Persian language also known as Farsi (or فارسی, pronounced [fɒːɾˈsiː]) is a part of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran (Persia) and has its name from the capital of the Achaemenid empire, Persis (Fars or Pars). Described as one of the great literatures of mankind, Persian literature has its roots in surviving works of Middle Persian and Old Persian, the latter of which date back as far as 522 BCE. The Perso-Arabic script is abjad (representing only consonants) and is exclusively written cursively. Writing system: Arabic (Persian alphabet), Cyrillic (Tajik alphabet), Hebrew script Official language in: Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan