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Series:
Book Review
Author:
Damania, Dr. Ardeshir B.
Subtopics:
The Author
His Publications
The Book
The courage of Namdar
Zoroastrian lady
molested
An unjust civil code
Return to England
Reference:
Biographical Information extracted
from Abbas Amanat's preface to the latest reprint of E. G. Browne's book
"The Persian Revolution 1905-1909" Mage Publisher, Washington D.C. 1995
Related
Articles:
Related
Links:
The Persian Revolution
Mage Publishers
|
 The Author
Edward Granville Browne (1862-1926) was born to an affluent English family from
Gloucestershire. His father was the head of a successful engineering and
shipbuilding firm in
Northern England. His uncle, under whose spell for a while the young Browne
fell demonstrated traits of Christian puritanical Non-conformism. Browne’s
tempered dissent must have allowed him to see the weak and empathize with the
underprivileged. His education in medicine at
Cambridge,
even in his undergraduate years, included interest in Eastern Languages and
Cultures.
In
the age of British Raj and other colonial engagements across the seas, it was
natural for the young Browne to look forward to the East for a career and to be
fascinated by what he discovered there, first in Books and then in person. As
he himself reminisced in his later years, it was the anti-Turkish sentiments
during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 that first drew his attention to the
East. But unlike the men of Byron’s generation whose romantic vision of the
East tilted decidedly to the side of Christian Greeks and against the “terrible
Turks,” young Browne had compassion for the Turks whom he felt had unjustly
fallen victims to the Russian expansion or alternatively to the British
jingoistic press.
For
his early image of Muslim East, which was largely constructed through avid
reading of travel accounts and learning the Persian, Arabic, and Turkish
languages, he could not have found a more moving picture of victimized
minorities than Comte de Gobineau’s account of the minorities in Iran of the
1840s and 1850 decades, Les religions et les philosophies dans l’ asie
centrale.
As
it turned out Edward Browne’s interest in Near Eastern Studies took precedence
over the study of medicine, and in time he became one the best products of the
British orientalism of the Nineteenth Century and a prominent Persian specialist
Europe had produced.
Browne’s area of specialization in Persian studies was mostly on Post Islamic
Iran. His knowledge of pre-Islamic and Zararathushtrian literary heritage of
Iran was limited. However, his detailed recording of the plight of
Zarathushtrians and other minorities of the 19th century
Iran
provides valuable historical documentation of those minority groups’ heroic
struggle for survival.
His Publications
Although a professor and holder of Arabic chair at
Cambridge University, Edward Browne is best remembered for his four volume
Literary History of Persia. He was also author, compiler, and editor of
numerous other works on the literature, history, and religion of Persia.
Another book authored by Edward Browne, “The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909”
provides valuable insight into the constitutional reform movement that took hold
in Iran at that conjecture in its history. In that book Browne took upon
himself to represent a nation wronged by the abuses of its own government and
weakened by foreign encroachments. Whether Browne’s was a guilt-ridden flare of
conscience in a Europe ashamed of its colonial exploits or an idiosyncratic
voice of dissent calling for understanding of fair treatment of other societies
and cultures, his “representation,” borrowing the jargon of the critics of
orientalism was neither a manifest nor a “latent” agenda for domination.
The Book
His interest in Persian studies and the plight of the minorities in that ancient
land, resulted in his undertaking a trip to that country during 1887-1888. He
took a steamer to Turkey, and there he hired a servant and bought several
horses to set on his yearlong journey into Iran. Traveling on horse back he
visited Yazd, Kerman and Shiraz and spent a considerable amount of time with the
Zarathushtrians and the Baha'is in those cities.
Upon
his return to
Cambridge,
England, to take up the post of Professor of Persian, he began work on a book
about his experiences in
Iran.
The book is very well written and holds the interest of the reader till the very
end. It contains the author’s impressions as to the life, character, and thought
of the people of Persia, received during twelve months' residence in that
country in the years 1887-1888. There is a map of Persia before the title-page,
opening from 9 sections. This book is now included among the foremost classics
of travel in English literature' (E. D. Ross, in Dictionary of national
biography). A full quarter of the book relates his experiences with followers of
the Bab, founder of the Baha’i faith.
The
language may seem rather dated to many readers today, but one must not forget
that it was written more than a century ago. Among other things, his book
particularly mentions about the harsh treatment and difficult life the
Zoroastrians in Iran had to undergo due to religious persecution. Zoroastrians
in Iran in those days were referred by the derogatory term ‘Guebre’.
Browne wrote, “The headquarters of Zoroastrianism in Persia were at Yazd and
Kirmán [Kerman],
in and about which cities there may be in all some 7000-8000 adherents of the
old creed. In other towns they are met with but sparingly, and are not
distinguished by the dull yellow dress and loosely-wound yellow turban which
they are compelled to wear in the two cities above mentioned.”
Browne traveled to Yazd and observed, "First, then, of the Zoroastrians. Of
these there are said to be from 7000 to 8000 in Yazd and its dependencies,
nearly all of them being engaged either in mercantile business or agriculture.
From what I saw of them, both at Yazd and Kirmán, I formed a very high idea of
their honesty, integrity, and industry. Though less liable to molestation now
than in former times, they often meet with ill-treatment and insult at the hands
of the more fanatical Mohammedans, by whom they are regarded as pagans, not
equal even to Christians, Jews, and other people of the book. Thus they are
compelled to wear the dull yellow raiment already alluded to as a distinguishing
badge; they are not permitted to wear socks, or to wind their turbans tightly
and neatly, or to ride a horse; and if, when riding even a donkey, they should
chance to meet a Musulmán, they must dismount while he passes, and that without
regard to his age or rank.”
