ways to express their sexuality.
What were some of the biggest challenges for you in writing this novel?
Since poetry was and is so greatly respected as an art form in Iran, I decided that it would add authenticity to my novel if the characters expressed themselves in verse at moments of great feeling or great urgency. I challenged myself to write such poems using a style that sounded courtly and that borrowed the rhyming scheme typical in the poet Ferdowsi’s work: aabbcc. As a result of trying my hand at this difficult form, my respect for poets has become boundless.
Why do you write novels?
I’m interested in what-ifs; I love posing questions to myself and trying to answer them. I ask myself things like this: “If you were a woman in a harem who did not have access to public life, yet you longed to rule, how would you exert your power? If you were a eunuch, how might you express your sexuality?” Then I try to imagine the answers.
What is your position on “truth” in historical fiction?
I have tried to stay true to the key events reported by historians about the lives of the royals during this period. That said, I had to invent a lot of material because of the lack of information. Pari’s servants, her love affair, her animosities, her preferences, and much of her approach to political strategy all had to be imagined in order to tell the story. It was fascinating to explore how a woman like Pari might have expressed her sexuality and her desire for power in a segregated society.
What do we know about lesbian and gay sex in Iran in the pre-modern period?
The favorite young male consorts of various Shahs are sometimes mentioned by historians without any seeming embarrassment. Then again, they had to be careful when discussing the habits of their patrons. Some pre-modern poetry by men appears to be quite frank about the glories of young men (but because Farsi uses a single pronoun to mean both “he” and “she,” it is possible for the writers to be coy about this issue). However, the many poems that glorify the new down on a lover’s cheeks are presumably about young men.
As far as the historical characters in my book are concerned, I found little information about their sexual lives other than mention of their marriages or engagements. Pari was engaged to her cousin Badi al-Zaman, but the marriage never took place. Isma’il Shah married the daughters of Shamkhal Cherkes and Pir Mohammad Khan, as well as slept with an unnamed slave (I call her Mahasti) who bore his child Shoja al-din. But it is quite possible that he had other love interests as well. In his Life of Shah Abbas I, which was published about twenty years ago in Farsi, historian Nasr’ollah Falsafi described Hassan Beyg as “young and beautiful” and as the “lover and day-and-night companion” of Isma’il Shah.
Lesbianism does not seem to be mentioned much in the pre-modern period in Iran, possibly because writers tended to be men. According to an article by scholar Minoo Southgate (the article is called “Men, Women, and Boys: Love and Sex in the Works of Sa’adi,” and it appeared in 1984 in Iranian Studies), “while medieval Iranian texts attest to the prevalence of homosexuality, they avoid lesbianism. This writer does not recall a single lesbian episode in medieval Iranian writings, literary or otherwise. The absence of lesbianism in literature, however, is not proof of its absence in life. Sexual segregation encourages lesbianism among girls and married women. Similarly, polygamy encourages lesbianism in the harem, where several wives are forced to share one husband” (p. 438).
What about prostitutes in Iran? Did they really exist, and did they really pay taxes?
Yes on both counts. The great French traveler and writer Jean Chardin, who visited Iran in the 1670s and wrote ten volumes about his travels, estimated that there were 14,000 prostitutes in Isfahan, who paid 13,000 tomans in taxes.
Why do some of your Muslim characters drink alcohol?
Wine-making flourished in Iran long before the arrival of Islam. The custom of wine-drinking was so well established that many people of means refused to give it up. Even today the province of Shiraz is known as an excellent grape-growing region (although alcohol is now forbidden to Muslims). Wine-making and drinking at court went through phases, depending on the piety of a given Shah. Tahmasb Shah became pious and foreswore alcohol, but his son Isma’il Shah permitted it.
Why do so many