Writers' Corner

Prepared by
Iraj Bashiri

Introduction

Like New Persian poetry, Persian prose, too, has a glorious past which can be traced to the works of Aruzi Samarqandi... Because a good deal of this literature deals with history, however, it is outside the purview of this discussion. Hazar Afsanak (Thousand Tales), on the other hand, is a 9th century Iranian work of fiction that serves as the foundation of the Alf Laylah wa Laylah (A Thousand and One Nights). Based on the Jakata tales of the Buddha and the Hindu Hitopadesa, it imports into Persian literature a series of stories that constitute The Arabian Nights. In these stories, the legendary King Shahriyar, having been cheated on repeatedly by his wives decides to marry a woman and kill her the next day before she has an opportunity to cheat. This trend continues until he marries, Shahrzad, the daughter of his own Prime Minister. Shahrzad survives being decapitated the next morning by telling the king a story with a fascinating cliff-hanger. Unable to live the rest of his life without knowing the outcome of the story, Shahriyar delays Shahrzad's execution for one day only to face another cliff-hanger the following night. This situation continues for a thousand and one nights, during which time Shahrzad gives birth to three princes and Shahriyar gives up his wickedness to women. The king and queen live happily thereafter.

Not only Persian literature but world literature has a share in the later developments of this saga. It attracted the Europeans' attention in the 1700s when Antoine Galland introduced the French to his translation of Les Mille et Une Nuits. The British followed in the 1840s with Edward William Lane's translation soon to be followed in the 1880s by Sir Richard Francis Burton's annotated translation.

Burton, an English explorer and scholar was born in 1821 in Torquay, Devonshre. He visited Mecca and Medina disguised as an Afghan (1853), explored Somaliland with John Hanning Speke (1854) and, with Speke, located Lake Tanganyika (1858). His sixteen-volume translation of The Arabian Nights (1885-1888) has immortalized his name in world literature.

At the same time that European audiences were relishing the Oriental stories of the Arabian Nights another British book about Persia, with a more contemporary storyline, was making the rounds. This one written by James Justinian Morier (born: c. 1780 Smyrna, modern Izmir, Turkey), an English diplomat and author, was called The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan (1824). The book, a direct result of Morier's travels in Persia as an attache of Sir Harford Jones (from 1807 to 1809) and Sir Gore Ouseley (from 1809-1814) was the last of a series of such books that he had authored. The first was called Journey Through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople in the Years 1808 and 1809. Only after he served for two years (1814-1816) as the Head of the English Embassy in Tehran did Morier attempt the writing of The Adventures of Hajji Baba. Without the experience gained in this latter involvement in British and Iranian political affairs, it would have been somewhat difficult, given the secrecy of court life of the time for him to produce a compelling portrayal of the servants of the court, i.e., compelling enough for the courtiers to react as strongly as did Abul Hassan, Iran's Ambassador to England at the time. Recognizing himslef in Morier's character, Mirza Firouz, who owns a Circassian slave, he addresses Morier (May 21, 1826) as follows:

It turns out, however, that rather than by Abul Hassan, this letter had actually been written by a Dr. John McNeil to pull Morier's leg. The existence of it, however, sufficiently documents the vociferous atmosphere created by this first instance of a veiled criticism of Persian society.

A picaresque romance of Persian life, The Adventures of Hajji Baba juxtaposes the land of splendid costumes and strange customs with the world of tight tights and miracle drugs of 19th century Europe. To write it, Morier collected facts and anecdotes of actual life and, in a way, created a Persian identity on which Europeans could rely. How close does he, or any foreigner to a culture, comes to a portrayal of life in Iran is still being debated. Somerset Maugham who examined the concept of transcultural cognition it to be next to impossible. The elements in alien cultures, he thought, are too deeply rooted to allow penetration into instinctive matters. And without reaching that deep, he felt, any portrayal would be, of necessity, superficial. Then again Morier's family emigrated from Turkey to England when he was little. Would an good education in Harrow be able to eliminate all vestages of a child's formative years?

Hajji Baba's life begins as an apprentice barber in Isfahan where he works for his father. He is kidnaped by the Turkemen nomads who force him to Participate in their banditry. Thereafter, he travels to various places in Iran and Afghanistan, serves as an apprentice to a Frankish doctor to learn about his magic cures; lives with a chief of poets to learn about poetry and about court life; becomes a water carrier to learn about business; learns the ways of the Dervishes and the Sufis to fool the masses; uses religion itself (He is a Shi'ite but introduces himself as a Sunni), to reach the higher clerical circlrs; and marries the daughter of a wealthy merchant to become rich and influential. At the pinnacle of his success he joins the court only to find out that with a tyrannical king and his sycophants all life, including his, hangs in the balance.

