Locating Ireland in Iran of Thomas Moore’s “The Veiled Prophet”: Allegory, History, and Unsettled Interpretive Trajectories

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the first section of Thomas Moore’s 1817 narrative poem Lalla Rookh, titled “The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.” Since the publication of Lalla Rookh, attempts have been made to decipher Moore’s intended historical analogy for this allegorical poem set in eighth-century Iran, with Moore refraining from publicly commenting on its implied historical setting. Apropos of ongoing attempts to decode Moore’s intended surrogate setting, I propose a new and Ireland-centered historical interpretation by locating the poem in the framework of Moore’s other publications and his historical anxieties concerning Ireland’s political and communal future. After interrogating existing interpretations of the poem, I argue that not only did Moore unquestionably intend the poem to parallel an Irish historical setting, but that the particular episode in Irish history he had in mind was most likely the 1641 Catholic uprising led by Sir Phelim O’Neill, who bears a close resemblance in Moore’s various writings to the poem’s anti-hero Mokanna.