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Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement,
January25. 2007
"The issue of the Islamic prohibition of
wine-drinking and the widespread disregard of this prohibition among Muslims
looms large in Najmieh Batmanglij’s
From Persia to Napa: Wine at the Persian table, a
lavishly illustrated book which presents a history of wine-drinking in
pre-Islamic and Islamic Persia, followed by an account of the Darioush
winery’s current production of
Shiraz and other wines in California’s Napa Valley, while a third section
provides a selection of recipes chosen to go with particular wines.
One verse in the Koran appears to approve of wine: “We give you the fruit of the palm and the vine from which you derive intoxicants and wholesome food” (sura 16:69). However, the orthodox Muslim view is that this verse was abrogated by other Koranic verses. But heavy drinking had been an important part of the court culture of Sassanid Persia prior to the Islamic conquest, and the aristocracy went on drinking in Muslim Iran. Kaikakavus, a Persian prince from Gurgan, wrote a guide to aristocratic conduct which contained the following advice: “Wine drinking is a transgression; if you wish to commit a transgression it should at least not be a flavourless one. If you drink wine, let it be the finest – so that even though you may be convicted of sin in the next world, you will at any rate not be branded a fool in this”. There is, moreover, a remarkably rich body of wine poetry in Persian, as well as in Turkish and Arabic literature.
As Batmanglij notes, Muslims who wished to drink alcohol gave a variety of excuses. Wine was being drunk as a medicine. It was alleged that the Koran only forbade over-indulgence in wine. Wine that was diluted or boiled was acceptable. The ban applied only to wine and not to arak, beer, or fermented mare’s milk. Dick Davis, the eminent translator of classic Persian texts, has contributed an excellent chapter on “Wine and Persian Poetry” in From Persia to Napa in which he points out that the heroes of Firdawsi’s great epic, the Shahnama, drank heroically. He also discusses the metaphorical employment of “wine” in Persian Sufi poetry to signify ecstasy. Though many Sufi poems have survived in which this is indeed the case, Davis is rightly doubtful about the automatic translation of wine as some figurative reference to a spiritual experience. “Sometimes, and perhaps usually, a cigar is just a cigar – and wine just wine” according to Davis, paraphrasing Freud. In particular, Davis is sceptical about the wholesale assimilation of the fourteenth-century poetry of Hafiz of Shiraz into the mystical canon: “My own feeling is that he is almost always writing about what he says he is writing about, wine and carnal love, and that his occasional hankerings for a more secure and spiritual world safe from the vicissitudes of earthly life, are just that – occasional hankerings”."
WINESTATE, November/December
2006
This is much more than just another coffee table
decoration about wine and food, or both. A lavishly illustrated volume, it
is the third book written by Najmieh Batmanglij in her passionate promotion
of Persian cuisine and, in this case, the rich and - despite Tehran's strict
Muslim regime - continuing Iranian love affair with wine.
Batmanglij and her wine enthusiast husband Mohammad fled post-Islamic Revolution
Iran as refugees and now live in the US. She has spent 25 years traveling, teaching
cooking and adapting authentic Persian recipes to Western tastes and techniques.
Persia is one of the cradles of wine grape cultivation, with the city of Shiraz
one of its earliest centers of production, and Batmanglij traces this illustrious
history in fascinating verbal and pictorial detail. She then moves half a world
away to California’s Napa Valley, where another iranian-American, Darioush
Khaledi, has re-created the architecture of the ancient Persian ceremonial capital
of Persepolis in building a spectacular winery.
The final section of the book contains 80 delectable recipes, seasonal menus
and a guide to Persian hospitality both past and present. And there are two special
sections by guest authors - one discussing the Persian links between poetry and
wine, and the other suggesting how to match wines with Persian cuisine. In all,
a wonderfully complete package.
