This document provides a summary of V.S. Naipaul's travel writings about his journey to Iran. It discusses the different types of travel writing paradigms and how Naipaul blended elements of travel writing and fiction. It also summarizes some of the key people and events Naipaul encountered in Iran, including his guides Behzad and Sadiq, as well as his observations on the culture, politics and the Islamic revolution underway in the country. The summary highlights Naipaul's use of first-hand experiences, observations, and historical analysis to craft narratives that conveyed both factual reporting and fictional elements.

1. V.S.Naipaul’s Vulcanization of Travel and Fiction Paradigms in
Among The Believers
Summary of the article
There are three types of travel writings such as,
1. Information-oriented: more scientific, objective, it focuses on geographic,
mineralogical, botanical, agricultural, economic, ecological, and ethnographic details.
The authorialvoice is minimized in it.
2. Experiential:deals with emotional sentiment and involvement; the writer goes into
highly personal and emotional displays and there is emphasis on adventure and drama.
3. Intellectual-analytic:the most subjective of the travel modes and the most controversial.
The narrative emerges as a kind of intellectual and social commentator. The acuity of
information and depth of analysis are involved from the author‟s side.
There are three formal aspects of Naipaul‟s travel writing such as;
1. Naipaulian assumptions: or logistics, considerably ordered plan that Naipaul employs
which leads to the eventual text; assumptions, actual travel, note-taking, return to the
center, pondering, re-assessments, outlining, re-organization, re-thinking, re-invention of
his travel experiences and actual travel experiences.
2. Narrative authority:Naipaul‟s way of convincing his reader/audience of his views and
perspectives, a way of giving „authority‟ to his travel narrative as an „objective reality‟.
He convinces his readers by;
Eye-witness experiences:it is first-hand account of what happened and who was
involved.
Naipaul’s observations: are keen, detailed, exact, and not easy to be challenged.
Analytical skills:Naipaul has sharp analytical skills to comment about people and
situation. The rhetorical skills of convincing and engaging people in his travel writing.He
has ability to create false images and mixing reality into the fiction.
3. Narrative strategies:different techniques and approaches are carefully manipulated by
Naipaul in his travel writing. such as,
Journalist techniques: he has documented his writings with court-transcripts, newspaper
articles, and historical documents.These techniques of gathering and presenting facts,
figures and date reminds one of clear and first-rate journalistic writing.
Detailed ethnographic reporting: includes landscapes, geographic and human
observation. Naipaul is known for accurate ethnographic observations.
Historical perspectives:Naipaul‟s narratives include historical research and proper
documentation. Naipaul‟s narratives are based on original copies of historical documents.
Naipaul weaves into his travel narratives strands of „historical‟ passages and adds his
own personal dimensions to many „historical‟ passages.

2. Autobiographical features:different autobiographical elements are used in Naipaul‟s
travel writing. Biographies of minor to important figures and sometimes there are
fragments of his own biography.
Philosophical inquiry: Naipaul‟s philosophic authority is depicted through the use of his
philosophical narratives and his philosophical analysis by using his philosophical
knowledge such as individualism, existentialism and the concept of self.
Naipaul uses fictional elements in his travel writings such as,
1. Themes: he has dealt with theme of poverty, desolation, frustration, decay and
decadence.
2. Imagery: Naipaul used different images of places, events and people in order to make his
travel writing pleasant and readable.
3. Tone: Naipaul‟s has used tones like satire, mock, irony and somber in his travel writings.
4. Characters:Naipaul has introduced different characters in his travel writings in order to
give fictional effect to his travel writing.
5. Dialogues: Naipaul‟s narratives include dialogues, and interviews.
Naipaul‟s meshing of travel paradigms and fictional elements gave birth to new genres
1. Travelon: travel writing which contains elements of fiction.
2. Novelogue:novel which contains travel paradigms.

