Behind the Peacock Throne

This well-known Danish travel writer has added another volume to his very successful world travel series. This time it is the result of a three months' stay in Persia with his Chinese wife. Karl Eskelund writes informatively about the peasants and the land reforms and in a letter describing the book he says:"All this may sound very serious, but I have not really treated it as economical problems, only described it from the point of view of the ordinary farmer. Among many other things...
More Description

This well-known Danish travel writer has added another volume to his very successful world travel series. This time it is the result of a three months' stay in Persia with his Chinese wife. Karl Eskelund writes informatively about the peasants and the land reforms and in a letter describing the book he says:"All this may sound very serious, but I have not really treated it as economical problems, only described it from the point of view of the ordinary farmer. Among many other things the book tells about the strange religious sect (a kind of devil-worshippers) which we discovered in a small town where we spent a couple of weeks, the kurdish nomads, sturgeon fishing in the Caspian, the Turkomans who have become farmers, the sacred city of Mashhad, where I was nearly mobbed when trying to photograph the golden shrine (and where I tried opium). There is also something about the children who weave the famous Persian rugs, Persepolis, the ancient religion of fire-worshipping (there are still a few temples), the Bahai religion (which comes from Persia), and a trip through the south where the starving nomads sometimes become highwaymen. This journey ends in Bandar Abbas, the 'Siberia' of Persia, where the women wear black masks. The final chapter is an interview with the Shah".