On March 1, 2024, the Circle for Late Antique and Medieval Studies was proud to present a lecture by Étienne de la Vaissière, professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Early New Persian was the language of the Early ʿAbbāsid army, an evolved form of the specific koinè of Marw of the first half of the 8th c. The historical and vocabulary data perfectly fit what is known of the situation in Marw. Marw was the only Northern, Parthian-speaking, region of Iran, twice very heavily manned from the South by soldiers speaking Middle Persian and then soldiers speaking Arabic. It was also the origin of ʿAbbāsid power and its armies were twice victorious, in 749 and 811. Their heirs, the ʿAbbāsid soldiers and administrators were in a perfect position to unify the various Iranian koinè of Iran around their own. 

Étienne de la Vaissière, professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, is a specialist of the social and economic history of Central Asia in the early medieval period. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Sogdian Traders (Brill 2005) and Samarcande et Samarra: Élites d’Asie centrale dans l’empire abbasside (Peeters, 2007). He has just published Asie centrale 300-850. Des routes et des royaumes (Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2024) a comprehensive history of Central Asia from the 4th to the 9th c. He has excavated or conducted surveys in Uzbekistan, in Afghanistan and Mongolia.