3. AMONG THE BELIEVERS BY V.S.NAIPAUL
Part: “IRAN”
Chapters: Death Pact and The Rule of Ali
SUMMARY
The chapter Death Pact startedwith the introduction of an interpreter named Sadiq who
was given to Naipaul for the travel from Tehran to the Holy city Qom.Sadiq was free because of
Iranian revolution most of the people were jobless. Naipaul said, that Sadiq was a man of simple
origins, simply educated, but with a great pride, deferential but resentful, not liking himself for
what he was doing.Sadiq was a peasant but he was trying to suggest that he was above the
general Iranian level. Sadiq was a person to talk only for an hour for Naipaul; it was going hard
to bear Sadiq for a long time.Sadiq told Naipaul that his car was out of order so, he could not
lead him to the Holy city Qom. The road where car was parked was dug up and dusty; the car
was dusty too. It was hot; the exhausts of passing cars and trucks made it hotter.
Naipaul introduced another character after Sadiq and was Behzad.Behzad was younger,
taller, and darker than Sadiq. He was more educated. There was nothing of the dandy about him,
nothing of Sadiq‟s nervousness and raw pride. Behzad was also recommended to Naipaul as an
interpreter.He was a student footloose in the great city of Tehran.Behzad suggested that they
should travel to the city Qom by bus as it was a cheaper mean.Qom was city of mullahs and
ayatollahs and was month of Ramadan when they reached their so it was not possible to eat or
drink something during Ramadan.
North Tehran‟s spreading up into the brown hills that was the elegant part of the city;
there were parks, gardens, plan-lined boulevards, expensive apartments, hotels and restaurants.
South Tehran was still an Eastern city, more populous and cramped, more bazaarlike , full of
people who had moved in from the countryside; and the crowd in the dusty, littered yard of the
bus station was like a country crowd. The August heat had built up; air was full of dust in
Tehran.
In Tehran the traffic was heavy since the revolution could not said be a city at work; but
to give an impression of busyness there were seeming so many people in cars, so many projects
abandoned, so many unmoving cranes on the tops of the buildings. The desperation was
suggested by the Iranian drove. They drove like the people for whom the motorcar was new.
They drove as they walked; and a stream of Tehran‟s traffic, jumpy with individual stops and
swerves with no clear lines, was like a jolting pavement crowd. This manner of driving did not
go with any special Tehran luck. An item on a local paper had said that traffic accidents were the
greatest single cause of deaths in Tehran; two thousand people were killed or injured every
month.

4. Naipaul stressed upon the importance of language by saying that, I lost Behzad in the
traffic when traffic lights had failed and the cars did not stop. He said that without Behzad,
without the access to the language that he gave me, I had been like a half-blind man in Tehran.
And it had been really frustrating to be without the language in those streets because; there on
the walls of the streets had different slogans, cartoons and revolutionary posters with an
emphasis on blood so, without Behzad it was impossible to understand their meanings.
Naipaul further commented on Behzad that Behzad was neutral in his comments at first
and it was part of his correctness that he wanted not to go beyond his job as translator. The
Religious revolution that had come to the Iran was not of Behzad‟s interest he was in the favor
of Shah‟s revolution because Behzad was a person without Religion. Behzad said that he had
not been instructed in the faith by his parents; he had not been sent to the mosque. Islam was a
complicated religion. It was not philosophical or speculated. It was a revealed religion, with a
Prophet and a set of rules. To believe, it was necessary to know a lot about the Arabian origins of
the religion, and to take this knowledge to heart.
Naipaul has given the overall view of Islam in his travelogue as; Islam in Iran was even
more complicated. It was a divergence from the main belief; and this divergence had its roots in
the political-racial dispute about the succession to the Prophet, who died in 632 A.D. Islam
almost from the start, had been a imperialism as well as religion, with an early history
remarkably like a speeded-up version of the history of Rome, developing from the city-state to
peninsular overlord to empire, with corresponding stresses at every stage. The Iranian divergence
had become doctrinal, and there had been divergences within divergence. Iranians recognized a
special line of succession to the Prophet. But a group loyal to the fourth man in this Iranian line,
the fourth Imam, had hived off; another group had their own ideas about the seventh. Only one
Imam, the eight (poisoned, like the fourth), was buried in Iran; and his tomb in the city of
Mashhad, not far from the Russian border, was an object of pilgrimage.Behzad said,“a lot of
those people were killed and poisoned” was explaining his lack of belief. Islam in Iran, Shia
Islam, was an intricate business. To keep alive ancient animosities, to hold on the idea of
personal revenge even after thousands of years, to have a special list of heroes and martyrs and
villains, it was necessary to be instructed.
Naipaul said that, Behzad had not been instructed in faith he had simply stayed away
from the religion. He had, if anything, instructed in was disbelief by his father, who was a
communist. It was of the poor rather than of the saints that Behzad‟s father had spoken. The
memory that Behzad preserved with special piety was of the first day his father had spoken to
him about his own poverty, and the poverty of other.
In Iran dusty pavement medical as, on the pavement outside the Turkish embassy two
turbaned sunburnt medicine men sat with their display of colored powders, roots, and minerals.
Naipaul thought that they were equivalents of the homeopathic medicine of India.

