OSTERREICHIS CHE AKADEMIE DER WIS SENSCHAFTENPHILOSOPHISCH-HISTORISCHE KLASSE

SITZIINGSBERICHTE. 852. BAND

VEROFFENTLICHUNGEN ZIIR IRANISTIKHERAUSGEGEBEN VON BERT G. FRAGNER TIND FLORIAN SC}IWARZ

NR. 75

BERT G. FRAGNE& RALPH KAUZ and FLORTAN SCHWARZ (eds.)

WINE CUIfURE INIRANANDBEYOND

With the editorial assistance of Bettina Hofleitner

.. Verlaq der0sterreichischen Akadimie

der Wissenschaften

wien20,4 oAW

Vorgelegt von w. M. Brnr G. FnacNsnin der Sitzung vom29. August 2013

Umschlaggestaltung:Bettina Hofleitrer, unter Verwendung einer Fotografle von Max Klimburg,

Two infomiants with an arel inNisheigram, Waigal (1976)

Diese Publikation wurde einem anonymen, intemationalenPeer-Review-Verfahren unterzo gen.

This publication has undergone the process ofanonl'rnous, international peer review.

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opyright @2014byOsteneichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien

Druck und Bindung: Prime Rate kft., Budapesthttp ://hw. oeaw. ac.atl 7 5 5 4-4

http : / I v erlag. o e aw. ac. atPrinted and bound in the EU

CoNtpNrs

G. Fragner, Ralph Kauz, Florian Schwarz

E. McGovern

'Kupferinking the History of China's Grape Wine Culture ......................23

'Jciger

on the Northern Silk Road in Pre-Islamic Times........... ............43

Klimburgin Kafiristan. ....... 53

Brinkmannin flad-tth - from Intoxication to Sobriety................. .................71

MqttheeAmbiguities of Alcohol in hanian History: Between Excess and Abstention 137

FloorCulture of Wine Drinking in Pre-Mongol Iran.......... ................. 165

Rossabiand the Mongols: My'th and Reality ...............211

io RotaRemarks on Wine Consumption as a Political Factor under the Safavids.... 225

Schwarzinary Notes on Viticulture and Winemaking in Colonial Central Asia........ 239

G. Fragnering Wine in Iran under the Reign of Aryamehr........... .............251

BorborInfluence of Wine Culture in kanian Architecture and the Resion......... ........259

A. Newidenn die Liebe trunken macht - Bemerkungen zum Wein in derrsischen Literatur...... ......2i7

'Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak

e Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History:Between Excess and Abstention*

RuoT MaTTHEE

INrnooucuoN

central Asia as far as the oxus River. The Mediteffanean traditionIture is so well known as not to need any elaboration. yet the Medi_basin is not where the grape was first cultivated for the manufac_

f wine' The earliest world's wine culture - going back some 9,000'has beerr located rather farther to the east, in the eastern Taurus, the

lvent of Islam in the seventh century cE formally made wine drinkingin the lands that fell under its sway. yet the spread of this new faith

; the_ early Arab expeditions in fact did tittL to intemrpt tt "

iorrgof.alcohol consumption in the two most important areas that wererd in its name' the eastern half of the Meditenanean basin andIran," encompassing Mesopotamia, the Iranian plateau, the Cauca_

usus and the northern Zagros Mountains of Iran.l pre-Islamic tvteropo-lwas also the land of wine-soaked royal banquets, of alcohol-induced

, and of prophecy inspired by intoxicatlng Orints., In Zoroastrian_symbolized liquid gold and the flowing fiie of the radiant sun, and

had a ritual function, being part of a libation rifual, in which it substi-r blood. Ancient and late antique Iranian elite history could be writ-

the history of razm va bazm lfighting and feasting), with wine at the

I are various good reasons why the spread and adoption oflslam didout wine drinking, other than that human beings Lave always been

ttld like to thank willem Floor, cyrus Schayegh, and Ali Gheissari for providing mesource material.McGovem, Uncorking the past: The euest for r[/ine, Beer, and other Arcohoricles (Berkeley, 2009), 82. See also his contribution to this volume.

loo1r9' "Boisson, banquet, er vie sociale." In L. Milano , ed., Drinking in Ancientties, History and Culture in the Ancient Near East (padua,1994), l_13.

I

138 Rudi Matthee

attracted to various forms of vice, especially if they are officially

one is that wine retained the various presumed medical benefits that

in pre-Islamic times had ascribed to it. Another is that its sale and

tion benefited the state by way of taxes. If this ever created a dilemma,

need for fiscal revenue typically won out over any moral objections.

There are yet other, more indirect reasons why alcohol consumption

not disappear from lands where Islam came to rule. If the Prophet of

was inspired by alcohol, it was by way of proscription, to be sure. Buq Ikeeping with the moral universe engendered by Islam, it was a

gradual proscription, one that was at once absolute and relative, providi

loopholes, the ability to engage in subterfuge, and the chance to have oneguilt absolved. In the Abrahamic tradition the vine and wine have

linked from the outset, and wine has been connected with drunkenness

impudence as early as the story about Noah in the Book of Genesis 9,

2I.3 T\e Quran is ambiguous about wine, evincing a "progressively negati

sequence" in a series of "discreet, evocative statements," with regard to

properties and its consumption, clearly "in response to a particular set

human circumstances."4 It praises wine as God's gift and recognizes it as

sonrce of enjoyment, but "etherealizes" it by giving it a place in

Reflecting the problems Mohammad had with drunkenness in his

Islam's sacred text ultimately condemns wine for its effect, intox

which interferes with faith and the exercise of religious commands.

Yet there is relief for those who transgress. First and most

those who cannot resist drinking in contravention of the Holy Law can

comfort in the Islamic notion that sin can be expiated through

Drinking alcohol is a transgression for which atonement or a specific

ishment is prescribed. Drinking is bad, but the act as such does not turn

actor into a heretic. It is heretical, rather, to consider it permissible to

alcohol.s It also helps if the alcohol one consumes is manufactured by a-A

Muslim, for this absolves the person who drinks at least to some extent."

3 Franqois Clement and Edgard Weber, Les vins d'Orient. 4000 ans d'ivresse 6

2008), introd., 8.

- il;;;?;; The Rhetoric of Sobriety: wine in Early Islam (Albanv,l'{Y, 2001)' 66'

5 ^ r .,,. dr,::,- .^ h- <1tnni LelDevin J. Stewart, Islamic Legal Orthodoxy. Twelver Shiite Response to the Sunnr

System(Salt Lake City, 1998),47.u nob"tt Ker Porter, Tiavels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia, &c'

during the Years, 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820 (London, 1821_22),34748.

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History

ly, and related, the imbiber is offered a place of refuge of sorts inp of the respect Islam has always evinced for the privacy of the inner

sanctuary of a family's honor. A strong Islamic, propheticallyritten injunction about the impermissibility of prying into people,s

ves for hidden sin - so as not to bring shame on them - has oftensome kind of legal shelter against the intrusion of the state by way

:ality police.T In other words, since social solidarity is an importanttraditional Islamic culture, as long as drinking and other proscribedremained confined to the private sphere, the community tended toappearances" by pretending that no infringement was taking place.s

qesult, many newly converted Muslims continued to consume alco-especially wine, with an alacity barely dimmed by a guilty con-

u Pre-Islamic poets had drawn their inspiration and pleasure fromthe khamriyya, aform of bacchic poetry, survived the ban in Islam

in the Umayyad period.e Wine drinking was ubiquitous in the secu-environment of the 'Abbasid court of Baghdad. The scene of thehis boon companions engaged in drinking represents a trope. Theimage of the cultured courtier included not just the actual quaff-

vine, but presupposed knowledge about when and how to consume it,,,course, how to come to terms with the fact that it is formally forbid-

lam. All this is reflected in the Persianate ,LdAb and Nagifuat, Mirrorliterature. Nezdm al-Molk in his well-know Siydsatnameh. writ-

the Seljuq Sultan Malekshah, devotes a brief chapter to the rules andfor royal drinking parties. In it Nezam al-Molk presents good-

wine as a token of the king's lavishness and hospitality; and advisesto choose his boon companions wisely, arguing that it is imperativeing parties be conducted in a relaxed mood, for it is "only throughcompanions that the king's spirit is set free [...]"toQdbusndmeft, an eleventh-century manual written by Qabus b.ir, a vassal of the Ghaznavids and a boon companion of one of thats rulers, for his son, is exemplary in its humanism. "I will not tell

I Cook, Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought (Princeton,48 t-82.