Hajji Baba's character emerges as an amoral, endearing scamp, a devious and intriguing fellow looking for profit even where there is none. He is a true opportunist, heedless of the past and absolutely unconcerned about the future. A fatalist par exellence, he shirks responsibility and uses Persian ta'arof to further his schemes. While, in the process, he pokes fun at the politicians, doctors, princes, poets, and the clergy.

The cultural contrasts that attracted the attention of earlier writers of fiction are now common place. Such eating habits as eating with fingers instead of with a fork, not drinking alcoholic beverages except on the sly, and refusal of pork no longer shock a westerner. Neither do Appearances play the role they did. Loose and tight garments, turbans, hats, beards, and shaven faces do not categorize people into eastern and western as much as type-cast them into trustworthy and untrustworthy groups, by far a more dangerous practice.

Language and technology go hand in hand. No technological operation can be clearly explained in a flowery language without becoming mystifying and mysterious. Persians' lack of familiarity with technology, Morier thinks, forces them into the realm of the double-talk and ta'arof. In other words, he says, it is not a problem that they write from right to left but that they don't mean what they say.

The Iran of Hajji Baba was a country in which criticism could not be openly aired. It existed but was restrained to the point of being encoded in mystifying symbolism. The Adventures of Hajji Baba led the way in pushing aside the traditional mores and allow the development of what came to be recognized as the novel of social criticism. My Uncle Napoleon, for instance, which follows the same format, describes life in Iran of the 1940s in the same manner that Morier's work portrays the Iran of the 1820s.
    Modern Persian short story does not have a long history; nevertheless, it has proven to be a most instrumental vehicle for the assimilation of new trends and promotion of grass-roots ideas. Among those who have contributed to the establishment and development of the genre, the lion's share of credit must go to Muhammad Ali Jamalzada who, against very difficult odds not only promoted the genre but made it interesting. His "Persian is Sugar" is, perhaps, the best example for proving the point. Centered on the plight of an uneducated young boy, the story reveals the inability of the Iranians as a people in communicating with each other, or simply of knowing each other, let alone cooperating in resolving the problems of the nation. To this major problem, Jamalzada adds the ideological and political problems that had been brewing in the port of Anzali in the early years of this century. "Persian is Sugar" is the leading story in a collection entitled Yeki Bud, Yeki Nabud (Once Upon a Time). Each of the stories in the collection takes the reader to a different part of the country and acquaints him or her with a different set of characters and events.
    Sadeq Hedayat(1903-1951), a student of Jamalzada, shaped Persian fiction in his own image, especially during his early years when he was more concerned with correcting the ills of society than later on when his artistic zeal displaced his reformist will. In either case, however, he was calculating and methodical. Consequently, his stories were poignant, instructive, and entertaining. As an example, consider his early story, facetiously called "Story with a Result." The story can be analyzed on a numebr of levels. In the main, nevertheless, it remains a fairy tale, albeit a modern one.
    Similarly, one can examine "Haji Murad," the story of a duplicitous bazaar merchant who, against the Shari'a law, takes over his uncle's title of Haji when he becomes the inheritor of his estate. Unabashedly, he walks down the streets of the town showing off his wealth and fortune. What he fails to convince everyone of, however, is his hajihood. He lacks the casual approach of a haji to matters that touch the inexperienced to the quick. When he sees a woman who, from all indications looks like his wife, he blows up. In a state of frenzy, he stops the woman and accuses of almost everything that, in moments of anger, he had attributed to his own wife--something that a real haji would never have t o deal with. He creates such an unsavory situation around himself that, at the end, he becomes compelled to divorce his own real wife.

For further study of Hedayat's themes, see Social Setting and Themes.

Hedayat lived at a pivotal moment in Iran's life, as pivotal as that of Firdowsi who straddled between the glories of the past represented by the Samanids and the calamities yet to come represented by the Turks and the Mongols. He saw how the unadulterated Iranian society of the 1920s changed into the affected society of the 1940s. Many people, of course, saw the same. But Hedayat's distinction lies in the fact that he documented his impressions in story after story, creating a living record of the good and the bad times that he and his people underwent.

