Drinking wine is forbidden in Islam.1 However, does that mean that Muslims do not drink alcohol and have never done so? In the Islamic Republic of Iran the politically correct interpretation of the great 14th century poet Hafez can only put his verses containing wine drinking and love for the young male cup-bearer in a mystic context. Still, outwardly living a life conforming to the rules of Islam as interpreted and acted out by the mullahs, Iranians often deviate from the righteous path in private, drinking alcoholic beverages that are smuggled into the country by neighbouring Kurds. Reading Rudi Matthee’s excellently researched book, one becomes aware, again, of the patterns of continuity characteristic for Iranian social life over the centuries. As Matthee puts it, “In Iran, the tension between outward conformity and private freedom has often taken the form, less of a dichotomy than of an ambiguous play between hedonistic and puritanical forces, fitting into what Roy Mottahedeh calls a ‘kaleidoscopic world of meaningful ambiguity’” (p. 296).

Apart from wine, other drugs and stimulants are also referred to in this book. Opium and tobacco as well as coffee and tea count among the drugs and stimulants Iranians consumed during the period under consideration. The book is divided into two main parts, the first concentrating on the Safavid period from 1501 to 1722, the second part referring to the Qajar period from 1779 to 1921. It was under Safavid rule that Iran’s mainly Sunnite population adapted the Twelver Shiite faith and the country was again united, even if not controlled, by one dynasty. Following another period of disintegration, Iran was unified by the founder of the Qajar dynasty, which stayed in power until Reza Khan, later Shah, took over in 1921. To introduce his readers, in particular the non-specialist, to Iranian history between 1500 and 1900, Matthee presents an historical overview as the first chapter of his book. Chapters two to six deal with wine, opium, tobacco, and coffee in Safavid Iran, tea having not yet been widely introduced. The Qajar period is also divided into chapters looking into the consumption of wine, opium and tobacco, coffee and tea. Each chapter is followed by a short summary (Conclusion), as is the whole book. A bibliography and an index are included as well as numerous interesting illustrations. Notes are presented as footnotes, a rare pleasure for readers of English publications. Because the chapters of the two mentioned parts are not structured chronologically but thematically, repetitions are inevitable. Nevertheless, this is also to the reader’s advantage because he or she may read each chapter independently without having to refer to other parts of the book.

As with regard to various other subjects, scholars of European history have already paved the way for the study of material culture. It is in the context of a wider history of consumption that Matthee presents his study of Iranians’ use of drugs and stimulants over a period of four hundred years. Astoundingly, research concerning wine drinking or the introduction of tea in the Near and Middle East is scarce, yet, some studies have been published concerning the consumption of coffee and the importance of coffee houses in the Ottoman Empire.2

An interesting question to be asked is why people in Iran changed their drinking habits from coffee to tea and what consumers in different parts of Iran preferred and why. As Matthee convincingly shows, the attractiveness of beverages like tea or coffee or the smoking of tobacco did not simply result from their availability but was the outcome of a multifaceted interaction of various demand and supply factors. Concerning matters of consumption, geography was as important as social status. During the first half of the 19th century, whether people drank tea or coffee depended on their financial means, the affordability of the beverages, and whether they lived in the northern or the southern part of their country.

As long as consumer goods like tea or tobacco were expensive, only the well to do could afford to buy them. Since in the 19th century tea and tobacco were brought to Iran by European merchants, they could also be associated with “unbelievers” and be declared sinful indulgences by clerics. How strong politics, economics, religion and consumption were related in Iran at the end of the 19th century is clearly demonstrated by the Tobacco Revolt of 1891, when Iranians protested against the granting of a concession that gave the monopoly over the sale, distribution and export of all Iranian tobacco to an Englishman. Although heavy smokers, most Iranians, women and men alike, refrained from smoking until the concession was withdrawn.

Having been brought up in a different cultural context, Europeans usually find it hard to understand that Muslims are forbidden to drink alcohol but that drugs like opium are not stigmatized in the same way. Until modern times, Iranians considered opium to be of medicinal value, killing pains and being a cure for a few other disorders and illnesses. The way opium was consumed depended on the social status and wealth of the consumer, the smoking of opium only becoming widespread during the 19th century. Until today people consider Galen’s division of “hot” and “cold” foodstuff and the necessity to balance the one with the other to accomplish a balanced diet. As Matthee points out, “the rise in opium consumption likely went together with an increase in the consumption of sweetened tea. Opium, considered being ‘cold’ and ‘dry’ in the traditional Galenic canon, balances tea, which is seen as ‘hot’ and ‘humid’.” (p. 253)

Based on Persian sources as well as on accounts written by European visitors to Iran and various archival sources like the Records of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, Rudi Matthee convincingly argues that consumption habits are related to economic, social and political issues, religion being only a factor among many. Apart from supply, culturally determined demands also played an important role in the history of Iranian consumption as far as drugs and stimulants are concerned. We should bear in mind that normative texts and other statements telling us how Muslims or Iranians in particular were supposed to behave or should behave today, do not necessarily reflect historical and present day reality. As the story of the mullahs who changed their turbans for European hats when they wanted to drink wine reveals, even members of the clergy indulge(d) in the pursuit of pleasure (p. 193).3

1 Although various verses in the Koran refer to wine, only Sura 5:90–91 appeals to Muslims to avoid it. See p. 39 and Sadan, J. (A. J. Wensinck), Art. “Khamr”, in: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. CD-ROM Edition, Leiden 2004.
2 See for example: Georgeon, François, Les cafés à Istanbul au XIX siècle, in: Etudes Turques et Ottmanes. Documents de travail. Le café et les cafés à Istanbul XVIe–XIXe siècles, 1 (1992), pp. 14–20.
3 A few spelling mistakes in the text should have been eliminated by the publisher. Also, on page 181 instead of “... following Fath Ali Shah’s enthronement” it should read “following Muhammad Shah’s enthronement”.