The Razi dialect was a

northwestern Iranian language The Western Iranian languages or Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranian languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median. Languages The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southweste ...

spoken in the city of

Ray Ray or RAY may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), the bony or horny spine on ray-finned fish Science and mathematics * Half-line (geometry) or ray, half of a line split at an ...

, located on the southern slopes of the

Alborz The Alborz ( ) 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 northeast and merge ...

mountain range situated near

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, the capital of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. It was most likely a continuation of the

Median language Median (also Medean or Medic) is an extinct Iranian language which was spoken by the now extinct ancient Medes. It belongs to the Northwestern branch of the Iranian language family, which includes many other much more recently attested and dif ...

. 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 ...

. The only surviving text written in Razi is by

Bundar Razi Bundar Razi () was an Iranian poet of the 10th and 11th centuries, who composed poetry in New Persian and his own local dialect. A native of Ray, Bundar served at the court of the Buyid ruler Majd al-Dawla (). According to the modern historian Ha ...

(died 1010/11), a

Shi'ite Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood to ...

poet who was part of the court of

Majd al-Dawla Abu Talib Rustam (; 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-Dawla (). A weak ruler, he was ...

(), the ''

amir Emir (; ' (), also transliterated as amir, 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 ceremonial authority. The title has ...

'' (ruler) of the

Buyid The Buyid dynasty or Buyid Empire was a Zaydi and later Twelver Shi'a dynasty of Daylamite origin. Founded by Imad al-Dawla, they mainly ruled over central and southern Iran and Iraq from 934 to 1062. Coupled with the rise of other Iranian dyna ...

branch of Ray. As Ray was located in the historical region of

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

, 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-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr, commonly known by the '' nisba'' al-Maqdisi or al-Muqaddasī, was a medieval Arab geographer, author of ''The Best Divisions in the Knowledge of the Regions'' and ''Description of Syri ...

(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

* {{Iranian languages Northwestern Iranian languages Extinct languages of Asia