TEHRAN – A survey of Persian inscriptions in Bangladesh has identified and documented almost 120 inscriptions, a member of Iran’s Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism has said.

Presenting the results of this research will provide insight into the history of Bangladesh as the second most populous country in the Islamic world, ILNA quoted Morteza Rezvanfar as saying on Sunday.

It could also shed light on the role of the Persian language, mysticism, and arts in forming Bangladesh’s history in the Islamic era, he added.

It is currently impossible for researchers or organizations to access Persian inscriptions’ technical and content characteristics in the world and it is not even possible to obtain a simple list of them, he mentioned.

Such inscriptions have long been in danger due to various climatic and conservation reasons, and if they are not documented, they will be destroyed like many others, leaving no trace for the future, he explained.

The recent research on Persian inscriptions, however, can shed light on some lesser-known points in the shared history of Iran and Bangladesh, like the introduction of Persian culture and language to Bangladesh, he said.

He also noted that Iranian mystics’ influence on the spread of Islam could also be clarified by analyzing the content of the inscriptions.

Persian language, also called Farsi, is a member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family. Old Persian, spoken until approximately the 3rd century BC, is attested by numerous inscriptions written in cuneiform, the most notable of which is the great monument of Darius I at Bisotun, western Iran.

Middle Persian, spoken from the 3rd century BC to the 9th century CE, is represented by numerous epigraphic texts of Sasanian kings, written in Aramaic script; there is also varied literature in Middle Persian embracing both the Zoroastrian and the Manichaean religious traditions. Pahlavi was the name of the official Middle Persian language of the Sassanian empire, according to Britannica.

ABU/AM