Crone, God's Rule: Government and Islam (New York, 2004),316-17.Weber, "Le vin dans la tradition arabo-musulmane," in Clement, ed.. Les viru

5,t-83.al-Mulk, The Book of Government or Rules for Kings. The Siyar al-Muluk or

139

trans. Hubert Darke (Richmond, Surrey, 1960, repr. 2002),119.

140 Rudi Matthee

;t3i.il .:_.,p .5; , .11.r L--1! *+r .*_,L a,.1- l_2 a5f Jlls 4jti, gj;: l; ,+.1- o cu*u .liolji; aS ll.l

Reckon holy everyone in holy robes youView them all as good

And if what's in their hearts' unknown toWhat business within a private house have the

you to drink," Q6bus admonishes his son, ,.but I can,ttell you not toeither"; after which the author proceeds to give his offspring advicethe etiquette of drinking. A good latter-day example of tie,il;;J]Anis al-Nas, The Good companionowritten in Shiraz in the fifteenth centoffers similar advice. In keeping with a common association, ,n; il;known) author of this manuar for',the honest man" pragmaticaily cails *fone of the indomitable urgencies of youth. In his chaptei on wine, theturns vice into a virtue by emphasizing, right from the outset, that /repentance, is important, indeed essential, for the drinker, for a l,man

wirepentance is like a fish on dry land". He then proceeds to list the orrules of etiquette that the drinker should take into account and live br.ri'A related aspect of wine drinking that scarcely needs mention is the

it has always played in Sufism, Islamic mysticism, much of which i. ,.ithe Persianate half of the Islamic universe. wine, of course, is ubiquitous iSufi poetry. And it is clear that Muslim mystics did not just celebrate winea metaphor, but indulged in it themselves, at times in great volum".rr erothe tropes found in sufi poetry are the khardbdt, dingy and dark wateriholes on the edge of town. From its early manifestatiois, the mystical anance also included the consumption of arcohol as defiance, u, u *uythumping one's nose at the strictures of formal religion and social c,tion. Hafez's poetry in particular is filled with references to wine as aphor for dissent against the rigidity of orthodoxy and in particular the cantthe clerics, its self-appointed guardians. Iran,s other ievered ooet. sa,srxns up a prevailing attitude, combining suspicions about and tolerance {the behavior of "holy men" with an insistence of the right of individualsprivacy, as follows:

11, ^.Shoja'shoJa' , Anis al-Nds, ed. Iraj Afshar (Tehran, 253611977), ch. 7 , 1g9104. For anof this work see (-

-IJ ;6 E^,-^Lr^^--- 66.not thls work, see C.-H. de Fouchdcour, ...The Good Companion, (Anis al_nds), a

*:.9._T:r:." Man in Shiraz in the grhtrsh C;"*ry,,,in Kambiz Estami, ed.,.tIranian Studies: Essays in Honor of Iraj ,<$rho, 1V:iceton, l99g), 42_57.See Homd Nd{"q, Hif"z. Khonyagari, mey va shadi(Los Angeles, 2004).

72

in Medieval lran (Leiden, 2007),27 , h. 66.

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History

WrNTs n{ Ea-n.ry MODERN IRAN

inking remained an integral part of court life in eastern half of theworld beyond the classical period, a custom that, over time, was

141

continued the habit of elites indulging in alcoholic excess ini violation of the Islamic law. This includes the Safavids, the dynasrviiguratmg as a mystical order from eastem Anatolia, took power in

on for dipsomania. The two major dynasties representing this influx,uqs and the Mongols' were both known for binge drirJ<ing. Subse-

1501 to rule the country until the early eighteenth century. ln theperiod, wine drinking continued to conform to a long-standing

cultural idiom. unlike conditions in the ottoman Empire with itsolitan port cities filled with minorities - especially chiistians _ foryT: yu. part of daily routine or even of liturgical ritual, the ambi-I drinking in Iran, including that of the court, remained tribal and

to the open space rather than being urban-centered. consequently,rut the early Safavid period and periodically thereafter, alcohol con-

oh by the elite continues to recall the pre-Islamic razm va bazm tradi-'hard fighting and hard drinking u, tir" expected pursuit of warriors

by an influx of Turko-Mongol peoples from central Asia with a

"test of a man."13rhol consumption in large quantities by the shah and his entourage al-inrred to have a spirifual,

"u"n .u"rul dimension reminiscent o=r tn"

I reputation. Porfuguese visitors to his court describe.uu.ow scenes

libation rite. The king was supposed to drink, both as a sign of hisas a "big

ryan," and as a way to demonstr ate thathe occupieJhis ownLous moral space - beyond the strictures of Islam. The first politicalthe dynasty, Shah Ismd'il (r. 150114), especially, lived up to this

lued drinking by him and his acolytes, the eezelbash chiefs, the Tur-warriors who brought the Safavids to power and who formed they of their military until the early seventeinth century.character of the Qezelbash as a wild and undisciplined tribal warriorepitomized in the terrible defeat the Safavids suffered against the.s on the battlefield of chaldiran of 1514. The Iranians famously lost

Khandamir, Tarikh-i ftabib ar-seyar, 4 vols., ed. Dabirsiydqi (Tehran, l362ags4),2, cited in Maria Subtelny, Timurids in Transition: Turko-persian politics and Accul-

t42 Rudi Matthee

this decisive confrontation in part because the Qezelbash had engaged ixdrunken orgy the night before. Following the debacle, a depressed Isrna,gave up on state affairs but not on drinking: He would die a decade later.barely thirty years old, in a drunken stupor.

Wine, moreover, served to mark the boundaries of inclusion and exclq.sion at the center of power. Who was and who was not invited to join t[sshah in his drinking parties betokened royal favor and disfavor. That Westem visitors might not just be included in these assemblies but were evgnallowed to share the shah's owlt cup betrays the emphatically secular rnsks.up of a court that was not just willing to transgress the general Islamic banon drinking but the more specifically Shi'i one on ritual purity as well. lnthis manner, drinking automatically was about power, the power of the dyrr.ast to force his underlings to drink, or to make his clerics watch the drinking.The most celebrated of Safavid rulers, Shah 'Abbas I (r. 1587-1629), wasknown to touch alcohol, albeit in moderation, and his Europeanclaim that he never allowed the effect of drinking to get in the way ofdecision-making. Yet he did employ alcohol as a way to assert his power bydefuing the clerics attached to his court. The Portuguese father Ant6nio deGouvea bears witness to this with a story in which he describes how the shahordered wine to be brought during an assembly where, aside from a delega'tion of Portuguese missionaries, various judges and clerics, including the

sheykh al-islam of the realm, were present, and forced everyone to drink to

the health of the pope.laWith regard to the consumption of alcohol, Safavid Iran evinces some

same impulses as its neighbors, the Ottoman and Mughal states. Vari

Ottoman sultans, from Siileyman the Magnificent to Murad IV, are known to

have imbibed, even if they outlawed public drinking.ls Sultan Babur,founder of the Mughal dynasty (r. 1526-30), was notorious for his frequent

drinking bouts. And, in keeping with the Central Asian mode, in his autobi'

ography he is quite open and unapologetic about this aspect ofhis reign and

ra Ant6nio de Gouvea, Relagam em que se tratam as guenas e grandes victorias que dL

cangou o grdde rey da Persia Xd Abbas do grdo Turco Mahometto, & seu filho Amefue',

as quais resultardo das embaixadas Que por mandado del rey D. Fetippe it a, fo'tuSu

Jizirad algiis religiosos da ordem dos Eremeitaas de Santo Agostinho o P"rrio, (Litbot

1611),206v.tt ili^lp t;sel, Constantinople: City oJ'the World's Desire 1453-1924 (Lordon, 1995)'

173-74.

