u/secret_Lake6711

The region known as Afghanistan today was a Persian literary and cultural powerhouse. Many events from Ferdawsi’s Shahnama epic happen in modern Afghanistan. Rostam and Sohrab’s tragic story entirely takes place there. Rostam’s mother was from Kabul, his dad from Zabul. Sohrab’s mom from Samangan. Ferdawsi places Zarathustra’s death in Balkh in the Kiyanian court, also based in Balkh.

Samanids, Saffardis, and Ghanavids were Persianate empires that are widely recognized as the restorers of the Persian language after the Muslim invasion. All either hailed or ruled from modern-day Afghanistan.

The region was called Khorasan, and it was part of the wider Iranian world. “Afghanistan” came much later, and is slightly older than the US.

My ancestors are Mawlana (Rumi), Sanai, Rabia Balkhi, Ansari, and others. Hanzala Badghisi, the first Persian speaking poet with surviving works, was from this land too. These are my forefathers who spoke in the same tongue as I do today, yet their ties to this land have been intentionally downplayed or omitted.

Today Afghanistan is not commonly recognized as contributing so much to the Persian language and culture. Much of the credit goes to Iran, and don’t get me wrong, I love my Iranian brothers and sisters. Iran is the birthplace of this incredible civilization with the rise of Cyrus the Great, but we contributed significantly too, especially after the Arab conquest. Yet our contributions are barely recognized.

300 years of successive Afghan govt’s nationalist policies has eaten away at this Persianate history too. But it’s all in the history books if you seek it.

The Samanids, who hailed from Balkh, were largely responsible for the restoration of New Persian following the Arab conquest of Ancient Ariana (Khorasan, Greater Iran, Ariyana, the region has many parts and names).

The Saffarids (from Zaranj), and Ghaznavids also played crucial roles in the restoration. Rudaki, Ferdawsi, and almost all early New Persian poets were only able to finish their works because of the courtship of these empires and dynasties. All three hailing from modern day Afghanistan, which itself only came into existence 300 years ago. It was Khorasan before that. Mawlana called his home Khorasan and his language Parsi, not Afghanistan or Dari.

Us Persian speakers of Afghanistan are descendants of these greats. My father is from the same town as Mawlana. My Persian is closer to what Mawlana spoke almost a thousand years ago than most other Persian speakers’ way of speaking. The same phonetics and almost all the same words.

It hurts me when Persian speakers from Afghanistan incorrectly call their language Dari and not Persian or Farsi. Or at the very least Dari Persian. That’s exactly what the goal was when the govt changed the name to Dari in 1964, to divide Persian speakers and separate us from our heritage by inventing a new fake language called Dari. We speak Farsi in its purest form, the Dari DIALECT.

Be proud of your Persian heritage, your ancestors literally restored the language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikstan, and many other corners of the world. Tajiks and Persian were used synonymously for centuries. The Qashqai tribe of Iran still calls Persian speakers Tajiki speakers, my Qashqai friend told me this. It’s also stated on Iranica Encyclopedia for those interested.

Lastly, the first ever Persian speaking poet with surviving works is Hanzala Badghisi, from Badghis of Afghanistan. Know your history, know your heritage, and be proud to speak Parsi.

Countless times I’ve seen people on Reddit refer to Dari as a language, it is not. Dari is a dialect of the Persian language, pure and simple.

While it’s true that in 1964 the Afghan govt changed the official name to Dari from Farsi/Persian, the move was driven by ethno-nationalist and political motives, not linguistics. It was partly done to separate the shared Persianate heritage between Iran and Afghanistan.

It’s correct to refer to it as Dari Persian. Otherwise we may as well say American and Australian are also distinct languages.

Thank you for reading my rant