Fakhredinblog

Introduction

I am generally interested in history, heritage, language, art, and culture of Persia (which is named Iran since 1934). If I find an interesting topic while surfing the Internet, I save a copy or a link of it on my local hard drive. A while ago I started a weblog in Persian language, with the name فخرالدین بلاگ. My first aim in making that weblog was using the Internet space instead of local hard drive. This way, I could reach the material easily from everywhere, and others could use them as well. Later on I also started the English version of that weblog named FakhredinBlog for non-Persian speakers.

Unfortunately, those weblogs are not regularly updated. Furthermore, I noticed that my searches on the Internet quite often end up in Wikipedia websites in English or Persian, and the Wikipedia pages in Persian language are not always complete, not well edited, or their links to other languages are missing. That is why I decided to spend part of my time editing Wikipedia.

The name of the country "Persia (Iran)" in non-Persian languages

You may have noticed that I use the term "Persia" as the name of the country which is currently named Iran. This may cause a bit of confusion for some people who think Persia is the name of an ancient empire and does not reffer to any country at the moment. I would like to explain it here.

In ancient times, during the first, second and the third Persian Empires, Persia was very large, covering almost all of the area that we know as the Middle East. Those three empires were the Achaemenid Empire (648–330 BC), Parthian / Sassanid Empire (250 BC– 650 AD), and Safavid Empire (1501–1736). After the Safavid Empire, big pieces of land were detached from Persia in east, north and west. By the beginning of 20th century, Persia reached to its smaller size in the whole history (which remained until now).

During all those years (since more than 3000 years ago until the beginning of the 20th century) people inside Persia called their country Iran (Persian: ایران). That is not strange, as German people also call their country Deutschland and Finnish people call their country Suomi, while the international names are Germany and Finland. The word Iran, in Persian language, is derived from the word Aryans. In fact, the race of Persian people is Aryan, and they used to have blue/green eyes and blond hair (even today, you may still see few people with that characteristics if you travel to Persia). Dark hair and eyes were dominated in that land after Arabs conquered the second Persian Empire.

In 1935, after Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, the Nazi Economics minister, commented on the Aryan origin of Persians, Persian ambassador in Germany encouraged Reza Shah Pahlavi (who was the king of Persia at that time) to issue a decree asking all foreign delegates to use the word "Iran" (meaning "Aryan") instead of "Persia" in formal correspondence. After the Second World War that led to the defeat of Nazi's, a Persian committee looked into this matter. The committee announced that "changing the name is not justified", so Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (who was then the king of Persia) announced that both "Persia" and "Iran" could be used interchangeably.

Although the local name of the country is Iran (Persian: ایران) and will always be like that, I consider the name Persia more appropriate for international use for the following reasons:

- The decision on changing the name was politically motivated, and (happily) with the removal of Nazi's we don't need to keep it. Actually, there is no reason to use local name of a country in international conversations. It is just like using the names Deutschland or Suomi in English conversation.

- The name Iran causes many people to confuse it with Iraq (a country west of Persia). In fact, during the Second World War, Winston Churchill ordered to always use the name Persia beside the name Iran to prevent such confusion during military actions.

- The act of changing the name brought cultural damage to the country and separated it from its past from the point of view of the Western world. I give you an example: The word Persia immediately reminds us of the land which Persian cat, Persian carpet, Persian pistachio, and Persian caviar come from. It also reminds us of Persian language, Persian poetry, Persian mysticism, Persian miniature, and famous Persian scientists. It holds on to the name of Persian Empires, Persian Gulf, and many other historical issues. An entity with the name Iran has none of those capacities (at least not in the point of view of the Western people).

Persian: Nationality or Ethnicity?

You know that an Irish or a Welsh does not like to be called English. The same situation exists in Persia. Let me explain:

Persia is a large country. Even now that it is in its smallest size in the whole history, it is bigger than Spain, France, and Germany altogether. Due to its large area, many different ethnic groups live there, and they talk also in many different languages.

In the west side of Persia, from north to south, live Azeris (Turks), Kurds, Lurs, and Arabs. In center there are mainly Pars (or Fars that is the Arabized version, since Arabs do not have the sound "p" in their alphabet). In the east live Baloch and Torkmens(1). Every ethnic group has its own language. Persian, which is the language of Pars, is the official language of Persia. The country is called Persia since the royal family of the first Persian Empire was from Pars ethnicity.

Going back to the story of Irish and English people, in Persia also an Arab or a Kurd does not like to be called Pars. Some of those people consider "Persian" to be the English translation of Pars (Fars) ethnicity, and, therefore, insist to keep the name of the country as Iran in order to clarify that not all the people in that land are Pars.

As I explained above, using the name Iran for the country is not justified and cause more cultural damage than benefit. The following proposal may resolve the confusion of the ethnicity:

- "Persian" is not the English translation of Pars (Fars) ethnicity. The name of an ethnic group is not usually been translated, but is used the same way as in original language. To indicate Pars (or Fars) ethnic group, the exact same word can be used in English.

- Persian means "a person from Persia" not "a person who is Pars." To translate from English to Persian language and vice versa, "Persia" is equal to Iran (Persian: ایران), and "Persian" is equal to Iranian (Persian: ایرانی) not Pars or Fars (Persian: فارس). It is, therefore, clear that all the people from Persia, no matter what ethnicity they have, are called "Persian." The same way that we have "Turkish Kurd" or "Iraqi Kurd," we also have "Persian Kurds." The same way that we have "Kuwaiti Arab" or "Saudi Arab," we also have "Persian Arab."