Wine & Spirits Magazine, December, 2006
Iran is not famous for its winemaking, and we've
yet to see a sommelier in a Persian restaurant anywhere, but Najmieh Batmanglij's
latest book sets out to change that. Batmanglij is a culinary ambassador of
sorts, already having written four Persian cookbooks that read like encyclopedias
of the very old but relatively unknown Persian cuisine. So it is fitting that
she examines the even lesser known tradition of Persian winemaking and wine
drinking in From
Persia to Napa: Wine at the Persian Table. Part
cookbook, part history lesson, and as meticulously thorough as her other books,
this book traces Iranian viniculture from ancient times to Napa's Darioush
winery, which is styled after Persepolis. The emphasis on history, illustrated
with plenty of classical Persian art and a section on references to wine in
Persian poetry make From Persia
to Napa appealing to the bookish set. But it's also great for readers
who like to eat and drink, too: More than half the book is devoted to food,
with wine notes and pairing advice supplied by Burke Owens, a longtime Persian
food buff and the associate director of wine at COPIA, the American center
for Wine, Food and the Arts. And for those already familiar with the cuisine,
Batmanglij's recipes include a good number of more unusual Persian dishes,
like pistachio soup (paired with a pinot gris or viognier), or a dessert of
quince baked in pomegranate juice and grape molasses (for zinfandel, grenache
or a sweet Sherry).
The library Journal, Sept 15, 2006
The popular author of well-respected cookbooks
like New Food of Life
and A
Taste of Persia has turned her attention
to the tradition of wine at the
Persian table. Contrary to popular belief, wine has been featured in Persian
literature and history for thousands of years. Shiraz, which many people
associate with the wines of Australia and France, was an ancient Persian
wine-producing city. This work will interest a wider audience than a general
cookery book owing to its introduction carefully tracing the history of wine
as it relates to Persian culture; there is a thoughtful chapter on wine in
Persian poetry. The recipes, ranging from appetizers to desserts, specify
both the preparation and the cooking time, a useful inclusion for the home
cook. Batmanglij also provides a list of contacts for hard-to-find
ingredients. The book's large format and lavish illustrations make it an
attractive addition to larger public libraries and perhaps academic ones,
too.-Shelley Brown, New Westminster P.L., B.C.
return to top
INTRODUCTION 1
SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS OF WINE 7
The Taming of the Vine 9
An Ancient Nexus of Wine 14
Outward Bound 16
Persia Takes Form 24
The Old Order Changes 34
The Rise of Islam 38
Persian Endurance 41
Toward Modernity 50
WINE AND PERSIAN POETRY 55
UNDER A NEW SUN:
THE DARIOUSH WINERY 69
AT THE TABLE 99
Pairing Wine with Persian Food 101
Small Dishes & Salads 105
Soups 143
Main Courses 157
Desserts, Sherbets, Teas & Brews 207
The Culture of Hospitality 232
Planning a Persian-Style Dinner 234
Seasonal Menus 235–241
CREDITS 244
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 247
INDEX 249
SOURCES AND RESOURCES 255
return to top
Introducing people to the pleasures of Persian cuisine has been a lifelong mission
for Najmieh
Batmanglij. Her New
Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Cerimonies was
called "The definitive book of Persian cooking" by the Los Angeles
Times, and her Silk
Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey was
selected as one of the Vegetarian Cookbooks of 2004 by the New York Times.
She has spent the past 25 years traveling, teaching cooking, and adapting
authentic
Persian recipes to tastes and techniques in the West. She is a member of
Les Dames d’Escoffier and has taught and lectured throughout the United
States. She currently lives in Washington, DC, where she is teaching master
classes
in Persian cooking and is working on a new book for children to cook with
the family.
DICK DAVIS is a poet, scholar and
professor. He is also the foremost translator of Persian poetry as well as
a poet who
has published numerous volumes of his own poetry to critical acclaim, including:
Belonging: Poems (the Economist’s 2002 poetry book of the year). He is currently professor of Persian at Ohio State University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His other translations from Persian include Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings (Viking, 2006), the illustrated Shahnameh series: Stories from the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi (Mage, 1997-2004), My Uncle Napoleon (Mage, 1996; Modern Library 2006), The Legend of Seyavash (Penguin Classics, 1992; Mage 2004), and with Afkham Darbandi, The Conference of the Birds (Penguin Classics, 1984).
BURKE OWENS is Associate Curator of Wine at Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts in Napa, California, where he is responsible for Copia’s
many and varied wine programs, including wine education.
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