'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎325] (370/714)

veteran, the oldest field-marshal in the Persian army; then a row
ot full-blown generals; finally, the officers of the so-called Cossack
regiments, including two Russians. In front and in the middle stood
alone the former Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. of the Kajar tribe, a white-bearded elder
once out of favour with his sovereign but long since reconciled.^
ehmd stood the solid and forbidding figure of the Kawam-ed-
Dowleh, Minister of Foreign Affairs; and beyond again the various
functionaries, each in his due rank and position. The whole of the
assemblage was now arranged, every man stood shoulder to shoulder
with eyes fixed in front, and absolute silence prevailed.
. Suddenly a cry was raised. The Shah appeared in the room
adjoining that in which I was placed and took his seat upon a gilded
The Shah c ^ ia ^ r ^ ie window. His principal ministers accom
panied him and stood in the background. As the King
appeared every head was bowed low, the hands outspread and rest
ing upon the knees. Bands struck up the royal air in different
parts of the garden, and guns banged away at a slight distance.
The Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. of the Kajars now, acting as spokesman of the entire
assembly, exchanged formal compliments with the King, who spoke
m short, brusque sentences in reply. Then a mullah, standing
behind, recited in a loud voice the Khutbah, or prayer for the
sovereign. This done the Poet Laureate advanced, and, pulling
out a sheet ol paper, read a complimentary ode. Meanwhile the
bands went on playing different tunes in different parts, and the
guns boomed noisily outside. When the ode was at an end, the
Shah rose from his chair, and slowly stalked from the chamber;
the troops, with very little attempt at precision, slouched past the
windows ; and a waving mass of helmets, plumes, and turbans was
seen disappearing through the garden entrance. Such is a Levee
as held by H.I.M. Nasr-ed-Din Shah at Teheran.
Upon another occasion I was conducted over the rest of the
palace (with the exception, it is needless to add, of the anderun,
1 He was the son of the wife of Haji Mirza Aghassi, the eccentric dervish
prime-minister of Mohammed Shah, and, as an especial favourite of his step-father,
lived in princely style. Upon one occasion the present Shah, then Heir Apparent,'
was going in pilgrimage to Shah Abdul Azim, when he saw an immense and goro-eous
cavalcade approaching, which he took to be that of his royal father. Kespect-
fully dismounting, he awaited the arrival of the cortege on foot. Great was his
disgust when he discovered that the central figure was only the Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. of the
Kajars. In deference to his complaints, the too sumptuous nobleman was
banished to Baghdad.