1910 MOON OF THE FOURTEENTH NIGHT Teheran PERSIA SHAH

“He is rather merciless in his descriptions of the two coups d'etat. The impression I have is one of neither side being inclined to do any fighting, when it means real fighting ; and of the Shah always meaning to break his word if he gets the chance. Once he thinks he has the chance when he seizes the persons of the Prime Minister and other members of a deputation of the Majlis. He throws them into chains, he means to execute them. But a faithful servant takes word to the British Legation, whose Oriental Secretary gallops over in mufti, armed only with a riding switch. The Shah “makes face”, by taking no notice of his arrival for quarter of an hour, and then surrenders the Premier, who retires with the British Secretary, and makes his way out of the country in perfect safety, escorted only by two guards of the British Legation. ”

This is the rare 1910 First Edition

The Moon of the Fourteenth Night

Being the Private Life of an Unmarried Diplomat in Persia During the Revolution

by

Eustache Lorey

and

Douglas Sladen

Front cover and spine

Further images of this book are shown below

The Moon of the Fourteenth Night

Contents

PART I NEW MOON


I. THE EAST A-CALLING

II. THE MOON OF SHAABAN

III. AN ASTAGHBAL

IV. IN WHICH I SEE SOMETHING OF THE RIOTS

V. ON THE TERRACE

VI. THE ROLE OF FRANCE IN PERSIA

VII. ISFANDIAR KHAN BAKHTIYARI

VIII. MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE MOON

IX. DEATH OF MUZAFFAR-UD-DIN SHAH

X. THE CORONATION OF MOHAMMED ALI SHAH

XI. AT ZARGANDA

XII. TEMPORARY MARRIAGE

XIII. SAYYID JAMAL-UD-DIN

XIV. IN THE HILLS



PART II FIRST QUARTER

I. THE GAZELLE

II. THE MARRIAGE OF ISFANDIAR

III. SHAH AND MAJLIS .

IV . TEARS

V. THE BUDGET

VI. POLITICS IN THE ANDERUN

VII. A SUNDAY IN TEHERAN

VIII. THE FIRST COUP D'ETAT

IX. THE OPINIONS OF MIRZA JAFAR

X. ON THE ARTILLERY SQUARE

XI. AND AFTER

XII. OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE

XIII. BASTINADO

XIV. A CLOUD OVER THE MOON

PART III FULL MOON

I. A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS

II. As A THIEF IN THE NIGHT

III. THE HEGIRA OF BIBI MAH

IV. THE DANGER

V. ANXIETY

VI. IN THE WAKE OF THE GAZELLE

VII. SAFE

VIII. THE NEW CAGE

IX. EDEN AND THE ETERNAL EVE

X. THE HAREM WALL

XI. THE ATTEMPT ON THE SHAH'S LIFE

XII. CHEZ BIBI MAH

XIII. THE KALYUN

XIV. A PERSIAN BANQUET

 

XV. FROM BIBI MAH'S ALBUM

XVI. THE KINGDOM OF WORDS

XVII. OMAR KHAYYAM A PROPHET NOT A PROPHET

XVIII. IN MY PERSIAN GARDEN

XIX. BAGH-I-SHAH

XX. THE LAST MOON

XXI. THE SECOND COUP D'ETAT

XXII. GONE!

PART IV LAST QUARTER

I. MY DEPARTURE

II. THE CITY OF TREES

III. THE CITY OF CARPETS

IV. AT TABRIZ 

 

V. SATTAR KHAN, THE GARIBALDI OF PERSIA

VI. THE CITY OF FAMINE. APRIL, 1909

VII. NEW DAWN

 

THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE OF THREE CLASSES

1. Reproductions of photographs of persons and places mentioned in Valmont's journal.

2. Reproductions of pictures in contemporary Persian newspapers which were found with his journal

3. Reproductions of the prints in a valuable old Persian book belonging to Mr. de Lorey. Similar prints illustrating Japanese books have been reproduced in England times without number. But this is the first time that Persian prints of this character have been presented to the British reader.

