James Morier based his satire of Persian life on firsthand knowledge of the culture. Born in Smyrna (later Izmir), Turkey, Morier acted as attaché to two diplomats to Iran, Sir Harford Jones and Sir Gore Ouseley, from 1807 to 1814. As secretary to Jones, he traveled with a Persian envoy named Mirza Abul Hussan, on whom he based the Adventures character Mirza Firouz, the Persian ambassador to England.

A romantic first-person point-of-view picaresque, the story moves with a skillful pace, remaining action-driven. It features a picaro, an adventurer, who enjoys various occupations, from water boy to executioner, in his steady climb toward pleasure and wealth. Morier mentions his debt to other writers of the picaresque in the epistle with which he opens his book. In the guise of one Peregrine Persic, he writes that a European might “give a correct idea of Oriental manners” to help his fellow countrymen understand “many facts and anecdotes of actual life as would illustrate the different stations and ranks which compose a Mussulman community, and then work them into one connected narrative, upon the plan of that excellent picture of European life, Gil Blas of LeSage.” In the foreword to the 1937 Random House edition, Christopher Morley labels the “famous old book . . . droll,” explaining that the term suggests “odd humor, unexpected and kindly, covertly facetious, mischievously wise.”

Named Hajji, which means “the pilgrim,” because of his birth during his parents’ pilgrimage to the sacred tomb of Hosein (Husayn ibn Ali, a Muslim martyr), the protagonist begins the novel as a barber’s apprentice to his father in Ispahan. Noticed by his village’s holy man, he receives an education and states that, by age 16, it was difficult “to say whether I was most accomplished as a barber or a scholar.” Later kidnapped by Turks while traveling with a merchant, he gains favor by practicing his barber skills and successfully plots to retrieve the merchant’s lost fortune for himself. Forced to become an accomplice in the Mussulmen’s nefarious activities, he returns to raid his own village and, in disguise, helps spare his father’s life. After escaping his captors, Hajji travels through Iran and Afghanistan, apprenticing with various individuals to learn magic cures, poetry, and the ways of court and business. An unabashed liar, he even denies membership in the Shiite religious sect, masquerading as a Sunni to suit his purpose. Eventually, he succeeds in marrying the daughter of a wealthy man to gain court status of his own. Unfortunately, his own life stands at risk because of the changing whims of a shah not to be trusted.

Hajji endears himself to readers as a jovial profligate scoundrel, a consistent opportunist interested in money for money’s sake. Endlessly resourceful, he treats all individuals with the same insolence, regardless of their social station. However, his life contains some tragedy. Early in his travels, he falls in love with the slave Zeenab, who eventually becomes a gift to the Shah. Excited about her future in the Shah’s harem, Zeenab does not know she is pregnant with Hajji’s baby. Seven months later, Hajji has become an officer to the chief executioner, assuming the post following the convenient death of his predecessor. In order to fulfill his duty, he must witness Zeenab’s execution. Condemned by the shah, who cannot discover the identity of her unborn child’s father, Zeenab is thrown from a high tower. Hajji suffers the horror of hearing her die and, as the executioner’s officer, must help collect her body. Despite the danger of discovery, he dips his handkerchief in her blood. Morier follows this episode in his lightning-quick plot with one of the few scenes that features a remorse-filled Hajji as he mourns alone by Zeenab’s grave, describing his agony.

Morier’s audience enjoyed Hajji’s guileless hypocrisy, a stereotypical character trait often attributed to Persians. Readers also delighted in reading descriptions of Europeans visiting the Persian court: “who, with their unhidden legs, their coats cut to the quick, their unbearded chins, and unwhiskered lips, looked like birds moulting, or deceased apes, or anything but human creatures.” In spite of the vast differences between English and Persian culture, readers could identify with Hajji’s determination to return one day to his hometown a successful man.

Morier’s careful portrayal of Persian life supposedly elicited an outcry from Abul Hassan, Persian minister to London, when its uncomplimentary portrait of the Persian adventurer appeared. The minister reportedly saw himself in the novel’s slave-owning character, Mirza Farouz. According to Iraj Bashiri, his “protest” read:

What for you write Hajji Baba, sir? King very angry, sir. I swear him you never write lies: but he say, yes—write. All people very angry with you, sir. That very bad book, sir. All lies, sir… Persian people very bad people, perhaps, but very good to you, sir. What for you abuse them so bad? I very angry… You call me Mirza Firouz, I know very well, and say I talk great deal nonsense. When I talk nonsense? Oh, you think yourself very clever man; but this Hajji Baba very foolish business.

That supposed “protest” did not come from Hassan, but rather from a practical joker, Dr. John McNeil. The novel proved so popular, despite its racist views, that Morier produced a 1828 sequel, The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan in England, which contained a copy of the “minister’s protest” and a foreword written by Sir Walter Scott.

One of the first critical looks at Persia, the book joined the developing tradition of novels of social criticism. Through his colorful, but mainly accurate, presentation, Morier helped to demystify a country about which the public had little knowledge. Due to the astonishing detail in the novel, many believed that a Persian aided in its writing. For decades, the novel served as the most accessible English-language book about Persia, and it eventually was translated into Persian. According to E. Cobham Brewster’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), Morier’s novel introduced the Persian term bosh, meaning “nonsense,” to English readers. Despite its appeal, the novel has yet to be converted into a high-quality screen presentation. Reviewers categorized a 1950s “B” movie, The Adventures of Hajji Baba, based loosely on the novel, as a “comedy of errors.” Due to its easy-to-digest style and well-drawn adventures, the novel continues to be read by fans and students of the English picaresque.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bashiri, Iraj. “Introduction.” Writer’s Corner. Available online. URL: http://www.iles.umn.edu/faculty/bashiri/Writers%20folder/WritersCorner.html. Downloaded December 2002.
Goad, Kathleen M. Notes on Chosen English Texts: Hajji Baba of Ispahan. London: James Brodie, 1962.
Morier, James. The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan. New York: Random House, 1937.
Wright, Denise. The Persians Among the English. London: L. B. Tauris, 1985, 69, fn.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

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