The Dari Language

Dari is the name given to the New Persian literary language at a very early age and was widely used in Arabic (cf. Al-Estakhri, Al-Muqaddasi, and Ibn Hawqal) and Persian texts.

There are different opinions about the origin of the word Dari. The majority of scholars believes that Dari refers to the Persian word dar or darbār (دربار), meaning "Court", as it was the formal language of the Sassanids. The original meaning of the word dari is given in a notice attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (cited by Ibn al-Nadim in Al-Fehrest).

Dari language may refer to the Persian language. Persian (Persian: فارسی Fārsi [fɒːɾˈsiː]) is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran and known by Persian speakers as Farsi or Parsi, Afghanistan (officially known as "Dari Persian" since 1958 for political reasons), Tajikistan (officially known as "Tajik" since the Soviet era), and other countries which historically came under Persian influence.