Razi: The Man Who Discovered How to Make Alcohol

by Nazila Fathi

One day in 875, Mohammad Zakariya Razi discovered how to make alcohol in his lab while he was trying to turn copper into gold. He, then, went to Baghdad to become one of the most prominent scholars, physicians, and philosophers of his time.

32 pages, Paperback

Published March 9, 2021

About the author

Nazila Fathi was the longest serving correspondent for The New York Times in Iran until 2009 when she was forced to leave the country because of government threats against her life. In The Lonely War she chronicles the metamorphosis of Iranian society first as she witnessed the 1979 revolution and then as a reporter.

Read a chapter of the book: At 5 o’clock every Monday afternoon when I was in my early teens, Masoud rang our doorbell. He would flash a toothy smile when I opened the door. Tall and bony, in his early 30s, he’d walk with long strides into the hallway and then our living room, his black boxy briefcase in his hand. To avoid drawing attention to himself, he always wore a pair of faded jeans and a polo shirt, like most other young Iranian men in the late 1980s. In winter, when temperatures in Tehran dipped below freezing, he would arrive bundled in a navy blue overcoat. http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/12/11/w...

If your reading group or book clubs selects The Lonely War, Ms. Fathi will make herself available in person or by skype, depending on her location.