Afghanistan's variety of Persian, and a thousand years of poetry.
Medium difficulty, the Perso-Arabic script and SOV word order take adjustment, but the grammar is surprisingly gentle.
After the Arab conquest of Persia (7th century), Middle Persian was rewritten in Arabic script and absorbed thousands of Arabic loanwords, becoming New Persian in the 9th-10th centuries. Bukhara and Balkh (in modern Afghanistan) were among its first literary centers.
Persian's golden age produced Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Rumi (born in Balkh), Hafez, Saadi, Omar Khayyam. For centuries Persian was the court and literary language from the Ottomans to Mughal India, a lingua franca across half of Asia.
In Afghanistan, Persian is called Dari (from darbārī, 'of the court'). It's the main language of Kabul, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif, and the country's lingua franca across ethnic groups. Vocabulary is more conservative than Iranian Farsi, closer to the classical poets.
Persian-speakers casually quote Hafez, Rumi, and Saadi in ordinary conversation. Books of poetry are gifted, memorized, and used for fortune-telling (fal-e Hafez).
Kabuli pulao (Afghanistan's national dish, rice, lamb, raisins, carrots), mantu (steamed dumplings), bolani, qabili, fresh naan from a tandoor, green tea (chai sabz) all day.
The Persian New Year on the spring equinox (~March 21) is the biggest celebration of the year, 13 days, the haft-sin table, family visits, picnics on the 13th day to 'throw out' bad luck.
