Ferdowsi preserved Persian by writing in the Arabic script imposed on Iran

Evidence

Yes, at one point in time, there was a conquest of Iran. It brought in a totally different style of script that wiped out writing for two hundred years. They call it the “Two Hundred Years of Silence.” … But the language was preserved because somebody like Ferdowsi came along, and using the [Arabic] script that was available to him, he was able to preserve language itself. So he took a new thing that C H A P T E R S I X 152 was forced upon him to maintain something that was old. So that we could still have it today. But the Iranian American experience isn’t just being on the receiving end of things. It’s not like “we just need to go back in the day and find Hafez or look at Saadi” and find what they can give us. We can give something too. What would it mean for you, as an Iranian American person, having had the specific experiences that bring you all together here, to write? What new thing would you offer? How would you look at the world? June Jordan, the poet, gives us a quote. She said to write is to “take control of the language of your life.” This is what we are asking you to do today. — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness, 475

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the book’s recurring theme of whiteness-as-assimilation: like Ferdowsi working within the imposed script, Iranian Americans navigate identity within dominant frameworks.
• SEED: The ‘Two Hundred Years of Silence’ and Ferdowsi’s adaptive preservation is a potent metaphor for how marginalized writers work within imposed languages or genres to preserve what matters.