I will admit my language learning so far has been minimal. The lack of language partner has made the aspects of learning Persian that require frequent routine, practice, or demonstration somewhat more difficult. That being said, where I have been focusing on with Persian is looking at the language from, essentially, an Arabic-focused perspective, seeing where the similarities occur and what I can learn from them. Perhaps the most revealing thing about the relationship between Persian and Arabic is the case of words that mean one thing in Arabic but denote something similar in Persian.
Let me talk about a case study that has been in the back of my mind for the last few days: love. The Persian word for love is ešq, which comes from an Arabic trilateral root related to the way that ivy clings to objects by way of the word `išq which likewise means love, but is used predominantly in a Sufi context. The (usual) Arabic word for love is Hubb (H capitalized to distinguish a phonetic difference between the Arabic letters that we transliterate as h), which means seed and is found in the Qur’an, unlike `išq. The botanical origin of both words is worthy of its own analysis, but the specific different usage reflects a rather interesting religious history.
`išq is largely used by Sufis to explain a more passionate sort of love, not unlike the English term lust if it did not have any sexual connotations. Instead, it is the intense love between God and creation. For reasons unknown to me, `išq is absent from the Qur’an, which uses Hubb instead as a general word meaning love. Traditionally, after the Mongol invasions, as the Persian Empire was reborn under the Safavids, they spread a Sufi form of Shiite Islam to their empire (perhaps forcibly), and the concept of `išq with it. In Arabia, where orthodox Islam remained more dominant, the use of Hubb continued. I do not have any scholarly documentation supporting the assertion that the use of ešq in Persian is due to the early Sufi influences in the Safavid Empire, but it seems to fit the known information. Additional research must be done, but it seems highly plausible that this might be the origin of the relative frequency between the two words in each language.
I would love to be able to find more examples of words like this, which reflect a shared, yet distinct history between Arabs and Persians and can be use to establish to what degree and in what realms the Arabic language has influenced Persian. For a long time, during the Islamic Golden Age, Persians philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians wrote in Arabic primarily, which makes me think that those language areas in particular would be most heavily influenced by Arabic, similarly Arabic is used as a liturgical language in most Persia-speaking countries, so it will likely influence the religious language. As for the practical affects that this has on my language learning, if my speculation is correct, I can spend less time learning the vocabulary in these areas, and can use my current knowledge of Arabic to learn Persian.
Comments