The influence of the Arabic language on the Persian language in the mirror of the prose ‘Al-Monsha’at by Farhad Mirza Mo’tamid al-Dawlah

Abstract

The interrelationship between Arabic and Persian has been an old one manifested mainly by the arrival of Islam into Iran and simultaneously the creation of the first Persian works of literature in the third and fourth centuries. It was, indeed, Arabic, which exerted more influence. The culmination of this influence can be seen in a literary style called Eraghi typical of seventh and eighth centuries. Many Persian poets and writers tried to emulate their ancestors in the use of Arabic since then .The influence, thus, lives on during other dynasties including Safavids and Qajariye; to various degrees, though. Farhad Mirza, Mo’tamid al-Dawlah known as Rabbolseif, the Qajar’s prominent literary man and writer is one of such writers. A pervasive use of Arabic is evident in his epistles, known as Farhad Mirzas' Monshaa't (Epistles), where he recruits lots of Arabic words, patterns, poems, and proverbs. The present study aims at surveying and analyzing the degree to which the works of Farhad Mirza are influenced by Arabic regarding the verses of Holy Quran, hadiths, proverbs and ideas of Arabic poems- based on the literary school of Ferance. It furthers to show that Farhad Mirzas' epistles are highly impressed and formed by Arabic and this influence is evident in the every word of the writer quoted above.