"The disguise changed her, without in the least detracting from her sweet femininity " . . . Frontispiece

A Shah of the ancien regime at home. From a native print

Persian house with a talar in the middle

A tile-inlaid gate of Teheran

The Artillery Square of Teheran

Muzaffar-ud-Din Shah, the Father of the Constitution. Photo by Prince Abdullah Mirza

The Moon of the Fourteenth Night. From a native print

 

The old blue tiles of Iran 

The Hall of Diamonds, in which Muzaffar-ud-Din Shah died

Bed like the Lady Peacock's bed (now the Peacock Throne). From a native print

Edouard Valmont

The Sermon in the Mosque. Photo by Prince Abdullah Mirza

What Young Persia is coming to the dream of Mulla Nasir-ud-Din. From the Mulla Nasir-ud-Din, the Persian Punch

Young Persia as it actually is the awakeningof Mulla Nasir-udDin. From the Mulla Nasir-ud-Din

The Summer Hall of a Persian Palace

A Persian Cossack

Finding reasons for the Constitution in the Koran. From Mulla Nasir-ud-Din

A Persian sportsman trapping a tortoise. From a native print

 

A Persian woman in outdoor costume

A Persian woman in indoor costume

A Shah of the ancien regime receiving his vizirs. From a native print


"The Shah trying vainly to pluck the grapes of the Revenue." From the Azarbayjan

Kurdish looters in the Revolution

Taghi Zada

First Coup d' Atat. Mulla preaching in the Artillery Square. From a Persian newspaper

The murder of the Starched-Collarite. From a Persian newspaper

 

A Persian quack. From a native print

A Persian barber spreading Revolutionary ideas. From the Mulla Nasir-ud-Din

A Persian house, showing courtyard with fountain, talar and bed. Native print

The Kingdom of Words

A Persian garden

In a Persian garden. From a native print

Nationalist troops guarding the Parliament. From a Persian newspaper

The Pilgrimage Mosque of Kum

The Funeral of the Constitution. From Mulla Nasir-ud-Din

Refugees crowding to the British Consulate at Tabriz. From Mulla Nasir-ud-Din

Sattar Khan

The Boy Shah in procession as the Persian newspapers saw it. From a native print

The Moon of the Fourteenth Night

Preface

The public may remember that I collaborated with Eustache de Lorey in Queer Things About Persia.

When he told me of the journal of the late Edouard Valmont, his colleague who was in Teheran during the Persian Revolution, which had come into his hands, I said, " Let's make a book of it. If I am not mistaken the public will read it with the same relish as Pierre Loti's wonderful Madame Chrysantheme.

The Journal, in truth, presents much the same effects as those, with which M. Loti achieved his triumph. We have a young French bachelor, a man of birth and official position, eager for the novelty and excitement of life in the native style, falling into a liaison with a native woman. Valmont's notes are full of the atmosphere and incidents of this strange life.

An adventure, by an unbeliever, with a Mohammedan woman hi Persia had the added zest of discovery meaning almost certain death for both parties, and of being almost without a parallel, since the bare idea of it is repulsive and almost inconceivable to a Persian woman. As we are giving the Confessions (never meant to meet the public eye) of this French boy aristocrat, we have taken every advantage of my collaborateur being a Frenchman to give the English in which the book is written a French accent and atmosphere, hi the endeavour to retain the naiveté with which poor Edouard Valmont wrote down the diary of his brief romance.

It makes a very pretty idyll, his account of his life a la Perse with the beautiful Bibi Man in the decayed old mansion, waited on by the faithful Mansur he had brought from Tunis, whose Sunnite Mohammedanism, heretical in Persian eyes, prevented him from betraying the situation to the accursed Shiites, and the Abyssinian Sunnite wife whom Mansur had found in Persia.

But many people will find the scraps of Legation life quite as interesting exile brings the French very close together the fair representative of Paquin, who was storming the harems of Teheran, plays a more important part in these pages than the representative of the Republic itself. Like Valmont, she belonged to a noble family of straitened means in Normandy. Of the high diplomatic value of the Journal I shall speak below.

