Persian

About Persian

currently taught at IU

Persian, is also known as Farsi when referring to the language. It is the official language of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its variety Dari and Tajik are also the official language of Afghanistan(previously called Dari Persian) and Tajikistan(once called Tajiki Persian).

Ancient Persian Bodyguards

Persian Bodyguard. Date: 7th - 4th century BC

By Archivist - stock.adobe.com

The modern Persian is the continuation of Middle Persian (the official language of Sasanian Empire) and Old Persian, the latter was used as early as 6th-4th Century BCE when the Achaemenid Empire was in power. The language originated from today's Fars province of Southwestern Iran.

There are approximately 130 million Persian speakers (including 80 million L1 speakers, Data of 2022) worldwide, including Persians, Tajiks, Hazaras in Afghanistan and etc.

architecture in contemporary Iran

IU offers Persian courses in the Department of Central Euroasian Studies(CEUS). You may also apply for the learning opportunity in summers, via Language Workshop.

CeLT has some Persian Learning material listed below. Some of them are open access, but you need to be part of IU community to request the access to the others.

CEUS