| Ajem-Turkic | |
|---|---|
| Ajami Turkic, Middle Azeri, Middle Azerbaijanian | |
| ترکی عجمیTürkī-yi ʿacemī | |
| Region | Iran,Eastern Anatolia,Southern Caucasus,Dagestan |
| Era | 15th—18th centuries Developed intoAzerbaijani |
Turkic
| |
Early form | |
| Perso-Arabic alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
Ajem-Turkic orAjami Turkic[1] (ترکی عجمی;Türkī-yi ʿacemī,[2]lit. 'Persian Turkic'[3] or 'Persian Turkish'),[4] also known asMiddle Azeri[3] orMiddle Azerbaijanian,[4] is theTurkicvernacular spoken inIran between the 15th and 18th centuries. The modernAzerbaijani language is descended from this language.[3]
The term is derived from earlier designations, such aslingua turcica agemica, orTurc Agemi, which was used in agrammar book composed by the French writerCapuchinRaphaël du Mans (died 1696) in 1684. Local texts simply called the languagetürkī.[3] During "theIsfahan phase of theSafavids", it was calledḳızılbaşī in contrast torūmī (Ottoman) andçaġatā’ī (Chagatai), due to its close relation to dialects spoken by theQizilbash.[2]
Ajem-Turkic is descended fromOld Anatolian Turkish, and is part of the southwestern branch ofOghuz languages. The language first appears during the 15th-century inAzerbaijan, easternAnatolia, and Iran. It went through more development under the Turkic dynasties of theAq Qoyunlu (1378–1503) and theQara Qoyunlu (1374–1468), and particularly in Safavid Iran (1501–1736), whose ruling dynasty stemmed from Azerbaijan. Under them, Ajem-Turkic, alongside Persian, was used at the court and in the military, and was alingua franca from northern to southern Iran.[3] According to SwedishTurkologistLars Johanson, Ajemi Turkic was an "Azerbaijaniankoiné" that functioned aslingua franca in theCaucasus region and in southeasternDagestan, and was widely spoken at the court and in the army.[5]
According to É. Á. Csató et al.:[4]
A specific Turkic language was attested in Safavid Persia during the 16th and 17th centuries, a language that Europeans often called Persian Turkish ("Turc Agemi", "lingua turcica agemica"), which was a favourite language at the court and in the army because of the Turkic origins of the Safavid dynasty. The original name was just turki, and so a convenient name might be Turki-yi Acemi. This variety of Persian Turkish must have been also spoken in the Caucasian and Transcaucasian regions, which during the 16th century belonged to both the Ottomans and the Safavids, and were not fully integrated into the Safavid empire until 1606. Though that language might generally be identified as Middle Azerbaijanian, it is not yet possible to define exactly the limits of this language, both in linguistic and territorial respects. It was certainly not homogenous—maybe it was an Azerbaijanian-Ottoman mixed language, as Beltadze (1967:161) states for a translation of the gospels in Georgian script from the 18th century.
Since its appearance, Ajem-Turkic was heavily impacted byPersian, especially in itssyntax. The Persian design of mergingclauses which Ajem-Turkic had inherited from Old Anatolian Turkish was strengthened due to its continuous contact with Persian.[3]
Sources for the study of Ajemi-Turkic include the prose texts of Nishati (fl. 1530–after 1557), theTarih-i Hatai (Tārīkh-i Khatāʾī, 1494/95);Şühedaname (Şühedānāme, 1539); andTezkire-i Şeyh Safi (Tedhkire-i Şeykh Ṣafī, 1542/43).[3]
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