// I have spent something under a decade in total in Iran in principally two periods some 25 years apart, including two years plus before the revolution plus right through it.//
vay eenteresting - up the side of a building they were trying to burn last night was "kila kila amerika" - is that Farsi for "debt to amereeka!"
( arabic I agree is not related is: al moot lil amerika)
and secondly.....
the times obit today says the dead general had "khilib" - understated charisma. If it is a loan word , khilaab in arabic is 'captivating, fascinating, fallacious, deceitful'
any ideas - is it a mistranslation ?
30% of farsi words are arabic loan words - altho Farsi is an indoeuropean language ....
yes you are right - AB's charactistic is that comments like "shot hole republics where diarrhoea is a way of life", alternate with other more intellectual er fare - no - - - other material on a higher plane ......