'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎157] (192/714)

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by ^Naclir Shah, and rises from behind the opposite gateway. The
upper part of these minarets is in each case overlaid with gilded
copper plates, and is crowned with the cage-like gallery that is
common to the Persian style. The sun flashes from their radiant
surface, and in the distance they glitter like pillars of fire.
And now we approach the chief glory of the whole enclosure,
the mosque and sepulchre of the immortal Imam. I say immortal
8. Mosque advisedl y5 for tlie tlieory upon which the shrine and the
of Imam vast system dependent upon it subsist is that the sainted
Keza still lives, and responds miraculously to the petitions
of his worshippers. The Hazret, as he is called—i.e. His Highness
—is the host of his guests. He supplies their bodily wants while
they remain within his domain ; and equally he answers their
prayers, and furthers their spiritual needs. It is open to anv
pilgrim to consult him, and Delphic responses are easily forth
coming in return for a suitable fee to one of the attendant priests.
From time to time also the rumour goes abroad that some astonish
ing miracle has been effected at the shrine of His Highness. The
cripple has walked, or the blind man has seen, or some similar
manifestation has occurred of god-like effluence. 1
The tomb itself is preceded by a spacious chamber, whose
marble floor is overlaid with rich carpets. Above it, to a height
of seventy-seven feet, swells the main cupola, whose gilded exterior 2
1 This is no new thing, for, 200 years ago, the French missionary, Father
Sanson, narrates and mercilessly analyses the same phenomena. ' Shah Abbas
has made this tomb famous by a great many false miracles he caused to be
practised there; for, placing people there on purpose who should counterfeit
themselves blind, they suddenly received their sight at this sepulchre, and imme
diately cry'd out, " A miracle ; " he procur'd so great a veneration for this tomb
of Imam Reza that most of the greatest lords in Persia have desir'd to be bm-y'd
in this mosque ; and to "which they give great legacies.' Nadir Shah, on the
other hand, had a most intense contempt for these manufactured miracles. Vide
a story related by Malcolm, History, vol. ii. p. 51.
2 A very interesting passage occurs in the narrative of Chardin (edit. Langles,
vol. iii. p. 228), who, being in Isfahan in the reign of Shah Suleiman in 1672,
went to the house of the King's goldsmith to see these very gilt plates being
made as tiles for the dome of Imam Reza, which had just been destroyed by an
earthquake. In the English translation of Lloyd (vol. i. p. 237) it appears as
follows: ' These plates were of brass (no— cuivre, i.e. copper) and square, 10
inches in breadth and 16 in length, and of the thickness of two crown pieces.
Underneath were two Barrs 3 inches broad, solder'd on crosswise, to sink into
the Parget (i.e. plaster) and to serve as cramp irons to fasten the tiles. The
upper part was gilt so thick that one would have taken the tile to be of massif
gold. Each tile took up the weight of 3 Ducates and a quarter of gilding, and