Full Reviews of Crowning
Anguish: Taj al-Saltana, Memoirs of a Persian Princess 1884-1914
Center for Iranian Research
and Analysis Newsletter (Fall 1994)
This book consists of two parts. The first hundred pages are an introduction
by Abbas Amanat. The second part is the translation of Taj Al-Saltana's
memoirs by Vanzan and Neshati.
Taj Al Saltana was one of daughter's of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. She lived
in the Shah's harem until the age of thirteen when she was married and sent
off to her fatherinlaw s residence. This book is the collection of Taj's
childhood and adolescent memories. She provides a vivid picture of her childhood,
her relationships with her father, the shah who loved her, her mother who
did not show any affection towards her, her nanny, and the rest of her cohabitants
in the harem. Living in the harem, she provides a valuable account of its
socioeconomic life. Women's relationships with each other, with the Shah
and with their male trustees are described very well. Taj presents a refreshing
view of how the Qajar dynasty operated the country's affairs. The corruption
of the bureaucracy, foreign intervention, and the royal courts' inability
to deal with socioeconomic changes are all aspects of Qajar rule that Taj
explains in her memoirs.
Taj's memories of her own personal life and the life of her cohabitants
in the harem disclose how the traditional royalty of Iran managed their
life. She was a melancholic and distressed princess who had the economic
opportunity by virtue of being one of the Shah's daughters to become educated
in literature and philosophy. This became a source of both her happiness
and anguish. While she is critical of socioeconomic and political aspects
of Iranian society as well as patriarchal arrangements, she remains docile
and subjects herself to exploitative relationships. This contradiction haunts
her until her premature death. Her childhood memories of harem life demystify
Western accounts of mysterious Persian women. Unintentionally she discloses
an important socioeconomic relationship between the royal court and the
commoners. She explains that many of the Shah's wives were from low income
classes. For those young women to marry the Shah was to liberate themselves
from harsh economic reality. Taj is more critical of the women of the harem
and how vicious they were towards each other rather than being critical
of her father and his unlimited lust for young women. It seems as if she
accepted her fathers' mischiefs as inherent rights of the monarch. Her criticisms
of socioeconomic and political problems are directed at the Shah's associates
and vazirs and not at the Shah himself. The oppression of women is explained
as a cultural problem. Her admiration of European life styles and the women's
suffragist movement is quite similar to those modernists of her time as
well as the contemporary secular intelligentsia. She sees veiling as the
most problematic aspect of women's oppression. For her unveiling is the
dynamic force for women's liberation. She says "The sources of the
ruination of the country, the cause of its moral laxity, the obstacle to
its advancement in all areas, is the veiling of women.... The veiling of
women in this country has spawned and spread thousands upon thousands of
corrupt and immoral tendencies." She admires the relationships between
women and men in the villages who work side by side on the farm. She appreciates
unveiled farm women and their productive role yet while she unveiled herself
she chose not to be economically productive all her life. Throughout the
book the contradiction between her knowledge and criticism of sociocultural
aspects and her actions and life style is clearly manifested. While she
is rightfully critical of Iranian socioeconomic and cultural factors, she
continued to play her traditional role. Tai does not mention her public
role as an agitator for women's liberation or an organizer for any type
of women's organization. It seems as if she saw women's liberation as a
move from unveiling to wearing western clothing and corsets which is as
problematic as wearing a veil. Taj 's memories are a sad story of a woman
who reached a certain degree of political and sexual consciousness yet lived
and died inside the walls of prisons built by patriarchal values and practices.
Her love affairs were not signs of liberation but anger and rebellion against
those walls which finally crushed her without being slightly scratched.
In the introduction Amanat introduces Taj as a representative of the emerging
secular intelligentsia and a feminist in the aftermath of the Constitutional
Revolution. Amanat describes the historical account and the political characters
of the time very interestingly. However, Amanat's understanding and interpretation
of Taj's memories is painted with his own wish thinking on the question
of secularism as a solution sociopolitical problems and Shi'i Islam as the
obstacle to sociopolitical reforms. He believes that the restrictions which
have been imposed on women attest to the persistence or revival of old religious
values a institutions. He says "The plight of today's Muslim women
remains strikingly and sadly comparable to that of Taj a century ago."
