TEHRAN – English author and diplomat James Justinian Morier’s novel “The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan” has recently been published in Persian.

Persian litterateur Bahaeddin Khorramshahi has written an introduction to the Persian version of the translated by Mirza Asadollah Taheri, Negah, a Tehran-based publisher, has announced. 

“The Adventures of Hajji Baba” first appeared in 1824, and the book soon became known to a large part of the world as a classic to be compared with Burton’s Arabian Nights.

The publishers of the book were surprised to find upon investigation that there exist in this country several “Hajji Baba” clubs, numbering hundreds of members.

“Hajji Baba” is a tale of high adventure in Persia, and it appealed to Cyrus Leroy Baldridge as exquisitely appropriate for his highly colorful illustrations and pictures.

At Baghdad, he set off with his wife to retrace the journeys of Hajji himself, and after a series of fantastic adventures (in one town a native told him calmly “the last man who sketched here, we stoned to death”) brought home the sketches for this new edition. 

Morier (1780-1849) served as the British ambassador to the court of Persia from 1810 to 1816. 

He is also remembered for his memoir “A Journey through Persia, Armenia and Asia Minor to Constantinople” in 1808.

A Persian translation of this book by Abolghasem Sari was published in Tehran in 2007.

The book consists of two sections, the first of which describes a journey through Persia, Armenia and Asia Minor to Constantinople in 1808 and the second part narrates the details of a journey through Persia to Constantinople which took place between the years 1810 and 1816.

The book contains information about the way of life and traditions of Iranian people at that time.

Morier is mostly remembered as the author of novels about Iran. His knowledge of Eastern life and manners was wide and his works are entertaining.

Photo: Front cover of English diplomat James Justinian Morier’s novel “The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan”.

MMS/YAW