5. The stock was a reminder for Naipaul of Arab glory of a thousand years before, when the
Arab faith mingled with Persia, India, and the remnant of the classical world it had overrun, and
Muslim civilization was central civilization of the West.Behzad did not care for the Muslim the
past; and he did not believe in pavement medicines. He did not care for the Shah‟s architecture,
either: the antique Persian motifs of the Central Iranian Bank, and the Aryan, pre-Islamic past
that it proclaimed. To Behzad that stress on the antiquity of Persia and the antiquity of monarchy
was only part of Shah‟s vainglory.
Although Iran had revolution but still normal life was went on in odd ways. The Picture
sellers on the pavement also caught Naipaul‟s attention. They were selling pictures of blown up
colored photographs of Swiss lakes and German forests; they were offering dream landscapes of
river, trees, and paintings of weeping woman and children having tears on their cheeks.
Naipaul also took into the account of Persian poetry during conversation with Behzad.
Behzad‟s father was a teacher of Persian Literature, Behzad said, that “Persian poetry is full of
sadness”. Naipaul replied to Behzad “But tears for the sake of tears”. Without taking any interest
in artistic nonsense Behzad said “those tears are beautiful”
Naipaul has mentioned in his travelogue about the posters of revolution in Iran. He said,
he had seen in many parts of the city two posters about revolution; they were in the same, size
done in the same style and clearly made a pair. One showed a small peasant group working in a
field; using a barrow or a plough it was not clear which from the drawing. The other showed, in
silhouette, a crowd raising rifles and machine guns as if in a salute. They were like the posters of
the people of the revolution: an awakened victorious people, a new dignity of labour. But what
was the Persian legend at the top? Behzad translated: “Twelfth Imam we are waiting for you”
The Twelfth Imam was the last of the Iranian line of succession to the Prophet. That line
had ended over eleven hundred years ago, but the Twelfth Imam had not died; he survived
somewhere waiting for return to the earth. Naipaul said that Behzad was without faith but he was
surrounded by belief and he could understand its emotional charge so he simply said that The
Twelfth Imam was the Twelfth Imam.
Naipaul continued his narrative by saying that later on his Islamic journey became more
familiar with history and genealogy, became more than facts,became readily comprehended
articles of faith. But he was shocked when he came to know about the meaning of the
revolutionary posters after translation by Behzad; they had written in English about democracy,
about torture by secret police of Shah, about‟ fascism‟ of the Shah.
Naipaul said that he got information from Iranians in abroad that before the revolution in
Iran religion was away from Iranian protest. The Ayatollah Khomeini reappeared very slowly
after the exile for many years. As the revolution developed his sanctity and authority became
grow.Fully disclosed Ayatollah Khomeini was nothing less than an interpreter of God‟s will.
After his emergence he annulled and made trivial all previous protests about the „fascism‟ of the

6. Shah. He addressed the “Christians of the world”, three weeks before he returned to Iran from his
exile in France, in an advertisement in The New York Times on 12 January 1979.Half of his
message consisted of blessings and greetings from God and half was a request for Christian
prayers on Holy days, and a warning to the leaders of the some of the Christian countries who
were supporting the tyrant Shah with their Satanic powers. Later on Khomeini said through
Radio that during the previous dictatorial regime strikes and sit-ins pleased God but now, when
government is Muslim and a national one, the enemy is busy plotting against us. And therefore
strike and sit-ins are religiously forbidden because they are against the principles of Islam.
Naipaul has given his little information at the end of the chapter about his own origin. He
said that Muslims were part of Indian community of Trinidad; which was the community into
which he was born. But he knew little of their religion. Naipaul‟s own background was Hindu,
and he grew up with the knowledge that Muslims are totally different.
The chapter The Rule of Alistarts with the news that Naipaul heard from the official
Iranian News Agency in August (1979) executions of prostitutes and brothel managers: for
Naipaul it was wicked turn of Islamic Revolution taken by Khomeini. Ayatollah Khomeini
reported to have outlawed music, Islamic rules about women were being enforced again, mixed
bathing had been banned. Naipaul met a man at the travel agency in Landon he told him that Iran
was the country people were leaving. Nobody was going in; most of the passengers were Iranian
people waiting for flights and they did not look like people running from Islamic revolution.
There was not a veil or head-cover among the women.
Naipaul met a Physician in the plane who was Iranian. He told Naipaul that Revolution in
Iran was terrible; they have destroyed the country, the army everything, they have killed all the
officers. Tehran was a nice city with restaurants and cafes. Now there is nothing. The physician
further continued his talk and said I don‟t know what will happen these Muslims are strange
people, they have an old mentality, they are very bad to minorities. Physician told Naipaul that
he was Bahai. Naipaul explained then, what Bahais were actually; Behzad told him that they had
their own secret frenzy and it derived from Shia‟s frenzy. Shias were waiting for the Twelfth
Imam and Bahais claimed that the Twelfth Imam had come and gone and only Bahais were
people who recognized him. The Shia protest was occurring for racial-political protest among the
subject of Arabian people recognizing their own line of succession to the Prophet whereas,The
Bahais movement was forsubversive. An early call was for Heads to be cut off, books and leaves
burnt, places demolish and laid waste and a general slaughter made; in 1852 there was an attempt
to kill the king.
Naipaul stated that the airport at Kuwait was built on sand and the air coming through
ventilators was very warm. It was 40 degrees Centigrade outside, 104 Fahrenheit. Naipaul felt
disappointment when he saw airport building before that he heard about Shah‟s big ideas of
developments in the country. The arrival hall was like a big shed, blank rectangular patches
edged with reddish dust ghost pictures in ghostly frames were there. Khomeini‟s photographs as,

