What it means
آجر (âjor) means brick, specifically the rectangular fired clay block used in construction. Persian borrowed this word from Arabic آجُرّ (ājurr), which itself came through Classical Syriac ܐܲܓܘܼܪܵܐ from Akkadian agurru, meaning fired brick. Unlike raw mud brick, called خشت (khesht), آجر refers to kiln-fired brick that is hardened and durable. This distinction matters in Persian because both materials were used extensively in different types of buildings throughout Iranian history.
How to use it
- دیوار رو با آجر چیدن. (divâr ro bâ âjor chidan.) “They built the wall with bricks.”
- این خونه آجریه. (in khune âjoriye.) “This house is built of brick.”
- آجرا رو روی هم گذاشت. (âjorâ ro ru-ye ham gozâsht.) “He stacked the bricks on top of each other.”
- رنگ آجرای قدیمی خیلی قشنگه. (rang-e âjorâ-ye ghadimi kheyli ghashange.) “The color of old bricks is very beautiful.”
Cultural note
Iran has one of the oldest brick-making traditions in the world. The Ziggurat of Choghazanbil, built around 1250 BCE in what is now Khuzestan, used millions of sun-dried and fired bricks, many still stamped with the name of the king who ordered them. In the Islamic period, Persian craftsmen elevated plain brick into a decorative art, using geometric brickwork patterns on minarets and domes that became a hallmark of Iranian architecture from the Seljuk era onward.