June 28, 2019
Iranian-American Reza Aslan has written a new book this one about Howard Basker-ville, the American who died more than a century ago fighting with the rebel forces in Iran’s Constitutional Revolution.
Publisher W.W. Norton & Company announced on June 24 the planned publication of “Baskerville.”
The same day, Entertainment Weekly reported that a film adaptation is on the way, too.
Born in Nebraska and educated at Princeton by professors including Woodrow Wilson, Howard Baskerville traveled to Iran in 1907 as a Presbyterian missionary. He preached the Gospel and taught English, history, and geometry at the American Memorial School in Tabriz. But he ended up fighting alongside his students in the revolution against the Shah. He died in his first battle at the age of 24.
“[Baskerville] becomes a kind of martyr for the cause of freedom and democracy in Iran,” Aslan told Entertainment Weekly.
“There’s 100,000 people at his funeral in Tabriz. His marble sarcophagus is still in Tabriz; in fact there’s a golden bust of him at the Tabriz Parliament House. And, in many ways, the sort of international outrage at his death allowed the revolutionaries to break the siege march on Tehran, and removed the Shah from his throne, write the Constitution, create the parliament.”
Aslan notes that Basker-ville’s story is little known in the United States. “He’s a man who is obviously very well-known in Iran. He’s sometimes referred to, kind of glibly, as Iran’s Lafayette. But Americans just don’t know anything about this kid at all.”
Entertainment Weekly reported that “Baskerville” has been optioned by the film company Lionsgate, with Aslan set to adapt the book into a screenplay himself. Aslan and Lionsgate previously teamed on a movie based on “Zealot,” a book about religion that Aslan wrote. That film’s team is in the process of securing a director.
Aslan was born into a Muslim family, later converted to Christianity and has since reverted to Islam. He has written several books and produced a number of television programs about religion.
“This argument about what it means to be American, what it means to be Christian — I think the model that Baskerville [gave] us more than 100 years ago is as relevant today as it’s ever been,” Aslan said.
“And here we are, in the midst of an escalating conflict between Iran and the United States. As an Iranian-American, I know, better than most, how devastating such a conflict could be — how much Iran and America have in common with each other. To see that from the perspective of this young American Christian, who was seen as a hero in Iran, once again, I think gives us a different perspective on this long and complicated relationship between these two countries, and maybe even an alternative model for a future relationship, one based not on violence and conflict and angry rhetoric, but on sort of a mutual understanding of each other’s humanity.”
