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.
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