Author Interview: Why Hilary Smith Loves Ancient Iran and India
Cultural historian Hilary Smith, co-author of the third edition of Bradt's Iran guide, has been visiting Iran since 1976, and knows the country's ancient sites better than most.
Her top 10 guide to the country's most unmissable heritage sites features archaeological treats such as an immaculately preserved ancient freezer - one of several in the country - and, of course, the legendary Persepolis, which she urges any visitor to witness first hand.
Here, she chats to Heritage-Key about her time in Iran and her favourite sites, including the wonders of the National Museum in Tehran. She also lets us in on her other great passion: India.
HK: Can you tell us about your first visit to Iran in 1976?
HS: I was inspired by the ancient world as a child, but as I was not taught Greek in school, I could not enter a university to study ancient history or archaeology. Following my university studies in medieval and modern history and – above all – the History of the Classical Tradition, I stumbled by accident on the travel business, imagining it to be a temporary phase.
It proved to be the beginning of an overwhelmingly stimulating journey of study and a complete career.
1976 was the beginning of a long period working for Swan Hellenic Art Treasures Tours (land tours, not cruises) and Iran was my first assignment. I worked only as the Tour Manager: the directors made it very clear that, despite my academic background and ambitions, I would never while at their company progress to the position of Guest Lecturer. However, times change, and eventually I did.
My first impressions of Iran were of the huge plains, the craggy mainly brown hued mountains and the vivid colours of the tile work. What a joy it was too to be able to learn from the Guest Lecturer as well as the local Iranian guides.
HK: What’s kept drawing you back?
HS: Reading and learning and then exploring the theory on the ground; always being able to see the monuments anew and make fresh connections based on the state of my developing knowledge. The welcome of the Iranians made visits eagerly anticipated.
HK: How has the country changed since 1976?
HS: Enormously. Fairly soon after I began travelling in Iran, the Revolution also started. I had never seen people power such as I witnessed on the streets, particularly in 1978. Some weeks the Foreign Office would allow our groups to
The perception of visitors from the West is that Iran is a dangerous place to visit
proceed; at other times trips were cancelled with little or no notice. Then followed a hiatus during which we did not go and during which we (and no doubt the Iranians, too) were propagandised.
The joy of returning in 1992 to find the generosity and the Iranian spirit of hospitality unbowed was palpable. I returned in the spring of that year, during Ramadan but also at the time of Nou Rouz (the Iranian New Year) and there was no doubt in my mind that Nou Rouz took priority, with the characteristic picnics and the genuine invitations to join in the fun.
HK: Archaeology is one of your specialist areas. Can you tell us a bit about your favourite archaeological sites in Iran?
HS: My regret is that I have not yet managed to visit all the ancient sites described in the book. Of those I know, Persepolis must rank as my favourite; it is so imposing and enough remains, between the site and the treasures in museums, to hint at the splendour and the colour there in its heyday.
Also, among the Achaemenid sites, I love Bisitun. I have never had the courage to attempt the rickety iron staircase leading up the cliff to the inscription, but the knowledge that the parallel cuneiform texts chiselled into the stone on the orders of king Darius in three different languages enabled the decipherment of this ancient writing system is awe-inspiring.
There is a site which straddles both the Achaemenid and Sasanid worlds: Naqsh-i Rustam. Here, below the tombs of Achaemenid rulers, both Parthians and Sasanids have incised kingly reliefs. From the Sasanid period I particularly appreciate Taq-i Bustan, probably a hunting area where the rocks are carved with religious, dynastic and vivid hunting images.
HK: You must feel like a kid in a candy store when you go into a place like the National Museum in Tehran … It’s especially strong on Islamic art and artefacts, but its pre-Islamic collection is also vast. Can you tell us a bit more about the museum, and why it’s so important?
HS: The very building is imposing, inspired by the Sasanid arch from Ctesiphon (in today’s Iraq) and the contents bring together the best from the excavated sites in this vast country. For most visitors, the galleries enable them to explore more sites than they can possible hope to see in one short visit.
HK: What exhibits should visitors not miss?
HS: For me the Achaemenid stone work still with its polished surface evidenced in the addorsed animal capital and the large section of relief from Persepolis along with the Egyptianising statue of Darius from Susa, along with the remarkable, more than life size Parthian bronze from Shami.
HK: The Australian photographer John Gollings, who has worked on a book on Kashgar, recently told me the people of Kashgar didn’t recognise the tourist potential or the cultural value of their city. What is the local attitude in Iran like when it comes to their cultural heritage?
HS: I’m not a journalist and have had no chance to quiz a cross section of the population on such matters, but those I meet tend to be both aware of, and actively interested in, the promotion of their cultural heritage.
HK: Can you see a time when the country opens up fully to tourism, with the ancient sites at the forefront of this new industry, as they are in Rome and Egypt?
HS: Yes, in the future maybe. But hopefully the authorities will also learn from the experiences of others and manage to open while preventing too much deterioration of the cultural heritage caused by the influx of visitors. Already comparisons of the plaster copies of some Persepolis reliefs in the British Museum and the details remaining on the stones in situ demonstrate how exposure to wind and weather can cause sites to suffer.
HK: What's preventing this at the moment?
HS: I would say that the barriers are more political than infrastructural at present. Iran has a good transport network and in many major areas there are adequate hotels. However, the perception of visitors from the West is that Iran is a dangerous place to visit. My experience is that that is very far from the case and the Iranian people are prosperous, enthusiastic about their country, and always courteous and extremely hospitable.
