Reminiscences of Iran
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
2 February 2026
Having spent a considerable period of my life in Iran's beautiful cities like its capital, Tehran, Khorasan, Shiraz, which produced great wines and Hafiz Shirazi hailed from there and Isfahan, known as Esfahaan nesf-e-jahaan ast (Isfahan is half the world), what's going on there at the moment upsets me no end. Iran is literally burning.
I'm not being partial to Iran, but having travelled across the globe, I dare say, Iran was and is still one of the most beautiful countries in the world and Iranians love Indians. They were so casual about religion which is unexpected in a Muslim country. The people of Iran are still religiously extremely tolerant, only the regime is not. I remember, while studying in Iran as a non-Muslim student, no one ever questioned my faith and even exempted me from attending the mandatory Quran-learning session!
My teachers Ms Wahazia Ashef and Mr Arghaab Mansoor were particularly fond of me. Having come to know that I was a strict vegetarian, not even eating eggs, Ms Ashef would bring eggless cakes for me and would often invite me over for lunch and dinner comprising completely veg dishes.
Mr Mansoor would appreciate my Persian and tell the Iranian students to follow the way I spoke Persian! Those students also never showed any envy towards me and they too appreciated my fluent Persian which is without a tinge of Bengali as my dad spoke Bengali but my mother spoke Iranian dialects, though I never saw her.
Iran is a country of poetry and mushaira (poetic assemblies). At every Iranian household, you'll find the kalaam of Hafiz Shirazi who's more popular than even the great Jalaluddin Rumi. Poetry comes to Iranians effortlessly. So, whenever you speak with an Iranian and even if he speaks with you in English, he or she will quote Persian poetry and translate. Colloquial Persian is full of poetic lines, passages and proverbs. Almost every Iranian will quote Hafiz Shirazi, Attar, Rumi, Nizami, Khaqani, Jami, among others.
Once I met a beggar in Khorasan. He was asking for alms, reciting one of Rumi's difficult poems in chaste Persian and was smiling. I doffed my hat to his indomitable spirit.
Isfahan (pronounced Esfahaan in Persian) and Nishapur are the cities in Iran known for their natural beauty, feminine beauty and perfume-making. The great Fariduddin Attar, the putative master of Rumi, came from Nishapur and was a maker of Itra or perfume (Attar in Persian/ Arabic). That's why his poetry is so sublime and perfumed. I attended many mushairas in Nishapur and got great response from the connoisseurs of Persian poetry. There I got the nom de plume ' Nashtar ' Nishapuri from a famous Persian poet Adif Shaboori.
When lovely Iranian women converse in Persian, the language sounds music to ears even if you don't understand even a bit of it. Persian is tailor-made for poetry. It (Persian) is so close to Sanskrit. The former has many words of Sanskrit origin, albeit with a slight difference. 'Tan' (body) in Sanskrit becomes 'tanam' in Persian and Ashva (horse) is called Asb in modern Persian which descends from middle Persian asp and Old Persian/Avestan aspa.
Moreover, so many Persian words are in our everyday use that we just can't do away with them. For example, Dil, Deemak (termite), Dehaat (village), Darwaza, Dost, Dushman, Dukaan etc. are all Persian words assimilated in our Hindi or Hindustani.
I've not been to Iran for quite some time and am longing to visit the country I grew up interacting with Iranians and speaking with them in impeccable Persian. I also miss those gorgeous Iranian women who've always been so fearless and brilliant; a rare combination of beauty and brains. It's their intrepid women who challenged the theocratic rule in Iran. Alas, it seems that I may have to wait till normalcy is restored.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/reminiscences-of-iran-/d/138684
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