7. hard-eyed, sensual, and unreliable and roguish-looking were there seeming as that they were
portrayed by an enemy. The airport branch of Melli Bank was looking like an Indian Bazaar
because of rough tables, three clerks, a lot of brown paper, a littered floor. The luggage track did
not move for a long time. Iranians like physician‟s family were sitting patiently looking like local
people coming from the town within the country. The custom man offered Naipaul Whisky.
Naipaul has described that colors of the city were dusty and pale. The roads, the trees, the
cars were covered with the dust. Some buildings were unfinished and other were looking old.
Outside the city people were standing in queues to vote out their leaders. It was second time to
elect the leader because the first had been a referendum. The people had voted then for an
Islamic republic. This election was for „Assembly of Experts‟ who would work out an Islamic
Constitution. Experts were necessary because Islamic Constitution was not simple to be adopted.
Naipaul‟s hotel was in Tehran for his stay. The hotel was one of the older hotels of the
city behind high a wall. The hotel had a gateman‟s lodge, an asphalted circular drive, patches of
lawn with shrubs and trees. There were glass walls on the two sides of the lobby. On one was the
courtyard, with the dusty shrubs, pines and parked hotel taxis. The room that was taken by
Naipaul was of a good size, with sturdy wooden furniture, and with wood paneling three or four
feet up the side walls but the air conditioning duct was leaking so Naipaul was allotted another
room that was of the same size as the previous one.
In Tehran the pavements were broken. Many shop signs were broken or had lost some of
their raised letters. Dust and grime was so general. On the building‟s walls there were posters of
revolution and on the pavements there were kiosks of magazines about revolution. Most of them
had covers having Shah‟s photographs. Though it was Ramadan there were crowds of people
outside the cinema hall and they were buying dryfruits.
Naipaul highlighted the facelessness he saw on posters, magazine covers and newspapers.
In one poster of revolution he saw faceless crowd, in a newspaper he saw he saw the face of Ali;
the Shia hero, the cousin and the son in-law of the Prophet, was shown as transparent against a
landscape. In one poster Khomeini himself had been faceless. Naipaul said that facelessness had
begun to seem like an Islamic motif and it was indeed the subject of protest in Iran Week.
Naipaul met the editor of Iran Week he asked him about the Iran Weekcover as, Were
Iranian families, even middle-class families, as “nuclear” as the cover suggested? I had expected
Iranian families more traditional, more extended. MrAbidi said they were as the cover had shown
them. On the Constitution day, to mark Iran‟s first written constitution, achieved only in 1906 on
Nadir Shah avenue; Nadir Shah who was the Persian King, who raided Delhi in 1739 and broke
up Shah Jahan‟s Peacock Throne, the jewels of which are still part of Iranian State Treasure
pavement hawkers and the sun and the dust made India feel close.
Naipaul said that he was given ten minutes at Iran Week offered a job Tebran Times. The
Times was the new English-Language daily its motto was “May Truth Prevail”; the office was