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian Historv r43

.ity.16 The wine cup remained an integral part of Mughal court cul-il the end of the dynasty.tT Like the Safavid Shahs Soleymdn andHoseyn, Sultan Nur al-Din Jahdngir (r. 1605-27) kept drinking ineven after banning alcohol in public.18Safavids nevertheless seem to have retained more of the Central

tradition than the Mughals and certainly than the Ottomans. The Ital-Manucci claims that Sultan Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707) forced

to settle outside of the port city of Surat on account of their drink-. Even before the accession to power of this well-known purist, the

of Westemers is said to have been rather low because of their pre-,rheavy drinking and polygamous practices.'n As was true in Iran, in

un lands the consumption of alcohol among Muslims by and largethe province of the elite, the kha;;, with the middling and popular

drinking little more than water - and, as always, preferring opium asof choice. Ottoman port cities were home to numerous drinking

to be sure, reflecting the large number of their Christian in-Yet in the Ottoman Empire or at least in Istanbul, the Ottomanseem to have indulged as freely in drinking as its Iranian counter-

e have one report, dating from 1719, which states that the Ottoman:had switched from wine to coffee during receptions for foreign20 The custom of organizing drinking session and inviting not just theboon companions but even foreign guests, diplomats and missionar-

never been common in Istanbul. The contrast between Iran's mili-vith conditions in the Ottoman army is rather stark as well. Suggesting

of social discipline that the Iranians had not (yet) attained, Ogierthe Flemish representative of the Habsburg state in Istanbul, in the

th century insisted that the army of the sultan did not drink. In-

Dale, The Garden of the Eight Paradises. Babur and the Culture of Empire inAsia, Afghanistan and India (1483-1530) (Leiden, 2004),179-83.Khare, "The Wine Cup in Mughal Court Cultwe - From Hedonism to Kingship,"

The Medieval History Journal 8 (2005): 143-88.Chatterjee, "The Lives of Alcohol in Pre-colonial India," ir The Medieval History8 (2005):202.

i Manucci, Storia di Mogor, 4 vols. (London, 1907): l:4 and2:4.. Brosset, ed. and trans., Histoire de le Georgie depuis I'antiquitd jusqu'au XIXe, 2 vols. (St. Petersbwg, 1856-57), l:6; Nationaal Archief, The Hague (NA), VOCIsfahan to Gamron, 17 J:uly 1713, fol. 352; arrd Paula Sutter Fichtner, Terror andion: The Habsburg Empire Confronts Islam, 1526-1850 (London, 2008,92.

144 Rudi Matthee

deed, Busbecq opined that the absence of intoxicating drinks in the.Ottor

army contributed greatly to the good order in the sultan's military.zl 414

military was apparently no exception among the governing elite. As

various sultans are known to have imbibed, even heavily, in private, ys1

least sixteenth-century Ottoman court ritual in general stands out for

ty."Iranian society eventually was to evolve into a similar direction,

though the path was circuitous and the pace much slower. The evolution

the Safavids from a band of freebooting warriors given to the ways of

steppe, to an urban-based, bureaucratic order professing a more scrip

version oflslam created (clerically inspired) pressufe on the tradition of

drinking in public. This does not mean that the elite gave up on drinking -anything the influx of Christians - mostly Georgians and Armenians - f

the Caucasus, so-called gholdms,who were subsequently given high mili

and administrative positions, gave a new impulse to drinking as an

part of life. Georgian gholdms came to supplant the Qezelbash, to the poi

where by the late seventeenth century much of the Safavid military w

composed of Georgians, while Armenians were prominently represented i

the ranks of the administration. Both gloups brought with them a culture i

which wine drinking was integral and natural, an attitude that changed

tittle with the formal conversion to Islam presupposed by their iinto the Safavid elite. The introduction of Georgian and Circassian

into the royal harem, moreover, introduced "Christian" ways into the heart

the political decision-making arena, including, presumablyo the consu

of wine. In sum with the exception of Shdh Tahmdsb (r. 1524-76)'

famous Sincere Repentance of 93911532-33, reiterated in 965/1558, i

ed abjuring alcohol, Shdh IsmS'il's successors all imbibed, althoughindulged more than others.

Ueavy drinking was and long remained widespread outside the circles

the central court as well. The Ottoman traveler Evliya Chelebi, vt

northwestern Iran in the 1640s, said of the khan of Darband thathe

drunk day and night. t' The unnamed official who governedYazd in I

21 Metitr And., Istanbul in the l6th Century. The City. The Palace, Daily Life (

1994), r87.Giilru Necipoflu, "Framing the Gaze in Ottoman, Safavid and Ottoman Palaces,"

'1,

Orientalia 23 (1993): 3l 1.Evliya Chelebi, Travels,trans. and ed. Willem Floor (Washington D.C., 200D' 93'

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History

known for his excessive drinking. The Armenian Bedros Bedik incharucterized Man;ur Khan, a Georgian who in the 1670s served

, head ofthe slave-soldiers, as a devotee less oflslam than of24

as much as alcohol permeated early modern Iranian society, wine-retained its dubious status as a custom at variance with relisiousrns. Alcohol might be ubiquitous in elite circles yet it remained -but remain - socially unintegrated. In elite circles, wine served as a

lubricant, enlivening banquets and other social gatherings, but its ul-ii.fate was simultaneous furtive embrace and public disavowal. It thus

become part of a public sphere, in the way coffee and later teathe beverages consumed in the Iranian public space, represented by

coffeehouse - which, as described by various West-and in Persian-language sources, coffesponds to Habermas's

on of the public sphere in that it was autonomous from the;,venue for the literate and literary classes and a conduit of public

i, even of dissent and opposition to the state.25

INIilBITIoNS AND CIIRBING MEASTIRES :

Safavid state manifested itself from its inception as a faith-basedthe inherent tension between Islam's proscription of alcohol andintake by the Iranian upper classes sooner or later was bound to

conflict. As the Safavid state lost its tribal. Turko-Monsol moor-moved toward greater conformity with a professed Twelver-Shr'r, if not actual orthopraxis, attitudes toward alcohol indeed began to

or rather, prohibitionist tendencies began to assert themselves. Thenifestation of this occurred early on. Of crucial importance in the

is Shdh Tahmdsb's famous Sincere Repentance - his decisionup on various forms of unislamic behavior, which included the drink-

lvine. Shah Tahmdsb issued a first farman, royal edict, outlawingin 1525, possibly under the influence of his sheykh al-islam,'Ali al-

Bedik, Chehil sutun, seu explicatio utriusque celeberrimi, ac pretiosissimi theatricolumnarum in Perside orientis, cum adjectaftniori narratione de religione,

(Vienna, 1678),252.hgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An InquiryCategory of Bourgeois Society (Cambridge, 1989).

r45

t46 Rudi Matthee

Karaki, who a year later made his own contribution to a morc shari'

minded society by iszuing afatwa that targeted public singing and recitati

amons other activities associated with Sufis and Qezelbash elements.26

shah,s Sincere Repentance was first proclaimed in 93911532-33. As the

and its enforcement clearly played itself out over a number of years, it- . .27

^ ;a- r , -^,-- ^L-:1-:^- ^ Ll^, , , ^++L^l^^-A A;-

reiterated n 96411555-56.27 Aside from striking a blow at the h

Qezelbash, this decision marked a phase in the loss of the shah's divine pre

tensions that had begun with Shah Ismd'il's defeat against the Ottomans i1514, and symbolized a switch in the shah's image from incarnation of

divine to that of trustee of the imam, from law-deffing force to guarantor

orthopraxis. Later shahs continued to drink, but they no longer drank in

previously unselfconscious manner. Even shorn of its orgiastic dimensi

drinking remained a source of raucous fun and rollicking spectacle at

royal court, with rulers amusing themselves as besotted courtiers were

ried out horizontally. Wine also continued to serve as a way to pry

from the lips of courtiefs whose loyalty was in doubt' following a tradi

that Herodotus had already commented on in his remarks about the Persi

with sometime deadly results.28still, guilt - like clerical pressure - was never far from the surface. All

shahs beginning with 'Abbds I periodically banned the consumption of alco

hol. Even Shah gafi G. 162942), who was notorious for his own dipsr

nia, is now known to have proclaimed a ban on drinking. t' The reasons

ied, and ranged from apparent royal whim to invocations of divine

preceding a battle or a siege, to clerical incitement and exhortation. The Pt

iian-language sources present Jahmdsb's Sincere Repentance as inspired.

a celestial dream. but also situate it in the context of a pending exped

against the ottomans, who had just invaded Iraq. And the chroniclers

iJri^""-pJr;;;i;iify royat boozing. A point in case is Shdh 'Abbas II (r

1642-66),who, still only in his late teens after seven dry years on the

'u S.. Rastrl Ja'fariyan, Naqsh-e Khanddn-e Karaki dar ta'sis va tadavom-e dowlat-e

(Tehran, 1387 12008), 278-88.

" Fo, this. see Rudi Matthee, The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulan+ in

History, I 5 0O- I 900 (Princeton, 2005), 7 4ft.

