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ʿAjam (Arabic: عجم, lit. 'mute') is an Arabic word for a non-Arab, especially a Persian. 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. Since the early Muslim conquests, it has been adopted in various non-Arabic languages, such as Turkish, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Kurdish, Malay, Sindhi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Kashmiri, and Swahili. Today, the terms ʿAjam and ʿAjamī 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 ʿAjamī (عجمي), 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:

• 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". Its development from meaning "mute" to meaning "non-Arabic-speaking" is somewhat analogous to that of the word barbarian (< Greek βαρβαρόφωνος barbarophonos), or Nemtsy for Germans in Slavic languages, which descend from Proto-Slavic *němьcь, itself from *němъ meaning "mute". (From there also comes النمسا (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". 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. According to the book Documents on the Persian Gulf's name the Arabs likewise referred to Iran and the Persian (Sassanian) Empire as Bilād Fāris (Arabic: بلاد فارس), which means "Lands of Persia", and using Bilād Ajam (Arabic: بلاد عجم) 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. 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, Egyptians, and Berbers.

During the early age of the Caliphates, Ajam was often synonymous with "foreigner" or "stranger". 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. 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 sajjad al Ajami (Ajami carpet), Persian cats as Ajami cats, and Persian kings as Ajami kings.

Pejorative use

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. 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). 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.

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 (taswīa) with the Arabs, if not their superiority (tafżīl) over them (a process seen in the literary movement of the Šoʿūbīya). 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, "ʿAjam" became a simple ethnic and geographical designation." 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. Accordingly: "territorial notions of 'Iran' are reflected in such terms as irānšahr, irānzamin, or Faris, the Arabicized form of Pārs/Fārs (Persia). The ethnic notion of 'Iranian' is denoted by the Persian words Pārsi or Irāni, and the Arabic term Ahl Faris (inhabitants of Persia) or ʿAjam, referring to non-Arabs, but primarily to Persians as in molk-e ʿAjam (Persian kingdom) or moluk-e ʿAjam (Persian kings)."

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. 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, Ajam was often synonymous with "foreigner" or "stranger". 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. In Zanzibar ajami and ajamo 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 Ajam to refer to the Persians.

In the Persian Gulf region today, people still refer to Persians/Iranians as Ajami, referring to Persian carpets as sajjad al Ajami (Ajami carpet), Persian cat as Ajami cats, and Persian kings as Ajami kings.

Notable examples

• The ethnic Persian community in Kuwait and Bahrain are called Ajami. 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, 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, it was also considered derogatory by some, those of a Sunni background (particularly Achomis of a Sunni background) are often intentionally conflated with Huwala Arabs, and sometimes refer to their language as either "Ajami" or "Holi."
• 'Ajam was used by the Ottoman Turks to refer to the Safavid dynasty.
• 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.
• In the Eastern Anatolia Region, Azerbaijanis are sometimes referred to as acem (which is the Turkish translation of Ajam).
• Mahmood Reza Ghods claimed modern Sunni Kurds of Iran use this term to denote Persians, Azeris and Southern Kurds. According to Sharhzad Mojab, Ecem (derived from the Arabic ‘ajam) is used by Kurds to refer to Persians and, sometimes, Turks.
• 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.
• It is also used as a surname.

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
• Ethnocentrism
  • Arabization
• Racism in the Arab world
  • Anti-Iranian sentiment in the Arab world

References

1. "Sakhr: Multilingual Dictionary". Retrieved 6 February 2017.
2. ^ Lewis, Bernard (11 June 1991). The Political Language of Islam. University Of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226476936.
3. "تاريخ العرق الفارسي في البحرين" [History of the Persian race in Bahrain] (PDF). Al-Waqt (1346). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-06-12.
4. Frye, Richard Nelson; Zarrinkoub, Abdolhosein (1975). "Section on The Arab Conquest of Iran". Cambridge History of Iran. 4. London: 46.
5. "Sakhr: Lisan al-Arab". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
6. "Sakhr: Multilingual Dictionary". Retrieved 6 February 2017.
7. ^ "Ajam", Encyclopædia Iranica, p.700. Archived 2007-12-15 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^ The Book.documents on the Persian gulf's name.names of Iran Archived 2011-04-03 at the Wayback Machine pp.23–60 Molk e Ajam= Persi . Molk-e-Jam and Molouk -e-Ajam(Persian Kings). عجم تهران 2010 ISBN 978-600-90231-4-1
9. Firdawsī; Davis, Dick (2006). Shahnameh: the Persian Book of Kings. New York: Viking.
10. Astren, Fred (February 1, 2004). Karaite Judaism and Historical Understanding. Univ of South Carolina Press. pp. 33–35. ISBN 1-57003-518-0.
11. "Ajam", Encyclopædia Iranica, Bosworth

12. گفتمش چو دیوانه بسی گفتی و اکنون
    پاسخ شنو ای بوده چون دیوان بیابان
    عیب ار چه کنی اهل گرانمایه عجم را
    چه بوید شما خود گلهء غر شتربان

    Jalal Khaleqi Motlaq, "Asadi Tusi", Majaleyeh Daneshkadeyeh Adabiyaat o Olum-e Insani , Ferdowsi University, 1357 (1978). page 71.

13. Ashraf, Ahmad, "Iranian Identity iii. Medieval Islamic Period", Encyclopedia Iranica
14. ^ "تاريخ العرق الفارسي في البحرين" [History of the Persian race in Bahrain] (PDF). Al-Waqt (1346). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-06-12.
15. Yateem, Abdullah (2014). "Religion, Identity and Citizenship: The Predicament of Shiʿa Fundamentalism in Bahrain" (PDF). Central European Journal of International & Security Studies. 8 (3): 104.
16. ^ Stokes, Corinne (2023-12-01). "Performing Khaleejiness on Instagram: Authenticity, hybridity, and belonging". Arabian Humanities. Revue internationale d'archéologie et de sciences sociales sur la péninsule Arabique/International Journal of Archaeology and Social Sciences in the Arabian Peninsula. 18 (18). doi:10.4000/cy.11297. ISSN 2308-6122.
17. "العجم السنة في الخليج لم يواجهوا تمييزاً عرقيا" [Sunni Ajams in the Gulf did not face racial discrimination]. مركز المسبار للدراسات والبحوث (in Arabic). 2013-09-15. Archived from the original on 2023-06-10. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
18. Martin van Bruinessen. "Nationalisme kurde et ethnicités intra-kurdes", Peuples Méditerranéens no. 68-69 (1994), 11–37.
19. Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Stefan Sperl, The Kurds, 250 pp., Routledge, 1992, ISBN 978-0-415-07265-6 (see p.38)
20. (in Turkish) Qarslı bir azərbaycanlının ürək sözləri. Erol Özaydın
21. 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.
22. Mojab, Shahrzad (Summer 2015). "Deçmewe Sablax by Shilan Hasanpour (review)". The Middle East Journal. 69: 488–489.
23. "Turkish Language Association: Acem".
24. "Names Database: Ajam Surname". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2017.

External links

• Unearthing a Long Ignored African Writing System, One Researcher Finds African History, by Africans

• Arabic words and phrases
• Pejorative terms for strangers and foreigners
• Persian communities outside Iran
• Ethno-cultural designations
• Exonyms
• Ethnic and religious slurs
• Anti-Iranian sentiments
• Racism in the Middle East
• People of the medieval Islamic world by ethnicity
• Ethnic supremacy