The Ouseley brothers and their journey to Persia 1810-15
Insights into the world of the traveller in the early nineteenth century
William H Martin and Sandra Mason
The Ouseley brothers and their journey to Persia 1810-15
Insights into the world of the traveller in the early nineteenth century
William H Martin and Sandra Mason
Leisure Consultants Dry Drayton, Cambridge 2018 ii
Copyright © 2018 William H Martin and Sandra Mason The right of William H Martin and Sandra Mason to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-873450-03-1
Published in 2018 by Leisure Consultants Dry Drayton Cambridge, UK.
Printed and bound by Victoire Press Bar Hill Cambridge, UK.
iii
Contents
List of illustrations iv Preface v Acknowledgements vi Note on names and spellings vii
1. The people concerned 1 2. The embassy to Persia 4 3. The nature of the journey 8 4. What the reports tell us 15 5. A taste of the reports – Gore Ouseley 24 6. A taste of the reports – William Ouseley 28 7. A taste of the reports – James Morier 33 8. A taste of the reports – William Price 40 9. What happened afterwards 45
Appendix 1. Further details of the journey 47 Appendix 2. Information on the key people 51 Appendix 3. The Ouseleys as collectors 56
Notes 58 Bibliography 59 Index 61 iv
List of illustrations
1. The Ouseley brothers viii 2. James Justinian Morier viii 3. Members of the embassy party July 1810 3 4. One of the embassy ships near Madeira 6 5. An overview of the embassy’s journey 7 6. From Bombay to Constantinople 9 7. A takht-e ravan or travelling chair 12 8. On the road from Bushehr to Shiraz 13 9. Persian musicians 13 10. Royal palace and meidan in Isfahan 14 11. Reception of the embassy near Tehran 14 12. A Persian breakfast 23 13. Tomb of Sheikh Seffi at Ardebil 23 14. The fallen statue of Shapúr at Bishapur 32 15. Fragment of Persepolis sculpture 39 16. Elephant races in Tehran 44 17. Persepolis from the east 44
Apart from the portraits in Figures 1 and 2, all the illustrations are derived from the four reports on the embassy to Persia (see Bibliography). The portraits are in the public domain.
Front cover image see Figure 1. Back cover colophon based on Ouseley manuscript of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1460/61.
v
Preface
Our interest in the Ouseley brothers starts with the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Those who have worked in this field will be aware of a manuscript of verses attributed to Khayyám which is in the Bodleian Library and is often referred to as ‘Ouseley 140’ (the library shelf mark). This is one of the two Khayyám manuscripts that Edward FitzGerald used as the basis of his famous version of the poem, published in 18591.
We became curious about the name Ouseley and the reason why it was attached to this copy of the Rubáiyát. This led us to William and Gore Ouseley, two brothers living in the late Georgian and early Victorian periods, both of whom were important collectors of Persian and Arabic manuscripts. Their collections largely ended up in the Bodleian Library, the so-called Ouseley 140 coming from the elder brother, William2. The brothers were also notable writers and scholars, particularly William, and they separately travelled and worked in India in the period between 1787 and 1805. Subsequently they together undertook one of their most important journeys, an official visit to Persia between 1810 and 1815. This journey is the core focus of our present study.
We have chosen to pay particular attention to the Ouseley brothers’ journey to Persia for a number of reasons. First, it was a visit of international relevance, concerned with the relations between various Western countries and the Persian government which were key to maintaining peace in the region. Second, the journey has been remarkably well documented. Both brothers wrote accounts of various aspects of the journey as did two other members of the British party, James Morier and William Price. Third, despite these accounts being available, there appears to have been no attempt to study them in detail, nor to put them in the context of the lives of the Ouseley brothers, who are important examples of oriental scholars in this early period. Our report attempts to remedy these omissions.
Sources for, and content of, this study The main sources for this study have been the accounts of the trip, mentioned above, by four members of the embassy to Persia. These have been supplemented by two other important publications, a near contemporary Memoir of Gore Ouseley written by another orientalist Rev. James Reynolds, and a more recent biography of James Morier and his brothers, which draws on newly located family letters. In addition, we have consulted various histories of the period, notably Sir Denis Wright’s valuable volume on The English amongst the Persians, and John Malcolm’s A History of Persia. These and other published sources are documented in the Bibliography.
We have attempted also to investigate the different elements of the Ouseley family, particularly the siblings and descendants of William and Gore, in hopes of identifying the location of family papers and archives which seem to be largely lacking from any public sources. This search has so far had very limited success; what we know is set vi out in Appendix 2. In Appendix 3, we give information on the important Ouseley collections now in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
The main part of this report consists of a presentation of various aspects of the British mission sent to Persia in 1810. This includes the following: a description of the people who went on the mission; an outline of the extensive journeys undertaken, both to get there and back, and while in Persia; and an analysis of the comments made by different members of the party relevant to topics ranging from the customs of the Persia court to archaeological remains, and from the state of village life to the position of women in society. There are also quotations from each of the four reports, designed to give the flavour of the actual experience in the writers’ own words and style. A final section summarises what happened to the four authors after they returned from Persia.
Our work is essentially a progress report on research that could be carried further. There is undoubtedly more detailed material that could be extracted from the accounts of the Persian trip and there is also more to be learned about the Ouseley family. We hope that what we have done will encourage others to look further into this interesting subject.
Acknowledgements
In preparing this report we have had help from many people. We are particularly grateful for the assistance we received from the librarians at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, in locating information relating to the Ouseley brothers and the items from their collections held by the library. We also appreciate being able to access various Ouseley documents and publications in the University Library in Cambridge. Further thanks are due to colleagues, friends and family with whom we have discussed the research over a number of years and who have helped us to clear our minds on important aspects of this report. Our final acknowledgement is to those who provide resources for online research in the form of digitised libraries and encyclopaedias. These facilities have become a crucial element in much research work today and it is hard to imagine how we could have completed this project without them.
vii
Note on names and spellings
The problems of transliterating Persian and other Middle Eastern names and words are well known. The lack of specification of short vowels and the use of accents for long vowels are particular issues. In our case, we are dealing with four different writers, each of whom has their own approach to transliteration. In addition, the accepted approach to the Western spelling of key cities has changed and, in a few case, the names themselves have been altered.
The policy we have adopted is based on the following principles. Where we quote directly from one of the four authors, we have retained their spelling and accenting (or lack of it). In our own writing, we have tried to use the most commonly accepted modern spelling of names of people and places. For people, we have included accents for long vowels where this is customary. But, for place names, we have not done this, since it seems more normal for a modern reader to see, for example Tehran rather than Tehrán, and Shiraz rather than Shiráz. We have generally referred to the country being described and its language as Persia and Persian, since the use of the modern name Iran seems out of place in a story of the early nineteenth century.
In the table below, we note some of the key differences in place names between that normal for some of our four authors and modern practice. Accents have been omitted in both cases.
Modern name Earlier name or spelling Tehran Teheran Isfahan Ispahan Qom Koom Bushehr Busheir Yerevan Erivan Tbilisi Teflis/Tiflis Istanbul Constantinople Izmir Smyrna Mumbai Bombay Sri Lanka Ceylon viii
Figure 1. The Ouseley brothers
Sir William Ouseley 1767-1842 Sir Gore Ouseley Bart. 1770-1844
Figure 2. James Justinian Morier
James Justinian Morier 1780-1849 The people concerned 1
1. The people concerned
The Ouseley brothers The leading figures in this study are two brothers named Ouseley whose lives spanned the late Georgian and early Victorian periods. William Ouseley was the elder of the two; he was born in 1767, and he died aged 75 in 1842. The younger brother, Gore Ouseley, was nearly as long lived, being born in 1770 and dying in 1844.
