The House of the Mosque by Kader Abdolah: book review

Set in Senejan, a village in central Iran from 1950 to the 1980s, The House of the Mosque (2005, English version 2010) is about a 35-room mansion occupied by generations of a family who serve the mosque.

Aqa Jaan is the head of the bazaar and the household, with his wife Fahkri Sadat, his son Jawad, and his two daughters, Nasrin and Ensi. Aqa Jaan designs exquisite carpets for his business, but no one knows how he creates such patterns except his wife. He also thinks about dead people a lot, and dreams of dead people he’s never met. Alsaberi is the current Imam of the mosque and lives in the house with his wife Zinat Khanom, his daughter Sadiq and his son Ahmed, two years younger than Sadiq. Ahmed is studying to be an Iman to be the successor to his father. Also in the house is Aqa Jaan’s blind cousin, Aqa Shoja, the muezzin (the man who calls people to prayer from the minaret), and his forthright son, Shahbal, who, at 14 years of age, tries to encourage the Imam to modernize his sermons. There are also two “grandmothers” attending to Imam Alsaberi, a gardener, a poet, a crazy prophesizer, and Nosrat the brother of Aqa Jaan who is a photographer and cinematographer. Nosrat was popular, but he was also “unusual.”

A young Imam, Khalkhal, arrives from Qom to ask Imam Alsaberi permission to marry Sadiq. He has a reputation as a “rebellious Imam” and a maverick, and may be more interested in a permanent position in the mosque than Sadiq. Strangely he comes to his wedding without the required identification papers. When Alsaberi dies, Khalkhal indeed becomes the successor because Ahmed has not yet finished his Imam training.

It is the time of the Islamic Revolution and the overthrow in 1979 of the Shah of Iran (Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi), the abolishment of the monarchy, and the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Seen as extravagant and a puppet of Western powers, the Shah of Iran also supported women to gain the right to become government ministers. When Empress Farah Diba Pahlavi, third wife of the Shah, travelled to Seneja for the opening of a women’s health clinic and cinema, the event was captured by a news camera crew. The nurses’ uniforms “were made of such sheer nylon that you could see the nurses’ pale-blue underpants. The bazaar was stunned, and when Khalkhal heard the news, he was so angry he couldn’t eat.”

Tension and unrest were growing in 1978, which resulted in violent demonstrations and protests, until the fall of the Shah. Imam Khomeini discouraged un-Islamic activities and Western influences. Amid the bloodshed, Sadiq has a son, Sayyid, but he is known as Lizard. After the Islamic Revolution comes the Iraq-Iran conflict – the Gulf War – from 1980 to 1988. The novel ends with the death of Khomeini of heart failure. The character, Shahbal, a writer, is synonymous with the author – both leave their homeland and live in The Netherlands.

Although historical fiction, the focus is the family and extended family as they experience the disintegration of their generational norms, changing alliances, compassion and violence, stealth and deceit, and the rapidity of the revolution. These are also reflected in the changing sermons of the different Imams within the mosque next to the house – temporary and permanent Imams, relatives of the family and those who are outsiders – who have their own strengths and weaknesses, and their own secrets.

Throughout the novel, symbolism is deeply embedded, and imagery is rich and evocative. Well-written, it maintains its interest to the end, as each character is irrevocably changed by the events – where life and death hangs not only on ideologies and beliefs but also on trust and fear.