''Fahlaviyat'' (), also spelled ''fahlavi'' (), was a designation for poetry composed in the local northwestern Iranian dialects and languages of the Fahla region, which comprised

Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...

, Ray,

Hamadan Hamadan ( ; , ) is a mountainous city in western Iran. It is located in the Central District of Hamadan County in Hamadan province, serving as the capital of the province, county, and district. As of the 2016 Iranian census, it had a po ...

, Mah Nahavand, and

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

, corresponding to the ancient region of

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

. ''Fahlaviyat'' is an Arabicized form of the Persian word Pahlavi, which originally meant

Parthia Parthia ( ''Parθava''; ''Parθaw''; ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemeni ...

n, but now came to mean "heroic, old, ancient." According to the historians Siavash Lornejad and Ali Doostzadeh, the ''Fahlaviyat'' used in Azerbaijan was called Old Azeri. In some texts, ''Fahlaviyat'' has been called ''Awrama''n as well. This is because these poems were sung to melodies known as ''Awraman'' or ''ōrāmanān'', which appears to be linked to the name of the Avroman region in

Kurdistan Kurdistan (, ; ), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo- cultural region in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. G ...

. ''Fahlaviyat'', which was descended from

Median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

dialects, had been substantially impacted by the

Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...

, and also had linguistic similarities with the

Parthian language The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi and Pahlawānīg, is an extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language once spoken in Parthia, a region situated in present-day northeastern Iran and Turkmenistan. Parthian was the language of ...

. The oldest ''fahlaviyat''

quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four Line (poetry), lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India ...

was supposedly written in the dialect of Nahavand, by a certain Abu Abbas Nahavandi (died 942/43). Evidence indicates that the Persian Sufis of

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

sang popular lyrical quatrains during their '' sama'' ceremonies in the 9th-century. The language that they sang in were likely not

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, but local Iranian dialects. Poets such as Homam Tabrizi (died 1314/15) and Abd al-Qadir Maraghi (died 1435) wrote in ''fahlaviyat''.

List of authors

The following are some authors whose works are recognized in the general genre of ''fahlaviyat'': * Awhadi Maraghai *

Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani Ayn-al-Qużāt Hamadānī, also spelled Ain-al Quzat Hamedani or ʿAyn-al Qudat Hamadhani (1098–1131) (), was a Persian jurist, mystic, philosopher, poet and mathematician who was executed at the age of 33. Title ''Ayn-al-Qużat'' in Arab ...

* Baba Tahir *

Safi-ad-din Ardabili Safi-ad-Din Ardabili ( ''Ṣāfī ad-Dīn Isḥāq Ardabīlī''; 1252/3 – 1334) was a poet, Mysticism, mystic, teacher and Sufism, Sufi master. He was the son-in-law and spiritual heir of the Sufi master Zahed Gilani, whose order—the Zahediye ...

* Mama Esmat Tabrizi * Maghrebi Tabrizi * Humam-i Tabrizi * Bundar Razi * '' Safina-yi Tabriz''

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fahlaviyat Persian poetry