Persian is a member of the Western Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 110 million people, mainly in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, and also in Uzbekistan, Iraq, Russia, and Azerbaijan. In 2009 there were about 60 million native speakers of Persian and another 50 million second-language speakers.

In Afghanistan, Persian is known as Dari or Dari-Persian, while in Tajikistan it’s known as Tajiki .Parisian language is written in Cuneiform, Phlavi, Manichaean, Avestan, Persian, Cyrillic, Nastaleeq, and Latin Scripts.

Under Mongolian and Turkish rulers, Persian was adopted as the language of government in Turkey, central Asia, and India, where it was used for centuries, and until after 1900 in Kashmir.

The Persian language remained the official language of Jammu and Kashmir for about 750 years. During this period, it influenced the culture, art, and regional languages of the state and due to which Kashmir is called “IRAN-E-SAGEER”.

The Department of Persian, Amar Singh College, was established in the year 1942 and hence It is one of the earliest departments to be established in the college. We offer a variety of programs at the undergraduate level like B.A Minor Course, Ability Enhancement Curriculum Course, Skill Enhancement Course and Multidisciplinary Course from 1st  to 6" Semesters and the students interested in learning a new language can opt for any one of the above mentioned courses. The course curriculum of the department is updated on a regular basis and it has been recently revised in accordance with the provisions of National education Policy 2020.

The primary objective of the courses offered by the department is to introduce the students to various aspects of Persian language, Literature , Culture , History etc so as to enable them to develop a sense of critical appreciation for the forms of literary genres like prose and poetry. The curriculum is designed to accommodate Indo-Persian Literature in addition to Modern and Classical Persian Literature. Care is taken to impart a quality education in a structured manner so as to promote a solid foundational understanding of Persian literature among the students.

The Skill Enhancement Course, Multidisciplinary Course and Ability Enhancement Curriculum Courses are largely oriented towards developing the linguistic accuracy of the students in Modern Spoken Persian and enhance the interpretive skills of the students, improve reading, comprehension and basic writing skills of the students. This is achieved through classroom teaching and classwork activities like oral expression, class projects interviews etc.

The larger goal of the department is to forge a bright future for the students by guiding them in their academic endeavors and preparing them for their respective roles in the society so that they grow as responsible citizens and work towards the upliftment of society.

The activities of department are not limited to teaching alone. A plethora of academic activities like seminars, webinars, memorial lectures and talks on relevant topics related to Persian language and literature are organized in the college from time to time where teachers and research scholars are invited to deliver lectures, whereas educational tours to historical monuments and museums are also organized for the benefit of students.