HK: Bradt’s new Iran guide, which you co-authored, is now out. It’s the third edition of the book. The first two editions were written by your friend Patricia Baker, who died last year. Were there mixed emotions picking up where she left off?
HS: Definitely. I felt both honoured to have been entrusted by her with the task and yet missed desperately her advice and guidance after her death. The deadline was short, precluding the study visits which might have been advisable to check on some details. She did an extraordinary job with the first two editions, given there was little appetite for tourism at the time. Paddy was a person who never minced words and her scholarship combined with her refreshingly enthusiastic but blunt take on post revolution Iran as she saw it doubtless made for the success of the guide.
HK: What myth about Iran would you most like to dispel?
HS: That the Iranians are all ogres and monsters: it is so far from the case.
HK: Aside from Iran, your other great area of interest expertise – and great passion – is India...
HS: I was fortunate enough to be able to follow a course on Devotional Hinduism at SOAS [School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London]. I was already working in travel and realised that there was a huge number of ancient and other sites in India which lay outside the fairly predictable sites which most tour operators offered.
This was partly because of the standard of accommodation available in their vicinity. I thought it might be worth trying to attract people who had already visited India to endure some discomfort in order to explore some of these riches.
As a result I have designed and led a number of themed tours visiting both ancient sites and museums, along with medieval and modern sites and places where interesting crafts are practised. One tour explored the course of the Ganges from the Gorges to the Bay of Bengal. Another explored Hindu and Muslim Kingdoms of the Northern Deccan. I also have led tours in Gujarat and Central India which is particularly rich in ancient sites. One of my most ambitious projects has been to study the monuments of undivided Bengal which includes today's West Bengal in India and the more westerly part of today's Bangladesh.
HK: What are your memories of your earliest visits?
HS: My earliest visit to India was to the South which although very important from the point of view of the uninterrupted tradition of Hindu ritual, yielded few ancient sites. I still remember the initial feeling of 'inaccessibility' and being faced with an as yet alien iconography which has over the years become accessible and familiar.
HK: What are your favourite Indian sites now?
HS: Many of the really ancient sites from the 3rd century BCE require considerable imagination on the part of the visitor. For example, Vaishali in Bihar has trenches but also one of the best of the Asokan pillars. Some of the pillars, like the one at Sarnath, are fragmentary and others, such as the one at Allahabad, are now hidden away in a restricted area.
However, for remains of these times, the wonderful museums in India are real treasure houses. I would single out those at Patna, Allahabad and Mathura, along with those in the major cities of New Delhi and Kolkata.
It is to Kolkata one must have recourse to see the wonderful sculptural remains from the Buddhist stupa at Bharhut, for exmple. These, like parts of the remains at Sanchi, date to the 1st century BCE and Sanchi is an inspiring site to visit since it has so much both of structure and sculpture to delight the visitor.
At the cusp of the era, there are a number of rock cut and sculpted caves, mainly Buddhist, excavated to provide shelter for monks in the monsoon period, the only time in the year when the mendicants did not wander, and mainly lying along the old trade routes. My favourites lie in the Western Ghats: Bhaja, Bedsa and Karli as well as at Nasik.
Another great favourite for me is Badami in Karnataka both for its situation and the reddish colour of the rock. Here and at the surrounding sites of Aihole and Pattadakal are both rock cut and structured buildings though these all date to the middle of the 6th century CE or later.
HK: We have covered quite a few books recently on the Silk Roads. People generally think of China when they think of the old trade routes, but they ran through India as well…
HS: Well, as you say, these were routes in the plural and where they passed often depended on the political control of the times. It was certainly along the trade and pilgrimage routes that Buddhism and its iconography was exported to the area of today's Xinjiang Autonomous Region in China, probably around the 1st century CE.
In the capitals which have been excavated at Paraliputra (near today's Patna, Bihar) or which are still in situ in some of the Buddhist caves, the influence of the Achaemenid Persian world can be seen. We find a trade in stones used for seals from India to Mesopotamia and evidence for trade in cotton between Western India and Egypt have been found in the environs of Cairo.
HK: What’s your favourite book on the ancient world? I’m guessing it probably has something to do with India…
It’s The Art of Ancient India by Susan Huntington.
HK: Closer to home, you're also a Blue Badge Guide at the British Museum...
HS: I'm one of group of specially trained Blue Badge Guides who, through a guides' marketing cooperative called Tour Guides Limited, provide the guides for the daily Highlights tours of the British Museum. We show different important objects representing the world's cultures, depending on the time of day and the availability of the galleries.
We are also often called on to provide interpretation for special out-of-hours events at the major exhibitions the museum puts on. This has been particularly important during the series devoted to great world rulers which began with the Terracotta Army and is ending now with the exhibition devoted to Moctezuma.
HK: What do you enjoy most about the museum?
HS: Being able to study and compare cultural influences, similarities and differences across diverse cultures which only such an institution as the British Museum affords.
HK: What’s next for Hilary Smith?
HS: I hope to be travelling to Iran once more in September/October 2010 leading a study tour for ACE. Before then I shall be travelling in the Indian Deccan and Western Ghats regions before undertaking my usual mix of garden and country house tours in the British Isles. I have two study tours to India planned for the winter of 2010-2011, one to Gujarat and the other to South India.
Next up: Read Hilary Smith's top 10 sites in Iran.
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