" S". Herodotus, Histories,4 vols., ed. A. D. Godely (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), The

n 1664 report how Heydar Beg died from exessive drinking forced upon him b/

'Abbds II. See NA, VOC 1248, Gamron to Batavia, 30 Aug. 1664, fol. 3046'

' ai";ivr"amo t.'uuir A[dh al-Hoseyni savdneh-negdr Tafreshi, Tarikh-e shah Safi'

Mol.rsen Bahrdmnezh6d (Tehran, l388l20l0), 22-23'

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History

took up the cup, while celebrating Nowruz onthe banks of the Hel-iver, during his triumphant return from a campaign that had led to

of Qandahar from the Mughals. Vdleh Qazvini Esfahdni, whothe events, is explicit about the shah's change of heart, and justi-

in two ways. First, he refers to the old adage according to which Godas the law permit happiness and pleasure, especially in youth. The

ially enjoys certain rights, including the right to unbounded pleas-long as he does not neglect his realm and his subjects. For good meas-

Qazvini Eqfahani makes sure to absolve the ruler from any per-ibility by blaming his courtiers for their alcoholic excess and

the shah to take up the cup as well.3othe various proscriptions in the Safavid period we detect ten-the Turkic, Central Asian and the Tajik, "ethnic Iranian" ele-

Safavid society. Karaki's opinions reflected sentiments harbored byimmigrant clerics whom he represented, and his rulings targeted

at Sufis but also the Qezelbash and their wayward ways, which noincluded drinking (in public and to excess.) ShAh 'AbbAs I issued adrinking in 1603, at a time when his campaign to sideline the Qezel-as in full swing.3r A most suggestive hint about "ethnic" tensions

the accession of Shah $afi in 1629, in the different ways in whichmain chronicles narrating the event present the various proscriptive

that were taken following the enthronement. The "pro-Qezelbash"

flrnad Ma'gum b. Khvdjegi Esfahdni, the author of the Khola;at al-lhas Shah $afi begin the new shah's reign with a proclamation banning

and the burning of the existing crop of tobacco. Abu'l Mafrkher b.al-Foseyni, the "Tajik-leaning" author of the recently edited

Shah $afi, by contrast, does not even mention this proclamation.he presents a ban on the consumption of wine and the destruction of

as the first official act of the newly acceded Shah Safi.32

Yusof Valeh Qazvini Esfahani, Khold-e barin (Iran dar ruzgar-e Safaviyan),Hashem Mohaddes (Tehran, 13721 1993), 480.

Tectander, Eine abenteuerliche Reise durch Russland nach Persien 1602*1604. edMtiller-Ott (Tulln, 1978), 65.

Molrammad Ma'sum b. Khajegi Egfahani, Khola;at al-seyar. Tarikh-e ruzgar-e Shah)na|avi, ed. Iraj Afshdr (Tehran, 1368/1989), 39; and Al-Hoseyni, Tarikh-e Shah

'2213. For this interpretation, see Napr Allah Purmollammadi Amleshi, "'Agr-e Shah" review of al-Hoseyni, Tarikh-e ShAh gafi, rn Ketab-e MAh Ag (Mehr 1389/2010):

147

148 Rudi Matthee

Typically and unsurprisingly, ttre ulama were the driving force behind 1truvarious bans and the retreat of royal drinking into the private sphere. In earlv

Safavid times, Shi'i scholars developed the idea that, in the absence of t(Hidden Imam, a qualified jurist might undertake the task of leading qu

community of the faithful in its efforts to uphold the divinely ordained sosid

order. This sanctioning of clerical activism never pfompted the ulamq bforeswear their allegiance to, or cooperation with' the state, but it did pu1some muscle into their claim to have the right of direct intervention in 11,affairs. The various bans all bear a clerical imprint. 'Abbds II, exhorted fyhis ulama to clean up his act and follow the example of his pious forebear,

Shdh Jahmdsb, foreswore wine n96011653, a mere four years after he had

held his ftst bazm on the verdant banks of the Helmand River. Yet invaria.

bly, such bans were honored in the breach more than in the observation,

Their intent was ostensibly to combat and curtail religiously proscribed be.

havior, but as numerous examples suggest, in reality they typically grew out

of a preoccupation with the preservation of public order. Drinking in public

rather than drinking per se was seen as a problem, and silence and dissimula'

tion were the mechanisms that kept the latter out of sight.

This explains in part why bans rarely lasted long, and why were they not

always comprehensive either. Under 'Abbas II's successor, Shah Soleymdn

(r. 1666-94), wine was officially outlawed several times. Yet public bans did

not necessarily entail private abstemiousness. When the Spanish cleric

cubero Sebastian visited Isfahan in 1674, he noted that there was no wile

ilable in the city, yet he insisted that the shah and his nobles consumed it

in secret.33 Drinking clearly retained its status as a prerogative of the kha;$.

The long-term trend toward "privatized" tippling culminated during the

reign of the- last Safavid shah, Shah Sollan $oseyn (1694-1722). Upon his

acJession, the pious Solldn Foseyn acceded to a request from his tutor, the

doctrinaire cleric Mol.rammad Bdqer Majlesi (d. 1699), to outlaw all drin@g

in his realm - as well as other forms of behavior considered to be atvatiance"

with the shari'a. This led to the ostentatious smashing of 6,000 bottles oI

wine found in the royal cellarso and to the promulgation of the most explioit

and comprehensive anti-vice proclamation in all of Safavid history, not just

" Don Pedro Cubero Sebastian, Breve relaci6n de la peregrinaci6n que ha hecho de M

mayor parete del mundo Don Pedro Sebastian (Madrid, 1680),217.

avallaole il. /JJ

an but throughout the shah,s realm.3a yet in this case, too, the ban3j}:lijf: lf:X

to urearrit-was tr,"",r,ur, himsetf. rn the falr ofmere months after the ban had _been o;il#;,?"J'.i;T',""#"7H ;::l_*:#".1*lr- g,lo"d,""oio_Ldation of his great_auntm Begom, who was a noted tippler h"*;li.;ffi; oiil,i*'i?r;,Hlfor the duration

"r r:]fl ry:;,;t,Gqf, though, and alcohol wasbrth confined to the privacy of the palacs.-rt'

here is no question that private dri"k;;;;yond the parace persisted as;*: H:,'""-:: ,'#: *l::i."1,,'L.' ll'g pr;;* in rsramic history, ar rhe, suggests that in Safavid rran, this'tyfe;i;;ffi;;i"i"r,li.LTi:

il":,,X1j:":L'fll,o:.^1T,"_ tt ;1, ;fiiaro", to tackre, but morerlly because it did not disrupt,h";;;i;f;;;i?:?;*rT;J:ity that Islamic societies have tended ,; il;might inveioh ,."r-", i+ L-,+ --

st on so emphatically.7 might inveigh against it but some ;,#il;;"]#llllli"ilil;,TJ:"rr".:::t":,1::i:l:.,i

state with a secura, wiil to power on:h they were dependent for po.ition.-urri;";;#:: ##;T:#;l1kJ."':Ttt;i";r:"::j:: ̂ """l'.Tl;j

i''*"n"" or vice rhev werenJfliT:1"j.I#XTl"tance or pubric "d;: ff -,

"i"i"l :"J,ffiid thus snarerl rt"^^*. ^r^n:_1t_r,t".,

they rlere pragmatic rather than idealis_

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in kanian History

thus spared theory as well u. pru"ri""i4D wctr as pracuce by conniving atthe relegationmg to privare sphere 3nf.

oflofeluti"g ilr"'practice of religious mi_purveying wine (to Muslims). An rh; I.ft;;;:";:'jT::,:J:ere as a safetv valve qn,r o o^r^ L^---. . .

ample room for the pri-

:f:"T;;t"tv varve and a sare h"'"'';';;l;H";"0#il1:tfl1:

BprwpeN TrrE SAFAuDS AND rrru earansregard to many aspects of rife and society, and especiarly in matters ofial cuhure' the documentary evidence ror'tte seventy-five year period

Mohammad Ebrahim O. .1"rn al_,Abedin Naqfui, Dastur_e shariyardn, ed.

ffi f.,Iffi ,i::::"y"",r:11-T.,rr"-r,,*i."rr)r?iot.rn<o.rnprovinciarcitiesproc I ama t ion was engraved a bo ve the .ffi .;;;;;;";_r#l #.Hil:,$; r,i::

:;; ; X;:;i ;: ::TZ, ;:,) :!:' :,\l ln*: ly."* t"* *' in N a s h r i y e h -y e D a n e -Adabiyat-erabriz6:t(rrr.1j:.j.j:;._i,i',;J;^#;"\ffi ,{:!:::r:;:2,

::::;',::ri1:::'::.:T:l j1!::;;i:;i;^mesBai,,ieFraser,Nar-;,"{;r:K;TJ#.Khoiasanintheyeistttt"i|rfri#il'"'":ill';,Til3i; :

149

Matthee, The pursuit of pleasure,94.

