Anna Vanzan - Persian Literature, Mage Publishers-Books

Crowning Anguish: Taj al Satana, Memoirs of a Persian Princess from the Harem to Modernity 1884-1914

"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."
- -Booklist (September 15, 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.
- - The Bookwatch (November 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.
- - Los Angeles Times (November 14, 1993)

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.
- - Belles Lettres (Vol. 9, Number 3)