Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard.By Nicholas Jubber, £9.99, Da Capo Press
In this rather extraordinary travelogue, Nicholas Jubber travels through Iran and Afghanistan with a few diversions into Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. His guide is the
Shahnameh
(Book of Kings), an 11th-century Persian epic poem. This is not as odd as it might appear; the story of the Book of Kings is as close to the hearts of modern day Persians as any text, save the Koran perhaps, and what is most startling about it is how nearly everyone Jubber meets has a passion for the book, from university professors and ageing mullahs, to young, gin-drinking artists and giggling teenagers.
This is also a book about freedom, and how Iranians have carved out little air pockets of liberalism beneath the religious fundamentalism, from illegal alcohol parties and illicit music, to the more subtle glorification of folklore books that were initially banned when the Shah was deposed.
There is religious devotion aplenty here: one particularly graphic chapter has groups of men in Tehran commemorating Imam Hossain (the prophet Muhammad’s martyred grandson) by having their heads cut with a large blade, and working themselves into a chanting, bloody frenzy. This is swiftly tempered by the scepticism of another of Jubber’s friends, a university professor who, when told of the rituals, snorts: “These people are sheep! It is the same for them as if they are taking drugs.”
Jubber falls completely and utterly in love with the Persian way of life, but what he does is unveil a personality among the average Iranian that is utterly complex. This is a society of incredible intricacy, and Jubber plumbs its depths with wit and erudition in a book that is impeccably researched and elegantly written.