(, ) is an Arabic word for a non-Arab individual, especially a Persians.
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:
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mustaʿjim: mute, incapable of speech
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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)".
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inʿajama: (of speech) to be incomprehensible
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istaʿjama: to fall silent; to be unable to speak
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'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".
Original meaning
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".
[, Encyclopædia Iranica, p.700.] 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
(), which means "Lands of Persia", and using () 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,
Zoroastrianism, 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
Persian people,
Byzantine Greeks, Ethiopians,
Armenians,
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 Persian people, 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 language and Fula language 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.[ The Book.documents on the Persian gulf's name.names of Iran pp.23–60 Molk e Ajam= Persi . Molk-e-Jam and Molouk -e-Ajam(Persian Kings). عجم تهران 2010 ]
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."
["Ajam", Encyclopædia Iranica, Bosworth] 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.
[
Jalal Khaleqi Motlaq, "Asadi Tusi", Majaleyeh Daneshkadeyeh Adabiyaat o Olum-e Insani ''Literature, Ferdowsi University, 1357 (1978). page 71.]
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)."
[Ashraf, Ahmad, "Iranian Identity iii. Medieval Islamic Period", Encyclopedia Iranica]
As a pejorative for Persians
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 (
mawla, 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.
Other non-Arabs
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
Persian people,
Byzantine Greeks, Ethiopians,
Armenians,
Assyrian people,
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 Persian people, 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 language and Fula language 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 Iranian peoples 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
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The ethnic Persian community in Kuwait and Bahrain are called Ajami.
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'Ajam was used by the Ottoman Turks to refer to the Safavid dynasty.
[Martin van Bruinessen. "Nationalisme kurde et ethnicités intra-kurdes", Peuples Méditerranéens no. 68-69 (1994), 11–37.]
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The Abbasid Iraq Al-Ajam province (centered around Arax and Shirvan).
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The Kurdish historian, Sharaf Khan Bidlisi, uses the term Ajam in his book Sharafnama (1597 CE) to refer to the Shia Persians.
[Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Stefan Sperl, The Kurds, 250 pp., Routledge, 1992,
]
(see p.38)
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In the Eastern Anatolia Region, Azerbaijanis are sometimes referred to as acem (which is the Turkish translation of Ajam).
[ Qarslı bir azərbaycanlının ürək sözləri. Erol Özaydın]
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Mahmood Reza Ghods claimed modern Sunni Kurds of Iran use this term to denote Persians, Azeris and Southern Kurds.
[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.] According to Shahrzad Mojab, Ecem (derived from the Arabic ‘ajam) is used by Kurds to refer to Persians and, sometimes, Turks.
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Adjam, Hajjam, Ajaim, Ajami, Akham (as Axam in Spain for ajam), Ayam in Europe.
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In Turkish language, the word acem refers to Iran and Iranian people.
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It is also used as a surname.
See also
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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
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Nemets, a Slavic term for Germans that figuratively ascribes muteness to them in the context of their non-Slavic native language
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Goy
External links
