Methods of Persian word selection and word- making in Naser Khosrow's prose books

Naser Khosrow strongly suPported Islam and ‘Arabic language. However, The title "Hojjat (authority) of Khorasan Island" has encouraged him to help enrich Persian language and moderate borrowing from ‘Arabic through replacing some ‘Arabic words with Persian ones. In his prose works, he expanded didactic literature in the field of religion, theology and philosophy. He consciously tried to replace ‘Arabic terms with  Persian terms such as Ham goosheki, Zade-ye- rah, Ziridan, Karbandande and others using the familiar methods of word-making and word selection  through compounding and derivation. These methods were also used in the Middle Persian language. He has protected the valuable Dari words by common and self-made methods. Following up Naser Khosrow's religious and theological terms in Pahlavi glossaries shows that he is not the inventor of these terms. Many of these terms have already been used in Middle Persian language and he used them with or without changing meaning. He revived and expanded the pre-existing vocabulary. This shows the difference between his prose and rhetorical prose. To answer how Naser Khosrow used the process of word-making and word selection in his five prose books and his use of compounding and derivation in Pahlavi language, this study has drawn on descriptive and analytical method.