How Iran's Bureaucracy and State Administration Became Arabized

The more we search through the forgotten writings of Iranian history, the more we realize how little we know about our country's past. We also come to understand the hardships and suffering our ancestors endured at the hands of rulers in their efforts to preserve their language, script, culture, and national identity.

It cannot be overlooked that, among all the lands conquered by the Arabs, Iran was the only one that, at the cost of the blood of countless brave sons shed in wars and struggles for liberation, managed to preserve its diverse national and cultural heritage. Unlike Egypt, the Levant (the former Eastern Roman Empire—today's Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon), and parts of North Africa, Iran did not entirely lose its ancient identity.

Iranian culture was so vast, ancient, rich, and magnificent that what others possessed seemed insignificant by comparison. In his renowned book Two Centuries of Silence, Dr. Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub writes:

"In those days, when Barbad and Nakisa filled the halls of the Sasanian kings with Pahlavi melodies and royal songs, the Arabic tongue in the mouths of the rulers of the desert was drier and more barren than the scorching sands themselves. Throughout those endless deserts, if any sound echoed, it was the song of war and the cry of brigandage. No wisdom or counsel flowed from the tongues of that people, nor love or tenderness from their lips. Their poetry described camels, and their oratory incited war. In contrast, Iran's language was filled with meaning and wisdom. They possessed elegant books of counsel and delightful sayings, recited sacred scriptures and heavenly hymns, and composed beautiful stories of ancient kings in the Khwaday-Namag (Book of Kings)... Some books report, in the words of Ruzbeh son of Daduyeh, that the kings of Iran spoke Pahlavi in public assemblies, Khuzi (the language of Khuzestan) in private with the nobles, Dari was the language of the people and those at court, and the priests spoke Persian."

At the time the Arabs of the Hejaz conquered new territories, they had no experience whatsoever in the methods and institutions of state administration. For this reason, and out of necessity, they left the existing bureaucratic structures of the conquered lands—including Iran—intact.

The administrative system of Iran continued to function under Iranian secretaries and in the Sasanian Pahlavi language until the governorship of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi in Iraq.

At that time, an Iranian secretary named Salih ibn Abd al-Rahman—whose father had been among the captives from Sistan—served under Zadan-Farrukh, Hajjaj's Iranian chief administrator. Fluent in both Persian and Arabic, Salih, at Hajjaj's insistence, undertook the task of converting the language of the bureaucracy from Pahlavi to Arabic.

Two Centuries of Silence recounts:

"...Hajjaj saw Salih, favored him, honored him, and brought him close. When Zadan-Farrukh was killed, Hajjaj entrusted the administration to Salih. One day, during conversation, Salih mentioned something about his dealings with Zadan-Farrukh. Hajjaj seized upon this and earnestly requested that he translate the bureaucracy from Persian into Arabic. Salih accepted and resolved to carry out the task."

It is said that Mardanshah, the son of Zadan-Farrukh, made every effort to dissuade Salih, but to no avail.

When Mardanshah realized that Salih was determined to replace Pahlavi with Arabic as the language of administration, he asked him:

"When you write the numbers in Arabic, how will you write dahviyah and bistviyah (Persian numerical expressions)?"

Salih replied:

"I shall write 'ten' and 'half of ten.'"

Mardanshah then asked:

"How will you write the word vid?"

Salih answered:

"I shall write ayḍan ('also') instead."

Angered, Mardanshah exclaimed:

"May God uproot your own lineage, for you have uprooted the Persian language!"

The Iranians reportedly offered Salih one hundred thousand dirhams to abandon the project, but he refused.

Thus, according to this account, the first blow was struck against the language of the Iranians—the language of their forefathers.

Gradually, Salih's policy spread throughout the government offices of other Iranian cities until Arabic completely replaced Persian as the official language of the state.

Sadly, the author argues, the presence of a bloodthirsty ruler like Hajjaj in Mesopotamia (Iraq)—whose northwestern region had once been the capital of the Iranian Empire before the Arab conquest and afterward became the gateway to Iran's southern frontiers—was one of the greatest misfortunes that compounded the devastation brought by the conquest.

The author then cites another historical episode:

"When Qutaybah ibn Muslim, Hajjaj's general, conquered Khwarazm for the second time, he executed everyone who knew the Khwarazmian script or possessed knowledge of the region's history, sciences, and traditions. He killed the priests and religious leaders, burned and destroyed all their books, until gradually the people became illiterate, losing their script and literary tradition, and most of their history disappeared into oblivion."

Another account of Hajjaj's brutality in Iran follows:

"When Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, the ruthless Arab commander, died in the year 95 AH after twenty years as governor of the eastern provinces of the Islamic Caliphate (Iran), apart from those killed in warfare, he had executed more than one hundred and twenty thousand Iranians. Fifty thousand men and thirty thousand women remained imprisoned under his authority. Their food consisted of barley bread mixed with ashes and salt; anyone who ate it soon found their face turning black."

During the first two or three centuries following the Arab conquest, many Pahlavi books containing history, literature, philosophy, treaties, and scientific knowledge were burned or otherwise destroyed. Others that survived were translated into Arabic.

The author notes that merely reading the titles of these works reminds us of the immense intellectual and cultural treasures our ancestors offered to humanity.

Among these works were:

• Khwaday-Namag (Book of Kings)

• Siyar al-Muluk (Lives of Kings)

• Siyar al-Muluk al-Furs (Lives of the Persian Kings)

• History of the Persian Kings

• Life of the Persians

• The Story of Alexander

• Bilawhar and Budhasaf

• Book of Images

• Book of al-Saksikin

• Book of Customs and Calendar

• The Story of Bahram Chobin

• The Story of Rostam and Esfandiyar

• The Story of Piran Viseh

• The Story of Dara and the Golden Idol

• Zadan-Farrukh's Book on Educating His Son

• Khosrow's Testament to His Son Hormizd and Hormizd's Reply

• Ardashir's Testament to His Son Shapur

• The Book of Mazdak

• The Book of the Chief Mobad on Judgments, Ethics, and Customs

• The Life of Ardashir

• The Book of Bonyan-Dokht

• The Book of Bahram-Dokht

• Bahram Gur's Manual of Archery

• The Art of Polo

• The Book of Veterinary Medicine

• The Royal Astronomical Tables

• The Deeds of Anushirvan

• The Story of the City of Baraz and Abruviz

• The Book of Lohrasp

• Jamasp's Book on Alchemy

• The Account of Chess

• The Letter of Tansar

• Khosrow and Shirin

and many other books on logic, philosophy, mathematics, agriculture, history, literature, stories, proverbs, ethics, and other subjects.

This article was published in Ordibehesht (May) 2011, on page 8 of issue 253 of the weekly publication Amordad.