# The Heart of Iran *Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-21 — 1 clipping.* --- > Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Duncan Forbes, The Heart of Iran, bahai-library.com. > ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── > > By the same author > THE HEART OF > The Heart of Nepal > > IRAN > by > > DUNCAN FORBES > > Illustrated and with maps > > LONDON > ROBERT HALE LIMITED > 63 Old Brompton Road, S.W.7 > © Duncan Forbes 1963 > First published in Great Britain 1963 > > Foreword > !RAN 1s FAR better known than Nepal, which was the subject > of my last book. The country's great bulk, nine-tenths of it > desert, lies astride the land route to India, and ever since the > end of the sixteenth century, when two Elizabethan knights, > the Shirley brothers, went by way of Russia to the court of Shah > Abbas at Isfahan and taught the Persians how to make cannons, > there has been a continuous stream of travellers' tales in Eng- > lish describing the Persian scene. > Throughout the nineteenth century the British looked at > Persia through the spectacles of India. More Englishmen > approached the country up the Persian Gulf than ever took > the short land route across Turkey, and British policy in > Persia was usually decided in Delhi. But now all this has > changed. Indian independence in 1947 was followed by the > nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1951. > Diplomatic relations were broken off, and when they were > restored, the British Embassy in Teheran became the largest > in the Middle East, invariably dealing direct with London. > Yet the strange fascination of the country has not changed. > Be it Persia or Iran, the English mind still leaps the Balkans > and the Turkish mainland to light on the tawny deserts at its > heart, and the vivid blue domes of its oasis towns, and the pale- > green poplars of the Elburz. > Like the connection between England and Italy it is a liaison > of opposites--0f sober reticence with bubbling effervescence, > of cloud and mist with bright sunlight, of practical orderliness > with wild individuality, of quiet understatement with loud > bravado. The Persians take us to their hearts with their zest for > life and open-mindedness, and they infuriate us with their > intriguing and squandering and feckless promises. In a world > of militant republics pride in the age-old Persian monarchy > remains. Many criticize it. Many do not see why the Iranians > should be loyal to their Emperor, forgetting that we ourselves > PRINTl!D IN GREAT BRITAIN are loyal to our Queen. Yet it is another tie-the feeling for > BY EBENEZER BAYLIS AND SON, LTD. > THJI TIUNlTY PRllllS, WORC1!8TER, AND LONDON > monarchy-that links us with the Persians. > In spite of this, there have been few books about Iran in > THE ROAD TO FARS > 124 THE HEART OF IRAN > Shiraz. History repeated itself with the aerial descent of > quarter of a century ago. From it the road leads downwards German saboteurs on Fars to work on the grievances of the > through an avenue of trees as straight as a die to the Vakil tribes. But it was not until after the departure of the Indian > Mosque at the bottom of the slope. There it levels off into a Army that serious tribal disturbances took place. This was dur- > plain before rising, a mile or tw~ b~yond, to th~ next moun- ing the tribal rebellion of 1950, when at times it was impos- > tain range. On either side the bmldmgs of the c1ty_are spread sible to leave the town without running the gauntlet of armed > out, interspersed with the domes of mosques and 1mamzades hold-ups on the road. > and the trees of the avenues and gardens. Talking about these things with the desk clerk I came to > The bus took us down to the Khiaban-e Zand, the broad feel that I was now in regions where the British connection > boulevard which runs north-west to south-east across the town was strong. Shiraz looks south towards the Persian Gulf and > on the same axis as the mountain ranges, then turned into a India as well as north towards bustling Teheran. The oil-rich > caravansarai to deposit us. There I left my companions of two Bedouin, millionaires by a chance turn of the wheel of fortune > days and went off to find the hotel that had been recommended like winners of football pools, come to Shiraz to hawk and > to me. It proved to be a fine. bui~ding, decorated with blue hunt in the coolness of the hills. With their musicians playing > kashi and mirror work, standmg m a handsome garden, but monotonous thin music on the pipes, they entertain their > when I entered my heart sank. The venerable building echoed guests and retainers in the big new tourist hotel. > with emptiness, the narrow rooms were bare, there was no hot Later I went out into the Khiaban-e Zand, where the > water, and two apologetic servants advised me to ~o to the three creepers trained to climb up the lamp posts lent a pecu~iarly > star tourist hotel, since discomforts tolerable m a peasant's tropical appearance to the scene. After I had been walkmg a > cottage are not to be supported in a town hotel. few minutes a schoolboy accosted me. > The ao-ed desk clerk welcomed me to Shiraz and talked to "What is your name?" he asked. > me in ge ntle tones about the South Persia Rifles of the Fir~t > > "Forbes," I said. "vVhat is yours?" > German War in which he had served as quartermaster. This "Abbasian. What are you doing here, please?" > force origina~ed in a small detachment of Indian troops sent "Nothing." > to Bandar Abbas from India in 1916, under the command of "You are an explorer?" > Sir Percy Sykes. Its main purpose was to check the influence "No." > of the redoubtable German agent, Wassmuss, who ha? suc- "I am studying at the technical school. I am a welder." > ceeded in stirring up the tribes against a government friendly "I see." > to the British. "I am also a Bahai. I am not an ordinary Moslem, you see. > In Iran, by means of recruitment from the gendarmerie, I am a Bahai. We Bahais have our headquarters in Israel and > whose Swedish officers had sided with the Germans, and from we have our holy book also." > other sources, Sykes increased his stre?