Ajam
Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Redirect
Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx, Template:Literal translation) is an Arabic word for a non-Arab, especially a Persian.<ref name="Sakhr: Multilingual Dictionary">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Lewis">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":92">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp It was historically used as a pejorative—figuratively ascribing muteness to those whose native language is not Arabic—during and after the Muslim conquest of Iran.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite journal</ref> Since the early Muslim conquests, it has been adopted in various non-Arabic languages, such as Turkish, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Kurdish, Malay, Sindhi, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Kashmiri, and Swahili. Today, the terms Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration continue to be used to refer to anyone or anything Iranian, particularly in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. Communities speaking the Persian language in the Arab world exist among the Iraqis, the Kuwaitis, and the Bahrainis, in addition to others. A number of Arabs with Iranian heritage may have the surname Template:Transliteration ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), which has the same meaning as the original word.
Etymology
According to traditional etymology, the word Ajam comes from the Semitic root ʿ-j-m. Related forms of the same root include, but are not limited to:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- mustaʿjim: mute, incapable of speech
- ʿajama / ʾaʿjama / ʿajjama: to dot – in particular, to add the dots that distinguish between various Arabic letters to a text (and hence make it easier for a non-native Arabic speaker to read). It is now an obsolete term, since all modern Arabic texts are dotted. This may also be linked to ʿajām / ʿajam "pit, seed (e.g. of a date or grape)".
- inʿajama: (of speech) to be incomprehensible
- istaʿjama: to fall silent; to be unable to speak
- 'aʿjam: non-fluent
Homophonous words, which may or may not be derived from the same root, include:
- ʿajama: to test (a person); to try (a food).
Modern use of "ajam" has the meaning of "non-Arab".<ref name="Sakhr: Multilingual Dictionary"/> Its development from meaning "mute" to meaning "non-Arabic-speaking" is somewhat analogous to that of the word barbarian (< Greek {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), or Nemtsy for Germans in Slavic languages, which descend from Proto-Slavic *němьcь, itself from *němъ meaning "mute". (From there also comes {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (an-Namsa), the Arabic name for Austria).
Original meaning
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The verb ʿajama originally meant "to mumble, and speak indistinctly", which is the opposite of ʿaraba, "to speak clearly". Accordingly, the noun ʿujma, of the same root, is the opposite of fuṣḥa, which means "chaste, correct, Arabic language".<ref name="EI">Template:Usurped, Encyclopædia Iranica, p.700.</ref> In general, during the Umayyad period ajam was a pejorative term used by Arabs who believed in their social and political superiority, in early history after Islam. However, the distinction between Arab and Ajam is discernible in pre-Islamic poetry.<ref name="EI" /> According to the book Documents on the Persian Gulf's nameTemplate:Citation needed the Arabs likewise referred to Iran and the Persian (Sassanian) Empire as Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx), which means "Lands of Persia", and using Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx) as an equivalent or synonym to Persia. The Turks also were using bilad (Belaad) e Ajam as an equivalent or synonym to Persian and Iranian, and in the Quran the word ajam was used to refer to non-Arabs. Ajam was first used for people of Persia in the poems of pre-Islamic Arab poets; but after the advent of Islam it also referred to Turks, Zoroastrians, and others. Today, in Arabic literature, Ajam is used to refer to all non-Arabs. As the book Documents on the Persian Gulf's name explained, during the Iranian Intermezzo native Persian Muslim dynasties used both the words Ajam and Persian to refer to themselves. According to The Political Language of Islam, during the Islamic Golden Age, 'Ajam' was used colloquially as a reference to denote those whom Arabs viewed as "alien" or outsiders.<ref name="Lewis"/> The early application of the term included all of the non-Arab peoples with whom the Arabs had contact including Persians, Byzantine Greeks, Ethiopians, Armenians, Mandaeans, Jews, Georgians, Sabians, Egyptians, and Berbers.
During the early age of the Caliphates, Ajam was often synonymous with "foreigner" or "stranger".Template:Citation needed In Western Asia, it was generally applied to the Persians, while in al-Andalus it referred to speakers of Romance languages – becoming "Aljamiado" in Spanish in reference to Arabic-script writing of those languages – and in West Africa refers to the Ajami script or the writing of local languages such as Hausa and Fulani in the Arabic alphabet.Template:Citation needed In Zanzibar ajami and ajamo means a Persian person which comes from the Persian Gulf and the cities of Shiraz and Siraf. In Turkish, there are many documents and letters that used Ajam to refer to Persian. In the Persian Gulf region, people still refer to Persians as Ajami, referring to Persian carpets as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Ajami carpet), Persian cats as Ajami cats, and Persian kings as Ajami kings.<ref name="hamshahrionline.ir">The Book.documents on the Persian gulf's name.names of Iran Template:Webarchive pp.23–60 Molk e Ajam= Persi . Molk-e-Jam and Molouk -e-Ajam(Persian Kings). {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 2010 Template:ISBN</ref>
Colloquial use
According to Clifford Edmund Bosworth, "by the 3rd/9th century, the non-Arabs, and above all the Persians, were asserting their social and cultural equality ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) with the Arabs, if not their superiority ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) over them (a process seen in the literary movement of the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). In any case, there was always in some minds a current of admiration for the ʿAǰam as heirs of an ancient, cultured tradition of life. After these controversies had died down, and the Persians had achieved a position of power in the Islamic world comparable to their numbers and capabilities, Template:"-ʿAjam" became a simple ethnic and geographical designation."<ref>"Ajam", Encyclopædia Iranica, Bosworth</ref> Thus by the ninth century, the term was being used by Persians themselves as an ethnic term, and examples can be given by Asadi Tusi in his poem comparing the superiority of Persians and Arabs.<ref>Template:Poemquote Jalal Khaleqi Motlaq, "Asadi Tusi", {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} [Literature and Humanities Magazine], Ferdowsi University, 1357 (1978). page 71.</ref> Accordingly: "territorial notions of 'Iran' are reflected in such terms as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, the Arabicized form of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}/{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Persia). The ethnic notion of 'Iranian' is denoted by the Persian words {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and the Arabic term {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (inhabitants of Persia) or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, referring to non-Arabs, but primarily to Persians as in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Persian kingdom) or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Persian kings)."<ref>Ashraf, Ahmad, "Iranian Identity iii. Medieval Islamic Period", Encyclopedia Iranica</ref>
As a pejorative for Persians
During the Umayyad period, the term developed a derogatory meaning as the word was used to refer to non-Arab speakers (primarily Persians) as illiterate and uneducated. Arab conquerors in that period tried to impose Arabic as the primary language of the subject peoples throughout their empire. Angry with the prevalence of the Persian language in the Divan and Persian society, Persian resistance to this mentality was popularised in the final verse of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh; this verse is widely regarded by Iranians as the primary reason that they speak Persian and not Arabic to this day.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Under the Umayyad dynasty, official association with the Arab dominion was only given to those with the ethnic identity of the Arab and required formal association with an Arab tribe and the adoption of the client status (mawālī, another derogatory term translated to mean "slave" or "lesser" in this context).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The pejorative use to denote Persians as "Ajam" is so ingrained in the Arab world that it is colloquially used to refer to Persians as "Ajam" neglecting the original definition and etymology of the word.