8. new, well equipped and busy. There were some American or European helpers. Naipaul met Mr.
Jaffrey somebody brought Mr Jaffrey a dish of fried eggs, a plate of pappadom, crisp fried Indian
bread. He asked Mr Jaffrey what about Ramadan? ; Mr Jaffrey replied he was not fasting.
Naipaul asked Mr Jaffrey about Islam and revolution in Iran.
Naipaul brought one of the English Language magazines published from the Holy city of
Qom. It was The Message of Peace and, as its title warned it was full of rage. It raged about the
Shah; about the “Devils” of the West and the evils of the Western technology. It also raged the
poor old Mr. Desai, the Indian Prime minister who banned Alcohol (good from the Muslim point
of view) but drank urine ( from the Muslim point of view deplorable) Naipaul said that he
brought that magazine not for Khomeini speeches, or Biographies of Shia‟s Imam rather he
brought that for Islamic Urban Planning.
ANALYSIS OF CHAPTERS
Among the Believers was Travel narrative and is an Islamic journey of V.S Naipaul to
Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia.Naipaul‟s narrative isan outcome of his intellect, his keen
observation, his assumptions, his journalistic techniques, his philosophical, autobiographical and
historical knowledge, and his fictional elements.
Naipaul begins his journey in Iran with the introduction of two characters Sadiq and
Behzad they are interpreters or translators for Naipaul suggested from the embassy as, characters
are the fictional and dramatic elements so his beginning of the narrative looks like a beginning of
a novel. Then Naipaul gives physical appearances and information about personality of his
characters as;Naipaul says, that Sadiq was a man of simple origins, simply educated, but with a
great pride, deferential but resentful, not liking himself for what he was doing whereas; Behzad
was younger, taller, and darker than Sadiq. This shows Naipaul‟s great insight for people and his
keen and firsthand observation.
Naipaul‟s description of places in Iran is like creating an image. He says as; North
Tehran‟s spreading up into the brown hills that was the elegant part of the city; there were parks,
gardens, plan-lined boulevards, expensive apartments, hotels and restaurants. South Tehran was
still an Eastern city, more populous and cramped, more bazaarlike , full of people who had
moved in from the countryside; and the crowd in the dusty, littered yard of the bus station was
like a country crowd.
Naipaul gives his comments on Iranian traffic as, In Tehran the traffic was heavy since
the revolution could not said be a city at work; but to give an impression of busyness. The
desperation was suggested by the Iranian drove. They drove like the people for whom the
motorcar was new. They drove as they walked; and a stream of Tehran‟s traffic, jumpy with
individual stops and swerves with no clear lines, was like a jolting pavement crowd. He gives

9. proves it by saying that, an item on a local paper had said that traffic accidents were the greatest
single cause of deaths in Tehran; two thousand people were killed or injured every month.
Naipaul highlights the importance of language specially the language of the natives to
understand their culture during his journey in Iran. He says, that without Behzad, without the
access to the language that he gave me, I had been like a half-blind man in Tehran. And it had
been really frustrating to be without the language in those streets because; there on the walls of
the streets had different slogans, cartoons and revolutionary posters with an emphasis on blood
so, without Behzad it was impossible to understand their meanings.
Naipaul gives his Dialogues with different people with Behzad, with Physician‟s family,
with the editors of newspapers with the common men to make his travel narrative more authentic
and to give it a dramatic touch such as exchange of dialogues between Naipaul and the Physician
as, the physician.
He has an accurate ethnographic observations he describes Iranian people, their culture
and way of living as he say in Iran there is culture of pavement medicine stocks such as; In Iran
dusty pavement medical as, on the pavement outside the Turkish embassy two turbaned sunburnt
medicine men sat with their display of colored powders, roots, and minerals. Naipaul thought
that they were equivalents of the homeopathic medicine of India.
Naipaul investigates Islamic fundamentalism. He observes Iranian people, their faith,he
gives historical evidences to prove his notion.Naipaul says Behzad was a person without
Religion. Behzad said that he had not been instructed in the faith by his parents; he had not been
sent to the mosque. Islam was a complicated religion. He says hemet a Physician in the plane
who was an Iranian. He told Naipaul that Revolution in Iran was terrible; they have destroyed the
country, the army everything, they have killed all the officers. Tehran was a nice city with
restaurants and cafes. Now there is nothing. The physician further continued his talk and said I
don‟t know what will happen these Muslims are strange people, they have an old mentality, they
are very bad to minorities. He highlights role of sectarianism Iran; that Iran is surrounded by
different sects like Sunni, Shia and Bahai. He says most of the people inside Iran were against
Islamic revolution.
Naipaul creates imagery in his travelogue as he creates images rough, broken, dusty and
not properly developedas,The airport branch of Melli Bank was looking like an Indian Bazaar
because of rough tables, three clerks, a lot of brown paper, a littered floor. The luggage track did
not move for a long time. Iranians like physician‟s family were sitting patiently looking like local
people coming from the town within the country. And another as, In Tehran, The hotel was one
of the older hotels of the city behind high a wall. The hotel had a gateman‟s lodge, an asphalted
circular drive, patches of lawn with shrubs and trees. There were glass walls on the two sides of
the lobby. On one was the courtyard, with the dusty shrubs, pines and parked hotel taxis. In

