Delhiwale: Iran on the shelf

A hidden treasure in Delhi's Ghalib Academy library, a 1971 book celebrates Iran's 2,500 years of history, revealing the fragility of its past.

There are worlds concealed in the remote corners of public libraries. Few citizens venture that far. The books lie untouched, like artifacts raised from a wreck, awaiting rediscovery.

(Mayank Austen Soofi)

One such world rests inside the library of the Ghalib Academy in central Delhi. Metal shelves hold thousands of volumes in Urdu and Farsi, with a scattering in English—bearing titles as unexpected as Soviet Cinema Today. Among them sits an extraordinary book: Persia: The Immortal Kingdom (photo shows library staffer Taslima holding the same). The book opens with a portrait of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, captioned, “His Imperial Majesty, Shahanshah of Iran.”

Published in 1971, the hardbound volume was commissioned by the Shah to mark the lavish celebrations hosted that year to commemorate what he described as 2,500 years of Persian Empire, tracing a lineage to Cyrus the Great. The three-day festivities unfolded not in capital Tehran, but amid the ruins of Persepolis, the capital of the ancient Achaemenid Empire. Vast fortune was spent on silk tents, banquets (food came from Paris), and spectacles beneath the sky. Furthermore, the book materially possesses its own historical significance: it was personally presented by the Shah to visiting heads of state during the said celebrations.

The volume begins with the Shah’s introduction, followed by full-page photos tracing Iran’s history across 25 centuries. Within the covers are palaces and mosques, deserts and mountains, carpets and dams, archaeological fragments and modern factories. The photos of artifacts are especially arresting, exuding silence and a sense of slow time. A painted bowl dated 1187; a floor mosaic depicting a harpist; a carved wooden sherbet ladle. The cracks and abrasions of a first-century plaster fragment depicting a Parthian horseman are rendered in painstaking detail. Each image testifies to endurance.

Today, these images also suggest fragility and brittleness. Especially the many photos of the Shah, which at the time must have projected power, invincibility and permanence. On one page, the confident Shah declares: “When there is a revolution in Iran, I shall be the one to lead it.” But the revolution that arrived, eight years after the book’s publication, toppled the despotic Shah instead, forced him into exile, replacing the monarchy with the Islamic Republic.

While the volume was produced in part as state propaganda, it does offer a sweeping exhibition of Iran’s successive ages. In that, the book mirrors the many eras of Delhi, each era certain of its own endurance while it lasted. Additionally, the book’s rediscovery affirms the significance of public libraries. In them rest precious volumes that preserve the vanished worlds, waiting for someone to turn the page.