But while Valmont was sunning himself in the smiles of Yvonne de Basquevilk and Bibi Mah, he suddenly found himself confronted with stupendous events, which from time to time obliterate domestic picturesquities from his diary. The ancient autocracy of Persia, which had survived conquest by Alexander the Great, and still claimed the license of Darius and Artaxerxes, was sapped by the wave of progress, which had swept over Asia since Japan set back the hands of the clock.

Autocracy dies hard ; it has ever its faithful bayonets, and it burns much powder in its panic. The effeminate Persian would have bowed before the janissaries of the Shah, but the brave and hardy Baktiyari of the mountains, who have been waiting for centuries to throw off the yoke of Persia, identified their national aspirations with the cause of the Constitution ; and Russia, who a few years earlier would have stepped in with her Cossacks to stamp out the Revolution, was now the faithful ally of England, pledged to a policy of non-interference, except for the prevention of massacres.

So the Revolution with its miserable episodes - empty vapourings when both sides were well matched - massacres when either was in overwhelming force - with its pretentious proclamations, its destruction of property, its train of starvation, its religious lightnings and thunderings, is for ever breaking into the philanderings of Valmont in that Eastern Garden.

The reminiscences end abruptly for two reasons. When Valmont found his great happiness, those which have been preserved dwindle to meagre dimensions. But it is possible that there were others lost in the confusion of his assassination.

The reader will, I hope, excuse me if I point out how much of real political value is included in these gossiping reminiscences of Edouard Valmont. I think he must have meant to make a book of them himself, and I think he must have felt lonely at heart, because he gave so much time to his journal.

I might instance his picture of the death of Muzaffarud-Din Shah sitting up in his arm-chair in the Hall of Diamonds surrounded by his heir and his brothers and his English doctor and the chief officials and mullas. Even more unique than the curious ceremonies, which followed his death, are those of the coronation of his successor, Mohammed Ali Shah, whose brief reign all falls into the compass of this book. I have read nothing like this description anywhere ; only a man who spoke Persian and was intimate with Persian Court life could have given us this Persian Coronation-service as he has. This alone would serve to show that the reminiscences are not mere Legation gossip, but the thoughtful expression of what a diplomat saw in Persia, during one of the most trying and remarkable periods in the history of the country.

One of the reasons why I think that Valmont contemplated the publication of a book, is his habit of introducing personages, whom Mr. de Lorey tells me did not exist, but who were obviously founded on the model of personages of the greatest rank and influence, and would be recognised by a diplomat. Isfandiar is one of them, so are Baghir Khan and Mulla Ibrahim.

Valmont's reminiscences are freely interlarded with translations from native newspapers, with the date arid source always given, which adds much to their value. A good many of them are introduced into this book to show native Persian opinion upon the various phases of the Revolution, which naturally forms its backbone more than Valmont's pictures of the two romances which influenced his life in Persia, and the quaint details of his life a la Perse.

There must be many readers only moderately interested in the alarms and massacres, the thirst for liberty, the groping in the dark for the fabric of a Constitution, the sea of words, now sullen now stormy, which enveloped the Persian Revolution. They will perhaps be fascinated, as I was, with the extraordinarily vivid but delicate way in which Valmont presents such an unfamiliar subject as the secret life of a foreigner tasting the forbidden fruit of the harem. It was this which made me believe that in these reminiscences we had found something to interest British readers about Persia as Madame Chrysantheme interested them about Japan.

But before I say more about this fascinating subject I must draw attention to the extraordinary account of a political sermon preached by the mulla whom Valmont calls Sayyid Jamal-ud-Din, which shows, more than anything else in the book, the trend of thought and spread of education among the Persian Constitutionalists. This struck me as more interesting than anything that I had read about the Babi movement in Persia.

It will be seen that Valmont believed thoroughly in the honesty, and enlightened policy, of England in Persia; that he believed almost as much perhaps in the solidarity of the British and Russian entente in Persia; and that he regarded Russia as having been converted from a very mischievous policy in Persia by her understanding with England.

It is obvious that Valmont did not believe so entirely in the Persian comprehension of a Constitution ; his remarks upon the discussion of the Budget in the Persian Majlis show that he considered the Persians rather hopeless in such matters as Constitutional Finance ; and that was before the day when Budgets had become a bye-word and Constitutional Finance was becoming a lost art.

