Ajam
Ajam () is an Arabic word meaning mute, which today refers to someone whose mother tongue is not Arabic. During the Arab conquest of Persia, the term became a racial pejorative. In many languages — including Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Hindi, Kurdish, Gujarati, Malay, Punjabi, and Swahili — "Ajam" and "Ajami" refer to Iran and Iranians respectively. 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: Homophonous words, which may or may not be derived from the same root, include: 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 ). 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". 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 it is very natural that in Arabicizing the words sometimes A is added to the words like Asfehan Isfahan in Arabic from the Persian word "SEPAHAN . As the book explained during the period Iranian Intermezzo native Persian Muslim dynasties the word Ajam and persian both were used to refer to Iranian. Many Arabic sources refer to Persian language as Ajami language or Ajmo. Persian is the official language in Iran as "Parsi" and "Farsi", in Afghanistan as Parsi and Dari, and Tajiki in Tajikistan, Persian in Bahrain is called  Ajami and in Kuwait "Ayami" . In classical Arabic, especially in the first centuries of the Islamic period, the Persian language was called "the language of the Ajam" لسان العجم, and the Iranian people were called the "Ajami" and the persian gulf was called Ajam Gulf, in many books and deed, Tafsir al-Zahak The oldest commentary on Quran wrote on page 524 " In Surah An-Nahl, verse 103, the word Ajami refers to Salman Farsi and says Ajami is the Persians. .also Arabic word for dictionary is mo'jam (moajam) that means definition of the non Arabs(ajam) word. 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, Arameans, Jews, Georgians, Sabians, Samaritans, Egyptians, and Berbers. During the early age of the Caliphates, Ajam was often synonymous with "foreigner" or "stranger". In the 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 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 Persian. In the Persian Gulf region and also the Turks people still refer to Persians as Ajami, referring to Persian carpets as "sajjad al Ajami" (Ajami carpet ), Persian cat 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, Arameans, Jews, Georgians, Sabians, Samaritans, Copts, and Berbers. During the early age of the Caliphates, Ajam was often synonymous with "foreigner" or "stranger". In the 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 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 Persian. pages 22–44 In the Persian Gulf region today, people still refer to Persians as Ajami, referring to Persian carpets as  sajjad al Ajami (Ajami carpet), Persian cat as Ajami cats, and Persian Kings as Ajami kings.