Persian (Pahlavi), just as the official languages of Syria and Egypt remained Greek and Coptic. During the Umayyad Caliphate, the Ummayads made Arabic the primary language of their subjected people throughout their empire, displacing their indigenous languages. Particularly, Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (661–714) officially changed the administrative language of Iraq from Middle Persian (Pahlavi) to Arabic. Although an area from Iraq to Morocco speaks Arabic-based dialects to this day, Middle Persian proved to be much more enduring. Most of its structure and vocabulary survived, evolving into New Persian. Persian incorporated a certain amount of Arabic vocabulary, especially words pertaining to religion, and it switched from the Pahlavi scripts to a modified version of the Arabic alphabet. Today Persian is spoken officially in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Urbanisation The Arab conquest of Persia led to a period of extreme urbanisation in Iran, starting with the ascension of the Abbasid dynasty and ending in the 11th century CE. This was particularly true for the eastern parts of the country, for regions like Khorasan and Transoxiana. During this period, Iran saw the development of massive metropolises, some reaching population numbers of up to 200,000 people. This period of extreme urbanisation was followed in the late 11th and early 12th century by a collapse of the Iranian economy, which led to large scale emigrations of Iranians into Central Asia, India, the rest of the Middle East, and Anatolia. This catastrophe has been cited by some as reason for the Persian language becoming widespread throughout Central Asia and large parts of the Middle East. See also References Sources External links History of Iran: Islamic Conquest from the Iran Chamber Society. The Arab conquests at History World. Muslim Conquest of Persia at Mecca Books. History of Western Asia Invasions of Iran 7th century in Iran Sasanian