He is rather merciless in his descriptions of the two coups d'etat. The impression I have is one of neither side being inclined to do any fighting, when it means real fighting ; and of the Shah always meaning to break his word if he gets the chance. Once he thinks he has the chance when he seizes the persons of the Prime Minister and other members of a deputation of the Majlis. He throws them into chains, he means to execute them. But a faithful servant takes word to the British Legation, whose Oriental Secretary gallops over in mufti, armed only with a riding switch. The Shah " makes face ", by taking no notice of his arrival for quarter of an hour, and then surrenders the Premier, who retires with the British Secretary, and makes his way out of the country in perfect safety, escorted only by two guards of the British Legation.

Valmont's Journal abounds with incidents like this, and also with some which show the reverse side of the shield, where the armed mob of reactionaries get hold of a straggler of the Reform Party (with no Deus ex machine from the British Legation to interfere), and tear him to pieces. In its pages we see a revolution of the un warlike with no great readiness to fight, but a good deal of the spirit of the martyr, and a sincere desire to act up to their ideals.

Valmont's Journal is a most illuminating commentary on the accounts of the revolution which have appeared in our own newspapers. Here we have Shah Mohammed Ali hating the Constitution he has been forced to accept, eternally intriguing against it, ready to break any oath ; and the Reformers suffering all things, enduring all things, like the Italians in the days when they were conspiring for liberty against the Austrians, with apparently no hope of anything to crown their efforts except martyrdom. Chance gives us a glimpse of the fighting round Tabriz, which was the beginning of the end. Valmont after escorting one of the ladies of the Legation to the Caspian, was at Tabriz in those last days ; and we were able to draw on his Journal for an unvarnished picture of the not very sensational campaign.

In the days before all these excursions and alarums, his Journal is full of fascinating descriptions of his amusements. Now it is an Omar-Khayyam picnic in the delightful gardens of the member of the Imperial Family, whom he veils under the name of Prince Harun-arRashid. Here we get the Persian view of Omar which is so different to the English, even among Persians sufficiently cultivated to know the high estimation in which Omar is held in the West. There are many allusions to Valmont's own Persian garden. Persia gave us our word Paradise from her gardens. To me no pages of his Journal had the same attraction as those which described his life with the Persian girl, Bibi Man. I can picture to myself their first stolen meetings on the terrace, the romantic flight which nearly cost her her life, the days they spent together in the guest chamber of that old mansion, fallen on evil days, inhabited by Mansur. In Valmont's Journal I could see every detail of the strange architecture, the strange furniture, the Korans and charms and personal adornments of Bibi Man herself, as she sat writing her letters in the primitive Persian fashion ; smoking her water-pipe ; sipping the amber " caravan " tea, or nibbling at her strange meals. She was a tragic little person, Bibi Mah, and inspired some very remorseful entries in the Journal.

And the oddest thing of all is that the Mirza, Valmont's Persian factotum, who was his guide, philosopher, and friend, until he disappeared in the swirl of the revolution, would not appear from the Journal to have had even inklings about Bibi Mah.

It is not often that one gets a human document like Valmont's Journal, full of the small things, the loves, the amusements, and the everyday surroundings of the writer, while it also gives a keen eye-witness's account and analysis of events which write the history of the mysterious Middle East anew.

DOUGLAS SLADEN.
 

The Moon of the Fourteenth Night

The First Coup d’Etat

December 14th, 1907.

THE political situation is becoming hopeless. During the last few days the relations between the Shah and the Majlis have grown more and more strained. Mohammed Ali cannot digest the bitter pilaw of the Civil List, especially since he has realised that out of his allowance of 120,000 he will have to defray the expenses of the Anderdn, the Wardrobe, the Kitchens, the Cafe, the Gardens, and the Stables. What will be left, after all this, for his Privy Purse and for those presents by means of which alone he can hope to secure the fidelity of those around him ? His father, Muzzaffar-ud-Din, poured out buckets of pearls, sacks of turquoises, and other precious stones into the pockets of his favourites, leaving the fabulous royal treasure-house fabulously empty. As for his own villages and his tuyuls of Azarbayjan, they were mortgaged on a post obit whilst he was still Heir-Apparent.