There is comparatively little information about the lives and background of William and Gore Ouseley The main sources are given in Appendix 2, together with the information that we have gleaned from them. In what follows, we summarise the key elements of relevance to the present study.
The Ouseleys were a landowning family, with strong Irish connections, and a history of serving in both the army and the church. William and Gore were both born in Monmouthshire in Wales, where their father had property. They were respectively first and second in a family of eight children. Not much is known about their childhood, but it is thought that they were both tutored at home. In 1787, aged 20, William Ouseley went to Paris to study French; while there, he began to develop an interest in Persian literature. The following year he joined a cavalry regiment as a junior officer, and he served with the army in India until 1794, when he resigned and returned to Europe to continue his Persian studies. Meanwhile, also in 1787 at the age of 17, Gore Ouseley went out to India with the aim of becoming a commercial trader. By the early 1790’s he had established a textile factory in Bengal. He subsequently moved to Lucknow and was involved in negotiations between the British Government and the local Wazir of Oudh. In this work, he came to the attention of the Marquess of Wellesley, then Governor General of India. Gore Ouseley was knighted in 1801 for services in India, and he returned to the UK in 1805.
In 1800, William Ouseley was knighted for services to oriental studies. Eight years later, in 1808, Gore Ouseley was created a baronet on the recommendation of Wellesley who was then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Between 1809 and 1815, both Ouseleys became closely involved with British Persian relations, first in London acting as guides and hosts to the new Persian ambassador Mírzá Abúl Hassan and later as part of a high level diplomatic mission to Persia. In 1810, Gore Ouseley was nominated as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Persian court, and he invited his brother William to come on the mission as his private secretary. William had been trying to secure official funding for a visit to Persia for some years, so this was clearly an attractive opportunity for him. William Ouseley returned to the UK in 1812 and Gore Ouseley in 1815. The latter part of both their lives was spent in the UK, occupied with further writing, the promotion of oriental causes, and furthering British relations with the region (see further comment in Chapter 9).
There are obvious similarities in the careers of the two brothers. Both served in India and became fascinated by Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures. They went on to 2 The people concerned become notable oriental scholars, speaking and reading Persian well, and they were important collectors of oriental manuscripts and other artefacts. More details of these aspects of their legacy are shown in Appendix 3. But the differences between the two men in terms of interests and personalities are also evident in their life stories. It seems that William Ouseley was more of a serious scholar and researcher. Despite his start as a soldier in India, he spent much of his life occupied with researching, writing and collecting, and his report on the journey to Persia is full of erudite and lengthy asides on the history and heritage of the places he saw. Gore Ouseley must have had more of a commercial bent, though he clearly became a notable scholar as well. He was possibly better with people than William, and his diplomatic skills were obviously recognised by the government in his appointments first to take care of the Persian ambassador in London and then as ambassador to Persia.
Other people involved in the trip to Persia The party that embarked from Portsmouth in July 1810 on the British embassy to Persia comprised quite a number of people in addition to the Ouseley brothers. They are listed in Figure 3. Two of them are especially important to us because they also wrote reports on the trip. The first of these was James Morier, who went as political secretary to the mission. Morier, who was born in 1780 and in 1810 was aged 30, came from a very different background from the Ouseleys. He was born in Ottoman Smyrna (present day Izmir in Turkey), the son of a Swiss born merchant and a Flemish mother. In 1810, he was still trying to make his name in the British foreign service, having already had experience of serving in Persia with the previous British envoy Harford Jones (later Sir Harford Jones Brydges). Morier had escorted the Persian ambassador to Britain in 1809 and he was left as temporary chargé d’affaires (head of mission) after Gore Ouseley left Persia. Subsequently he was involved in British government negotiations with Mexico. After his Persian years, Morier wrote several novels based on the experience, notably The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan (1824), for which he became very well known.
The second member of the mission who left an independent record of the trip was William Price, who was assistant secretary and interpreter to the embassy. Born in 1780, he like Morier, was aged 30, but his status in the group was a very lowly one. Nothing is known of Price’s early career, but his report on the trip shows that he must already have been a good linguist knowing more than just Persian, and on return to the UK he taught oriental studies and set up a private printing press. He was also quite a talented artist as evidenced by the many sketches that accompany his report.
The rest of the British embassy party comprised three main groups. The first of these was made up of Lady Ouseley (Gore Ouseley’s wife) plus their young daughter, two nurses and a lady’s maid. Lady Ouseley, the former Harriet Whitelocke, was some 15 years younger than her husband, and in 1810 she was aged 25. They had been married for 4 years and Mary Jane, their first child, was then aged 3 years. The prospect of a voyage to the Middle East must have been both a daunting and an exciting prospect for this group. It is interesting that there were no other wives accompanying the mission. William Ouseley was also married, but, by 1810, he and his wife already had The people concerned 3 several children, and this may have made the idea of her joining the party quite impractical.
A second element among the British travellers was made up of some additional secretaries to the embassy, various specialists including a doctor, surgeon and pastor, plus servants, notably a butler, a groom and a coachman. Thirdly, the party was escorted by a group of soldiers led by several officers, some marines and their officers, plus the naval commanders of the two ships in which all sailed, and a complement of sailors.
Last but not least, the Persian envoy to London, Mírzá Abúl Hassan, and his entourage, accompanied the British ambassador on his journey. Altogether, the list of people mentioned by name in Gore Ouseley’s diary amounts to more than 30, and the party that left Portsmouth on 18th July 1810 must have been well over 50 in total.
Figure 3. Members of the embassy party July 1810
Passengers at Captain’s table Officers Sir Gore Ouseley Bart. Ambassador Captain Henry Heathcote Lady Ouseley Lieutenant Peter Miss Ouseley Lieutenant George Young 1st Mr. Morier. Secretary of Embassy Lieutenant Eton Sir Wm. Ouseley. Private Secretary Lieutenant Sir Wm. Wiseman [?] Bart. Honble Robt.Gordon. 2nd ditto Lieutt. George Young 2nd Mirza Abul Hassan. Persian Envoy Marines At the Wardroom table Captain Welchman Mr. Price. clerk to Sir G Ouseley Lieutt. Pinhey Mr. Lindsay [?]. 2nd ditto ditto Lieutt. Don
Servants Wardroom passengers Joseph Taylor. Butler to Sir G. O. Captain Muston R. N. James Adkins. Groom ditto Lieutenant Roberts Thos. Adkins. Gentleman ditto Doctor Jeffries Mr. Archdeacon Purser Maids Surgeon Mat. Oliphant Mrs. Sherlock. Head Nurse Mrs. MacKenzie. Lady’s Maid Kitty Sherlock. 2nd Nurse
Persian servants, nine in [unreadable]
Transcribed from table in Gore Ouseley’s Diary. In some cases, the deciphering of names is uncertain. 4 The embassy to Persia
2. The embassy to Persia
Why did they go to Persia? The decision of the British government to send Gore Ouseley as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the court of the Persian king, Fateh ‘Ali Sháh, was the result of a complex set of historical and contemporary factors. These have been well set out elsewhere, particularly in Sir Denis Wright’s book on The English amongst the Persians, and we shall only summarise the key points here.
Until the end of the eighteenth century, there had been no permanent contact between the British and the Persian governments. The main line of communication was through the East India Company which had trading interests in the Middle East. Towards the end of the century, issues concerning the security of the British position in India became an increasing concern for the Indian authorities. At the same time, the British were at war with France, and both sides were attempting to bolster their positions in the region. In 1800, the Government of India had sent Captain (later General Sir) John Malcolm to Persia to enhance the British interests and he had reached political and commercial treaties with the Persians.
