'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎217] (248/582)

VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE CITY.
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glass as mirrors,—sometimes wound round in spiral flutings; at
others, laid in perpendicular plates; and in others again, enamelled
over by flowers and other devices, after the manner of embossed
work on polished steel. The ceiling of the roof of the portico
is divided into square compartments, moulded and richly covered
with azure blue and gold, in admirable devices. The back part
of this portico is one entire sheet of gold and mirrors, splendid
as a whole, and containing many beauties in its minute details.
Every possible variety of form is given to the devices, in which
the plates and smaller pieces of glass are disposed, and their par
titions are frames of gold. Paintings of beautiful females, some
sculptured works on marble, inscriptions of highly finished writ
ing, both of ink on paper, and of gold on blue enamel, with a
hundred other details, impossible to be remembered amid the
overwhelming magnificence of so much labour and wealth, dis
tract the attention of the observer.
The hall into which this leads, and for which this noble por
tico is an admirable preparation, is, if possible, still more magnifi
cent, though its decorations are of a different character. The vast
size of the room itself, the dimensions of which I should hesitate
from mere memory to state, is alone sufficient to give it a noble air.
The domed roof is indescribably beautiful, and the large compart
ments of historic paintings that decorate its walls, defective as
their execution would appear to an European eye, are yet full of
interest, from the portraits they contain, and the events to which
they relate. Shah Abbas the Great, the distinguished founder of
these kingly works, the restorer of his country, and the father of
his people, is himself represented as receiving the audience of an
Indian monarch, and the portraits of the most distinguished cha
racters of his reign are pointed out by the attendants. As a ban
queting room, scenes of war and state do not alone decorate its
walls ; but the enjoyments of the social board— women, wine, and
music—have their full share in the pictured stories of the day.
We went from hence to the Royal Harem, called, from their
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