Persian language explained to kids

Persian is the official language of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. It is also spoken in a number of other countries, including Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. Persian belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is closely related to languages such as Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. There are two main dialects of Persian: Iranian Persian and Afghan Persian. Iranian Persian is the official language of Iran and is spoken by the majority of Persian speakers. Afghan Persian is spoken in Afghanistan and is the native language of a minority of Persian speakers. Persian is written in the Perso-Arabic script, which is also used for writing Arabic, Urdu, and a number of other languages. The earliest known examples of Persian literature date back to the 9th century CE. Persian literature includes a wide variety of genres, including poetry, prose, philosophy, history, and theology. Some of the most famous Persian poets include Ferdowsi, Rumi, Hafez, and Omar Khayyam.