When, however, in 1806, the Persians appealed for help against Russian attacks on their territories in the Caucasus, the British did not respond as expected, and the Persians turned to the French for help, concluding a new treaty with them in 1807. Both the British government in London and the Indian authorities responded with alarm to this development and they sent what were in effect competing missions to the Persians, led respectively by Harford Jones as the official envoy from London and John Malcolm again from India. Although Malcolm arrived first on the scene in 1808, it was Harford Jones who was successful in 1809 in reaching a new Preliminary Treaty of Friendship and Alliance with the Persian government. This treaty nullified all earlier treaties with European governments including that of 1807 with France. A Persian ambassador, Mírzá Abúl Hassan, was sent with the draft treaty to London, accompanied by James Morier, secretary to the Harford Jones mission, who was later to be appointed secretary to Gore Ouseley’s embassy.
Hence, one prime aim of the Gore Ouseley mission was to conclude the final negotiations on the definitive version of the treaty with the Persians. He was further instructed to improve London’s knowledge of Persia’s military and financial resources and other aspects of the Kingdom. Wright notes that Ouseley also had budgets to collect manuscripts for the British Museum, and to collect plants, seeds or roots for Kew Gardens, and to build a suitable residence in Tehran for the ambassador3. The size, status and remit of the embassy clearly suggest that the government saw a need for some more permanent British diplomatic representation in Persia. There also seems to have been an intent that relations with the country would be organised from then on from London, not from India as before.
The embassy to Persia 5
Different accounts of the journey The four reports on the Persian mission of 1810, on which we have drawn, differ significantly in format and approach. These variations highlight difference in the respective roles and interests of their authors, as well as showing something of their individual characters. Combination of all four reports gives a much fuller and varied view of the trip, both of the countries being visited and the experience of making such a trip in early nineteenth century, than one can get from each writer individually. Several of the authors also comment on how their experiences relate to those of other earlier travellers in the area, such as Chardin and Kaempfer4. We have not investigated these comparisons in any detail, but it would be a valuable topic for further research.
Starting at the top, the ambassador, Gore Ouseley, did not in fact publish any formal report on the trip. But he did write a diary during the journey, which exists in part in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. This is supplemented by a Memoir written by another oriental scholar, Rev. James Reynolds, which was published with a volume of Gore Ouseley’s writings on Persian literature in 1846, shortly after the ambassador’s death5. The Memoir contains some extensive quotations from the diaries of Gore Ouseley, including accounts of his return journey via Russia, the originals of which we have not, so far, been able to locate in the Bodleian or elsewhere. Gore Ouseley’s diaries give some extensive details of certain places seen during the journey to and in Persia and of his experience of (and struggles with) the Persian court and its etiquette. There are also some personal reactions to places and people, but very limited mention of his wife’s and his family’s experiences.
William Ouseley’s report on the journey was a much more formal and detailed account. He published three volumes under the title Travels in Various Countries of the East; More particularly Persia6, which contain great detail on the actual journey, with day by day itineraries in some cases. There are also extensive asides, especially on antiquities and on the writings of earlier historians, plus many footnotes, appendices, maps and accompanying sketches of locations and items of interest. The title page of the first volume, published in 1819, seven years after his return from Persia, gives a flavour of the author’s intent; the full subtitle reads A work wherein the Author has described, as far as his own Observations extended, the State of those Countries in 1810, 1811, and 1812; and has endeavoured to illustrate many subjects of Antiquarian Research, History, Geography, Philology and Miscellaneous Literature with extracts from rare and valuable Oriental Manuscripts. Volumes II and III came out in 1821 and 1823 respectively.
The report by James Morier, the political secretary to the embassy, was entitled A Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 18167. It was published in 1818. Morier had already published A [first] journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the years 1808 and 18098, which documented his experiences as a member of the Harford Jones mission to Persia. The first report was published in 1812, when Morier was already in Persia again, so he probably completed and edited 6 The embassy to Persia it before he left London in July 1810. Like William Ouseley’s volumes, Morier’s Second Journey gives much detail on the itinerary of the trip, but it is more pre- occupied with political negotiations, notably the detailed discussions with the Russians on behalf of the Persian government. It is the only volume to cover the final year and a half after Gore Ouseley left for Russia in 1814. Morier’s letters home, quoted in Johnston’s biography9, give a less guarded view of his reactions to Persia and to the trip as a whole.
The account of the journey given by William Price has a rather different emphasis. He provided more restricted descriptions of places and experiences, but the book, published in two volumes, is embellished with a large number of sketches and drawings and other illustrations. It includes digressions on the Armenian, Pahlavi and other languages, as well as A dissertation upon the Antiquities of Persepolis. Volume I, entitled Journal of the British Embassy to Persia. which covers the journey out and the time in Persia up to 1812, was first published in 182510. In 1832, it was republished in slightly revised form, together with volume II covering the journey through Armenia and Turkey, then across the Mediterranean, and back to the UK.
Figure 4. One of the embassy ships near Madeira
Price, Journal, vol 1, 1832 ed., before p. 1
The embassy to Persia 7
Figure 5. An overview of the embassy’s journey Based on William Ouseley’s route which is shown as
8 The nature of the journey
3. The nature of the journey
In total, the Gore Ouseley embassy to Persia covered a five year period from 1810 to 1815. The group departed from Britain in July 1810 and Gore Ouseley himself left Persia in June 1814, returning eventually to Britain in July 1815 after a lengthy journey north through Russia and an extended stay in St Petersburg. The final, by then revised, treaty between the British and the Persian governments was signed in Tehran in December 1814 and, after a further period as the British chargé d’affaires, Morier left Tehran for Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) in October 1815. He reached Britain again by September 1816.
A detailed itinerary for the whole trip is shown in Appendix 1. The analysis there shows the major side trips taken by various members of the group during their stays in individual Persian cities, as well as the different routes and timings of their return trips home. In this section, we provide an outline of the four key stages of the trip: first, the lengthy journey out from Britain; second, the time spent getting to Tehran; third, the subsequent lengthy period divided between stays in the capital and trips further north, notably to Tabriz; and finally, the routes and timings of the return journeys to Britain. Figure 5 gives an overview of the whole trip, based on William Ouseley’s route. The Middle Eastern section of the trip is shown in more detail in Figure 6.
The voyage out The voyage out from Britain to Persia took seven and a half months. The group left Portsmouth in two naval ships on 18th July 1810 and they arrived in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf at the south of the country on 1st March 1811. Much of the time in between was spent at sea and the direction and timings of the sailings were dictated by the winds required. The ships went first south westward across the Atlantic to South America and then round the tip of South Africa, up the Indian coast and into the Persian Gulf.
There were two quite lengthy stays onshore; some 14 days in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in September 1810, and 20 days in Mumbai (then known as Bombay) in India the following January. Other shorter stops included two days in Madeira, and several days in Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon). When members of the party disembarked, they often provided detailed descriptions of the places visited, entertainments received and various exploratory trips to the interior. This is particularly the case for Rio and Mumbai. There are also some descriptions of life at sea, including the loss of sailors through bad weather and other ill fortune. The trip up the Persian Gulf was marked by an encounter with local pirates who were chased by some of the escort troops.
From the Persian Gulf to the capital Once arrived in Bushehr, the group became involved first in the ritual of meeting and greeting local dignitaries, and then in arguments about the appropriate escorts to accompany the party on its way north toward Tehran which was the seat of the Shah. The nature of the journey 9
The latter arguments, and associated questions of the protocol appropriate for the British ambassador, were issues that punctuated the progress of the mission at every stage (see further in Chapter 4). Eventually, after a delay of nearly a month, the group moved north to the next big city of Shiraz, a journey of some ten days over the mountains. Details of the mode and experience of transportation and accommodation on this stage and on subsequent journeys are also discussed in Chapter 4.