The most problematic of Amanat interpretations of Taj is his failure to
briefly explain the patriarchal system which existed all along and was then
encouraged by Muslim male elite. He does not mention the status of and limitations
placed on nonMuslim women who lived under the same patriarchal system. His
views on secularism and Islam related to women liberation do not allow him
to explore either the patriarchal exploitation of women or the socioeconomic
problems in their own light. Amanat clearly views women as passive objects
rather than as agents of social and political change who may maintain or
change patriarchal relationships. In contrast, the class base of an individual
has a profound impact on how she perceive herself in relation to her immediate
environment. This is manifested in Taj's account of the royal household.
A decadent, backward, yet self indulgent Qajar dynasty must be seen in its
own light. The most simple paradigm for explaining socioeconomic and political
ills of Iranian society is the analysis provided by intelligentsia which
diagnoses Islam as the infective agent. To cure the problem, secularism
is the remedy.
A short note on the translation is necessary order to clarify some misunderstandings.
Fix throughout the book, when Taj speaks of God translation refers to it
as He which is specific Christianity. In Farsi God does not connote a gender
specific entity. Second, several words-en'san, a'dl and ba'sSlar-all of
which refer to humankind in Farsi are translated as man and mankind which
again is gender specific. These criticisms aside, we should be grateful
the translators and Amanat for bringing this work before the public.
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Booklist (September 15,
1993)
A Thousand and One Nights meets Raise the Red Lantern in this tale of growing
up among royal wives and concubines in what is now Iran. Set in a time when
women of her class were cloistered, this princess' story is a rare account
of day-to-day life in a sheik's palace, from a terrifying betrothal ceremony
when its heroine was eight though a frustrating adolescence spent married
to a bisexual philanderer to relations with the other women of the place,
in which rivalry and political jockeying ran rampant. What distinguishes
Taj's memoirs from other Iranian court literature of the same time (the
30 years before World War I) is their honesty and thoughtfulness, says Yale
scholar Abbas Amanat in his lengthy introduction. Amanat also sees the book
as pivotal of its kind and the princess as one of the first liberated Iranian
women, at least in her thoughts. Although perforce a subscriber to a rigid
Islamic system, Taj saw and recorded a changing society, dissected the role
of women in it, and questioned its conventions.
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Habibi: A Journal for Lovers of Middle-Eastern Dance
and Arts
Several books written by children of Qajar (19th century Iranian) royalty
have been published in recent years. Crowning Anguish is, to my mind, the
book most likely to be of interest to Habibi readers. It is an extraordinary
memoir written by Taj al-Saltana, daughter of Naser al-Din Shah (ruled 1848-1896),
the fourth king of the Qajar dynasty (1785-1925). Born in 1884, Taj's life
spans the dying decades of Qajar rule and its ultimate end, first in the
Constitutional Revolution of 1906, and in the takeover of Reza Shah Pahlavi
in 1925.
The memoir is in the form of a tale told to her teacher in explanation
of some of her behavior and life choices; it chronicles, from the perspective
of a child and young woman in her father's, and later her husband's, anderun
(private family quarters), a period of turmoil and change in late nineteenth,
early twentieth century Iranian history. In it, Taj gives fascinating glimpses
of Qajar court life, the intrigues, dangers, liaisons, and struggles for
control.
Among the most interesting aspects of the memoir are Taj's education
and feminism. She received some private tutoring in the anderun, but was
largely self-educated, and read voraciously from classical and contemporary
European literature in translation. As a result, she developed a notion
that the best path for Iranian families would be for Iranian women to discard
the veil, and receive education sufficient to allow them to work outside
the home. Her view was that by doing so couples could choose to marry for
love, thus reducing the many social ills that result from arranged marriages,
such as marital infidelity and divorce. Women could contribute to the family
and national economies, rather than staying at home bored and getting into
trouble.
While the memoir focuses on Taj's life, it depicts vividly some of the
most interesting political events of late-nineteenth, early-twentieth century
Iran, which are oddly reminiscent of events of more recent times. In particular,
the call during anti-crown protests of 1891-92 for the overthrow of the
Shah and the raising of the highest Shi'ite leader to the position of "Supreme
Exemplar" seem to mirror the events leading to the (counter-) revolution
of 1979.