10. Tehran the pavements were broken. Many shop signs were broken or had lost some of their
raised letters. Dust and grime was so general.
Naipaul closely observes different activities related to the revolution specially posters as;
Although Iran had revolution but still normal life was went on in odd ways. The Picture sellers
on the pavement also caught Naipaul‟s attention. They were selling pictures of blown up colored
photographs of Swiss lakes and German forests; they were offering dream landscapes of river,
trees, and paintings of weeping woman and children having tears on their cheeks.
Naipaul keen observations reflects through his description of Iran its development and
posters of Shah and Khomeini he says;I felt disappointment when I saw airport building before
that he heard about Shah‟s big ideas of developments in the country. The arrival hall was like a
big shed, blank rectangular patches edged with reddish dust ghost pictures in ghostly frames
were there. Khomeini‟s photographs as, hard-eyed, sensual, and unreliable and roguish-looking
were there seeming as that they were portrayed by an enemy.
Naipaul uses Ironic and satiric tone while he gives his account of poverty and people‟s
habits in Iran. He says;It was of the poor rather than of the saints that Behzad‟s father had
spoken. The memory that Behzad preserved with special piety was of the first day his father had
spoken to him about his own poverty, and the poverty of other. He gives hit eye-witness by
saying that, though it was Ramadan there were crowds of people outside the cinema hall and
they were buying dry fruits.
Naipaul‟s narrative depicts theme of frustration, decay, isolation and uncertainty as
people were frustrated, they were faithless their lives were disturbed because of Islamic
revolution even women were forced to kept in the houses to cover their faces. People were
uncertain about themselves , about their lives and about their religion.
Naipaul gives historical and autobiographical references to make his narrative authentic
as, Islam in Iran was even more complicated. It was a divergence from the main belief; and this
divergence had its roots in the political-racial dispute about the succession to the Prophet, who
died in 632 A.D. Islam almost from the start, had been a imperialism as well as religion, with an
early history remarkably like a speeded-up version of the history of Rome, developing from the
city-state to peninsular overlord to empire, with corresponding stresses at every stage, then as,
The Ayatollah Khomeini reappeared very slowly after the exile for many years. As the
revolution developed his sanctity and authority became grow. Fully disclosed Ayatollah
Khomeini was nothing less than an interpreter of God‟s will.
Naipaul gives pieces of information from the local newspaper and adds news from the
local radio to make his arguments strong and acceptable as, He addressed the “Christians of the
world”, three weeks before he returned to Iran from his exile in France, in an advertisement in
The New York Times on 12 January 1979.Half of his message consisted of blessings and
greetings from God and half was a request for Christian prayers on Holy days, and a warning to

11. the leaders of the some of the Christian countries who were supporting the tyrant Shah with their
Satanic powers. Later on Khomeini said through Radio that during the previous dictatorial
regime strikes and sit-ins pleased God but now, when government is Muslim and a national one,
the enemy is busy plotting against us. And therefore strike and sit-ins are religiously forbidden
because they are against the principles of Islam.
IRAN
3: THE HOLY CITY
In the third part of this chapter, Naipaul describes his travel to Qom, the Holy City. His
interpreter was Behzad who was a communist like his father. He was not a religious person. He
wanted a true revelation like his father. He did not have knowledge for ablution. They got a taxi
to go to that city. Its driver was not considered a Muslim because he was not a Shia.
Naipaul tells that Qom was a city of great theology, religion and politics. There was a
shrine of a sister of 8th
Imam. People of Qom were strictly religious. Khomeini had made his
headquarter here after their fall of Shah. Then, he tells about Khalkhalli‟s tyranny with the
reference of “Tabran Times”. He also visits low brick buildings, factory, desert, hills, mounds
and salt lake there. These marginalized images of these places present a negative image as
cruelty of Shah in Salt Lake.
They visit Qom in the Islamic month Ramadan. So the markets and hotels were closed
and he was told that no eatables will be available there. For this reason they stopped in the way,
bought melon and ate together. The driver joined them without any invitation. Behzad shared his
meal with him like a pure Muslim.
Naipaul had certain images about Qom in his mind like a religious centre. But it was like
other cities deserted and polluted. Behzad asks him to hide his identity and shows him as an
American. It will be better than to be introduced as Hindu among religious people.
They visits shrine first, its walls were high and many Persian political slogans were
written over there. They visited only the courtyard of shrine. There were many pilgrims from
different areas of the world. Out of the shrine, there were stalls of plates on which Khomini‟s
face was engraved. Clay tablets with Arabic lettering and blue and white tiles with Quranic
quotations. Hotels and restaurants were closed due to Ramadan. They got permission to sot in
empty restaurant where he saw a group of people with a short height of veiled lady. Behzad told
that they were workers.

