Middle Persian, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg (Inscriptional Pahlavi script: 𐭯𐭠𐭫𐭮𐭩𐭪, Manichaean script: 𐫛𐫀𐫡𐫘𐫏𐫐, Avestan script: 𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬯𐬍𐬐) in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Persian continued to function as a prestige language. It descended from Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenid Empire and is the linguistic ancestor of Modern Persian, the official language of Iran (also known as Persia), Afghanistan (Dari) and Tajikistan (Tajik).
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Pahlavi language in the context of Late antique literature
Late antique literature is literature that was composed during the period of late antiquity, a period of time that spans from the third to seventh centuries AD. This literature was written in many languages including Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Pahlavi, Arabic, and more.
Despite twentieth-century prejudices about the era as one of a period of decline, literature in late antiquity was highly productive and innovative and brought about new genres of texts, new avenues for literary productions, new textual functions, and new reading practices. The most important force causing change in literature during this time was the political and cultural rise of Christianity, which remade older genres in the classical canon and interweaved them with a new canon of scriptural texts and liturgy. Furthermore, the end of Late antiquity saw the last major representatives of Greek and Latin poetry, whereas poetry in other languages (like Syriac poetry) began to flourish.