150 Rudi Matthee

between the fall of the Safavids and the accession of the Qajars isThis includes the incidence and level of alcoholic intake, for which wefew references. Yet all indications are that, following the rise to power sfAfghans and the subsequent rule by the Afsharids, culminating in the reiof Ndder Shah (1736-4V),kan underwent a process of de-urbanization"refi'ibalization." Whereas the early eighteenth-century Ottomanexperienced its first "modernizing wave," which, incidentally coincidedattempts to emulate the Safavid models in matters of architectural stylepoetic taste, Iranian society remained thoroughly traditional in its ways,affected by Western models, and, as the tribal element edged out thein some ways even 'oregressive.rr36 y7a know that the Afghans were aversealcohol. and it seems that Ndder Shah. too. did not drink. Yetpattems seem to have continued, reflecting a society which remainedmoderno unregulated and undisciplined, and where practices mightcontravene the norms without leading to serious corrective measures.Frenchman Ferridres-Sauveboeuf in the 1760s claimed that Iranians dfreelv." Indeed. in at least one instance drinkine and other forms ofmaking were officially licensed, even encouraged. The place of action iShiraz, and the enactor of this "enabling" approach is Karim KhdnZand,warlord who emerged from the chaos following the death of Ndder Shah i1747 to take control of much of southem Iran. In the 1770s Karimturned Shiraz, his capital, into an ooabode of pleasure," dar al-'eysh, filwith brothels, inns and tavems, in an apparent attempt to "civilize"non-Persians." Concessions were still made to the military. In a policyiniscent of that of Karim ISdn Zand" who allowed his soldiers to havecess to alcohol, crown-prince and reformer 'Abbas Mirzd in the early niteenth century licensed a wine-shop in Tabriz for the use of thestationed in that city, which included many Russians. The Iranianapparently followed their Russian colleagues in the drinking habits of

This has been argued by Shirine Hamadeh, The City's Pleasures: Istanbul in theeenth Century (Seattle and London, 2008),234-35.Comte L. de Ferridres-Sauveboeuf, Mdmoires historiques, politiques et gAographiquesvoyages....faits en Turquie, en Perse et en Arabie depuis 1782 jusqu'en 1789,2(Maastricht, 17 90), 2:6243.Cbristoph Wemer, "Taming the Tribal Native: Court Culture and Politics inCentury Shiraz," in Albrecht Fuess and Jan Peter Hartung, eds., Court Cuhuru ittMiddle East, Seventh to Nineteenth Centuries (London and New york , 20ll), 22G27 .

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History

Yet, since the Iranians would get drunk much faster than the Russians,often flogged for the offense.3e, when it came, naturally was a matter of changing elite behavior.

early modem West, anxieties about working class behavior in the con-modemizing societies demanding discipline, proper work habits,

in sum, sobriety, prompted states to take measures against drink-

the common man. The various gin laws promulgated in England as ofcentury are good examples of this tendency.aO ln either

played an important role, with clerics agitating against the

and societal rack and ruin drinking entailed. Since in Iran alcohol con-

iion was mostly an upper-class phenomenon, it is only natural that,clerical exhortation, the royal palace set the trend for sobriety.

Qajar rulers continued to drink, but abstemiousness at the court morebecame the norm. Mohammad 'Ali Shah (r. 1834-4$), who shortly

accession proscribed drinking in his realm, may even have been a.ot This is a function of several developments. One represents aion - or rather the resumption - of the process of sedentarization.reign of Fatf 'Ali Shah (1797-1834) court life was no longer fo-the wild steppe but centered on the royal palace located in what

become Iran's first fixed capital, Tehran. More important is the fact

Qajars lacked the religious credentials of the Safavids. They neithera (fictitious) lineage going back to the Shi'i Imams, nor did they

a new faith. They thus had to project an image of public piety andin order to establish their legitimacy, and abstaining from alcoholoutward sign of this posture. A third, related process, was the rise to

of the Shi'i clergy, who had emerged from the turmoil of theth century as the guiding force for a rudderless populace. The Eng-Stuart, describing Iran in 1835, reported that the Iranians he met did

o'for fear of the eunuch, a sober and strict Muslim."a2 This is anreference to the influence of Hdjji Mirza Sghdsi, the infamous tutor

lor of Motrammad Shah and his court. In the ensuing atmosphere

, Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, 349;Jessica Wamer, Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason (New York, 2002);Patrick Dillon, Gin: The Much Lamented Death of Madam Geneva: The Eighteenth-

Gin Craze (New York, 2004),Matthee, The Pursuit of Pleasure, l8l.

Charles Sbtart, Journal of a Residence in Northern Persia and the

151

Provinces ofTurkey, (London, 1854), 169.

t52 Rudi Matthee

of growing clerical assertiveness,the razm-o bazm tradition come to 41The shah had ceased to be a warrior, and in a reflection of his domestiash, stew, distributed during festivals, took the place of wine durinsfeasting.

None of this means that the ruling class at large ceased to imbibe.times in enonnous quantities. When they are addicted to wine, James BaiFraser, writing in the 1820s, insisted, Iranians "preserve no restraint,show very little anxiety to conceal their frailty, unless when they are perfollowing grave occupations. Indeed, their maxim is, that there is as

Flandin said, confirming the words of Fraser and many visitors beforeafter him, resembled all people touching a forbidden fruit by nothow to enjoy it in moderation. Obviously referring to the Iranians hetered, invariably members of the ruling classes, he insisted that hadseen one who did not consume alcohol without getting so drunk as not toable to lift his glass to his lips. Many people in Iran, Flandin claimed,indulge in this and other vices until about the age of frfty, at whichthey would repent, engage tn towbeh. Quite a few persisted in their tastealcohol until the very end, though.aa

Nor was drinking just an upper-class affair. T'he kharabdt, the dank dion the edge of town run by Jews or Armenials where Muslims would goget drunk, continued to operate, attracting men from the lower orders,of them ruffians known as luyis. The Vaqaye'-e etteJdqiyyeh, a compendiof reports on southem Iran by British officials, offers several instancesdrunken brawls outside of Shiraz in 129611879. In one, two peopleinjured, one of whom later died. Near the city gates there werelots of disturbances each night, with drinking and fighting ensuing.otdrank, too, as well as smoked bang, as they had always done. As Fraser

Fraser, Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, 422.M. Eugdne Flandin, Voyage en Perse de MM Eugene Flandin, peintre, et pascal Coste'architecte,2 vols. (Paris, 1851), 2:404 and 414-15. For the same tvDe of observatioomade some four decades earlier by the French envoy Am6d6e Jaubert, see p. Anrddl€Jaubert, voyages en Armdnie et en perse , faite dans les anndes lg05-1g06 (paris, 1821)'317.

sin in a glass as in a flagon; and that if they incur the penalty, they willforgo the pleasure [...]"0' Iranians, the French artist-cum traveler Eue

Vaqaye'-e ette/dqiyeh. Majmu'eh-ye gozaresh'ha-ye khofyeh-nevisan-e Endis dalvelayat-e jonubi-ye lrdn az sal-e I29i fi i322 qamari, ed. sa'idi sirjani $ehrao1362/1983), r72.

