Kerman Xv.—Xvi
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
KERMAN XV.—XVI. LANGUAGES 301 968. Robert Joseph Dillon, “Carpet Capitalism and the Trade of the Kerman Consular District for the Year Craft Involution in Kirman. Iran: A Study in Economic 1902-03 by Major P. Sykes, His Majesty’s Consul,” Anthropology,” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1976. House of Commons Pari iamentary Papers, Annual Series Arthur Cecil Edwards, The Persian Carpet: A Survey of o f Trade Reports, Cd.1386, 1903. Idem, “Report for the the Carpet-Weaving Industry of Persia, London, 1975. Year 1905-06 on the Trade of the Kerman Consular Dis A. H. Gleadowe-Newcomen, Report on the Commercial trict,” House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, Annual Mission to South-Eastern Persia During 1904-1905, Series of Trade Reports, Cd.2682, 1906. Ahmad-'Ali Calcutta, 1906. James Gustafson, “Opium, Carpets, and Khan Waziri Kermani, Jografia-ye Kerman, ed. Moham- Constitutionalists: A Social History of the Elite House mad-Ebrahim Bastani Parizi, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1974. holds of Kirman, 1859-1914,” Ph.D. diss., University of Hans E. Wulff, The Traditional Crafts of Persia: Their Washington, 2010. Leonard Michael Helfgott, Ties that Development, Technology, and Influence on Eastern and Bind: A Social History o f the Iranian Carpet, Washing Western Civilization, London, 1966. ton, D.C., 1 994. L. Haworth, “Diary for the Week Ending (J a m e s M. G u s t a f s o n ) November 12 1905,” U. K. National Archives, Kew, F.O. 248/846. International Monetary Fund, Islamic Republic of Iran—Statistical Appendix, IMF Country Report No. 04/307, September, 2004. x v i. L a n g u a g e s Annette Ittig, “The Kirmani Boom: A Study in Carpet Entrepreneurship,” Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies The province of Kerman is characterized by two indige 1, 1985, pp. 111-23. Idem, “Ziegler’s Sultanabad Car nous, “Southwest” Iranian languages, Persian in the moun pet Enterprise,” Iranian Studies 25/1-2, 1992, pp. 103- tainous north and Garmsiri in the lowland south (Figure 35. Engelbert Kaempfer, Amoenitates exoticae (bk. 1), supplemented by the Median-type dialects spoken by 1), ed and tr. Walther Hinz as Am Hofe des Persischen the Zoroastrian and Jewish residents of the city of Ker Grosskônigs (1684-85), Leipzig, 1940. 'Adrà Kazâ’eli, man, and possibly by Turkish residues in western-central “Barrasi-e sanâye'-e nassâji-e Kerman,” in Si goftar dar districts. bara-ye Kerman, Kerman, 1978, pp. 417-55. Charles This article is divided into four sections: (1) Histori Kurzman, “Weaving Iran into the Tree of Nations,” cal perspective; (2) varieties of Persian; (3) Garmsiri; (4) IJMES 37, 2005, pp. 137-66. James Henry Linton, Per Abbreviations, sources. sian Sketches, London, 1923. Rudi Matthee, “The East India Company Trade in Kerman Wool, 1658-1730,” HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE in Jean Calmard, ed., Études Safavides: Motâla’ât-e Unlike the three historical super-provinces of Iran, Fars, Safawi, Paris and Tehran, 1993, pp. 343-83. Mirzâ Rezâ Media, and Khorasan, whose language histories are rela Mohandes, “Safar-nâma-ye Mirzâ Rezâ Mohandes: tively well known, at least in outline, the language his Kermân, Yazd, Sirâz, BuiSehr 1322 hejri qamari,” in tory of Kerman can only be conjectured on account of the Majid Nikpur, ed., Mallahân-e kak va Sayyàhân-e aflâk, paucity of documentation. The pre-historic civilization of Kerman, 2007. Nâzem-al-Eslâm Kermâni, Tarik-e Jiroft (q. v.), one of the oldest on the Iranian plateau, left no bidâri-e Iranian, ed. 'Ali-Akbar Sa'idi Sirjâni, 5 vols, in written record, yet may have left a substratum in toponymy 2, Tehran, 1983. and flora, which calls for detailed studies. It is known, how SirUs Parhâm, NamâyeSgâh-e naqsa-ye qàli-e Kermân, ever, that the Carmania (q .v .) of Classical authors was well Tehran, 1977. Idem, “NaqSahâ-ye qâli-e Kermân,” integrated into the Iranian-speaking domain, to the extent Râhnemâ-ye ketâb 21, 1978, pp. 339-45. Marco Polo, that its people had customs and language similar to those The Travels o f Marco Polo, 3rd ed., ed. Hugh Murray, of the Persians and Medes. The reports on Carmania point Edinburgh, 1845. J. R. Preece, “Report of a Journey to the southern, hot climate region of Kerman adjoining the Made to Yezd, Kerman, and Shiraz, and on the Trade, Strait of Hormuz (q.v.), within the “date palm zone” (for &c., of the Consular District of Ispahan” (27 Feb. 1894), references, see Brunner), as does a Darius inscription (DSf House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, Reports 34-35; Kent, pp. 143-44) in citing Karmana as a source of from H. M. Diplomatic and Consular Officers Abroad yaka. a timber identified by Ilya Gershevitch (1957) with on Trade and Finance, C.7293, 1894. A. Seyf, “Car jag “sissoo tree,” which is native to the southern districts pet Manufactures of Iran in the Nineteenth Century,” of Kerman, from Jiroft to BaSakerd. Classical authors Middle Eastern Studies 