12. Then they decided to take appointment to meet Sherazi on telephone. There, two
Pakistani students met them. They were in traditional costume of mullahs. They took him into
their institution to meet their director. He told them that there were 14000 students of theology
and their education was free. A religious foundation used to pay all their dues. Naipaul was
astonished about their education.
He met their scholar Ayyatollah Sherazi at 7:30. His house was situated in a dirty and
dusty street. Sherazi pleased to see them. His discussion was good. On knowing that narrator
belonged to Protestants, Sherazi pleased because he considered that protestants were reformers
like Shia in their religion. Narrator was confused due to Pakistani students due to their bias for
Hindus. There, he decided never to go on Islamic Journey again in his life. Sherazi told them
about their Islamic history. There were many books of oxford in his shelf.
Last meeting of Naipaul in Qom was with Khalkhalli. He was a prominent leader of Iran.
There were many people to meet him including an African couple. Khalkhalli came in a more
casual dress than Sherazi. He met all other people with greeting smile except the narrator and
Behzad. His behavior towards them was unconvincing rough. Through conversation it seemed
that he had a humorous nature. He replied to him good enough.
Then, the time to break the fast approached. It was good moment for Lur driver. Behzad
repeated the act of sharing with him. They travelled in moonlight to return. They passed by the
salt lake where Shah‟s secret police dumped several people, the cemetry where martyrs of
revolution were buried then Tehran Refinery etc. On the gate of hotel, driver charged too much
for all the day. However, it was a harder day for all of them.
ANALYSIS
Among the Believers is a travelon by V. S. Naipaul. Here he describes his travel to one of
the cities of Iran, Qom. He employs intellectual analytic type of travel. He keeps him in the
central position as a narrator. Here three formal aspects of his travel writing can be seen such as
his assumption, narrative authority and travel strategies. His strategies are very common in his
texts such as his use of journals, ethnography, history, philosophy and autobiography. He deals
with negative and marginalized themes with certain images and tone.
He visits the city of Qom in Ramadan. He uses a satirical tone about their religion. He
visits Qom in Ramadan. People keep fast regularly. Their restaurants and hotel are also closed.
There is no eatable for others. Driver tries much to find something to eat but does not find

13. anything. The face of director and a Turkoman was pale and their lips were white due to regular
fasting.
He describes significant themes in this part of Iran. He highlight the dirty and poor life of
people, their primitive thinking, rigid following of religion, cruelty, hatred for non-Muslims etc.
These themes create a negative image of Iran and its religion.
Naipaul uses imagery to prove his themes. He presents dark and polluted streets, dirty
landscape, deserted land, dried and whitened lips, dusty lane, fleshy face etc. he focuses on
negative and marginalized images to prove his concept that people of orient are primitive.
He adds another fictional element of dialogue. Typical narrative use to be in a description
form and there use to be no communication of characters. But it is his special strategy to use
dialogue in travel writing. He presents his conversation to other people to prove his authenticity
and to present a realistic image. For example when he is confused to see Khalkhalli, behzad says
to hem “he would love to see you”.
His selection of characters is also very sensitive. Here, he presents two characters behzad
and a Lur driver. Both of them are not good religious. So, they are not considered as Muslim. In
a strict religious country, they do not keep fast. Behzad does not know Arabic verses. He is a son
of a communist father who has suffered the sentence in jail. Above all, he does not know how to
perform ablution.
His historical references are also important in his narratives. He refers to many historical
references to prove his arguments. It shows his deep study of those regions and their
personalities. In third chapter he refers to Shah, Khalkhalli, Jinah, Khomini and Hitler.
Journalistic approach is also very important in his travel strategies. In The Holy City, he
describes about Khakhalli, an important political figure. He gives authority to his description
through “Tebran Times”. Khakhalli himself admits his cruelty to that newspaper. For example he
admits; “On some nights, he said, bodies of thirty or more people would be sent out in the trucks
from prison. He claimed he had also signed the death warrants of a large number of people in
Khuzistan Province.” (Naipaul. P:37) Naipaul has presented his cruelty in such an authentic
manner that nobody can deny its truth.
Naipaul‟s ethnography includes landscape, people and topology. In third part of Iran, he
presents the ethnographic detail of city of Qom. It is a deserted land. However, it is a religious
and theological city but It is like other common cities. People of Qom are strictly religious. The
city starts from “gas stations, gardens and neater roads”. As Sherazi pronounce words as “Islam