Figure 6. From Bombay to Constantinople Based on William Ouseley’s route which is shown as
10 The nature of the journey
The stay in Shiraz lasted three months, from early April 1811 to early July. The length of the stop was partly because Lady Ouseley, who was already six months pregnant on arrival in Bushehr, gave birth to a second daughter, named Eliza Shirin, on 13th June. Along with meetings and receptions with local notables, members of the group visited major sites such as the tombs of Háfiz and Sa’dí, as well as the great ruined city of Persepolis. William Ouseley also made a longer trip into the surrounding villages and sites. About a month after the birth, the party moved on northwards to the important centre of Isfahan (formerly Ispahan). There they spent a further three months, punctuated by more social visits and protocol discussions, plus local exploration and sightseeing. There was also some serious illness, culminating in the death of the English coachman. Finally, in mid-October 1811, there was news of the Shah’s return to Tehran from his summer lodging, and, after the end of Ramadan, the way was cleared for the group to proceed on the final stage to the capital. They reached Tehran on 9th November 1811, just over eight months after their arrival in the country.
Time in Tehran and the north Once arrived in Tehran, the ambassador and Morier were caught up in arguments about the protocol surrounding relations with the Persian court and the initial presentations of the embassy members to the Shah. Eventually it was agreed that Gore Ouseley and Morier should have a private meeting with the Shah, followed at the end of November by a formal presentation and public audience at court. Only after all such preliminaries were completed, could the treaty negotiations, which were a prime purpose of the embassy, be got under way.
The embassy party remained based in Tehran for the whole of the winter and early spring of 1811/12. While the negotiations were proceeding, there were also many receptions and dinners, sightseeing trips and explorations. Members of the groups observed, and reported on, the local celebrations of Muharram (marking the martyrdom of Hossein) in January and Nowruz (the Persian New Year) in March. In February 1812, William Ouseley made an important trip through the mountains north of Tehran and up to the Caspian, investigating what was in large part new ground for European visitors, and gathering information for the embassy and for his own archaeological and geographical studies.
The definitive treaty between Britain and Persia was agreed in March 1812, but not finally signed by the Shah until sometime in May. Meanwhile there were gifts to be presented to the ruler. On a sad note, Gore and Harriet Ouseley’s infant daughter Eliza Shirin, born ten months earlier in Shiraz, died on 22nd April 1812 and was buried in Tehran; William Ouseley, the only author to report this event, shows a sketch of the monument placed on her grave. This was designed by Morier, who also read the funeral service.
The embassy left Tehran on 25th May 1812 on the way to spend the summer in Tabriz. William Ouseley and Price were delegated to travel home from there with the signed treaty. The journey north including hunting trips in the mountains as well as the usual The nature of the journey 11 visits to sights and local entertainments. In Tabriz, there were further royal signatures to be obtained on the treaty document. Meanwhile, the job of the embassy was complicated by the arrival of a Russian officer seeking the help of the British in peace negotiations with the Persians.
These last negotiations, mediating between the Russians and the Persians, were to pre- occupy Gore Ouseley and Morier for much of their remaining time in Persia. Meetings with the Russian and the Persian negotiators took place first in the early autumn of 1812 and continued in the summer of 1813, mostly at various locations in the high north western areas of the country. The winters of 1812 and 1813 were spent back in Tehran. The preliminary treaty between Russia and Persia was agreed in November 1813, and the Shah requested that Gore Ouseley should return to Britain via St Petersburg to assist the Persian ambassador in securing full ratification. Gore Ouseley left Tehran in May 1814. Morier stayed on for over a year more, dealing with revisions to the British-Persian treaty required by London, and then waiting for the arrival of his replacement as British representative in Persia. His summers of 1814 and 1815 were occupied by further travels and explorations in the north.
The return journeys The routes and timings of the return journeys from Persia to Britain varied considerably for the main members of the embassy party. William Ouseley and Price were the first to leave in July 1812, travelling through Armenia to eastern Turkey and across to Istanbul. They arrived there in September and then travelled down to Izmir, where they joined a naval vessel returning to Britain. After short stops near Minorca and at Alicante and Gibraltar, and various encounters with the enemy French fleet, the ship arrived back in Portsmouth on 14th November 1812. William Ouseley recounts the stages and experiences of the journey back in some detail, including the dangers of the plague which was rife in Turkey, especially Istanbul. Price also covers the travel through Armenia and Turkey in some detail, but there is little mention of either man in the other’s account of their journey together.
The next of our main characters to leave Persia was the ambassador Gore Ouseley. He left Tabriz on 26th May 1814, accompanied by Lady Ouseley, his elder daughter now aged seven, a younger son, and various attendants. They were joined at some stage by a party of soldiers to protect them from the threat of bandits in the Caucasus. The ambassador’s party travelled through present day Armenia, stopping in Yerevan (formerly Erivan), and then on to Tbilisi (formerly Tiflis) in Georgia. Morier accompanied the party as far as the Russian border with Persian Armenia at Kara Klisseh. There he, plus the Persian servants, left the party to return to take charge of the mission in Tehran. Gore Ouseley continued on through the Caucasus mountains and northwards towards Moscow with an escort provided by the Russians.
Gore Ouseley’s group arrived in Moscow mid-August 1814 and, after a short stay there, continued on to St Petersburg. There they were received by Tsar Alexander and entertained by many people among the Russian nobility and aristocracy. Gore Ouseley had to remain in the city until the arrival of the Persian ambassador, again 12 The nature of the journey
Mírzá Abúl Hassan formerly in London, who did not appear until April 1815. Meanwhile, in November 1814, Lady Ouseley gave birth to another daughter, who was named Alexandrine in honour of the Tsar and to whom the Tsarina was godmother.
After further diplomatic discussions, the Gore Ouseleys left St Petersburg at the end of June 1815, taking sail for Britain. News reached them on board first of Napoleon’s escape from Elba and then of the victory of the allies at Waterloo. After travelling through serious storms, they arrived back in Yarmouth at the end of July 1815.
Morier had to wait over a year after Gore Ouseley’s departure before his replacement as head of mission, Henry Willock, arrived from London. Morier left Tehran finally on 6th October 1815, and travelled back on a similar route to William Ouseley, going via Tabriz, Yerevan, and across Turkey to Istanbul. His account of the journey ends there, with the confusing statement that he arrived in the Turkish capital on 17th December 1816. Evidence from similar journeys (e.g. that of William Ouseley and Price) suggests that the year should be 1815, and, in his biography of the Morier brothers, Johnston puts the arrival date as 7th December 1815. According to this last source, James Morier’s onward journey was by ship from Izmir to Trieste, where he had to spend some two months in quarantine before proceeding overland to Britain. He was back in London with his mother by September 181611.
There seems to be little information about the return to Britain of the other members of the original party that left in 1810. Some of the personal servants attached to Sir Gore and Lady Ouseley returned with them in 1815; notable exceptions were the coachman, who had died in Isfahan, and the groom, who accompanied William Ouseley home in order to take care of horses being sent as a gift to the British Prince Regent. Some of the army officers went back to their regiments in India and other officers and soldiers may have remained as part of the British forces helping to support the Persian army. Nothing more is known about the subsequent history of the doctor, surgeon, and pastor who accompanied the original party.
Figure 7. A takht-e ravan or travelling chair
Morier, Second Journey, p. 169
The nature of the journey 13
Figure 8. On the road from Bushehr to Shiraz
Price, Journal, vol 1, 1825 ed., after p. 12
Figure 9. Persian musicians
Morier, Second Journey, p. 92. 14 The nature of the journey
Figure 10. Royal palace and meidan in Isfahan
Price, Journal, vol 1, 1825 ed., after p. 20
Figure 11. Reception of the embassy near Tehran
Price, Journal, vol 1, 1832 ed., before p. 29 What the reports tell us 15
4. What the reports tell us
The four reports on the Ouseley embassy to Persia provide a detailed picture of Persia, its society and its people in the early part of the nineteenth century. They cover subjects like local topography and natural life, descriptions of historic sites, social structures and economic life, court life and etiquette, religious festivals, and the position of women. There is a great deal of detail on what the writers saw and experienced on their journeys, and, in this section, we summarise some of the main features of what is reported12. Examples of descriptions taken verbatim from the reports are given in Chapters 5-8. They include some of the sources of the more limited comments given below. The excerpts are referenced by chapter and quotation number; C5Q1 is the first quotation given in Chapter 5.
