Sketches of Persia

"This book I like a great deal. These days it is quite difficult to get hold of but it is out there! It is the memoirs of Sir John Malcolm, a British officer who was among the first diplomats in Iran in the early 19th century to sign a treaty of alliance between the then king and George III. And Sir John Malcolm is famous for being the first English-language historian of Iran. He produced a monumental study of the history of Persia , published in 1815. It has largely been dismissed now because people think it is very out of date, although I still think it bears reading. But this book is his memoirs, which came later, and I think is probably more interesting. He puts in an account of his mission in Iran littered with interviews, little case-study examples of how Iranian society and politics work. And it is full of wonderful gems of information about Iran, its people, its literature, its language, its place in the world and the way in which the Europeans encountered it. And it is quite refreshing because Malcolm was writing at a time before the period of European colonialism was at its height so he doesn’t have many of the condescensions of the others. He looks at the Iranians and takes them at face value. He disagrees with them about many things and takes them on in these debates about the role of women in Iranian society – a debate which would be very pertinent today, which shows how little really attitudes have changed. So he highlights a number of issues that Europeans would have with Iranians and Iranians would have with Europeans but he is also a very astute and keen observer of the Iranian mentality and for that alone he is invaluable."