IndoPersian

Indo-Persian refers to the historical and cultural synthesis between Persian and South Asian civilizations, especially in the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The term denotes the Persianate world in which Persian language, literature, aesthetics, and administrative practices shaped courts, learning, and everyday life in regions that are now India, Pakistan, and parts of Afghanistan.

Persian served as the lingua franca of administration and high culture in many Muslim-ruled states, including the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. Courts patronized poets, historians, scientists, and artisans who produced Persian chronicles, literary works, and scholarship, while Persian-based aesthetics influenced music, theater, and book design.

The influence extended to language, with extensive Persian loanwords entering Hindustani (the precursor of Urdu and Hindi) and shaping literary forms such as the ghazal and panegyric. Many writers produced works in both Persian and vernacular languages, fostering bilingual or bidialectal literary cultures.

Indo-Persian art and architecture blended Persian miniature painting, calligraphy, and garden design with Indian motifs. Architectural features such as the chahar-bagh garden, ornate iwans, and intricate tilework became common in royal buildings and mosques across the Mughal and Deccan courts.

With political shifts in the 18th and 19th centuries, Persian gradually declined as an administrative language, though it remained a language of literature and scholarship. Modern scholarship treats Indo-Persian history as a case study of cultural diffusion and exchange that left a lasting imprint on South Asian languages, literature, and the arts.