Diplomatic negotiations and treaties Although the negotiation of a formal treaty between Britain and Persia was the principal purpose of the embassy, there is comparatively little mention of this in the reports. Gore Ouseley and Morier are most forthcoming on the subject, as might be expected from their primary political roles. We learn of the delays to the process of negotiation, not started properly until February 1812, due to the Persian reluctance to get down to business [C7Q12]. Subsequently there were problems of getting the signatures on the final documents, partly reflecting the need to have the right people in the right place at the right time; the latter needed to be an auspicious day as indicated by the court astrologers [C8Q10].
As mentioned, the agreed treaty was taken back to Britain by William Ouseley accompanied by Price, while Gore Ouseley and Morier remained in Persia and became entangled in lengthy peace negotiations between the Russians and the Persians who were at war in the north west of the country. These secondary negotiations take up a substantial part of Morier’s report, which describes how he went backwards and forwards between the Russian and Persian camps in the mountainous areas near Tabriz. Gore Ouseley’s comments on these negotiations relate mainly to his relationships with the court and the continuing need to safeguard his position in terms of prestige [C5Q4&5]. There is no record of his personal reaction to being asked to return home via St Petersburg [C7Q15]. Morier, who remained over a year more in Persia as British chargé d’affaires, documented how he had to deal with revisions to the original British-Persian treaty required by London, before he could finally leave for Istanbul and London in 1815.
Court life and etiquette In contrast to the limited information given on the actual political negotiations, the reports all contain extensive descriptions of the complex social and personal interactions that formed an essential part of the political process. These interactions themselves involved lengthy negotiations about the procedures for meeting and greeting the ambassador on his arrival in a new town, and the protocols for the 16 What the reports tell us introduction of the members of the embassy at the ‘court’ not only of the Shah in Tehran, but also of the various royal governors who controlled the main cities and areas through which the embassy passed [C7Q11].
One key subject of continuing disputes concerned the person to be appointed as mehmándár or ‘host’ to the party. It was the Persian custom to nominate such an individual to assist high-level visitors, and he would be responsible for organising their transport, food and accommodation on the journey, and for liaising with the local notables to ride out of a city or village to greet the approaching party. The British diplomats were very concerned that all the Persian people involved should be of suitable rank to honour the ambassador, and the Persians seemed often to be playing a complicated game of trying to get the upper hand on this question. The initial departure of the group from Bushehr was delayed by disagreements about the proposed mehmándár and there were similar delays in Isfahan until the Shah’s appointee arrived to conduct the party north to the capital [C7Q5].
Once arrived in the main cities, members of the embassy were involved in a continuing ‘to and fro’ of formal presentations, and banquets and other entertainments, with people at the highest level of society. The reports, particularly that of William Ouseley, are full of descriptions of the rituals of appearances at court, and of lengthy meals and receptions, with music, singing and other entertainments. The appropriate form of dress was an issue in court visits, and on occasions, members of the party were required to don the Persian clothes that they had been given by the Shah and others [C5Q3]. Clothing gifts were an important part of court ritual as was the exchange of gifts generally. The embassy had brought quite a number of gifts with them from Britain and there were problems in transporting these up from Bushehr to Tehran. The final presentation of key items, including a full size English coach, did not take place until April 1812, over a year after the group landed in Bushehr.
Details of the food and drink provided at the banquets are given, with generally positive comments from the writers. Morier reports on an ‘imitation English dinner’ to which they were invited in Isfahan, where an attempt was made to providing seating around tables rather than the normal procedure of placing dishes on a table cloth on the floor [C7Q10]. Mention is also made of some of the topics of conversation with various Persian notables, including the interest of the Shah and his ministers in developments in the West, ranging from the postal system to income tax and vaccination.
Town and country life in Persia In their comments, all four writers drew on what seems to have been an extensive knowledge of the reports of previous visitors to the country13, and they sometimes offered quite candid comments on what they saw and experienced of life at different levels of Persian society [C6Q4, C7Q6&13]. They also supplemented their writings with sketches of people and landscapes seen (see e.g. Figures 8 and 9).
What the reports tell us 17
During their progress through the country from south to north, members of the embassy gained extensive first-hand experience of the wide variety of geography and nature that Persia (and Iran today) had to offer. There are many descriptions of the countryside visited and the flora and fauna of both mountainous and other areas [C7Q14, C8Q3]. The extended stays in Shiraz, Isfahan and Tehran were punctuated by trips out into the country, partly to visit important sights (discussed in a later section) but also intended deliberately as a means of obtaining more information to take back to London. A key example was William Ouseley’s trip from Tehran to the Caspian Sea, which took him through territory not previously visited by Europeans. Practicalities such as extreme temperatures (high and low), storms and insect life are mentioned, as well as the arrival of locust swarms on various occasions [C7Q7]. More positively, there are comments on the opportunity for hunting trips, particularly up in the northern mountains [C7Q17].
Both in the towns and the villages, the British visitors were very alert to the position of the Persian people at different levels of society, and the complex social structure that determined individual relationships. The highly feudal nature of society is noted, with the Shah having literally the power of life and death over his subjects [C8Q5]. Several stories of the disgrace, punishment, and in some cases death, of high level courtiers are reported, as are the similar powers of local princes and governors. The severe punishments meted out for what seem to be relatively minor misdemeanours caused the British some concern, though they also complained about, and punished, their local Persian servants.
When the embassy party was located in the major cities, all the key members spent time learning about the surroundings and visiting places like markets, bazaars and workshops [C7Q9, C8Q2]. William Ouseley and Morier took a notable interest in aspects of the local economy commenting on local industry, like firearms and bread in Shiraz, and textiles in Isfahan and Kashan. Morier even discussed the population and number of houses in Shiraz and the level of consumption of bread per diem [C7Q8], while William Ouseley commented on the bad state of agriculture in some of the country areas visited.
The existence of various minority groups in the population was also a subject of interest to the British. There is mention of Africans and Georgians serving at court in Shiraz, and the Armenians in Isfahan get quite an amount of space, reflecting their common Christian bond with the visitors [C8Q4]. Armenian minorities in other areas were also noted and all four writers spent a period of time in the northern Armenian province of Persia, meeting with various local notables as well as church leaders, one of whom Morier described as having a large amount of wine. Price showed a particular concern about the Armenian language, and his report contains an Appendix on Armenian script and grammar. He also displayed an interest in the Zoroastrian minority in the country [C8Q7].
Local behaviour patterns, particularly religious and traditional ceremonies are described in some detail. These include the Muharram ceremonies, commemorating 18 What the reports tell us the martyrdom of Hussain and his family, and the festival of Nowruz, the Persian New Year [C8Q6]. A picture is given of local events, and of sights seen in the streets such as a bridal procession and the costume and looks of local women. In all these comments, the view presented is clearly that of an affluent Western man, but the writers showed considerable sensitivity to the very different customs of the country in which they found themselves.
The position of women Unfortunately, although Gore Ouseley’s wife Harriet, together with three female servants, accompanied her husband throughout the embassy, there is no record that we can find of any report by her on the experience. Any letters home that might have existed seem to have disappeared. This precludes any specifically female insights on the Persian world such as were obtained later from visits by women such as C Colliver Rice and V Sackville West14. What we can learn about the position of women in the Persian court and elsewhere in the country, comes from the limited reports of the male members of the group.