26/2, 1990, pp. 204-13. Georg further observe that “the Persians” already had settled on Stôber, “The Nomads of Kerman: On the Economy of littoral Carmania (cf. Brunner). Within this context, one Nomadism,” in Richard Tapper and Jon Thompson, eds.. may surmise an ancient time-depth for language contiguity The Nomadic Peoples o f Iran, London, 2002, pp. 252- that exists today between the Garmsiri dialects of southern 59. Percy Molesworth Sykes, "Report on the Trade and Kerman (see section 3, below) and the Larestani group of Commerce of the Consular Districts of Kerman and Per dialects in southern Fars. sian Beluchistan from March, 1894 to March, 1895,” The Arabic geographies of the 10th century provide brief House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, Reports but useful information regarding the languages spoken in from H. M. Diplomatic and Consular Officers Abroad the province of Kerman. They describe the Kuffis (see on Trade and Finance, C.7919, 1896. Idem, "Report on q o f s ) as inhabitants of the region between Jabal Barez Figure 1. Map of the area populated by speakers of Kermani Persian (north) and Garmsiri (south), separated by the curve in between. (The base map is from Google Earth) KERMAN XVI. LANGUAGES 303 and the Gulf of Oman, and associate their language with to Fars, where the QaSqa’i tribal confederation remained that of the Baluch (Bosworth). As the Kufci habitat nearly intact until recently, and to Azerbaijan, which has fully matches Kerman’s lowland south, their language could be shifted to Turkish. the precursor of the current Garmsiri dialects, which also The last but not the least historical paradox poses itself in share significant phonological features with Baluchi. This the languages of the Zoroastrian and Jewish communities conjecture, however, becomes quite improbable, consider of Kerman. The city had, until lately, sizable quarters pop ing that the warlike Kufcis could only be adversary to the ulated by the two religious minorities, who spoke Median intensive agricultural and commercial economy practiced languages of the Central-Plateau type not otherwise indig in the Halilrud valley, centered at Jiroft (cf. Le Strange, enous to Kerman. The striking similarity between the pp. 314-16). On the other hand, the Kufcis may only have Kermani and Yazdi Zoroastrian dialects (see b e h d in a n left a trace in the dialect named South Baükardi by Ilya d ia l e c t ) and between the Kermani and Yazdi Jewish dia Gershevitch (1959). lects (Lazard, 1981; Borjian, sec. 6.5 and Table 7) leaves The early Islamic geographers further state that the little doubt about the recentness of linguistic exchanges inhabitants of Kerman spoke an intelligible Persian that between the two cities. Historical records suggest a Jew was close to Khorasani (Estakri; Moqaddasi, apud Kanlari, ish population flow from Yazd to Kerman (Yeroushalmi, I, p. 286). These statements are of utmost importance, for p. 200; English, p. 42; cf. xiv, above), with the implica Kermani Persian remains otherwise undescribed, much tion that their Median dialect followed the same path. This less documented, down to the 20th century. Subsequently, justification does not seem to hold for the Zoroastrians. we face a dark millennium between (1) the 10th century, While there was an influx of Zoroastrians into Kerman, in when, according to the geographers, New Persian had the early 18th century, it was not particularly from central already become indigenized in highland Kerman, as it was Iran, but from Sistan, whose Zoroastrian community were in Khorasan, from which a standard, literary New Persian either native to the city or recent immigrants from southern was emerging, and (2) the 20th century, when the gram Khorasan. On the other hand, there existed in the late 16th mar of Kermani Persian, even in distant districts, is hardly century a deep-rooted Zoroastrian community in Kerman, distinguishable from that of Tehran, and many other urban comparable in size with that of Yazd, the other Zoroastrian centers of Iran for that matter. These two ends of the time stronghold in Iran (Ghereghlou). Accordingly, we are left spectrum leave us with little explanation about the period in the dark about the original language of Kermani Zoro in between: neither do the current Kermani vernaculars astrians and the way they adopted their current Median resemble those of Greater Khorasan and Transoxiana in language. A comparative study with Kermani Persian will the latters’ remarkable idiosyncrasies vis-à-vis standard elucidate how early the Behdinan dialect could have been modern Persian, nor does there exist in Persophonic parts implanted in Kerman. of Kerman any residue of pre-Persian languages, as is the case with the Perside dialects in Fárs and the Median dia VARIETIES OF PERSIAN lects in central Iran, the urban centers of which had not The varieties of Persian spoken in the northern parts of given up their Median until after the Mongol period (for Kerman province, from Sahr-e-Babak eastward to Fahraj Isfahan, see Borjian, 2014).