Farsi

Language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family, and the official language of Iran (formerly Persia). It is also spoken in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Tajikistan.

Farsi is the language of the province of Fars (Persia proper). It is written in Arabic script, from right to left, and has a large mixture of Arabic religious, philosophical, and technical vocabulary.

Many Persian words have entered English through other languages. For example, paradise comes originally from the Old Persian word pairidaeza for park or pleasure ground, but passed through Greek paradeisos, Latin paradisus and French paradis before reaching English.