To enlist the sympathies of the populace for his misfortunes, and to create, also, a useful band of malcontents, he has dismissed five or six hundred of his grooms, muleteers, and camel-drivers from the studs of Veramine. And he has given a free hand to the Palace clique, at whose head is the Amir Bahadur Jang, with, for lieutenants, Shapshal and the important new recruit, Saadud-Dowla, whose hatred for the Majlis is well known.

Saad-ud-DoVla has dealt a cruel blow to the illusions of the Persian Liberal Party. His long residence in Europe, where he was Commissary of the Persian section of the Paris Exhibition of 1878, and, later, Persian Minister at Brussels, together with his reputation for enlightenment of views, gained him a whole-hearted welcome from the Advanced Party in the Assembly, to which he was elected whilst still an exile at Yazd, where a deputation of his Teherani electors sought him out. A few months ago, however, his conduct was censured by his colleagues, and he was even accused, more or less openly, of treason, upon which, with great indignation, he resigned his position as deputy. The Government faction at once received him with open arms, and offered him the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, which led to a strike of the officials of this department. The strikers gained the day, and a fortnight afterwards his appointment was cancelled.

Thereupon, beside himself with fury, " he girded his loins with the girdle of Hate, withdrew from the skirts of his clothing of irreligion the hand of trouble and of disorder," and went forth to knock at the Sublime Porte of the Palace.

Many of those whose interests were adversely affected by the Budget came to " confound their head amongst the heads " of the Reactionaries, and when the Cabinet proposed placing the Amir Bahadur and his body of troops, together with Colonel Liakoff and his Cossacks, under the control of the Minister for War a most natural proceeding, one would have thought the Shah felt himself sufficiently strong to oppose his veto, obstinately, to the measure.

Consequently, this morning the Prime Vizier has communicated to the Shah the desire of his Ministry to resign, which resignation His Majesty declines to sanction, refusing, at the same time, to accede to the demand of the Majlis for the expulsion of Bahadur and Saad.

So now it is open war between the old power and the new, each of them tottering on its pedestal of clay.

Already, in the Mosque of Sipah-Salar, popular orators are denouncing the treachery of the Shah, and in this morning's issue of The Powerful Help the following suggestive lines have appeared :

" How can it be imagined that, having established this sacred Assembly by our blood, we could suffer it to be overthrown ? Nothing shall stand in the way of our acquisition in perpetuity of enduring happiness and eternal honour. It is not to be thought of that we should abandon our design on account of this outcry, or that through the fear of four evil-doers we should flee from the path of loyal men. No ! no ! We of the Persian nation say :

This feeble fox, whose dog is he,

That he should so torment the Lion of the World ? "


Monday, December 16th

 

The sound of firing in the street roused me with a start in the early hours of yesterday. I jumped up, flung on my fur coat, and rushed out on to the terrace. It turned out to be some of Baghir Khan's men " amusing " themselves. But their amusement proved something more serious than I at first imagined. They were going to swell the ranks of that force which the Shah is amassing, with the probable aim of marching against the Baharistan, and which, since yesterday, has been encamped on the Artillery Square. This force is composed of widely differing elements, scarcely calculated to increase the prestige of His Kajar Majesty blackguards of every shade, " Lutis," " Bull-Necks," " Felt Kulas," butchers who have broken out all the roughs, in short, of the districts of Sangilaj, Shakal-Abad, and Chala-Maydan, together with the grooms, muleteers, and camel-drivers lately dismissed from the royal service, amongst all which hotch-potch Bahadur has drafted in the men of his own regiment.

So the storm has burst ; the Shah has unmasked his batteries.

Proceedings were opened by a skirmish. Yesterday morning a band of a hundred roughs, under the command of Sani-i-Hazrat, and Muktadir Nizam, the Superintendents of the Arsenal, rushed into the Square of the Baharistan, and began firing upon the door of the Parliament House. They were easily repelled with revolver shots by a handful of Nationalists, but retreated in their fury upon the Salmiya College, with the intention of massacring the inoffensive professors. And from there they returned to their comrades on the Artillery Square.