Dancers and musicians do not appear to advantage in these memoirs. Taj's
own attitudes accurately reflect the general attitude towards professional
Performers, though perhaps colored by the fact that her own husband had
affairs with one of the dancing girls from the visiting Russian circus,
and also with a male dancer. During the reign of Taj's brother, Mozaffar
al-Din Shah, the family was shocked by the "constant coming and going
of female musicians, and prostitutes who disguised themselves as musicians."
Taj compares this with the situation during her father's life: "I could
not remember female musicians in my father's harem, with the exception of
wedding feasts, and then it was only male musicians. It was impossible to
find a single whore among them." Taj describes a boy dancer: "Renowned
throughout the town, the boy had a thousand adoring lovers. Being a dancer,
however, he was unworthy of being anyone's beloved."
Taj herself was (in her own estimation) an accomplished musician; but,
since she restricted her musical performances to her own amusement, she
escaped the censure heaped upon professionals. She studied tar (Persian
long-necked lute) with Mirza Abdollah, one of the great performers of the
Qajar era; she claims that her tar-playing skills soon surpassed those of
her teacher! She was, apparently, much admired (but not for her music!)
by one of the greatest of contemporary Iranian composers, 'Aref-e Qazvini,
whose rakish photograph also appears in the book.
The book begins with a 100-page introduction by Abbas Amanat that provides
a fine description of the historical context of the memoirs; most of the
terminology, personalities, and cultural tidbits needed to follow the memoirs
are included. The book involves a long list of dramatis personae; an alphabetized
set of biographical sketches of each of the major characters is provided
at the end, and is a big help. The reader new to things Iranian might do
well to read it immediately after the introduction, before going on to the
memoir itself.
The illustrations of Crowning Anguish alone would make the book of great
interest to aficionados of Middle Eastern history, culture, and arts. It
includes many photographs and paintings of Iranian court ladies in their
shalite (short skirt) attire, as well as depictions of court life, palaces,
and ministers. Among my favorites are the etching of a Persian woman in
shalite on page 26, the etching of Ziba Khanum in shalite on page 31, the
famous posed photograph of 'Aref on page 57, and the mid-life photo of Taj
herself in European dress on page 311. Return to
top of page
Library Journal (September
1, 1993)
The daughter of one of the last Qajar rulers of Iran, Taj al-Saltana penned
a memoir in 1914 recounting her life and experiences in the royal harem.
Inspired by Western writings and disillusioned by incidents in her own life,
Taj attacked many traditions, including the segregation and inferior status
of women in Persian society. Now the interesting fragments of her writings
have been compiled in a book designed to appeal to an audience intrigued
by life "behind the veil." While the feminist sentiments of the
young woman appear modern, it is the simplicity and directness of Taj's
personality that makes the work memorable. The abrupt end of her memoirs
during an account of her disintegrating marriage is a disappointment. An
introduction preceded the text and a useful section of historical biographies
follows. Recommended for Middle East collections.
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The Bookwatch (November
1993)
The life of Taj al-Saltana, daughter of the ancient ruler of Iran, is recounted
in a gathering of memoirs of her life from 1884-1914. These were the days
of harems, changing social and political climates, and evolving female lives:
Taj could be considered a feminist by the standards of her times, and her
account will prove readable not only to adults, but by high school students.
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Los Angeles Times (November
14, 1993)
Born in 1884 to Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, ruler of Iran, Taj al Saltana was,
in her own words, a "beautiful, adorable child." But not for long.
Married at age 13 ("Oh what a cursed day, what an evil hour!")
to a mean-spirited bisexual brat, she was able to move from the harem that
she had been raised in to his house. She began her memoirs, which cover
a 30-year period of political and social change in Iran, in 1914. Taj's
account of her childhood in the royal harem (andarum) is the only account
so far by an insider. The Golestan Palace in central Tehran was surrounded
by the high walls of the Royal Citadel (Arg-e Saltum). Guarded by an army
of eunuchs, the Arg housed 80 wives and roughly 800 maidservants. Around
the harem, women wore white tights, short skirts, and open blouses. "In
the course of the year," writes Taj, "they were not visited by
any grief, difficulty, pain or bitterness." I'm not sure that Taj,
self styled "madame de salon" in her adult life, is really the
"ardent feminist" that Abbas Amanat describes in his introduction,
but the seeds of discontent sown in that protected childhood certainly grew
to the half-hearted rebellion of messy liaisons and libertine lifestyle
that characterized her childhood.
