from the seat of Arab power in Baghdad, where New Persian reemerged as a literary and courtly language. European study of Persian Early encounters Persian was the lingua franca of a wide area, not limited to Iran. The first Europeans to encounter the Persian language were the envoys and diplomats of early modern European nations sent first to Ottoman Turkey and then to other places. The earliest motivation for the study of Persian was to win converts to Christianity. Codex Cumanicus, a glossary of Persian and Cuman Turkish words in Latin. a translation of the Pentateuch into Persian by the Jew Tavus translations from Portuguese of Francis Xavier's History of Christ and History of Peter (c. 1602 CE) Study of the living language, 17th century Grammars and dictionaries of the Persian language were first composed in the 17th century during which efforts were made to understand the "Persian of the people". Later on, Persian as it was actually used declined in importance as Classical Persian literature was introduced to the continent. Raimondo of Cremona seems to have been the first to compose a grammatical sketch of Persian, but his manuscript remaines unavailable. the Belgian priest de Dieu published Rudimentae Linguae Persicae (1639 CE) in which he established the basic phonology and morphology of Persian Pater Angelus (Joseph Labrosse) studied Persian for fourteen years in the capital of Esfahan as part of the Vatican's Oriental Mission. He published a monumental work composed of "fourteen folios of mini-grammar and over 450 pages of words and phrases of the living language." Beginnings of Orientalism, 18th century During this century, Europeans discovered the rich store of Classical Persian literature, and study of the Persian language meant study of the language as it was used in these works. The first edition of the Gulistan of Sa'di was published in 1654 CE. As British trade with the Indian subcontinent increased, the focus of learning Persian shifted to the "colonial" Persian of India. Anquetil published the first edition of the texts of the Zoroastrian Parsis in his three-volume Zend-Avesta (1771 CE). William Jones's publication of his grammar (also in 1771 CE) marked when knowledge of Persian grammar became really accessible, since the prior works were not available to most people. He hoped the work would open up study of the Persian Classics, but it was intended to assist East India Company employees. William Jones founded the Asiatic