Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-06-29)

66

O

ur burlydriverinthebaseballcapkepthis

eyesontheroadasmyunfailinglysuaveguide,

Ali,chattedaway.We’dbarelylefttheholy

metropolisofMashhad,innortheasternIran,

on ourwaytothesmall,ancienttownofTus,

andalreadyAliwasdiscoursingonflowersand

mystics and philosophersandempire.Otherthana quick

hello, our driver,perhaps60,saidnota word.It wouldbe

almost an hour beforewereachedourdestination:thequiet

tomb of Iran’s belovedchronicler,Ferdowsi.

Only seven hoursearlier,I’darrivedinthecountrywhose

poems and carpetshadfascinatedmesinceboyhood.Much

of me wasn’t evenhereyet,sinceI’dlandedinMashhadat

2:20 a.m. after 30 hoursofflightsfromSantaBarbarathrough

Los Angeles and Istanbul.ButAli,educatedina boarding MOHAMMAD

REZA

DOMIRI

GANJI

TRAVEL BloombergPursuits June 29, 2020

schoolnearLondoninthe1970s,waswide-awakeenoughfor

two.Aswepassedbillboardsfeaturingsternproclamations

fromhiscountry’srulers,Alikepttalkingabouthisculture’s

loveofveils.Themorehesaid,thelessI couldtellwherehe

stoodonthe 1979 revolutionthathadoverturnedhislife.

Finallywearrivedattheimposingmausoleum,honoring

thepoetwhohadfashionedthe60,000-couplethistorical

epicShahnameh, orBookofKings. Ourdriver,a veteranofthe

Iran-Iraqwar,I guessed,withhislargeheadandbulked-up

frame,openedthebackdoorformewithcharacteristiccour-

tesy.Inside,a fewlocalcouplespaidsilentrespectasAli

drewmyattentiontomarblefriezesdepictingscenesfrom

thethousand-year-old poem. Ferdowsi, he explained, had

given Persia a voice—sung Farsi into fresh existence—much

as Shakespeare and Cervantes had done in their countries.

Reading and writing about Iran could not

prepare me for what I saw there. By Pico Iyer

THE

ORIGIN OF

‘PARADISE’

Jameh Mosque

in Kerman