43

44

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History

a privilege of Soffeeism to drink strong liquors, smoke bang, and useher means of intoxication, at their pleasure." o6 Police reports for late

Tehran frequently refer to instances of public drunken-in disorderly conduct among common people.aT

evidence for continued hard drinking among the ruling classes incomes from provincial centers and peripheral parts of the coun-

ggesting that the modernizing impulse had indeed started at the center,

fiight expect, or conversely, that heavy drinking continued to followby being most prevalent among tribal elements, with the Kurds

the lustiest imbibers. Mo[rammad Khdn Zanganeh Amir Nezam, theof Azerbaijan in the 1830s and until his death in 1841, is a case in

American missionary Justin Perkins called this official "brokenhard drinking."a8 The aforementioned Flandin reports how, during

inTabriz, the Amir NeTam entertained him and his men to copiousof food and that the wine flowed freely inespective of religion,

ltboth the Iranian hosts and their French guests. The bottles on theI side, Flandin insisted, were all empty and quite a few of them were

Elsewhere the same author called opium and wine abuse widespreadq adding that Iranians would organize noctumal sessions with theiri, during which Mohammad and the wisest of his ordnances were for-and during which they would seek oblivion in wine from the tribula-life.5O Fraser, traversing Khorasan in 182112, met quite a few bibu-cials. most of them Kurds" descendants of the ones Shah 'Abbas I

to the resion two centuries earlier to defend the northem.ds against Turcoman raids. Farrokh Khdn, the officer in charge ofartillery of Nishapur, was a "professed Mahometan and a rigid ob-

of many of the forms of his religion," yet he "indulged very freely inof wine, and rather boasted of the quantity he consumed, than

of concealing it."t' For much of the nineteenth century, the region of

, Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, 570.'ha-ye navmiyeh az mahallat-e Tehran, 2 vols. paginated as one (Tehran,

/1998),25,33,36, 49-50, 68,79, 103, 116, 14344, 155-56, 196, 197,243,371,394., 250, 254, 283, 284, 301, 31 1, 316, 347 .

Perkins, A Residence ofEight Years in Persia among the Nestorians (Andover andYork, 1843),226.

Voyage en Perse, l:171.2:404 and 414-15.

153

, Narrative ofa Journey into Khorasan,39l-92.

154Rudi Matthee

of Iranian life.

Question,2 vols. (London,1892), 1 : 102'

Baker. Clouds in the East, 286.

ffi:"l":'ffies the tvpe of alcohol pTpl: dT{ ":I*:::i:T::?ll*l#h'lJH: ffi'# il hq"J' d P: TT 3lTH"- iT3:TiXfi:i"Hl ffi dffi; il;; ;ii;* since s aravil,lti:i^ ^*"-:l"""*q,

;l*essed the introduction "f ""T llf": :^lT*""irt"::':-:,i::J;:XT?-I'T:ffi#"';;;."t":*:19-:.n*:,X"*,-T:1:"1'JJ:;rJ""#3,T#i"1TilLi"h;i;"^-ir'g---:""1:*:T^1":1il'"":$lncorpolatruu ruLv luv E,rvv'- ---- lo tt

" early part of the

-p"u" liquor seem to lave.ryd1*11t^*".ocrrrnrr'11 in 1gl7

8iffi#"llffi:', ir'" r'""0 "r a Ru"iun'mb*"v :? l:li' li-t ::fffh:H!|ffi"'fi ut u uu'q.,"t in v"rwu"i".loyed not just wine

52

53rbid.,577-18.Valentine Baker, Clouds in the East: Travels.and Ad:":*':L

:::!:':T";;l-#tffi ,'i:;3,'i,'{o"ff l,ui{i:7:;;;;';;;;;'u'"om"iurisgivenbYRussian General Grodekotf, as quoted in Lord Nutt'*lti C* zon' Persia and the Per'

Quchdn, in Khorasan, was adminitl"tll in hereditary fashion by a Kurr

family of bibulous e*'"*"* i'l ^l"1ltf :i -T"ti:*:iTrt#

:fi'$ilI;ffi11#.:'JffiH;r;;;. Fraser visited the town in 1822 and spent

dayrruitressryrying.;fi ilg:'.:T11tjtr'lm?:til11*:lffirt'T::#i"a'*; ir," ir,.rr-u.r't,'.e*d Qoli Khdn la'fardnlu, and

court were o'dead Ot"tt, ""4 perfectlv y"bl: *-l,1TT:"|1iti;;::1

ffiI,,gH";lfi,#ffio vui.trti"" iluto (aka Baker Pasha), who visi

Quchan in 1873, ro*i n"u Qoli Khan':*:c'*1111ff5-3:I"11Ei"jill"i"T*i;tiq:"L"*pt"pared

to receive him as he was asleep aftet

night of immoderate ;;i"dg. 1He made up for this mishap by providir

chairs and a table rq rdt s"tis later' a1d Uv1e11*,:T:r*::u"t:"t:1"::

;il:T"tilffi* ;t;; ih""t"*t town where Baker alighted on his wav

Mashhad, B ojnurd, * "t -'A-itistered.

bt. . : ut on:!:11:i ** :t"17

;HiJiHrililX ""rirr*J man who like to read, Yar Molrammad Kr

served wine too' q"it" "p""fv

in tact'.atttr:"*h,h:-l*."*:i||::i:"":

ilffi#::,T;,"*;#iip;;i;; arak and brandy. thinking wine

strong enough."sa

CHANGES IN ALCOHOL COUSTNPTTON

The Qajar period saw the beginning of European influence on many

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History

liqueur in "immense quantities." He also claimed to have seen menoff a bottle of rum at once without appearing to suffer any in-of it."5s Fraser explained the fondness for more potent stuff by

that the pleasure of drinking "consists, not in the gradual exhila-by wine and conversation among companions who meet to

, but in the feelings ofintoxication itself; and therefore a Persian

brandy, and deep potations, because these soonest enable him to at-

felicity."56 Justin Perkins, an ardent advocate of temperance, in theintoned that "European liquors are also rolling in upon the coun-

a flood."57wines seem to have entered the Iranian market quite a bit later.

"rolling in like a flood," they were still far from ubiquitous by mid-

. The British Resident Justin Sheil called the Iranians "extremelyEuropean wines," yet added that, "still none among them, even the

are willing to undergo the expense of its conveyance from Europe.themselves with the thin growth of their own vineyards, quanti-ing for quality."58 His wife, Lady Sheil, in her travelogue offers

description of the new type of spirits available at the tables of theited by the govemor-general of Tabriz in 1851, noted how the "ta-there was one) was covered with a complete and very handsome

service in plate, glass, and china, and, to crown the whole, sixof champagne displayed their silver heads, accompanied by a dozen

tes of the wines of France and Spain."5ethe mid nineteenth centurv we have some fisures about the volume

alcoholic beverases enterins Iran. An overview from 1869 ofinto Tabriz, lists wines and spirits from France, England and Russia,000 French francs.60 In 1896 the French consul inTabriznoted that

all imported wines came from France, adding that consumption wassince most Muslims abided by the Koranic law, whereas the number

Kotzbue, Narrative ofa Journey into Persia in the Suite ofthe Imperial Russianof1817 (London, 1819), 122-23.

; Nizrrative of a Journey into Khorasan, 422.A Residence ofEight Years,225.

80., Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, (London, 1856), 157.

des Affaires Etrangdres (hereafter AAE), Paris, Corr. Commerciale (CC),

155

1869-70, fols. 432v.

156 Rudi Matthee

of resident Europeans was too row to make a real difference.6rsources convey the same message about Shiraz,where in 1g93 ,h" .,d.";

f:-?[:f:]'l?ll 9""., and..iirits_ *u. ],,"ry timited.,', rhe writer a,lthat "only a retail business could^ be done through Armenian il;$;l:Demand seems to have gone up in the next two decades, for rn 1902_wine imports amounted to l2,gi0 bottles of French wine. r9.R?a r^*rvs !v r.,oJt; uorrres or irench wtne, l9rg34 bottles

l::'::,::* T:^t;'^:i::11':. ?f w^ine comins n'"; c';ili uin e,,same time 260,346 bottles of spirits, g5 percent of them imported froq:':j*:111"^l p f.ountry 1n re9riry with a o."J

"_J"g irr" ooupper classes at the time, and as the F-rench representatirr""*ho p..