14. into Esslam”. People have great love for Arabian soil and Quran. They give special importance
to belief in Imams. Their daily life remains hidden to him.
Naipaul uses the strategy of autobiography in this part of Iran. When he meets Pakistani
students he describes about himself that he is a Hindu. He is scared from Pakistanis because of
their natural enmity towards Indians. So he introduces himself from America.
When he visits Iran he has certain philosophies in his mind. Through them he looks on
Iranians and Presents them. He has image of Iran as primitive country. So, he looks their life
style, their religion, their education and politics. His quest of „self‟ is also shown in this part. He
introduces himself to Sherazi as” I am still a seeker”.
Chapter 4 The Night Train from Mashhad
Summary
Naipaul started this chapter with description of Behzad and talked of his background. He gave
physical description of Behzad and told that he belonged to a provincial town, his father was a
teacher of literature, and he studied from American school and now was a student of science in
Tehran. From describing Behzad he came to himself and told that he was born in Trinidad, and
knew very well what poverty was. According to Naipaul Behzad thought of himself as poor and
always tried to prove it as well. Behzad got this idea of poverty from his father and it was
different form the idea of Naipaul. Behzad‟s family was communist; revolution took the place of
religion in his house. He was rigid in his own faith as any other religious person. He judged the
people and countries by their revolutionary qualities. He read only revolutionary writers. He
considered the Russian communism as the true freedom for men. His dream of the reign of Stalin
was a version of the dream of the rule of Ali---the Prophet‟s true successor.
Naipaul and Behzad went to the Tehran University to see the big crowds gathered there for
discussions. Naipaul gave detail descriptions of the publishers, pavement booksellers, the
cassette-sellers and pint-sellers. There were photograph albums of the revolution, emphasized on
death, blood, and revenge. There were dead, page after page, corpse upon corpse. One corpse
was of Hoveida, the Shah‟s prime minister, shot in the neck, then in the head by Khalkhalli‟s
orders. There were other photos as well, photos of dream landscapes of water and trees, painting
of children and beautiful women with tears. Tehran University was a meeting place for people to
discuss Islam, communism and revolution. Violence was in the air. They saw an incident of
slapping of a student by a workman. No one moved to help him.
On Friday they went to see the big crowds again who were gathered there for prayers but for
Behzad it was a gathering more for political purpose rather than religious purpose. It was the
month of Ramadan. Men and women both came for prayers, before prayers there had to be a

15. speech by Ayatollah. Everyone was in frenzy. A speech began to come over the loud speakers, in
a breaking passionate voice; it added to the frenzy. Then they left for the hotel. There was a party
of stranded Italians in the hotel dining room. They heard the same speech on radio there. The
speech was by Ayatollah Taleqani, who was considered the most moderate and intelligent of the
ayatollahs, but at his death it was to come out that all this time he was the head of the
Revolutionary Council. In the speech Taleqani was saying that the Prophet might have the
Iranian revolution in mind when he predicted that the Persians were to be “the pioneers of Islam
at a time when the world had deviated from the faith.” Khomeini ruled from Qom, Khalkhali was
close to Khomeini. Taleqani led the prayers in Tehran and Shariatmadari in Mashhad. In
Mashhad was the tomb of the Eight Imam who was poisoned by Arabian Nights ruler, Harun al
Rashid.
Naipaul and Behzad left for Mashhad. The plan was they will come back with Behzad‟s
girlfriend. Mashhad received a lot of visitors during Ramadan. They stayed in Hyatt Omar
Khayyam Hotel which was well maintained for upper class pilgrims. They went to the shrine of
the Eighth Imam and saw so many people praying there. Behzad said that they pray for money, a
job, a son.” People tied a strip of cloth to the gate and believe that when the cloth became untied,
the prayer was granted. Naipaul had to meet one Islamic scholar whom he called and he refused
saying that he had a migraine those days but suggested Naipaul to visit Firdowsi‟s tomb. Before
visiting the tomb Naipaul and Behzad went to see Shariatmadari. They witnessed a big number
of visitors at Shariatmadari‟s place. People came to kiss his hands and some for their petitions.
Naipaul and Behzad sat there for some time and then left without any conversation with him.
They went to Firdowsi‟s tomb which was built by Shah. But all the inscriptions on the walls of
the tomb, every reference to the Shah and the royal family or the monarchy had been obliterated.
They saw the rage of people there.
Behzad had talked to his girlfriend and decided to come back to Tehran. They bought tickets for
train and started the journey. Naipaul describes the journey ethnographically. Behzad‟s girl
friend belonged to a religious family but was a communist herself. She was in slacks and shirt
and was reading a leaflet of communism. They were forbidden from playing cards in the train.
Behzad and his girlfriend mind it seriously.