All four writers make some mention of Lady Ouseley’s presence and the personal events that marked her stay in Persia. These are discussed below in the context of the personal experiences of the travellers. Both William and Gore Ouseley describe Lady Ouseley’s visits to the female members of the Persian court in Shiraz and Tehran. As ambassador’s wife, Lady Ouseley had to pay such visits when invited, though there is no record of any return visits, probably because these would have meant the Persian ladies leaving the harem in which they lived.
Lady Ouseley went on the visits with her young daughter and one or more of her maids. She was carried in a palanquin and, in Shiraz, was accompanied by her brother in law and escort party to the palace, though the men could only enter so far. Lady Ouseley reported back on her experience and those of the maids, who were separately entertained, but apparently suffered from very close questioning by their Persian counterparts about the nature of their clothing. There was clearly a language problem between the Persian ladies and Lady Ouseley so the visit must have been rather stilted; chairs were provided for the visitors and, in Shiraz, there was much concern about Lady Ouseley’s pregnancy, which at that point was far advanced [C5Q2].
There are only a few other significant comments by the male writers relating to women in the country [C6Q11, C7Q4]. Persian birth rituals are mentioned by Morier in the context of the birth of the Ouseley’s second daughter in Shiraz. There are also infrequent mentions of ‘catching a glimpse of women and children’ suggesting that this was unusual enough to merit comment. In the holy city of Qom (transcribed by Morier as Koom), Morier notes that he saw large groups of women arriving, with male escort, to worship at the Tomb of Fatmeh. But otherwise, women in Persia seem to have been as invisible to the early nineteenth century male visitors as they may well have been for many decades subsequently.
What the reports tell us 19
Absorbing historical sights and culture All four travellers were seemingly well briefed on the antiquities to be found in Persia. Most of the side trips and expeditions taken out of the main cities had a historical site in view as well as a general wish to learn more about the country. Since the embassy was often waiting several weeks in key cities, there was plenty of time to explore places, and then write up the journeys, often with sketches.
A large part of the reports is occupied by such descriptions, often incorporating extracts from the findings of earlier visitors and historians. Persepolis and related monuments near Shiraz have pride of place in these write ups (see Figures 14 and 17), but much space was also devoted to Rai near Tehran, and to Sultaniah, Hamadan and other places in the north west (see Figure 13). William Ouseley provided the most comprehensive reports, particularly on his two visits to Persepolis; these take up around half of the second volume of his Travels. As mentioned, Price also included a lengthy dissertation on The Antiquities of Persepolis appended to his report.
In addition to describing and sketching the historical remains, the British also collected antiquities both at the sites and via agents in town. Morier reported how he visited Persepolis with ‘… two Persian stone-cutters to assist my antiquarian researches …’15 (see also Figure 15). William Ouseley seems to have been the most energetic of the collectors. Several times, as he arrived in a city, he noted that he put out requests to booksellers and others concerning the purchase of historical items. Leaving Shiraz, he mentioned the acquisition of manuscripts, pictures, gems, coins and other items, and there were further purchases in Isfahan and elsewhere [C6Q7]. William Ouseley and other members of the group also visited artists’ studios and workshops and recorded details of how some of the fine items were manufactured [C6Q5, C8Q8]. As an aside, there appears to be no trace of what happened to the items acquired once they returned to Britain, other than the manuscripts, most of which arrived eventually in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (see Appendix 3). We presume that some of the artefacts must have made their way into public collections, but we have failed to find any more specific information.
Living conditions for the visitors The four reports taken together give a good idea of the difficulties of life as a travelling diplomat or orientalist at this time. Sometimes there are overt comments and descriptions; William Ouseley gives verbal and graphic pictures of the group’s travelling caravan, of men going ahead to set up tents, of the special travelling vehicles provided for Lady Ouseley and her daughter and servants, the state of the caravanserai on the road, and much more [C6Q3]. Sometimes however the difficulties can be seen from reading between lines, in the comments on the long times that the group had to wait before the right Persian escort turned up, or visits to meet key people could be arranged. Quite clearly there was a lot of relatively uncomfortable camping, and often a wait before suitable houses were provided for the ambassador and his family and escort [C6Q8, C8Q9].
20 What the reports tell us
Starting with the long journey, over six months, on board ship, the experience of the journey cannot have been an easy one (see Figure 4). On land, the main male members of the group mostly travelled on horseback, the normal mode of travel in difficult terrain in that period. Ladies were carried in travelling chairs, while the more menial members of the English as well as Persian staff, probably walked or rode on carts or on the wagons carrying the embassy’s baggage. Progress was slow, with travel often at night or very early morning in the hot months. Many people suffered from the heat, and there are reports of some deaths among the British soldiers and staff in the course of the embassy [C7Q16].
Mention has already been made of the food and drink provided for the travellers at the many court dinners and banquets that they attended. In general, food on the travels does not seem to have warranted much comment, though William Ouseley gives some detailed description of what he was provided to eat at various stopping places on his side trips near Shiraz and up to the Caspian. Mostly there was a plentiful quantity of food and drink available, with fruit especially well received, but occasionally there are mentions of food not being forthcoming from particular villages who generally had to provide the visitors from their own limited resources. As a highlight, Morier mentions several special breakfasts in camp up in the north west mountains, including some with the Russians.
The four reports contain a small amount of personal comment, mainly relating to illnesses and particular discomforts on the journey. Gore Ouseley recorded his great sadness at receiving, in Bushehr, the news of the death in action of his younger brother Ralph. But he only mentioned very briefly the birth of his second daughter in Shiraz and it is left to William Ouseley to record her death around a year later in Tehran. There seems to be no record of the birth of a son to the Gore Ouseleys, sometime shortly before their departure to Russia, but Gore Ouseley noted the boy’s presence on the journey to St Petersburg (see above). Several comments expressing delight at the receipt of mail on arriving at a new location indicate something of the underlying emotional pressures that the journey may have put on the individuals involved. Both Gore Ouseley and Morier described their feelings of pleasure at finally leaving Tehran to go home [C7Q18].
The reports also relate the stories of a number of other travellers that the group met in the course of their journeys. Rev. Henry Martyn was one such who joined the group in Shiraz in time to baptise the newly born daughter of Gore and Harriet Ouseley. He was an oriental scholar who was responsible for translating the New Testament into Farsi. He was subsequently with the group in Tabriz but then set off to travel across Turkey where he died. Among the other people met were a Greek merchant whose life was saved by the embassy surgeon and a Mr. Brown, an African traveller and explorer who was trying to get to Balkh and Samarkand; according to Morier’s report, the latter was killed by robbers on his subsequent journey east. In general, meetings with other travellers from Europe seem to have been a welcome diversion for the embassy, and the services of the embassy surgeon were frequently made available to Persians as well as to other Europeans, if they were required. What the reports tell us 21
Other countries visited The prime emphasis of all four reports was on the description of the time spent by the embassy group in Persia itself. But the writers also commented to varying degrees on the other countries visited on the way out and the return. The broad outline of these journeys was given in Chapter 3. The comments below highlight what they saw and the conditions they encountered.
The route of the journey out by ship was the same for all four writers. On the first, westward, leg of the trip, there was a short stay on the island of Maderia [C7Q1]. William Ouseley comments on the British garrison on this Portugese island, and on the fact that it ‘… had long been the residence of many English families …’ particularly for health reasons16. The scenery and gardens of the island were admired by the visitors.
