The Persian tongue, also known as Farsi, is the official language of Iran and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. It is a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family and is spoken by over 110 million people worldwide. Farsi is written in the Arabic script and is the most widely spoken language in the Middle East. It has a rich literary tradition and is the language of many famous poets, including Rumi and Hafez.