:5n*:g'^.:l-?].1, a fairly.targe numbei of rranians had meanwhilewnile tito the habit of zakuska, hors d'oeuwe, accompanied by vodka. Beer, too,made inroads at this nginl ln the said year atotal of r34,634bottles entthe country, I2l,l30 of which _originating i" n"rriu.A g;"_rrrryffi;T.

by the late nineteenth 9entu1v, lran's uffi classes naa move'J u*uy no*raucous open-air bacchanals of the eeielbash, Ndger ar-Din srran 1, r96) liked to drink a glass or two if French Bordeatx at dinner.'aE'temdd al-saltaneh also reports how the shah,-before uo.nairrg *tion, drank some Bordeu.* io calm his n"*"r.zr *"

-r*iri'""ii u*r,ples the outcome of a civilizing process along the lines proposed by Nortttt

T:_*_l:':, 1LT:1. :Tdy doe! iot, inter ali al deal *ith ;r-;ki;; habits. 66yet the dilemma b-e.tween pleasure and;ilr#il:ffififi:'$;i._T::".l1,':\f, Il" p,,:T:9j1_lrltaneh in his diary observes how, durirruw, uul ltheir stay in Moscow in 1306/1gg9, a stop on N6ger ul-Dirr,, third journeyEurope, the shah's companions did not observe the ruz-e qatr, the annrcommemoration of the martyrdom of Imam uor"y", u.riirrrffiirrads.a i

61

62

OJ

AAE, CC, Audibert, ..Commerce de Tauris,,, Tabriz, l2June 1g96.National Archives, tondo.l^eO),-Fo 1894, OCn,'n.pon for the year 1893_94 onTrade ofShiraz (London, lg94), 13.

fli-"1_ aolitique.(CP), n.s., perse 47, ..Rapporr sur Ie movement commercial

i:T:: prersane bars-il, 2l mars leOz ^ zi

^*{lnorrl.". ffiffi: ;:ffi:ffi;;;;;.;#;:lffi;:ift#;Alcohol in Tcraal.,, l :- +L^ rr:--f)*r":::y?r,.,n:-f l.**,r,2."*,v,;i";;*i;;;'ril,'i'0.',Tii#y:';;';;Y::#^"!11:,Y:!:'*y'n{"1^,rro"ao,i;ftl',i;#,r*ffi ,-.""inj;l-::tr"eh, Ruzndmeh-ve khaterat-e

"'**#''iili,?"ieh'(rehran. 3rd edn.,1356/1977),300.

rbid., 778.Norbert Elias, The Civilizing proce-ss (New york, 197g).

65

66

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian Historv

wine offered to them by the mayor of the Russi an capital. The nextas to expiate their sins of the previous night, they rolled out their

and engaged in worship. Yet the moment the prayer was overbeckoned, they started drinking again with the excuse that the

Moscow tasted so bad as to be undrinkable.6Tign influence on drinking habits and the types of liquor consumed bv, intensified as a result of the strong Russian presence in northemich around the time of the Constitutional Revolution (1905-11)into outright military occupation of parts of the country's north.aquavit had been a staple of diplomatic gifts from Russia since theperiod. In the late nineteenth century, as Russia's influence on Iran

its import and consumption are said to have increased. Sayyedaqizddeh in his autobiography quotes a doctor who at the tum of the

claimed that in Tabiz more arak was consumed than in Tbilisi.68 InFrench consul inTabriz reported that the "cabaretiers" of the lower

Lad "triumphed" by obtaining the free circulation and consumption of6e The German author Kuss in 1910 claimed that. because of Rus-

, vodka was now common in the north, adding that often notian vodka but a mixture prepared with turpentine was manufacturedthe capital of Gilan.70 A report about the latter province from the

in the early 1920s, when Gilan was under Russian control. insists thatwas rampant among the region's Armenian and Russian inhabit-

that a predilection for the best wines and spirits prompted a searchFrench wines, cognacs and liqueurs among the well-to-do classes.Tl

consul in Rasht at the time added that much of the wine con-lin Gilan came from Russia and that alcohol was sold clandestinely in,houses in the province.tt Cognac, too, entered Iran at the time, from

well as from countries such as France and Greece.73 Next to cosnacpopular alcoholic drink among upper-class Iranians was cham-

Fantastic prices were paid for this luxury item. Wine was importedand Germany for the same clientele. Medicinal wines, so-called

al-Sallaneh, Ruznameh-ye khaprAL 642.$asan Taqizad eh, Zendegi-ye tufini (khayerArl (Tehran, l37 g l2O0O), 45.

t57

E, CP, n.s., Perse 6, Nicolas, Tabriz, l0 Aug. 1909, fol. 200.Ither Kuss, Handelsratgeberrtir Persien (Berlin, lgll), l2l.l, CP, n.s., Perse 49, 'Notes sur Guilan," fol. 57.., "Notes sur les cons6quences dconomiques de la guerre en Guilan," fols. 5 and 27.

158 Rudi Matthee

China wine, with brands such as Vin de Bugeaus and Servallo (frorx 1este), found a good market. Liqueurs were mostly imp_orted from Fwith the firm Potin offering various cheap, generic types.Ta

By now, beet, too, was consumed by the most affluent Iranians, bu1more so by resident foreigners. In the north Russian beers were mostmon, with brands brewed in Samara, Astrakhan, Riga and Odessa. BeerRiga cost 180 qran per crate of sixty bottles. In the south, by contrast,great heat made strong brews more popular. There, German andbrands prevailed, and could be found even in the small Gulf ports, yetwere relatively expense and could not compete with American beer,notably Schlitz-Milwaukee, which found its way to Iran in relativelyquantities.Ts

NBw FOnUS OF ANXIETY AND DISCPLINE

In a fascinating mixture of old impulses and new sensibilities, thosedrank in the nineteenth century often did so defiantly. This type oftious drinking recalls the libertine, anti-clerical attitude of traditional himinded Sufis claiming a private moral sphere that is so powerfully artied by Hafez and his fellow poets. What was new in the Qajar period wasso much the vehemence with which drinkers showed their contempt for

increasingly abrasive fulama who felt no longer restrained by a forcefulcapable or willing to rein them in, as the "modernizingo" Western i

disposition reflected in the defiance of those who made little effort to

serve the laws of the Prophet. Flaunting one's drinking became anpolitical statement, a way of showing a "modern" attifude by way of

scorn on obscurantist clerics and their cant, and as such it was pafi of a

cial ferment in nineteenth-century Iran that proved to be a breedingfor Babism and other forms of radicalism as well.76 By the early twen

century, this new, Western-style consumption of alcohol, mostly arak

vodka, would give rise to the famous bars and cafes and cabarets of

Street in Tehran.At the same time, reactions to what was perceived as enhanced P

drinking came in the form of a new approach, which sought to curb and

'- rbid.'- rbid.tu Fo. more on this, see Matthee, The pursuit of pleasure, lgg--204

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History 159

admonition and exhortation, using arguments that were no long-in traditional morality. In former times opposition to alcohol

iably been couched in religious terms; bans had always been pro-ig the name of conformity with the tenets and prescriptions of Islam.

campaigns, often following riots instigated by clerics and target-properfy, would occur into the twentieth century. But as of the

century, one observes a growing medicalization in the evalua-the use and abuse of alcohol. A good example is the creation of a,style society to combat alcohol among Armenians in Azerbaijan,

uded illustrated lectures about the hereditary nature of alcoholthe physical harm caused by drinking.tT Publicists, too, began to

inking as harmful, using arguments borrowed from European sci-earch. Opium received the bulk of the attention because it was

) seen as the greater problem. But alcohol, too, came under fire foreffects on both the bodv and the brain. leadins to a loss of

and memory, quite aside from the lack of willpower it was thoughtand, in a vicious cycle, produce.tt An early manifestation of this

appeared in 128911872, in the newspaper lran, in the form oftreatise on the "decline of order in the world as a result of alco-" Its author, a doctor from Kashan. voiced his concerns about

influence in the form ofthe introduction and ready acceptance of,of new liquors into Iran.Te

approach intensified in the 1920s, reflecting the new era repre-Re26 Shah and his policies. Despite the occurrence of the Consti-

Revolution in the first decade of the twentieth centurv. Iran re-Iargely traditional society until the reign of ReZa Shah, who set outze the country through social disciplining, determined to regulateinculcating seriousness and a sense of order among its members.

ing women's press of the time took part in this new discourse.l306Avlarch-April 1928 issue of Peyk-e Sa'adat-e Nesvdn, a

s. journal published in Rasht, opened with an article titled "War hasagainst Opium." The article clearly reflects a prevailing con-

see Taqizadeh, Zendegi-ye 1u/dni, 44Schayegh, Who is Knowlegeable Is Strong: Science, Class, and the FormationIranian Society, I 900-1 950 (Berkeley, 2009), 92, 179.

rTpqi labib Kashani, "Dar bay6n-e ekhtelal-e nevam-e Irdn beh v6seleh-ye mosak-Itan, l0 Safar 1289129 Aprll 1872.

