spelled with yet another kind of hamza (so that مسؤول becomes مسئول).

Further expansion of the Persian variant

The features of the Persian variant have been taken for other languages, such as Pashto or Urdu, and have sometimes been further extended with new letters or punctuation.

Latin Alphabet

The Universal Persian (UniPers / Pârsiye Jahâni) Alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet created over 50 years ago in Iran and popularized by Mohamed Keyvan, who had used it in a number of Persian textbooks for foreigners and travellers. It sidesteps the difficulties of the traditional Arabic-based alphabet, with its multiple letter shapes and ambiguous spellings, and fits particularly well in contemporary electronically written media. Fingilish is the name given to texts written in Persian using the Basic Latin alphabet. It is most commonly used in chat, emails and SMS applications.

Phonology

:Main article: Persian phonology The Persian language has six vowels and twenty-three consonants, including two affricates /ʧ/ (ch) and /ʤ/ (j). Historically, Persian distinguished length: the long vowels , , contrasting with the short vowels , , respectively. Modern spoken Persian, however, generally does not make this distinction anymore. Persian phonology

Consonants
	labial	alveolars	post-alveolars	velars	glottals
voiceless stops
voiced stops
voiceless fricatives
voiced fricatives
nasals
liquids		,
glides

Note that and are affricates, not stops.

Grammar

:Main article: Persian grammar Suffixes predominate Persian morphology, though there are a small number of prefixes. Verbs can express tense and aspect, and they agree with the subject in person and number. There is no grammatical gender for nouns, nor are pronouns marked for natural gender. Normal sentences are structured as "(S) (PP) (O) V". If the object is definite, then the order is "(S) (O + "rɑ:") (PP) V".

Vocabulary

There are many loanwords in the Persian language, mostly coming from Arabic, English, French, and the Turkic languages. Persian has likewise influenced the vocabularies of other languages, especially Indo-Iranian languages and Turkic languages. Many Persian words have also found their way into the English language. See List of English words of Persian origin.

References

- Mace, J. (2003). Persian Grammar: For reference and revision. Routledge-Curzon, London.
- Mahootian, S. (1997). Persian. Descriptive Grammars. Routledge, London.
- Windfuhr, G. L. (1987). Persian. In Comrie, B., editor, The World’s Major Languages, pages 523–546. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

External links

- [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=PRS Ethnologue report for Eastern Persian]
- [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=PES Ethnologue report for Western Persian]
- [http://www.easypersian.com/ Easypersian.com]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/translation/Farsi/ Dictionary] with Farsi - English Translations from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition
- [http://www.aryanpour.com/ Aryanpour Persian-English English-Persian Dictionary]
- [http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=63 UCLA Language Materials Project: Persian]
- [http://www.unipers.com/ UniPers.com A proposed Latin-based writing system designed specifically for the Persian language.]
- [http://www.persiandirect.com Persian Linguistics Association]
- [http://homepages.nyu.edu/%7Emmk4/AATP.htm American Association of Teachers of Persian (AATP)]
- [http://www.apersian.org The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature]
- [http://www.voanews.com/persian VOA’s Persian Language Service]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian BBC’s Persian Language Service]
- [http://www.dwelle.de/persian Deutche Welle’s Persian Service]
- [http://iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-articles.htm An Online Persian Language Forum] Category:Classical languages Category:Iranian culture Category:Iranian languages Category:Languages of Afghanistan Category:Languages of Iran Category:Languages of Tajikistan Category:Languages of Uzbekistan Category:Languages of Pakistan Category:Languages of Russia ko:페르시아어 ja:ペルシア語 th:ภาษาเปอร์เซีย

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Ostanes

Sources

Iran

History

Politics

Administrative divisions

Provinces

Major cities

Geography

Climate

Economy

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Religion

Culture

Miscellaneous topics

Notes and references

External links

Official Government Links

Other links

Persian language

History

Nomenclature

Dialects and close languages

Orthography

Arabic Alphabet

The adoption of the Arabic script

Note: "independence" of Arabic and Persian languages

The features of the Persian variant

Note: Spelling of Arabic words in Arabic and in Persian

Further expansion of the Persian variant

Latin Alphabet

Phonology

Grammar

Vocabulary

See also

References

External links

Germanocolusite

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Origine e giacitura

Forma in cui si presenta in natura

Collegamenti esterni

External links

Geography