'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎418] (475/714)

PERSIA
Bakhtians m 1882; The astonishment, therefore, was not -eat
when m February 1888, the prince, being on a visit to the capital
was deprived of all Ins governorships, except that of Isfahan and
enuded of all but a fragment of the fine army on which he had
so triumphantly relied. Acquiescing in his disgrace, he has since
led a more humble and contracted existence, and is generally re
cognised as having, at least for the time being, lost all chances of
future eminence or promotion. He has lately begun to exhibit a
closer personal interest in the details of his government in Isfahan,
where he acts as his own Vizier, and sits daily in one of the
cabinets opening out of the Chehel Situn, to receive in audience
any who may choose to come. The Zil was kind enough to accord
me an interview at Teheran ; and in the above remarks I must be
understood to pass no personal sentence, but merely to reflect, with
as much accuracy as I can, the verdict of the well-informed. '
The palace of the Prince is one of the finest in Teheran, having
an imposing facade relieved with stucco work, and broad large
Interview windows. At the door was standing a carriage richly
Prince 16 a( ^ orne d with gilt armorial bearings and drawn by four
horses. Mounting a staircase, and passing through
se\ eral rooms decorated with a comic mixture of the European
and Oriental, I entered a long passage or corridor, one side of
which consisted entirely of windows filled with geraniums, while
the opposite wall was covered with pictures, chiefly replica
photographs and portraits of the Zil, illustrations from Russian
newspapers of Russian Emperors, generals, and battle scenes,
interspersed with innumerable coloured prints of sparsely attired
and languishing houris. The Zil was standing in the middle,
attired in a loose frock coat or pelisse of Persian cashmere material,
drab cloth trousers, and patent-leather boots. He took his seat
on an iron bedstead a culminating example of the bizarre fur-
nituie of a Persian palace—which supported a brocaded mattress,
and in fiont of which were placed chairs. During the interview,
' For this tra gedy ride Wills, In the Land, fa., p. 262 ; Persia as it is, p. 192.
ihe victim was Husein Kuli Khan, the Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. or Chieftain of the Bakhtiari
tribes, a man of enlightened character, a vigorous and beneficent ruler, and a loyal
subject. He was invited to Isfahan, where it was given out that he died of
apoplexy. It subsequently transpired that, having refused to drink a cup of
poisoned coffee, he was strangled. For further mention of this great chief, and
for the unfortunate policy pursued by the Persian Government towards the
Bakhtiari tribes and their rulers, ride vol. ii. cap. xxiv.