The
Zoroastrians had become accustomed to these unjust rules, however humiliating
they were, as minor vexations. But when there was a change of leadership or when
a corrupt or fanatical Governor held office the Zoroastrians suffered worst. At
those times the lútís [goons] would take over. During one such period,
when king Muhammad Shah died [5 October 1848] and the next king Shah
Násir ul-Dín took over, many Zoroastrians were robbed, beaten, and threatened,
unless they would renounce their ancient faith and embrace Islam and several
hundreds, who would not do so, were actually put to death. Browne reports
finding at least one old Zoroastrian still living at Yazd who, on that occasion,
had been threatened, beaten and finally shot with a pistol merely for standing
firm and refusing to renounce the faith of his forefathers!
The courage of Nâmdâr
On another occasion, Browne describes how a fanatic, who
had disguised himself as a Zoroastrian, killed another Musulmán. The Musulmáns
once again threatened to sack the Zoroastrian quarter in Yazd and massacre the
inmates, unless the alleged murderer was surrendered to the authorities. The
person who was alleged to have committed the crime according to the fanatics was
named as one Nâmdâr, a relative of the chief-priest [Dástúr-í-Dástúrán]
of the Zoroastrians. Nâmdâr, innocent as he was, surrendered himself to the
authorities and was prepared to die rather than endanger the whole Zoroastrian
community which would have suffered greatly had the threat posed by the fanatics
been carried out. “I will go before the Governor” he said, “for it is better
that I should lose my life than that our whole community should be endangered.”
However, at the last moment the real murderer was found out and executed, and
Nâmdâr was vindicated.
Ardashír Mihrbán, the Yazd merchant banker who cashed Browne’s promissory note,
told Browne that in 1874 his own brother Rashíd was killed by a mob of fanatics,
led by one Rujub Ali, as Rashíd was walking through the bazaar in Yazd. The
murderer was traced to the seaport of Bushire after strong representations were
made to the Shah, but he was never brought to justice. A tablet has been put up
in Rashíd's honor on the wall of the fire-temple at Yazd.
Under the enlightened administration of Prince `Imad ul-Dawla, Browne reports,
the Zoroastrians enjoyed comparative peace and security, but even he was not
able to check always the ferocious intolerance of bigots and the savage
brutality of the lútís. Browne witnessed the following: "While I was in
Yazd a Zoroastrian was bastinadoed [beaten repeatedly with blows] for
accidentally touching with his garment some fruit exposed for sale in the
bazaar, and thereby, in the eyes of the Musulmans, rendering it unclean and
unfit for consumption by true believers.”
Zoroastrian
lady molested
On another occasion, Browne says, the wife of a
Zoroastrian of modest means, a woman of singular beauty, was washing clothes at
a stream near the town of Yazd, when she was noticed with admiration by two
Musulmans who were passing by. One of them clasped her and tried to kiss her but
she resisted and cried for help, whereupon her molesters threw her into the
stream and ran away. The next day the Zoroastrians complained to the Governor,
and the two cowardly scoundrels were arrested and brought before him. The
Zoroastrians held great hopes that justice will be done. But as the case opened
in court an old Zoroastrian who was the only eye-witness [for a woman's
testimony was not considered in court in those days] was so threatened with dire
consequences, and at the same time promised a reward, by the fanatics and a
prosperous Mohammedan businessman, respectively, that he changed his story. The
old witness's affidavit in court said that he only heard the woman's cry for
help and then saw her in the water, thereby implying that the cry for help was
due to falling in the stream rather than due to any molestation. Hence justice
was denied once again and the Zoroastrians left the court disappointed.
An unjust civil code
And yet another unjust and
evil practice reported by Browne in Yazd (and presumably existed all over Iran)
was the following: "When a Zoroastrian renounces his faith and embraces Islám,
it is considered by the Musulmáns that he has a right to all the property and
money of his ingenerate [unconverted] kinsmen. A case of this sort had arisen,
and the renegade [former Zoroastrian] had taken a sum of ninety túmáns [nearly
£28] from his relatives. The latter appealed to the Prince `Imád ui-Dawla, who
insisted on its restoration, to the mortification of the pervert and his new
friends and the delight of the Zoroastrians."
There
were many other incidents, including abduction and forcible conversions of
Zoroastrian youth. Only the limit of space requires that I leave them out. The
reader may do well to obtain this book from a library and read for himself.
Return to England
Browne left Tehran on 27 September and reached London on 10 October 1888. A full
year and seven days had passed since he first set foot on oriental soil at
Trebizonde, Turkey. A few days after his return to England he took up the post
of Professor of Persian at Cambridge and held it till his death in 1926. On the
last page of his book he wrote “Thus ended a journey to which, though fraught
with fatigues and discomforts, and not wholly free from occasional vexations, I
look back with almost unmixed satisfaction. For such fatigues and discomforts I
was amply compensated by an enlarged knowledge and experience, and a rich store
of pleasant memories which would have been cheaply purchased even at a higher
price. For without toil and fatigue can nothing be accomplished, even as an Arab
poet has said:
“And
he who hopes to scale the heights without enduring pain,
And toil and strife, but wastes his life in idle quest and vain.” |