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Times Literary Supplement
(March 4, 1994)
Of the handful of surviving memoirs from late nineteenth century Qajar Persia
perhaps those of Taj al-Saltaneh, daughter of Nasser alDin Shah Qajar, has
stirred the greatest amount of interest among historians and general readers
alike. Due to a resurgent curiosity about harem life, and capturing the
imaginations of modern Western feminists, Taj's rather fragmented and slim
autobiography has seen several translations and numerous analyses in recent
times. Despite certain textual inconsistencies and questions regarding its
authenticity, one reads the memoirs with an overriding sense of peering
into a littleknown world, deprived as we are of firsthand accounts relating
to that period, and to women of Taj's circumstances.
In somewhat unusual and cumbersome style, Taj's memoirs, written in 1914,
cover a thirty-year span of a rapidly changing era. She takes us from the
sheltered comfort of the opulent Qajar court under its most charismatic
ruler, to the disheartening close of the Constitutional Revolution, with
its shattered illusions and unanswered questions. She relates her life of
troubled agony an unloving and harsh mother, a benevolent but selfindulgent
father; an adolescent, bisexual husband, separation from her children, financial
difficulties, the stigma of leading a libertine's life: all bear witness
to the contradictions of women's predicaments in changing times. As if to
echo this "anguish", she embodies in her own personal history
the rise and fall of dreams, and the frailty of the human condition.
Our introduction to harem existence begins with her childhood memories,
which ironically reinforce orientalist accounts of a comically puerile atmosphere
generated by idle women and a whimsical but omnipotent ruler. The emphasis
on the freakishness of harem customs, as opposed to its structure and hierarchy
(of which we know from other sources), leads us to believe that she deliberately
wrote for an audience, and with a view to justifying her ideas on women,
as well as certain elements of her later demise.
Amanat's superb preface, contextualizing an otherwise limited account for
the uninitiated, points to the strong influence of contemporary translations
and other European literature available to women of Taj's aristocratic upbringing.
The spirit of European romanticism, a penchant for melodrama and typical
nineteenthcentury female "hysteria" pervade much of Taj's writing
on her personal circumstances, allowing her to lapse into self-righteousness
and selfpity side by side with her insightful analysis of the condition
of Persian women. Metaphors on the "darkness of the harem", "bondage
of half the nation's population" and mothers as educators of future
generations are strongly reminiscent of missionary discourse of the time,
an element which colours her writing with a certain critical detachment.
Her iconoclastic style confirms her as an anomaly, an outsider from within,
who from her privileged position felt entitled to denounce many of the ageold
traditions sustaining herself and her culture, yet without which she felt
diminished and tortured, neither the enlightened and liberated persona of
a George Sand, nor the firmly rooted RezaShahstyle feminist trendsetter.
A curious blend of the reconstructive and reflective, Taj al Saltaneh's
memoirs bring home the intense conflicts of a life straddling the harem
and modernism. Sadly, she sees her initiation into "knowledge"
as the source of her demise, partly machinated by destructive forces in
an attempt to "toss our happy, free lives into a fresh perplexity and
turmoil".
With a translation that only occasionally stumbles in rendering a difficult
text, the publishers have succeeded in producing a handsome volume well
stocked with plates and illustrations (although Sevruguine's remarkable
photos are conspicuously absent). Amanat's useful historical sketch enables
the book to be appreciated by the general reader as well as the student,
reminding us yet again, however, by means of ample glossaries, notes, biographies
and so on, of the inevitable need to make one wellknown, aspect of a Middle
Eastern culture familiar to the West.
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Belles Lettres (Vol. 9,
Number 3)
Taj Al-Saltana's Crowning Anguish is the memoir of a daughter of the ruler
of Iran. From 1884-1914, al-Saltana survived both traditional and revolutionary
times, in and outside the harm. She describes her everyday life as a child,
her dysfunctional (sound familiar?) family-a harsh mother and self-indulgent
father, and the extended emotional support of the harem system. Through
al-Saltana, the reader learns about the little-known political and economic
power of the harem women and about the historical shifts in power that took
place throughout Iran during those years. When she questions the values
of her culture-its class structure, or the spoiling of harem children-she
is genuinely seeking the truth as a tentative concept, not merely arguing
a political platform.
