Hajji Baba, son of a barber in Isfahan, sets out with his razors and his wits, is carried off by Turcoman raiders, and survives by turning robber, servant, physician’s assistant and court officer in turn. Written by a British diplomat who had lived in Persia, the picaresque narrative pokes at officialdom, religion and greed at every stop.
A comic rogue’s progress in the line of Gil Blas, whose view of Persia is very much an Englishman’s of the 1820s. Download the free EPUB.