- There are only two exceptions in translation. "Persian language" is translated "زبان فارسی" (pronounce: zæban-e farsi), and "Persian Gulf" is translated "خلیج فارس" (pronounce: khælij-e fars).

In conclusion, Persian is a nationality not an ethnicity.

(1) This list of Persian ethnic groups is not complete.

The name of the language "Persian" in non-Persian languages

The official language spoken in Persia is "Persian." The local name of the language is Farsi, but, unfortunately, the local name is sometimes used in international articles or conversations.

I try to explain in a simple way why the local name may not be used internationally. Just look at the sentences below and tell me which group of sentences is correct in your point of view:

Group A	Group B
He speaks français (Il parle French)	He speaks French (Il parle français)
She speaks Deutsch (Sie spricht German)	She speaks German (Sie spricht Deutsch)
They speak español (Hablan Spanish)	They speak Spanish (Hablan español)

If you think that the sentences in Group A are correct, or you think that both groups are equally fine, please write to me and tell my your reasoning. I'll be very happy to hear that.

Otherwise, if you think that Group B is the good group, we share the same opinion. Now let me show you the same comparison regarding Persian language:

Group A	Group B
I speak فارسی [pronounce: ahy speek farsi] (حرف می‌زنم Persian من [pronounce: mæn pershiën hærf mi-zænæm])	I speak Persian ( من فارسی حرف می‌زنم [pronounce: mæn farsi hærf mi-zænæm])

I think it is clear now that "Persian" in the name of the language in English (in French it is "Persan," in German "Persisch," in Dutch "Perzisch," in Italian "Persiano," etcetera). On the other hand "فارسی" [pronounce: farsi] is the name of the language in Persian (it's the local name). It is easy to see the connection between the local name and the international name of the language. Persian is derived from Pars (the ethnicity of the royal family of the first Persian Empire). فارسی [pronounce: farsi] is also derived from Pars; it is actually the Arabized version of Parsi, an adjective meaning "related to Pars."

You may hear that many people use the local name of Persian language when they speak English or other Western languages. It's just a mistake that became popular after 1979, when many Persians immigrated to Western countries, and started using the local name. This mistake is now so popular that it even appears in dictionaries, or in Microsoft programs! But not everybody made that mistake. Mac OS X (the operating system of Apple computers), for example, worked out all different languages so professionally, and you can see the correct name of the language there.

OK, let me finish this article by a kind request. Next time, you face somebody using the local name of Persian language, or read it in a newspaper or a magazine, make a comment on that! You can show how professional you are!

Direct quotations and Translated quotations

Scenario 1: It is needless to say that if original statement is in English language, it will be directly quoted "as it is." In other words, phrases from non-English vocabulary, incorrect grammar or spelling, or unusual punctuation will be quoted without any modification.

Example 1:^* An American magazine publishes an interview with a Dutch actor who lives in the US. The interview is done in English language. The Dutchman is talking about his childhood in the Netherlands, and he says: "We lived in Den Haag, my mother could only speaks Nederlands, and we had every day Nederlandse kaas for breakfast." Please note that "Den Haag" is the Dutch name of the city "The Hague," "Nederlands" is the name of "Dutch" language, "Nederlandse kaas" means "Dutch cheese," and the verb "speaks" should be used without the "s." However, since the original statement is in English language, we will quote it "as it is," and add [sic] to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling/phrase is reproduced:

"We lived in Den Haag,^[sic] my mother could only speaks^[sic] Nederlands,^[sic] and we had every day Nederlandse kaas^[sic] for breakfast."

Scenario 2: It is, however, a different situation if the original statement is in another language than English. Here, we translate the statement, and, therefore, will use the most appropriate English words in the quotation. If the translated quotation is to be used in education and in publishing materials (such as encyclopedias) we will follow prescriptivism.

Example 2:^* The same Dutch actor also does an interview with a Dutch magazine and says the same things about his childhood (but this time in Dutch language): "We woonden in Den Haag, mijn moeder kon alleen Nederlands spreken, en we hadden elke dag Nederlandse kaas voor het ontbijt." Another American magazine uses this Dutch interview as a reference and publishes it in English. In this case, the most appropriate words will be used to reproduce the translated quotation:

"We lived in The Hague, my mother could only speak Dutch, and we had every day Dutch cheese for breakfast."

The same principle holds for using the word "Farsi" in direct quotations, or translating it to English and using the word "Persian" in translated quotations.

Scenario 1: If the statement is originally in English language, and the person uses the word "Farsi," it should be directly quoted as "Farsi.^[sic]"

Original statement: "I can speak Farsi."

Direct quotation: "I can speak Farsi.^[sic]"

Scenario 2: If the statement is originally in Persian language, a translated quotation will be reporduced. Practicing prescriptivism, "Persian" will be used instead of "Farsi."

Original statement: "من میتوانم فارسی صحبت کنم." (Transliteration: "man mitavánam fársi sohbat konam.")

Translated quotation: "I can speak Persian."

^{* Both examples are hypothetical.}

Hobbies

PERSIAN PHRASES

* Thousands of friends are far too few, one enemy is too much. *

هزاران دوست كم اند، يك دشمن زياد است Hezārān dust kam and, yek doshman ziād ast.

* The wise enemy is better than the ignorant friend. *

دشمن دانا بهتر از دوست نادان است Doshman-e dānā behtar az dust-e nādān ast.

* The wise enemy lifts you up, the ignorant friend casts you down. *

دشمن دانا بلندت ميكند. بر زمينت ميزند نادان ِ دوست Doshman-e dānā bolandat mikonad. Bar zaminat mizanad nādān-e dust.

This user is proud to be a
Persian!

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