Persian Language Policies: Nationalism and Islam

Abstract

In a German monograph entitled, Persephonie, the Iranian studies scholar Bert Fragner examines the evolution of the Persian language in a succinct, concise, and cogent manner. Fragner attributes the success of the spread of the Persian language to its expansion in multiple urban centers such as Herat, Tus, Shiraz, Lahore, Kabul, Samarqand, Bukhara, and Isfahan, calling Persian a “polycentric” language, where geographically distant cities generated highly esteemed literary and artistic work while maintaining an indigenous language and culture.