    As the short-story genre advances, it becomes more and more complicated. Master "painters" like "Justice," for instance, he chooses a symbolic approach. Depicting an early morning scene, just at the time when people hurry to their jobs, he engages them in an examination of the degree of social consciousness they have achieved and the amount of responsibility they are ready and willing to undertake.
    The story line is simple. A horse is struck by a car and lies dying in a puddle of water. A solution must be found to save it. Individuals from all walks of life address the problem. None, however, presents a coherent solution for the plight of the horse. What Chubak does that is brilliant in this respect is his decision to write the story around male characters. Only a child in the story reminds the reader of the existence of women in the society under scrutiny. The absence of women in the resolution of the plight of the horse becomes compelling. The conscientious reader would want to know the situation of the horse were women present to offer a solution. One level higher, Chubak persuades us to examine the situation of the country as well. Would not Iran have faired better, if women had been given a chance to contribute to the resolution of the problem.

At a different level, if the horse were to symbolize a community or a nation, what would the story reveal about its parliamentary procedures, its economic and political affairs and, above all, its educational system? Chubak's "Antari ke Lutiyash Morde Bud" (The Baboon Whose Buffon Was Dead) and "The Oil Seller" delve into some of these pressing issues.

The story line of "The Oil Seller" is quite simple. Mariam, a spinster, ...

Restricting women to the home environment alone creates a great deal of suffering. Women subjected to forced marriages, prevented from seeking and gaining employment lose their social mobility; they become crippled at the very time in their lives that they can effect change. The other theme is predestination. In the story, Mariam believing her life to have been predestined, puts her total trust in Shi'ite saints. To gain their good will she visits their shrines. Only when they fail her, she becomes despondent.

Mariam's life follows two distinct strands, each with its own distinct odor or fragrance. There is the reallife experience that carries the strong odor of kerosine. She experienced this reality when she was helped by the bus conductor who happened also to touch her breat. We encounter the odor again in the person of the oil seller who, as a real man, refuses Mariam's advances. Then there is the fragrance that goes along with the man of Mariam's dreams and with the perfumed surroundings of the tombs of the saints.

[This part of the presentation is rough. I need some time to really sit down and do this part. Such is the nature of working papers. Thanks!]

There are two major themes in the story. First is the theme of the plight of the Iranian women of the 1940s. Restricting

The storyline of the (Baboon Whose Buffon was Dead is quite straight forward. A buffoon, tired after a long day's walk, feels tired and rests under a tree. His baboon is tied to a peg nearby. When the buffoon does not wake up at his usual time, the baboon tries to wake him up. The desire to wake his master up becomes even more urgent when the time for his dose of morphine from his master's hand arrives.

When, in spite of all that he does, the master does not get up, the baboon frees himslelf and wanders about freely. His adventure ends when he encounters a shepherd boy who hit him with his stick and a couple of lumber jacks whose shining axes threaten him. The story ends where the baboon's peg is caught between two rocks and he cannot break himself loose.

Three major themes can be distinguished in The Baboon Whose Buffoon was Dead. The first is that creatures cope best within their own environment; outside it, they fall victim to exploitation and, most probably, perish. This is definitely the case with the baboon who is not only severed from his habitat but addicted to morphine. The second theme, dealing with exploitation, states that exploitative forces create a dual process: the first severs the traditional roots or values that sustain the individual or community, the second establishes roots and values commensurate with the needs of the exploiters. Sadly, the green gardens that the exploiters cultivate last only as long as they remain interested in the enterprise. They leave as soon as there is nothing more to exploit (cf., ghost towns). The burden of their devastation falls squarely on the shoulders of those who have been exploited. They remain chained to new but useless values.

As it was stated, Chubak is uses symbolic representation as a main device for conveying his ideas. In this story, for instance, the agent of exploitation can be the buffoon or a master, man in general or even the West. The victim of exploitation then can be respecitvely the baboon, a slave, women or Iran. Similarly, the means of exploitation would be opium, chain, desire, fire or the oil resources of the country.

(to be continued)



The following translations of stories are also available:
  • Visit Hedayat's Corner for a complete list of articles and stories.
  • M. A. Jamalzadeh's Life
        "Persian is Sugar"
        "Six of One,..."
  • Chubak's Life
        "Justice"
        "The Baboon Whose Buffoon Was Dead"
  • Ibrahim Gulistan's life
        "Carrousel"
  • Jalal Al-i Ahmad's life
        The China Flowerpot
        "Weststruckness"
  • Simin Danishvar's life
        "A Land Like Paradise"
  • Nasir Taqva'i's life
        "Aqa Julu"
  • Shapur Qarib's life
        "The Warm South"
  • Faqiri's Life
  • Faqiri's Fiction
        Water
        The Bathhouse
  • Samad Behrangi's life
        "The Little Black Fish"

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