After passing the Canary Islands, and over a month out at sea, the ships docked in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Here the group spent some 10 days mainly ashore, giving them a chance to visit the attractive countryside as well as to be received and entertained by the Portuguese Prince Regent and his court. Both William Ouseley and Morier mentioned their personal reactions to the presence of African slaves, and the miserable conditions of the latter, which clearly disturbed the visitors. Ouseley remarked on the music and singing of the slave groups as well as on the so-called genuine Brazilians, presumably Brazilian Indians, of whom he saw a few and whom the Portuguese had not been able to ‘civilize’. Insects, notably mosquitos and chiguas (chigoe fleas or jiggers) were evidently a problem for all in the area [C5Q1, C6Q1].
After Brazil, and another long stretch at sea, the next country visited was Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon). Here the ship docked for several days at Pointe de Galle on the southern tip of the island. Again there was a chance for the travellers to go ashore where they were looked after by the local British naval agent and another English resident. They visited cinnamon warehouses and also went out into the countryside, where some of the party went hunting. William Ouseley mentioned seeing a lotus plant for the first time. In his report he followed comments on the visit with a long digression on the history and legends of the island. Meanwhile Price, with a different set of priorities, was delighted to find a teacher giving a lesson on local scripts from whom he obtained some examples of writing to take away [C8Q1].
Travelling on up the west coast of India, the ship put in for a day at Cochin which was described as very hot at 87 degrees Fahrenheit. The prevalence of a disease called ‘Cochin leg’ was remarked and the group’s attention was called, as in Sri Lanka, to the deficiency of Protestant clergymen in the area. Both William Ouseley and Morier remarked on the presence of a Jewish community.
Following a slow and tiresome journey further north, the embassy party arrived in Mumbai. Many interactions with the British and other residents were described [C7Q2]. The group was welcomed by senior officers of the military and civil establishment and taken to Government House where they were entertained by the 22 What the reports tell us
British governor, Mr. Duncan. During a stay of nearly three weeks, the visitors were looked after by various local people including at events such as horse racing and evenings of Indian music and dancing; Morier clearly did not much enjoy the latter, while William Ouseley’s report was more positive, including a sketch of the Indian women dancers. The party made various outings and excursions to see temples and important excavations, carvings and sculptures, including to Keneri and Elephanta, about which William Ouseley especially writes at length [C6Q2, C7Q3]. His report also contains a long discussion of the history and beliefs of the Parsi community, drawing extensively on the work of earlier writers.
On leaving Mumbai, the members of the embassy mostly remained on board during the month it took them to navigate the Persian Gulf and arrive in Bushehr. Both William Ouseley and Morier provided quite detailed descriptions of the islands and coast passed, with information on their place in history; Ouseley also included a number of sketches. All four writers mentioned encounters with the pirates among the islands, who attempted to attack the convoy. Price landed on the island of Kenn with a party from the ships sent to secure fresh supplies, and he commented on the nature of the island and the people living there.
On their return journeys to the UK, William Ouseley, Morier and Price all started by travelling from Tabriz, through Persian Armenia and then across Turkey to Istanbul. Morier confined his main comments to the eastern part of the route, referring readers to the descriptions of the later stages to Istanbul in his earlier volume. In their reports, William Ouseley and Price provided a familiar mix of descriptions of the territory, ancient sites and villages passed, people met, accommodation and food, interspersed with historical and analytical comments [C6Q12]. The progress of the party was hindered by the inclusion of the horses and other items that were being sent by the Shah for the Prince Regent in London, and, at the later stages, the group was perturbed by news of the plague, which was rampant in the west of the country. Activities in Istanbul were also curtailed by the plague though both William Ouseley and Price managed to see some of the sights. Both authors noted concerns about enemy ships (the French) on the voyage home, but William Ouseley also remarks that ‘the Mediterranean might almost have been described as covered by English men of war’17.
As mentioned earlier, Gore Ouseley was asked by the Shah to make his return journey in 1814 via St Petersburg in Russia, to help secure final signatures on the Persian- Russian peace treaty. This strenuous trip involved crossing the high Caucasus mountains from Georgia into Russia and then travelling over the extensive Russian plains up to first Moscow and then St Petersburg. The journey up to Moscow, accompanied by Lady Ouseley, his daughter, and their entourage, plus an escort of soldiers, is described on a day to day basis in Ouseley’s diaries, quoted verbatim in Reynolds’ Memoir. There is much detail on the country through which they travelled, and the various people they met [C5Q6&7]. The diaries record Gore Ouseley’s dismay at the damage to Moscow’s buildings wrought by Napoleon’s army, which was still evident after nearly two years [C5Q8]. They also recount the reception of the What the reports tell us 23 family at the court in St Petersburg and Gore Ouseley’s reactions to the Tsar and key members of the Russian hierarchy [C5Q9&10].
Figure 12. A Persian breakfast
Morier, Second Journey, p. 393
Figure 13. Tomb of Sheikh Seffi at Ardebil
Morier, Second Journey, p. 253 24 A taste of the reports – Gore Ouseley
5. A taste of the reports – Gore Ouseley
In the next 4 chapters, we show a number of extracts selected from each of the four reports on the Gore Ouseley embassy to Persia. These quotations give a taste of the interests and style of each writer as well as providing more colourful descriptions of some of the highlights of the journeys given in Chapter 4. In making our selection, we have focused primarily on the writers’ reactions to the people and places that they visited, and their dealings with the Persian authorities. The reports also contain many detailed descriptions of the historical sites visited and the countryside through which the visitors travelled. These are potentially of great value to modern researchers, but they are often of considerable length and do not lend themselves to presentation in the form of short extracts.
Details of the reports from which the extracts come are shown in the Bibliography. The reference code at the end of each quotation gives the year and month to which the quotation refers (1009 is September 1810), the author’s initials, and the page in the original report from which the quotation has been taken. The selections from the Gore Ouseley diaries, presented below and coded as GM, are taken from the extracts published in the Memoir by James Reynolds.
