Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan

by Nicholas Jubber

Book Overview

An engrossing blend of travel writing and history, Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah's Beard traces one man's adventure-filled journey through today's Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, and describes his remarkable attempt to make sense of the present by delving into the past.

Setting out to gain insight into the lives of Iranians and Afghans today, Nicholas Jubber is surprised to uncover the legacy of a vibrant pre-Islamic Persian culture...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306818841
• ISBN13: 9780306818844
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A look at Iranian culture using the Shahnameh as its centerpiece

This is a memoir of a British man in his mid-twenties living in Iran (and visiting Afghanistan) and discovering a culture he never expected. The contradictory nature of Iran is explored with Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (an epic poem about Persia's ancient shahs written about 1000 years ago) as its axis -- through his understanding of the Shahnameh, and its importance to Persians, he comes to better understand Iran itself as well as Iran's place in the Middle East. That is, how it is similar, but also how it is set apart, and especially in how the Persians themselves view themselves as apart from many of the cultures surrounding them. I won't say you get a complete, unbiased representation of Iranian thinking -- most of the people he encounters are the intellectual elite -- but it certainly taught me more about the Persian way of thinking than many of the other books I've read on the country and culture. If, ultimately, Jubber comes off as having a somewhat sentimental view of Iran, it is only because he is reflecting how the Persians themselves view their country, their culture, and their history.