Tower and Town, May 2020

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Persia? Iran? What's In A Name?

The name Persia gives the country a romantic edge. We get Persian carpets and Persian cats from it, and over two thousand years ago there was the mighty Persian Empire, the formidable opponents of the ancient Greeks in the Persian wars.

But Iran? The name recalls the news stories of the last year: attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf; the USA’s killing of a top Iranian general; the mistaken shooting down of a civil airliner as it departed from Tehran’s international airport; disturbances on the streets of Tehran and other major cities; a hard-line Islamic regime and now the Coronavirus….

Some time ago my wife and I lived and worked in Iran and in recent years we have regularly led tours there. In fact, we should be there now with our nineteenth group but – not surprisingly, you may think – it didn’t recruit enough takers. The most frequent question that people ask when they hear that we go to Iran (aka Persia) is: “Is it safe?” The answer is, of course: “We wouldn’t go if it wasn’t.”

The monuments from the long history of Iran, the wonderful, tiled decoration of the buildings – palaces, mosques and so on – and the beautiful gardens are deservedly famous. Visitors rightly expect to be entranced by these. But the unexpected aspect of your visit is the amazing friendliness of the people. Everywhere you go, instead of any hassle you might have expected from a hostile regime, you find smiling, courteous people, greeting you with “Welcome to Iran!” And a sense of humour: in Islam it is said that we mortals can know only ninety-nine of the one hundred names of God; only the donkey knows the hundredth*.

Only the other day I received an e-mail out of the blue from someone whom I don’t know but who has travelled there: “I loved Iran and all the ancient history.  I also loved the local people who were so welcoming to us. I am so glad we went there, despite everybody advising us not to go! They missed a treat.” 

Or, as we say, never judge a book by its cover.

John Osborne