160 Rudi Matthee

:;#:1;:j:','.T.,:::1":',":::ili::".r':'-::::'s",onsocietv,whichthefhor c,atfe! a "natio-nal disease.', yet the urti"i""at* *;"1';;;;ism, claiming that the pressures of modern life would easily l""d;il i,,^tfnnnf fn thc t too

^f ^- : ' , * ^- ^ l^^L^t n-- r :n -- ' rv l l

x":::? i: :i: :TL,y iT 1T:p' .' *: difference, the author,"il j:11",-t:1TT l:

conslme alcoholic drinks of bener quality til;;;il;,ug g, whereas people without means suffer greater fru.rn zu

-vrrbUalcohol of low quality while often drinking on an empty stomach.E'salnameh-ye Pdrs of r3r4fi935, warned that despite it. .urry

f,lillT:^ lt::1"1,. :l"l:'1"* substance,311iie that iti, .r""."il:1t*j3:::5

and other hard liquors are harmtul bui that *i"" ;;;'."h"7an exception.sl

Various western-educated Iranian doctors in this period wrote theses flspelled out the dangers of alcohol and referred to anti-alcohol campaignswestern countries, including the united States.82 An example i. nr."su,Malek (Loqmdn al-Molk) from Tabriz. Educated at the Loqmdniyeh Schoin that city, he subsequently studied medicine in paris. He wouid go onbecome a well-known lecturer at the D6r al-Fonun in Tehran, and eventuaserved as minister of health. He wrote a dissertation titled ,.Eye disease asresult of alcohol and tobacco use." Another doctor, ,Ali

Akbar Jaldli, in 194submitted a dissertation on the human nervous system to the Medical Facrof the University of Tehran which sums up the changed attitude towardcohol. He acknowledged that alcohol was not us

-rr"h of a problem in.

an society as opium. He nevertheless wamed that, in ."""rt years, thesumption of alcohol had spread. whereas previously religion and theof shame forced people to drink in hidden places, he intoies, they nowsume it openly and brazenly. Basing himself on the latest, mostly Frerresearch, Jaldli argued that alcohol produces all kinds of ailments, someyhich are hereditary, affecting the brain, cause premature old age, anding to criminal behavior. His recommendations for remedier"rung"restricting to closing wine shops.83

Peyk-e sa'addt-e Nesvdn r:3 (Esfand r306/RarnaLdn 1346), repr.,ed. Banafsheh Mas'udand Nager Mohajer (Berkeley and Crdteil, 2012), M (134_36in new edn.).Salndmeh-ye pars l3l4/1g25. gg. gg.See "tlormat-e mosakkerdt dar Engris," Tarbiyar22 Sha'ban B2ur2Nov. 1903.]fi

Akbar Jaldli, "Ta'sir-e alkol bar dastgah-e pey." ph.D. dissertation, universiryTehran, Faculty of Medicine Q323_24/1g45\.

81

82

83

), xt/ 2, "Impottations. "

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History 161

reactions, meanwhile, did not stop at exhortation. One of the firstissued by the new govenrment upon staging the coup that

to power in February 1921 included a prohibition on, first theand a few days later, the overall consumption of alcohol. The

was outlawed and shops were alcohol was sold were closed.inspired by Sayyed Zia Tab-a\abd'i, Ptela Shdh's fellow con-

a cleric, the measure was also designed to forestall Bolshevik influ-way of strengthening Iran's religious profile.8a Upon faba{abd'i,signation in May l92l,liquor stores and places where alcohol was

allowed to open their doors again.85 Within a year, the ban (on) had been "considerably diluted," largely for reasons ofrev-

the British resident in Tehran put it.86In December of the following's newspapers published a ministerial announcement spelling out

itions required for recruits into the Aragh Brigade, which includedion that men entering the army be free from opium and alcoholr.87 Decemb er 1926 saw the proclamation of new ban on the im-

of luxury imports - of items whose domestic manufacture should- which included alcoholic beverages.88 In 1926-27 tariffs on

reached 100 percent, putting it beyond the purchasing power of mosti.tn The result was a steep decline in implrted liquor. The imports

d from ̂ 5,603,000 qrans in 130411925-26 to 3,949,000 qrans ingD6-27.e0neither the many admonitions nor the various curbing measures taken

;state seem to have led to a decrease in the level of alcohol consump-indications are that it went up, evidently riding on an increase

cheap, domestically produced alcohol. After falling precipitous-

Mal<ki, Tarikh-e bist saleh-ye lran. Kudeta-ye 1299,3 vols. (Tehran,132311944;135811979),.1:298-99; and Ja'far Sh*n, TArikh-e ejtema'i-ye Tehrdn dar qarn-erom (T ebran, 3" ed., I 378/1 999\. 4:37 8-7 9.

Tarikh-e ej tema' i-ye Tehran, 4:3 80-8 l.16 (88057/8057134,N'314: "Persia. Annual Report, t9Z2.XIt - Medical Affairs.

Sanitary and Allied Questions," 64).Iran. Political Diaries (IPD). 6:648 (E12851255134, No 599: "Enclosure in No1: Intel-

Summary No 51 for week ending Dec. 22, 1923," 2)CC, Tehran to Paris, 8 Jeoi'. 1927 and 10 Feb. 1927. fols. 65ff.

, CP, n.s. Perse 62. fol. I 16.gdnerale du commerce avec les pays dtrangdres pendant I'annde 1305 (Tehrm,

t62 Rudi Matthee

ly from c. 5000 hectoliter n 1920 to some 1,300 in I92l,thespirits as recorded by way of figures on taxation shot up to almost 2.1922 and 1923, and then back to nearly 5,000 the following year, to5,500 in l929.el

Much of this was probably consumed indoors. Friedrich Rosen, adiplomat stationed in Iran in the early twentieth century, describedtainment among the well to do as follows: "The guests would bethe state rooms of men's apartments, and treated to a variety of saltedroasted seeds, nuts, pistachios, almonds, etc., and small glasses of vervtea and arak." Echoing earlier observers of life in Iran, Rosen also comied on the propensity among those Iranians who drank to do so"with the idea of getting totally intoxicated," since the "sin [...] is acommitted, therefore it is advisable to make the best of rt."ez And nHawkes, writing in 1933, the height of the ReZd Shdh period, observed"In houses where Eastern influence is strong, the men have whiskeyssodas (when they can be obtained) as well as wine and the Persianarak." Arak, she noted, was "drunk in enormous quantities but isbad."e3

By that time, Ldlehzdr Street had opened up. Originating as a garden,Bdgh-e Ldlehzdr, this famous street had been laid out in the 1870s atorders of Ndser al-Din Shdh after his return from his first European trip.the first half of the twentieth century Ldlehzdr Street developed into thetertainment district of the capital, a symbol of modernity filled with citheaters, cabarets, and European-style restaurants and bars serving fooddrink. Elsewhere in the city the Western bar, translated as piyamade its entry as well in the late Qajar period. Substituting for the traditispe akeasi e s, the kh ar a b a t and m ey kh dn e h, the p iy a I e h -fo r u s h i w ouldmore common under the Pahlavis, when it also spread to cities beyondran.no The modem hotels that opened in the 1960s invariably had theirbars, catering to more westemized Iranians as well as to foreigners. Y

Baladiyeh-ye Tehran. Dewomin sdlnameh-ye ellpa'iyeh-ye shahr-e T,annuairc statistique de la ville de Teheran, I 9 2 5- I 9 2 9 (Tehran, I 3 I 0/l 930),Friedrich Rosen, Oriental Memories of a German Diplomatist (London, lg30), B5,lO. A. Menitt-Hawkes, persia. Romance and Reality (London, lg35),20, l1g.See http://www.darioush-shahbazi.com,/index.php?option:com content&task,

92

93

94

3l4&Itemid:12 (1963),24.

The Ambiguities of Alcohol in Iranian History r63

Iran continued to be, as it had always been, a "most sober nation,"

rost people lived and died without ever tasting wine.es

,situation - in which alcohol was publicly available yet not common;ion limited, as before, to the lower classes and the haute bour-

- remained in place until the end of Pahlavi rule in 1979. By the

twenty factories in Iran produced alcoholic drinks with 382

making: 7 .92 mln bottles of vodka and arak, 96,256 bottles of cog-

462"630 bottles of wine. There were also four beer breweries withproducing 7.68 mln bottles of beer.e6 In later editions of the

, the source of this information, there are no more references toofalcoholic beverages, perhaps in deference to religious pres-

to publicize alcohol consumption. If so, this was a harbinger ofcome: After 1979 conditions came full circle: Iranians once again

to the privacy of their homes to attain their alcoholic dreams.

Oriental Memories.139