Old Azeri
Some linguists believe the southern Tati varieties of Iranian Azerbaijan around Takestan such as the Harzandi and Karingani dialects to be remnants of Old Azeri.
According to Vladimir Minorsky, around the 9th or 10th century:The original sedentary population of Azarbayjan consisted of a mass of peasants and at the time of the Arab conquest was compromised under the semi-contemptuous term of Uluj ("non-Arab")—somewhat similar to the raya (*ri’aya) of the Ottoman empire.
They spoke a number of dialects (Adhari, Talishi) of which even now there remains some islets surviving amidst the Turkish speaking population.
[8]Clifford Edmund Bosworth says: We need not take seriously Moqaddasī’s assertion that Azerbaijan had seventy languages, a state of affairs more correctly applicable to the Caucasus region to the north; but the basically Iranian population spoke an aberrant, dialectical form of Persian (called by Masʿūdī al-āḏarīya) as well as standard Persian, and the geographers state that the former was difficult to understand.
[3] According to Gilbert Lazard, "Azarbaijan was the domain of Adhari, an important Iranian dialect which Masudi mentions together with Dari and Pahlavi.
[12] Ebn al-Moqaffa’ (died 142/759) is quoted by ibn Al-Nadim in his famous Al-Fihrist as stating that Azerbaijan, Nahavand, Rayy, Hamadan and Esfahan speak Fahlavi (Pahlavi) and collectively constitute the region of Fahlah.
Hamzeh Isfahani writes in the book Al-Tanbih ‘ala Hoduth alTashif that five "tongues" or dialects, were common in Sassanian Iran: Fahlavi, Dari, Persian, Khuzi and Soryani.
Khuzi is associated with the cities of Khuzistan where kings and dignitaries used it in private conversation and during leisure time, in the bath houses for instance.
Ibn Hawqal states:[3]The language of the people of Azerbaijan and most of the people of Armenia is Iranian (al-farssya), which binds them together, while Arabic is also used among them; among those who speak al-faressya (here he seemingly means Persian, spoken by the elite of the urban population), there are few who do not understand Arabic; and some merchants and landowners are even adept in it".Ibn Hawqal mentions that some areas of Armenia are controlled by Muslims and others by Christians.
[15] Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Al-Masudi (896-956), the Arab historian states: The Persians are a people whose borders are the Mahat Mountains and Azarbaijan up to Armenia and Aran, and Bayleqan and Darband, and Ray and Tabaristan and Masqat and Shabaran and Jorjan and Abarshahr, and that is Nishabur, and Herat and Marv and other places in land of Khorasan, and Sejistan and Kerman and Fars and Ahvaz...All these lands were once one kingdom with one sovereign and one language...although the language differed slightly.
[17] Al-Moqaddasi also writes on the general region of Armenia, Arran and Azerbaijan and states:[18] They have big beards, their speech is not attractive.
The name Dari comes from the word (دربار) which refers to the royal court, where many of the poets, protagonists, and patrons of the literature flourished.
Qatran Tabrizi (11th century) has an interesting couplet mentioning this fact:[22] بلبل به سان مطرب بیدل فراز گل گه پارسی نوازد، گاهی زند دری Translation: The nightingale is on top of the flower like a minstrel who has lost her/his heart
[23] Hamdullah Mustuwafi (14th century) mentions a sentence in the language of Tabriz:[24] تبارزه اگر صاحب حُسنی را با لباس ناسزا یابند، گویند "انگور خلوقی بی چه در، درّ سوه اندرین"؛ یعنی انگور خلوقی( انگوری مرغوب) است در سبد دریده "The Tabrizians have a phrase when they see a fortunate and wealthy man in a uncouth clothes: "He is like fresh grapes in a ripped fruit basket."
The last couplet reads:[26] «وهار و ول و دیم یار خوش بی // اوی یاران مه ول بی مه وهاران» Transliteration: Wahar o wol o Dim yaar khwash Bi Awi Yaaraan, mah wul Bi, Mah Wahaaraan Translation: The Spring and Flowers and the face of the friend are all pleasant But without the friend, there are no flowers or a spring.
Another portion of the Safina contains a direct sentence in what the author has called "Zaban-i-Tabriz" (dialect/language of Tabriz)[28] دَچَان چوچرخ نکویت مو ایر رهشه مهر دورش چَو ِش دَ کارده شکویت ولَول ودَارد سَر ِ یَوه پَری بقهر اره میر دون جو پور زون هنرمند پروکری اَنزوتون منی که آن هزیوه اکیژ بحتَ ورامرو کی چرخ هانزمَویتی ژژور منشی چو بخت اهون قدریوه نه چرخ استه نبوتی نه روزو ورو فوتی زو ِم چو واش خللیوه زمم حو بورضی ربوه A sentence in the dialect of Tabriz (the author calls Zaban-i-Tabriz (dialect/language of Tabriz) recorded and also translated by Ibn Bazzaz Ardabili in the Safvat al-Safa:[29] «علیشاه چو در آمد گستاخ وار شیخ را در کنار گرفت و گفت حاضر باش بزبان تبریزی گو حریفر ژاته یعنی سخن بصرف بگو حریفت رسیده است.
Four quatrains titled fahlavvviyat from Khwaja Muhammad Kojjani (died 677/1278-79); born in Kojjan or Korjan, a village near Tabriz, recorded by Abd-al-Qader Maraghi.
[23][30] A sample of one these poems رُورُم پَری بجولان نو کُو بَمَن وُرارده وی خَد شدیم بدامش هیزا اَوُو وُرارده A Ghazal and fourteen quatrains under the title of fahlaviyat by the poet Maghrebi Tabrizi (died 809/1406-7).
