A Year Amongst the Persians

That one of the world’s most fascinating and instructive books of travel should have been allowed to remain out of print for many years is…

PRAISE be to GOD, the Maker of Land and Sea, the Lord of “‘BE,’ and it shall be”: Who brought me forth from the place of my birth, obedient…

I have so often been asked how I first came to occupy myself with the study of Eastern languages that I have decided to devote the opening…

So at last I was really to go to Persia. About that there could be no question. For I had long determined to go if I got the chance; and…

There is always a pleasant sense of excitement and expectation in entering for the first time a foreign country. Especially is this the…

On Monday, 7th November, bidding farewell to our kind host, we quitted Tabríz as we had entered it, with Farach’s animals, which we had…

HITHERTO I have, in describing my travels, followed pretty closely the journals which I kept during their continuance, only amplifying such…

THE most striking feature of the Persians as a nation is their passion for metaphysical speculation. This passion, so far from being…

ALTHOUGH, owing to the kindness of my friends, life in the capital was pleasant enough to make me in no hurry to leave it, nevertheless the…

JULFÁ is, as I have said, situated at some distance from Iṣfahán, and to walk from the Mission-House to the bazaars requires the best part…

ONCE again the vicissitudes and charms of the road are before me, but in this case a new and potent factor, hitherto absent, comes in to…

To the three weeks which I spent in Shíráz I look back with unmixed pleasure. The associations connected with it are familiar to every…

In attempting to convey a correct impression of past events, it is often difficult to decide how far their true sequence may be disregarded…

IT was, as I have said, in the best of spirits that I returned on the evening of this Friday, the 12th of April, to the house of my kind…

SCARCELY had I cleansed myself from the dust of travel, when I was informed that one had come who would have speech with me; and on my…

IN the last chapter I have spoken chiefly of the Zoroastrians; in this I propose to say something concerning my dealings with the Bábís of…

FIVE men and five beasts constituted the little company in which I quitted Yezd. Besides myself and my horse, there was Amír Khán, one of…

IN no town which I visited in Persia did I make so many friends and acquaintances of every grade of society, and every shade of piety and…

On the afternoon of this notable day, about four hours before sunset, I went into the town to pay some visits, leaving Sheykh Ibráhím…

It was on Sunday morning that I parted with my horse, and my departure was arranged for the following Tuesday. On that day, while paying a…