The Razi dialect was a
northwestern Iranian language
The Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranic languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median.
Languages
The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, rather than a g ...
spoken in the city of
Ray, located on the southern slopes of the
Alborz
The Alborz ( fa, البرز) range, also spelled as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran that stretches from the border of Azerbaijan along the western and entire southern coast of the Caspian Sea and finally runs nort ...
mountain range situated near
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
, the capital of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. It was most likely a continuation of the
Median language
The Median language (also Medean or Medic) was the language of the Medes. It is an Old Iranian language and classified as belonging to the Northwestern Iranian subfamily, which includes many other languages such as Old Azeri, Gilaki, Mazandara ...
. The language was seemingly very similar to 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 s ...
. The only surviving text written in Razi is by
Bundar Razi (died 1010/11), a
Shi'ite
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...
poet who was part of the court of
Majd al-Dawla
Abu Talib Rustam ( fa, ابو طالب رستم; 997–1029), commonly known by his ''laqab'' (honorific title) of Majd al-Dawla (), was the last ''amir'' (ruler) of the Buyid amirate of Ray from 997 to 1029. He was the eldest son of Fakhr al-Daw ...
(), the ''
amir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
'' (ruler) of the
Buyid
The Buyid dynasty ( fa, آل بویه, Āl-e Būya), also spelled Buwayhid ( ar, البويهية, Al-Buwayhiyyah), was a Shia Iranian dynasty of Daylamite origin, which mainly ruled over Iraq and central and southern Iran from 934 to 1062. Coupl ...
branch of Ray. As Ray was located in the historical region of
Media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
, its local language in the pre-Islamic era, according to the modern historian Hassan Rezai Baghbidi, must have been Median.
The oldest surviving source that refers to the Razi dialect is a book that the Arab geographer
al-Muqaddasi
Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr al-Maqdisī ( ar, شَمْس ٱلدِّيْن أَبُو عَبْد ٱلله مُحَمَّد ابْن أَحْمَد ابْن أَبِي بَكْر ٱلْمَقْدِسِي), ...
(died 991) wrote in the 10th-century;
Some of the words used in the
Tehrani dialect may derive from Razi, such as ''sūsk'' "beetle; cockroach", ''jīrjīrak'' "cricket", ''zālzālak'' "haw(thorn)", and ''vejīn'' "weeding".
References
Sources
* {{cite journal, last=Baghbidi, first=Hassan Rezai, year=2016, title=The Linguistic History of Rayy up to the Early Islamic Period, journal=Der Islam, publisher=De Gruyter, volume=93, issue=2, pages=403–412, doi=10.1515/islam-2016-0034
Northwestern Iranian languages
Extinct languages of Asia