The Persian is a major character from the Gaston Leroux novel The Phantom of the Opera. In the book he is the one who tells most of the background of Erik's history. He is referred to by Erik as the "daroga" (داروغه, Persian for "police-chief") and his memoirs are featured in five chapters of the novel.
He appears in the Susan Kay fan novel Phantom as a major character named Nadir. In the 1925 silent film The Phantom Of The Opera, his character was changed into a secret French policeman named Ledoux that had been studying Erik as the Phantom for months. He still helps and accompanies Raoul to rescue Christine. In the musical, he does not appear although aspects of his character are merged with Madame Giry's. For instance, Madame Giry shows Raoul where Erik lives, however, unlike the Persian, she does not accompany him to Erik's lair.
According to his account of himself in the novel, the Persian served as the chief of police (daroga) in the court of the Shah of Persia during the years that Erik was there. He refers to these times as "the rosy hours of Mazenderan". Being kindhearted, he helped Erik escape from Persia when the Shah-in-Shah ordered him executed, a trick that involved presenting a body washed up on the shore as Erik's. When news of the escape spread, the Shah-in-Shah punished the Persian by stripping him of his property and sending him into exile.
The Persian later traveled to Paris and took up living in a small, middle-class flat in the Rue de Rivoli, across the street from the Tuileries, on the modest pension he received from the Persian government. He became known as a fixture of the Opera, considered an eccentric Persian who was allowed to wander backstage where he pleased. He has a Persian servant whose name is Darius.
He is described in the novel as having an "ebony skin, with eyes of jade", and he wears a short astrakhan cap along with normal dress clothes. Gaston Leroux writes that he has "a noble and generous heart" and is very concerned for the fate of others.