-gth to ~ight thous;;nd, "I see. And who wrote your holy book?" > and then marched through hostile tribal territory to Shiraz. "I do not know, Sir. Please, have you no job here?" > The occupation of the town :was relativ~ly peaceful 1;1ntil 1918, "No.,, > when the tribesmen, believmg that Britam was gomg to lose "Then you must be an explorer. You are Alman?" > the war, invested Shiraz with about six thousand men against "No. Englis." > the garrison of some two thousand. With some difficulty they "I see. Can you answer me a question, please. How far is it > were beaten off. from here to London?" > Not only the desk clerk,. but several <;>thers of_ the el~er "About four thousand miles, I think. More or less." > citizens of Shiraz were to testify to the considerable 1mpress10n "Are you certain?" > this force had made on the region. It was active, not only in "Yes." > pacifying the tribes, but also in con_verting camel t~ack~ to "And how much does it cost to live there?" > wheeled routes, surveying and openmg up commumcat10ns "For you or for me?" > generally. "Let us say, for me." > In the Second German War also, the Indian Army was in > THE HEART OF IRAN > > "You might live on twenty toumans a day, but it would be > difficult." > "Thank you. I will write that down." > "You are thinking of going there?" > "Perhaps I will go there, if it is possibl~." . > I left him writing down the answ_ers m _his no~e book, and > thought about the Bahai a_nd their ~unou~ history. The~ > originated in this same city of Shiraz with Sayyed Ah > Mohammed, who called himself the Bab or "gateway'', The Gardens of the Poets > through which men must communicate with God. H~ > preached that he himself, was the Twelfth Imam, or Mahdi, I HAD NOT been in Shiraz for many days before the spell of the > returned to earth for the salvation of mankind, and gained an poets fell on me, for the Shirazis love their poets, know them, > enthusiastic following. But in 1850 he was taken to Tabriz and and as convincing proof of their devotion, can quote them at > executed on the orders of Nasser-ud-din Shah's vizier. They say length on any suitable occasion. > that when he was shot by the firing-squad, the bullets cut the I went first to visit the mausoleum of Hafez, which is situated > rope with which he was bound without hurting him, and that in the place known as Mosalla. As I walked down the avenue, > he escaped and had to be caught an~ shot a second time. with the high brick wall of a hidden garden on my left, a large > On the death of the Bab a certam Baha-Ullah of Mazan- station-wagon drew up alongside me. > deran announced that he was the appointed successor, and was "Can I take you anywhere?" > a greater man than the Mahdi himself. This ~as heresy, and "Thank you very much, but I am just taking a walk." > he was banished. But the followers of the Bab and of Baha "Let me show you some of the sights of Shiraz." > refused to be repressed, and as a consequence the Shah order~d "Don't let me trouble you." > a general massacre at Zenjan, betwee_n Tehera? and T_abnz, "It is nothing. I have plenty of time. Please." > at Yezd and at Niriz, to the east of Shiraz. Baha1sm contmued "Very well. Thank you very much." > under~ound, however, and because of _its unorthodox b~liefs So I climbed into the station-wagon and the Member of > became liberal in outlook and unsettlmg to the established Parliament for Abade introduced himself. "I am a Member > Moslem dogma. Some called it an invention of th~ ~nglis~, of Parliament," he said, "but unfortunately now we have > because the British offered sanctuary to the Bahai m their no parliament, so I am now just looking after my lands." > colonies. Baha-Ullah, himself, went to Palestine, where the vVe reached the mausoleum, which in Hafez' day was well > temple of Bahaism was set up on Mount Carmel. His brother outside the town, in the groves to the north, but has now been > went to Cyprus. caught up by the development of the municipal stadium and > Today there may be as many as three million Bahai through- the Faculty of Letters of the University. It is still a delectable > out the world, including many educated ~en_ and women. garden, however, which was completely modernized in 1936, > They persevere in their liberal. beliefs, w~ich mclude equal after it had been closed to public burials. As one enters one > pay and rights for women, a fair average mcome for all, ~n?­ faces palm trees as well as pines and poplars, reminding one > free intercourse between all races. The book of the Baha1 1s that this is the deep south, not far from the Persian Gulf. In > called Iqan, meaning "certitude." front, a long colonnade, inscribed with lines from the poems > Happy are the Bahai, if they have certitude. on a blue background, acts as a fac;:ade to the interior garden, > in which the tomb itself is situated under a domed roof, sup- > ported by more columns. > The inner garden, which is interspersed with the graves of > those who have sought to capture something of the aura of the > poet by being buried near him, is planted out with orange > trees and mulberries, with roses and geraniums below them. > ,127 > > — *The Heart of Iran (Used by permission of the curator)*