As revolution sweeps Iran, al-Saltana's life shifts in many unexpected directions
for which she is intellectually unprepared. The assassination of her father,
her marriage, her exposure to Western society and art-all of these strengthen
her by challenging her presumption. Al-Saltana emerges from each conflict
more thoughtful. She is relentless in her schemes to improve the lots of
her people and to deepen the strength of the Persians. As egalitarian and
feminist for practical and personal reasons, she eventually removes her
own veil, destined to live her life in honesty and in response to her growing
consciousness. Met by critics, she explains her actions through these memoirs.
Numerous photographs help the reader place the settings and visualize the
people in al-Saltana's life. The introductory historical essay provides
a context for the memoirs, but it is not thorough and is much too long (100
pages): skim it after you read the text.
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Middle East Journal (Vol
40, #3)
In this startlingly frank account of life in a Qajar harem, Taj al-Saltana
exposes herself and the royal Persian court to public scrutiny. Born in
1883, Taj al-Saltana was the daughter of Nasir al-Din Shah, the fourth king
of the Qajar dynasty and ruler of Iran for half a century (1848-96). Taj
al-Saltana grew up in the harem in Golestan Palace, the principal royal
residence. She was isolated from the outside world, guarded by eunuchs,
and constrained by cultural conventions that ordained the veiling and seclusion
of women. Relatively well-educated for her time, Taj al-Saltana could read
Western literature, play the piano and the tar (Persian lute), and paint.
Yet, she was acutely aware of the limitations of her education and of the
debilitating effects of life in the harem on personal growth and development,
and on any strivings toward autonomy or independence.
Living at a time when the bonds of religion were relaxing under the pressure
of Western secular influences, Taj al-Saltana flouted convention by unveiling
her face and leading a relatively independent life. For this she was castigated,
vilified, and roundly condemned by her relatives and members of her social
class. Her mother accused her of being a bahi (an apostate), her brother,
Mozaffar al-Din Shah, was furious with her for her "wantonness,"
and she herself anticipated censure for the "illicit proposals she
put forth to the women" (p. 292).
While writing an autobiography in the early 20th century would have been
a bold and unprecedented act for any Iranian woman, for Taj it was doubly
bold in that she was a Qajar princess and in a position to describe daily
life in the royal harem. This she did candidly, not only revealing her innermost
thoughts and feelings, but also expressing often uncomplimentary views on
her country and her countrymen. Her work was not published until 60 years
after her death.
Taj's memoirs clearly reveal her inner conflicts. She was an early advocate
for the education of women, for their unveiling, and for their participation
in the country's work force. Nevertheless, Taj al-Saltana was torn between
new and old values. Her self-portrait reveals profound psychological suffering
born of a crisis of faith and fed by feelings of frustration, anger, and
guilt. She tried to commit suicide-three times. Gifted and beautiful, she
was sheltered, pampered, and indulged by her nanny and her father, and by
the harem system that provided her with endless material benefits, but little
moral, intellectual, or spiritual guidance. Yet, she suffered immeasurably
from having an unloving mother and an uncaring, immature husband. Her eventual
divorce resulted in her separation from her children and serious financial
problems. She endured the peculiarly unremitting scorn and opprobrium reserved
for women who dared to transgress the conventions of the times.
While Taj al-Saltana rails against the restrictions placed on women in her
country, she unwittingly reveals the exceptional power that some women in
the harem managed to wield. Her account reveals exceptional political awareness
among the women in the harem, where rivalries blossomed, alliances were
formed and broken, and political fortunes rose and fell. It also reveals
a peculiar egalitarianism in the Qajar court, whereby peasant men and women
were able to rise to positions of great power and wealth.
A thoughtful and informative introduction by Abbas Amanat places the events
described in Taj's memoirs in their historical and cultural setting. A treasure-trove
of photographs of a now bygone era embellish, enhance, and round out this
portrait of a fascinating moment in Iran's long and troubled history.
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