'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎410] (465/714)

PERSIA
sighehs must be counted the Munir-es-Snltaneh (Grandeur of
the Empire), daughter of the late, and sister of the present, Chief
Architect of Teheran, who is the mother of the Naib-es-Sultaneli
third son of the Shah, of whom 1 shall speak presently. The only
other svjheli who merits attention in this place is the Amin-i-
Akdas (Trusted of the Sovereign), a Kurdish slave, who has
acquired the confidence of the Shah by her business capacity and
honesty, and who is the aunt of the little boy favourite alreadv
alluded to. She originally owed her position to having been the
devoted attendant of the Shah's favourite cat, which I have before
mentioned. In the past year (1890) the Shah sent her to Vienna
to submit to an operation for cataract which, unfortunately, was
not successful. Deeper into the secrets of the seraglio, or into a
further enumeration of Stars, Suns, Lights, and Glories of the
Empire, it is unnecessary to advance. Regarding the indoor
costume of these ladies, I can, of course, only speak from hearsay.
But it is well known that, while in the days of Fath Ali Shah the
ladies of high rank wore silk or muslin shifts, loose velvet panta
loons, and an embroidered vest, the reigning sovereign has intro
duced a more liberal fashion of toilette. The upper part of the
dress consists of a chemise under a short jacket; below which
are worn very short, and very much puffed-out petticoats. 1 In
their excursions abroad the ladies of the Harem, as I have before
said, are as closely veiled as are Mohammedan women in general,
and more closely veiled than the favourites of the Seraglio at
Constantinople.
Neither in the number of his wives nor in the extent of his
progeny, can the Shah, although undeniably a family man, be
rTil ^ . compared with his great-grandfather, Fath Ali Shah. To
The Kajars , . , . .
as pro- the nigh opinion universally held of the domestic capacities
gemtors ^ monarc ] 1 nius ^ j imagine, be attributed the
divergent estimates that are to be found, in works about Persia, of
the number of his concubines and children. Colonel Drouville, in
1813, credits him with 700 wives, Gi sons, and 125 daughters.
Colonel Stuart, who was in Persia in the year after Fath Ali's
death, gives him 1,000 wives and 105 children. Lady Sheil, in
the next decade, mentions 80 sons, and innumerable daughters.
Binning names 800 wives, 130 sons, 170 daughters, and 5,000
living descendants, at the time of his death. Madame Dieulafoy
' Vide Mrs. Bishop's Journeys in Persia, vol. i. pp. 216, 264.