Wild Rue of Persia
Product details
- ISBN 9781780769455
- Weight: 509g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 27 May 2015
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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‘When an afflicted person is believed to be a victim of nazar, or the glance of the evil eye, a particular kind of incense, which is made of seeds of the wild rue, mixed with myrtle and frankincense, is burned at sunset; and while the smoke is curling about the head of the victim the following incantation is repeated...’
The Wild Rue is a unique study of magic, myth and folklore in Iran. In this classic work, Bess Donaldson records the beliefs and superstitions of the country at a time when they were increasingly threatened by the Shah’s programme of modernisation. This earlier way of life, with its belief in angels and the evil eye, and with its age-old rituals surrounding childbirth and burial, is recounted in a highly readable text. Among the wide variety of topics covered are cosmology, dreams, names and numbers, talismans and signs, oaths and curses, childbirth, angels, trees and plants, the evil eye, and the calendar. Long unavailable, The Wild Rue is indispensable to any serious student of Iran and will be welcomed by all with an interest in the country’s culture and history.
Bess Allen Donaldson was an American Presbyterian missionary and teacher. She began teaching at the Iran Bethel Girl's School in 1910, eventually becoming its principal. Bess Donaldson spent thirty years in Iran, during which time she gathered the material for The Wild Rue.
