ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: The Persian and Urdu languages are closely linked and have greater influence on each other.

This was observed by Iranian Ambassador Masha Allah Shakiri while speaking at the concluding session of a workshop on ‘modern Persian teaching methodology and techniques’ at the National University of Modern Languages (Numl).

He said the Persian department had done translations of foreign words and terminologies and they could be used in both languages. The Iranian envoy also quoted Urdu verses of Allama Iqbal in his speech.

Numl Rector Brig (retd) Aziz Ahmad Khan said that Persian was one of the two languages being taught at the university since its inception.

He reminded that Persian once happened to be the official language of the Indian sub-continent during the Muslim era. “Our poets and literatures particularly our national poet Allama Iqbal have also written a lot in Persian,” he added.