Gulistan

Depicted by poets and storytellers as Gulistan, “the land of roses”, Persia was actually a land of stony ground, ruins and lizards: its vast, long-renowned cities were filled with rubble and scorpions, with nightly raids by herds of jackals; its Eden-like oases squatted between flat, solitary stretches of sun-baked sand; its heat melted wax; at night, its droughts caused phantasmagorical sparks to burst from the tails of travelling horses at night; its coasts were rife with deadly fevers; its royal dwellings greeted visitors with pyramids of shiny skulls – a warning to keep the peace from Eastern despotism to its subjects.