Other non-Arabs
According to The Political Language of Islam, during the Islamic Golden Age, 'Ajam' was used colloquially as a reference to denote those whom Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula viewed as "alien" or outsiders.<ref name="Lewis"/> The early application of the term included all of the non-Arab peoples with whom the Arabs had contact including Persians, Byzantine Greeks, Ethiopians, Armenians, Assyrians, Mandaeans, Jews, Georgians, Sabians, Copts, and Berbers.
During the early age of the Caliphates, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} was often synonymous with "foreigner" or "stranger".Template:Citation needed In Western Asia, it was generally applied to the Persians, while in al-Andalus it referred to speakers of Romance languages – becoming "Aljamiado" in Spanish in reference to Arabic-script writing of those languages – and in West Africa refers to the Ajami script or the writing of local languages such as Hausa and Fulani in the Arabic alphabet.Template:Citation needed In Zanzibar {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} mean Persian, which came from the Persian Gulf and the cities of Shiraz and Siraf. In Turkish, there are many documents and letters that used {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} to refer to the Persians.Template:Citation needed
In the Persian Gulf region today, people still refer to Persians/Iranians as Ajami, referring to Persian carpets as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Ajami carpet), Persian cat as Ajami cats, and Persian kings as Ajami kings.<ref name="hamshahrionline.ir"/>
Notable examples
- The ethnic Persian community in Kuwait and Bahrain are called Ajami.<ref name=":9">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp The term was initially used to refer to speakers of languages derived from Middle, Old and New Persian (Farsi), and especially those of a Shia background,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> but considering countries like Bahrain has speakers of various different languages (and especially Iranian languages) it can be seen as a broader term encompassing several ethnic groups,<ref name=":9" />Template:Rp it was also considered derogatory by some,<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> those of a Sunni background (particularly Achomis of a Sunni background) are often intentionally conflated with Huwala Arabs,<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and sometimes refer to their language as either "Ajami" or "Holi."<ref name=":1" />
- 'Ajam was used by the Ottoman Turks to refer to the Safavid dynasty.<ref>Martin van Bruinessen. "Nationalisme kurde et ethnicités intra-kurdes", Peuples Méditerranéens no. 68-69 (1994), 11–37.</ref>
- The Abbasid Iraq Al-Ajam province (centered around Arax and Shirvan).
- The Kurdish historian, Sharaf Khan Bidlisi, uses the term Ajam in his book Sharafnama (1597 CE) to refer to the Shia Persians.<ref>Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Stefan Sperl, The Kurds, 250 pp., Routledge, 1992, Template:ISBN
(see p.38)</ref>
- In the Eastern Anatolia region, Azerbaijanis are sometimes referred to as acem (which is the Turkish translation of Ajam).<ref>Template:In lang Qarslı bir azərbaycanlının ürək sözləri. Erol Özaydın</ref>
- Mahmood Reza Ghods claimed modern Sunni Kurds of Iran use this term to denote Persians, Azeris and Southern Kurds.<ref>Mahmood Reza Ghods, A comparative historical study of the causes, development and effects of the revolutionary movements in northern Iran in 1920–21 and 1945–46. University of Denver, 1988. v.1, p.75.</ref> According to Sharhzad Mojab, Ecem (derived from the Arabic ‘ajam) is used by Kurds to refer to Persians and, sometimes, Turks.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Adjam, Hajjam, Ajaim, Ajami, Akham (as Axam in Spain for ajam), Ayam in Europe.
- In Turkish, the word acem refers to Iran and Iranian people.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- It is also used as a surname.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Azania a word related to the Arabic word ʕajamiyy, meaning "foreign" non speaking Arabic). The Greeks likely reworked the word into a familiar form.It is used to describe some tribes extending from Kenya to Mozambique and perhaps South Africa.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See also
- Barbarian, an originally Greco-Roman word for "uncivilized" people that was borrowed into Arabic and referred to indigenous North Africans during the early Muslim conquests
- Nemets, a Slavic term for Germans that figuratively ascribes muteness to them in the context of their non-Slavic native language
- Goy
- Ajem-Turkic
References
External links
Template:Ethnic slurs Template:Characters and names in the Quran