'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎328] (375/714)

328 PERSIA
cover the whole with a dome, the Shah, it is said, having been so
much impressed with the Albert Hall in London, as to long for a
reproduction in Teheran; but the substructure was found to be
inadequate to the burden. Accordingly, these spans were thrown
across and awnings are stretched over them when the play is acted
in the heat of the day ; the precise counterpart of the velarium of
the Roman amphitheatre. As the drama is prolonged into the
evening, light is gained from thousands of candles fixed in lustres
against the walls. Ihe electric light was introduced for a time,
but is said to have been abandoned or to have proved a failure.
Such are the main features of the Royal Palace at Teheran. 1 I
have described them at some length, as they are eloquently typical
The re- of the life of mingled splendour and frippery, and of the
mamdei taste, halt cultured and half debased, of the Persian
monarch and, it may be said, of the Persian aristocracy in general.
It is shocking, for instance, to our eye, but not to a Persian's, to
see this beautiful garden, which Nature has co-operated with
ingenious art to render pleasing, surrounded by hideous daubs of
Persian soldiers painted upon the plaster walls, with the exaggerated
disregard of all verisimilitude or proportion that might be expected
ol a street urchin who had stolen a brush and a pot of paint. In
different parts of this building must be stored away an infinity of
presents and works of art in addition to those which I saw. For
in this century alone the various embassies who competed so
gallantly, and it must also be said so extravagantly, for the favour
of Fath Ali Shah, brought with them a mass of European objects
and curiosities, from panelled coaches down to mechanical toys,
not one tithe of which are exposed to view in the State apartments.
Many, no doubt, have never been looked at since the day on which
they were presented ; or, having been playthings for a week, have
been relegated to lumber rooms for a lifetime.
For a great capital Teheran is singularly destitute of those
immense religious edifices, whether mosques or madressehs, which
tower, too often in a state of utter ruin, above the house-
Mosques _ . i i
tops of most Oriental towns. The reason is that, only
having become a capital, so to speak, in later life, the city has
found no patron to endow it with the great structures that have
immortalised the seats of government of earlier kings. Fath Ali
1 The test description of the Palace that I have seen is by Orsolle, Lc Cauca.se
et la Perse, cap. xvi.