The National Assembly met at once, and discussed the measures to be adopted, and it was decided to send a message to the Shah, requesting him to order the dispersion of the agitators. The Shah's uncle, Zill-us-Sultan, was present at the meeting, and was selected to be the bearer of this message to His Majesty, in company with Ala-ud-Dowla. He did not treat the matter seriously, and replied, " Better entrust my brother, Naib-us-Saltana, with your message ; he will meet with a more cordial reception than I should do ! " In point of fact, Zill-us-Sultan is not a persona grata at the Palace, where he is accused of pandering to the Majlis in the hope of one day ascending the throne.

In view of his refusal, Ala-ud-Dowla undertook the delicate mission, with his brother, Muin-ud-Dowla. But tidings soon reached the Assembly that their two messengers had been ordered into exile by the Shah, and were even then leaving the town under escort.


The insulted and angry Assembly rose as one man to protest. The President, brother to the two victims, then spoke as follows :

" From the day of my election to the Majlis, I have never uttered one word against the Government, and I have always hoped for a union between the people and the State. Nevertheless, His Majesty, a few days back, inveighed against me and against Ala-ud-Dowla. I held my peace on the matter, and here are Ala-ud-Dowla and Muin-ud-Dowla sent into exile because they wished to oppose the instigators of trouble and disorder. I consider, therefore, that my honour is involved in this, that I should follow, until I am killed, the road on which I have started. And I have not the slightest fear of all these tumultuous happenings. Our task is to safeguard the rights of an entire country, and we must, therefore, continue to debate with firmness and courage, and go through to the end with the consideration of the duties which are incumbent upon us."

Various deputies followed, with speeches urging a united resistance against reaction.

One deputy drew attention to the fact that Colonel Liakoff had refused the help of the Cossacks asked for by the Majlis.

Meanwhile, the partisans of Liberty assembled within the Baharistan and in the adjacent Mosque of Sipah-Salar and the square in front of it. Mirza Jafar, ordinarily of a peaceful turn of mind, and who had never used a weapon of offence other than his most voluble tongue, determined to join the Volunteers, and borrowed from me a revolver, which he stuck bravely in his belt. Professional duty, curiosity, and the interest with which the cause of Liberty always inspires me, led me to follow him. The Street of the Tulip-bed was deserted, but when we reached the Baharistan Square we found a crowd of three or four thousand people surging behind the hastily erected sangars barricades .

The Powerful Help, with an ingenuousness thoroughly Eastern, thus describes the scene :

" More than fifty thousand men, most of them armed, were roaring like lions and mutually exciting each other by the ebullition of their wrath ; they were awaiting with impatience the orders of the Assembly which was sitting."

The walls and roofs all round displayed the same martial appearance.

And all this crowd seemed delighted to see me. Bows and smiles met me on every hand their vanity was tickled by the presence of a European, above all of a Frenchman. A Russian would, doubtless, have been less well received here, whereas, in the Artillery Square, where the mullas are rousing the spirit of fanaticism, all -w Franks would have been looked upon with disfavour, unless they were compatriots of Liakoff, and Cossacks.

Isfandiar was there, organising the defence and instructing the Volunteers. It was curious to see an aidede-camp of the Shah acting in this capacity. Nor was he the only one ; Zahir-us-Sultan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Volunteers, is a cousin of His Majesty's and holds a post at Court ; with him were, also, a son of Zillus-Sultan and the son of Harun-ar-Rashid.

I entered the court of the Baharistan with the Mirza. There the faces were less pugnacious, those who had taken refuge within its precincts had felt the need of a wall between themselves and possible danger. They were examining their arms, to assure themselves that they would not fail them at the critical moment. " Uneasiness was written in legible characters upon their pallid foreheads."

Within the Baharistan itself things were quieter. The ushers, armed to the teeth, looked mysterious and formidable. Busy servants were hastening about with cups of tea and kalyans, their guns slung over their shoulders and their poignards in their belts ; and those who guarded the slippers at the door of the Chamber of the Assembly recognised me and presented arms ancient blunderbusses, doubtless of more danger to their owners than to their enemies.

