Women’s Worlds

Shaykh (Haji Sheikh) Ahmad Ruhi Kermani is known for the important role he played in the story of The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, written originally by James Morier in 1824, and published in 1905 in Persian in Calcutta. Ruhi Kermani's role along with other agents are covered in a number of studies (see below). He was living in Constantinople in about 1886 where he is reported to cooperate with Mirza Habib Esfahani, a Persian translator and poet who was there in exile. He was also a political activist and after the assassination of the Qajar King, Nasir al-Din Shah, he was extradited to Persia where he met his tragic end. He and two other associated were beheaded and their bodies were thrown into a well. 

Perhaps what makes his name to be remembered is that he came to be mistakenly identified as the Persian translator of the above noted novel. After his death, a copy of the Persian translation was found among his belongings, which were later given to his family in Kerman, where a British major, D.C. Phillott, took charge of its publication in India. 

It was in 1960s that Persian scholars found out who the real translator was.

More information: 

Haddadian-Moghaddam, Esmaeil. 2011. “Agency in the translation and production of The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan into Persian.” Target 23(2): 206–234.