قرن

قرن is the word historians and journalists use when they zoom out. A century is a unit of memory, not just a unit of time.

What it actually means

قرن (qarn) means “century,” a span of one hundred years. It is the standard Persian word for the unit, used in historical writing, journalism, academic prose, and ordinary conversation about long stretches of time. قرن بیستم (qarn-e bistom) is “the 20th century,” قرن بیست و یکم (qarn-e bist-o-yekom) is “the 21st century.” The word also appears in fixed phrases like قرن‌ها پیش (qarn-hâ pish, centuries ago) and در طول قرن‌ها (dar tul-e qarn-hâ, over the course of centuries). The plural is قرون (qorun, classical Arabic plural) or قرن‌ها (qarn-hâ, Persian plural). Both occur, with قرن‌ها more common in modern speech.

Where it comes from

قرن is an Arabic loanword from the root ق-ر-ن, with the original sense of “a horn” or “something that joins or yokes.” By extension in classical Arabic, قرن came to mean “a generation” or “an age,” and from there “a hundred-year period.” Persian borrowed قرن in the medieval period along with much of the Arabic vocabulary of historiography. Pure-Persian alternatives like سده (sade, “a hundred”) exist and are advocated by the Pure Persian Movement (Farhangestan-e Zaban-e Farsi); سده is used in some academic texts. In ordinary writing and speech, قرن dominates.

How to say it

Formal (نوشتاری): قرن · qarn · “century”

Colloquial (محاوره): قرن · qarn · same form

The q is a uvular sound (further back in the throat than English k), the same as in Quran or Qatar.

In a sentence

• حافظ شاعر قرن هشتم بود. · hâfez shâ’er-e qarn-e hashtom bud. · Hafez was a poet of the 8th century.
• قرن بیستم برای ایران قرن انقلاب بود. · qarn-e bistom barâye irân qarn-e enghelâb bud. · The 20th century was the century of revolution for Iran.
• این مسجد قرن‌ها قدمت دارد. · in masjed qarn-hâ qedmat dârad. · This mosque is centuries old.

Cultural note

When Iranians count centuries, they usually mean the Hijri solar century, not the Gregorian one. حافظ (Hafez) is called a poet of the 8th century because he died in 791 AH (1389 CE). فردوسی (Ferdowsi) is of the 4th century AH (10th-11th century CE). This dating shift can confuse foreign readers: an 8th-century Persian poet is medieval, not late antique. Modern Iranian writing often gives both: قرن هشتم هجری, قمری برابر با قرن چهاردهم میلادی. The unit قرن is the same; the calendar attached to it is what shifts.

Related

Pair this word with سال (year) and دهه (decade). For dating systems see the Persian calendar guide.