As is the case with European Parliaments, a certain proportion of the Assembly Chamber is reserved for the public. I threaded my way through the crowd, and arrived just in time to witness the sensational entry of a messenger from the Palace, to announce that the Shah had summoned the Ministers, and that, on their arrival, he had had them arrested and placed under guard, out of the way, by the men of Bahadur Jang, whilst the Premier, Nasir-ul-Mulk, had been loaded with chains and shut up alone in a room apart, where, doubtless, he would be strangled any minute.

For a moment the news was stupefying. Such audacity on the part of Mohammed Ali was quite unlocked for. To act thus he must have had the assurance of some strong, sustaining force at his back. It was well known that the Palace was full of armed men. It was known, too, that Liakoff was there, with another Russian officer and a detachment of the Cossack Brigade. In many minds the idea that Russia was taking an active hand in the game gave rise to the gravest fears.

Prudence of action was, above all things, necessary at this juncture. The Assembly, therefore, decided to send at once to His Majesty a deputation, consisting of an ulema and ten deputies, to ascertain his intentions, and, if possible, point out to him the danger of the step he had just taken, and warn him that it would be necessary for him to renew his oath of fidelity to the Constitution.

The deputation departed, and the House rose, and although the Members had agreed to await the return of their envoys, they ended by dispersing. A wind of indecision and of fear swept over the Baharistan, and all the splendid promise, all the ardent intentions of the afternoon were driven before it into the gathering night, like dead leaves eddying down an autumn gale. Each man prudently returned to his home. The deputation itself left no trace behind it.

During the evening, whilst we were all busily engaged at the Legation composing and deciphering telegrams, details of the day's happenings reached us.

About five o'clock, on the arrival of Nasir-ul-Mulk at the Palace, as, by the Shah's orders, he was being put under arrest, he found opportunity to breathe into the ear of the servant who accompanied him : " Fly thou to the British Legation and tell them there that I shall be put to death five hours after sunset." The faithful servant mounted his horse, and sped away to find the English Charge d'Affaires.

A few moments later two horsemen left the Legation at full gallop. One, the Oriental Secretary, repaired to the Palace, to protect the life of Nasir-ul-Mulk, the other set off for the Russian Legation, to inform the Czar's Minister of this step, for, since the Convention, the two Powers always act in concert.

The sudden arrival at the Palace of the Oriental Secretary, in mufti, his riding-whip in his hand, created some stir. The news spread like wildfire, reassuring the imprisoned Ministers, disquieting everybody else.

The Shah was in the Hall of the Diamonds, with the Amir Bahadur and a few courtiers, extremely pleased with himself and his daring action.

" May I be your sacrifice ! " said Bahadur. " They are terrified ; there is no more Majlis. Say but the word, and this very night I will have them all arrested if it be the Will of Allah ! They are terrified, and have dispersed of themselves, seeking refuge in their own houses. Even the Anjumans have not stirred."

As he spoke a message was brought to His Majesty, to the effect that the Secretary of the British Legation had an urgent communication to make to him.

His Majesty kept the Secretary waiting for a quarter of an hour, and then sent word to him that he would receive him in the Garden of the Gulistan, in spite of the lateness of the hour it was now past seven o'clock and of the chilly temperature.

The interview was brief. Mohammed Ali appeared to be in an extremely good temper. He kept repeating, as if to himself, Bahadur's words, " They are terrified ! " and slashed at the shrubs in the parterre with his gold-handled stick set with rubies.

He declared that he had no reason to complain of Nasir-ul-Mulk nor of the other Viziers. He wished them no evil ; he accepted their resignation, they were free to go wherever they pleased. Secretly he was raging, and was not without uneasiness lest his orders with regard to the Premier might have been forestalled and the man already dead.

When the Oriental Secretary left the Palace he took with him Nasir-ul-Mulk, whom two gholams of the British Legation were told off to escort as far as Rasht, whither he departed this morning before sunrise.

The last of our telegrams last night, therefore, ran as follows : " The Shah is master of the situation ; the Ministry is no more ; the Assembly has dispersed ; the Anjumans are silent. Apparently the Coup d'Etat has been successful."

As I returned home I caught sight of Baghir Khan, alighting from his carriage ; a dozen of his men on horseback saluted him with a volley. It was victory !

I was roused several times during the night by the sound of firing. It came from the Artillery Square. The royal " troops " were encamped there, and to keep up their spirits, food and alcoholic drinks were served out to them. Cover thy face, O orthodox Mulla Ibrahim ! The amateur soldiers, delighted at the possession of rifles, were firing them into the air.

I expected this morning to hear that the Shah had caused the Baharistan to be occupied and the Nationalist leaders to be arrested, and that the Majlis was a thing of the past. But it was quite otherwise. The Shah, impressed, no doubt, by the action of the British Legation, has not had the courage to follow up his victory ; the Assembly has been sitting since the small hours, and the Volunteer forces have been re-formed under the command of Zahir-us-Sultan and Isfandiar.

At the same time, a state of siege has been proclaimed, Liakoff is appointed Military Governor of Teheran, the bazars are closed, telegraphic communication ditto and we should be cut off entirely from the rest of the world were it not that the Indo-European Telegraph Company has kindly put its lines at the service of the Legations.

And in spite of all this, the Europeans here are not in the least alarmed, and take but little interest in what is going on all round them. Only the commercial element grumbles at the stoppage of business ; but no one thinks of a massacre as in the least degree possible.
 

Please note: to avoid opening the book out, with the risk of damaging the spine, some of the pages were slightly raised on the inner edge when being scanned, which has resulted in some blurring to the text and a shadow on the inside edge of the final images.

Some of the illustrations may be shown enlarged for greater detail and clarity.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE BIDDERS

U.K. Bidders:

Packed weight: approximately 800gr

• First class delivery is free
  

• Payment can be made by: debit card, credit card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex), cheque (payable to "G Miller", please), or PayPal.

• Please contact me with name and address and payment details within seven days of the end of the auction; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the auction and re-list the item.

International Bidders:

Packed weight: approximately 1000gr

Due to the extreme length of time taken for some deliveries, surface mail is no longer a viable option and I am unable to offer it even in the case of heavy items. I am afraid that I cannot make any exceptions to this rule. Please do not bid and then ask me to alter the shipping figure: if the shipping figures quoted above are unacceptable to you, then please do not bid on this item.
 

• Payment can be made by: all major credit cards (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex) or PayPal. I can also accept a cheque in GBP [British Pounds Sterling] but only if drawn on a major British bank.

• Regretfully, due to extremely high conversion charges, I CANNOT accept foreign currency : all payments must be made in GBP [British Pounds Sterling]. This can be accomplished easily using a credit card, which I am able to accept as I have a separate, well-established business.

• Please contact me with your name and address and payment details within seven days of the end of the auction; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the auction and re-list the item

Prospective international bidders should ensure that they are able to provide credit card details or pay by PayPal within 7 days of the end of the auction (or inform me that they will be sending a cheque in GBP drawn on a major British bank). I am afraid that Bank Transfers and Money Orders are not acceptable due to the conversion charges. If this is a problem, or you wish to confirm my bona fides, please contact me before bidding. Thank you.

(please note that the book shown is for illustrative purposes only and forms no part of this auction)

Book dimensions are given in inches, to the nearest quarter-inch, in the format width x height.

Please note that, to differentiate them from soft-covers and paperbacks, modern hardbacks are still invariably described as being ‘cloth’ when they are, in fact, predominantly bound in paper-covered boards pressed to resemble cloth.

I value your custom (and my feedback rating). Also, I am a bibliophile: I want books to arrive in the same condition in which they were dispatched. For this reason, all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard container. If any book is significantly not as described, I will offer a full refund, including return postage. Unless the size of the book precludes this, hardback books with a dust-jacket are provided with a protective cover, while hardback books without a dust-jacket are provided with a clear film cover.

The Royal Mail, in my experience, offers an excellent service, but things can occasionally go wrong. However, I believe it is my responsibility to guarantee delivery. If any book is lost or damaged in transit, I will offer a full refund.

Thank you for looking, and good luck if you decide to bid.

Please also view my other auctions for a range of interesting books
and feel free to contact me if you require any additional information

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