What Gore Ouseley had to say Reactions to visiting Brazil. [Q1] ‘To a person who has ever been in Bengal, a strong resemblance will immediately present itself between that country and the Brazils. On entering the harbour, the canoes of the fishermen, their ample cane hats, and the manner of handling their oars and paddles strikes you at once. Nearer the town another kind of boat comes off with fruit and washers of linen exactly of the form of the pulwar [river boats] of Bengal, with a similar mast and sail. On examining the fruit, you find the mango, plantain, banana, orange, guava, citron, lime, pine-apple, melon, water-melon, cocoa-nuts, &c. On shore you see the bulk of the population black. They sing whilst at work, or drawing great weights, like the kulies or labourers of Bengal. They have a great many holidays, which they celebrate like the Bangolees by processions, music, and dancing. Even their instruments are extremely similar ...’ 1009 GM l
Lady Ouseley’s visit to the Queen mother in Shiraz. [Q2] ‘ … as the Prince [Husein ‘Ali Mírzá, Governor of Fars] sent me repeated messages on the subject of Lady Ouseley's visiting his mother, and even said that my refusing to allow her to do so would be a gross indignity to himself and mother as much as to his father [Fateh ‘Ali Sháh], I at length consented; accordingly, a little before twelve, having dressed and veiled, she proceeded in the Palki [kind of sedan chair – see Figure 7], with Janie, (Miss Ouseley,) and the two maids in the Kajavi [seats slung on a mule - see C6Q3], accompanied by Cornet Willock [George Willock, younger brother of Henry Willock who was later head of mission in Persia], and fifteen troopers, my brother and Dr. Sharpe [assistant surgeon to the mission], Ziki Khan A taste of the reports – Gore Ouseley 25
[Mahomed Zeki Khán, mehmándár from Bushehr], and Mirza Abul Hasan [former Persian ambassador to London], to the door of the square of the royal apartments, from whence the Palki was taken up by a crowd of eunuchs and slave-girls, who carried her to the room in which the Queen, (i. e., one of the wives of the Shah and mother of the Prince,) her daughter, and the favourite wives of the Prince, were in readiness to receive her. The old lady, in compliance with English customs, had chairs for seating the party on: all the men, of course, staid [sic] outside. The head eunuch and one of the Prince's wives led Lady Ouseley up to the chair on which the Queen was sitting, who stooped forward and took both her hands, and welcomed her in a most kind and motherly manner. She placed her on her right hand, in a chair close to her own; on the left sat her daughter, a very pretty young woman, and all the Prince's wives stood in rows on each side towards the door, where Sherlock and Kitty [British nurses] stood. After some minutes, tea and sweetmeats were brought in, of both of which the Queen handed spoonfuls for Lady Ouseley.’ 1104 GM lviii-lix
The embassy staff wear the Persian dress given to them. [Q3] ‘Out of compliment to the Prince, I put on the sword he gave me, and the gentlemen of my family were all obliged to dress in the brocade dresses he had sent them. Their gaudy appearance, and the trumpeters of the body guard blowing away through the town, put me in mind of Billy Punch, or a mountebank's party.’ 1107 GM lxvi
Problems dealing with Persian court etiquette. [Q4] ‘These three days have been most uselessly employed in wrangling about etiquette, and, as in former instances, I forced the Persians to do in the end what they ought and might have done with a good grace. Jelaladdin Effendi, the Turkish ambassador, having been treated unceremoniously by the Persian Minister, complained bitterly of it, and remarked that, whilst he was at Hamadan, Mahomed Hussein Khan [Governor of Hamadan] had to istakbal me [greet me formally on arrival], although he had been treated himself with the greatest neglect. The Prime Minister [Grand Vizier, Mírzá Shefi] and Mirza Buzurg [another minister at court] conceived in their wisdom that to remedy this, it was only necessary to show me some incivility, or rather, want of proper respect; they therefore begged me to call at Mirza Shefi's previous to seeing the King, for the purpose of consulting upon a peace with Russia and settlement of differences with Turkey. … The time was critical, and if I succumbed in this instance, I saw clearly that all hopes of my having influence enough to make peace between Russia and Persia would vanish. I therefore said that, after His Majesty had begged me to stay to see him, his now refusing to do so, at the instigation of evil counsellors, was offering an insult to my Sovereign, which I should immediately resent by striking my tents and quitting his camp; and that I gave His Majesty till the next morning to consider whether it were wise or not thus foolishly to break with his best friend and most potent ally. The next day I was informed that the Shah would see me.’ 1306 GM lxxxviii-xc
26 A taste of the reports – Gore Ouseley
Persian suspicions of English motives. [Q5] ‘On the 26th November the Shah returned, and sent to ask when I meant to visit him. I fixed the next day, and went accordingly. His Majesty was very kind in his manner, and although he still speaks in big terms of what he could have done to the Russians, had they not made peace, yet he had the candour to acknowledge that the making it was, for him, very well timed. He mentioned the services I had rendered him, but took some merit to himself for the confidence he placed in me, even when every one else was against me. He said, [Persian text omitted] “ O Ambassador, when you came from Hamadan to Sultaniah, every one of you would have been killed but for the Shah, every one! ” On inquiry, I found that the general idea was at that period, that I either meant to fly to the Russians, or that an invasion of Persia from India, by my advice, was in contemplation; or that the Shah meant to have every Englishman in Persia put to death; and so strongly had the latter report obtained credit, that the Governor of Tahran [sic] was within an inch of seizing on my house and property, until a counter report, of my being in great favour, luckily arrived in time to prevent spoliation. Nobody but those who have been here can have any idea of the dreadful life we live in this barbarous country, where a man's life and property are not only at the disposal of a despot's nod, but even subject to destruction from the report of his being unkind.’ 1312 GM c-ci
Preparing to cross the Caucasus into Russia. [Q6] ‘At eight o'clock we set off in the following order:—three tents and some of the baggage, with twenty-five Kozaks [Cossacks] and a company of infantry; my led horses with an escort of fifty Kozaks; a coach with four horses abreast, and four others two by two, surrounded by Kozaks to assist upon the emergencies which were constantly arising either of bad tackle, steep hills, or broken bridges,—in this was our little boy and the two maids; next was my own carriage and four horses with Lady Ouseley, Janie, and myself; next a kaleska [light small carriage] with eight horses, for Canning and Dr. Campbell; next a britska [long carriage] and eight with the kitchen and the Europeans; next, another britska, with Abdullah and baggage, and sixteen waggons, with baggage of all kinds, brought up the rear, with a gun and a battalion of infantry. Our escort of Kozaks exceeded two hundred.’ 1407 GM cxviii
The danger of an attack from brigands. [Q7] ‘Whilst walking out with Lady Ouseley in the evening I perceived that Agha Beg and all the Russian officers were sitting together in close council and some alarm. I asked no questions until Lady Ouseley returned to her tent, when the whole party, with the Major-Commandant, gathered round me, to state what intelligence they had received, and to ask my orders. I found that a small party of Kozaks had arrived from the next station with news that Alexander Wali, of Georgia, with 5000 Chechens and Circassians, were lying in wait to attack us in a confined road through a wood of six versts length, between this and the next station.’ 1407 GM cxxxvii
A taste of the reports – Gore Ouseley 27
Moscow as Napoleon left it. [Q8] ‘ [We] reached the suburbs of Moscow. Although we had been prepared for scenes of devastation committed by the French, by seeing one-half of Podolsk, on the right of the village, a complete ruin, I felt greatly affected on entering this great and once beautiful city, to see such horrid proofs of French atrocity. The former wooden houses having totally disappeared, leave frightful gaps in the streets; and one can only know that houses once stood there by the stoves (built of brick and lackered [sic] tiles), having withstood the element which destroyed the rest of the house. Bad as this is, it does not call forth such feelings as the ruin of the most superb palaces which once adorned this magnificent city, built of such excellent materials that they resisted the fire which consumed their costly interiors. It is really revolting to human nature.’ 1408 GM clxxviii
Meeting the Russian Tsar. [Q9] ‘ … the Emperor came to meet me, shook hands with me and drew me by the hand to the window. He said in French, “ I am extremely happy to make the acquaintance of a person who has rendered me such essential services in negociating [sic] a peace with Persia, a peace which in every shape is most advantageous and honourable, and meets my highest approbation. It is impossible I can express what I feel towards your Excellency. ” Ouseley.— “ Sire, any little services it was my good fortune to be able to perform in Persia, formed only a part of my duty, and were effected in obedience to the instructions of His Majesty's Government. If my exertions are honoured by your Majesty's gracious approbation, les voeux de mon ambition sont exaucées [my ambitions are fulfilled], and I am the happiest of mortals. ” He again shook my hand very cordially, and said that, wishing to show his gratitude most effectively, he had spoken about me to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and to Lord Castlereagh, who, he felt certain, would recompense me in a more substantial and honourable manner than it was in his power to do.’ 1408 GM cxcix-cc
Christening of his daughter in St Petersburg. [Q10] ‘The Empress was particularly kind, and thanked me most gratefully for the piece of Persian mosaic and shawl quilt which I sent her. After dinner she sent for our last- born infant, who came to the palace, accompanied by the nurses, Dr. Campbell, and the clergyman, Mr. Spencer; we proceeded into Her Majesty's cabinet. The Empress held our little one at the font, and she was christened Alexandrina Perceval. Her godmothers were the Empress in person, and Countess Litta, proxy for the Honourable Mrs. Spencer Perceval. Godfathers, the Emperor and Mr. Ouvaroff, proxy for the honourable Robert Gordon. After the ceremony I thanked the Empress, and kissed her hand. She seemed greatly pleased with Janie, who accompanied her sister; and when I returned home she sent a souvenir to Lady Ouseley, with congratulations upon [the baptism] of the infant, &c.’ 1411 GM ccx-ccxi
28 A taste of the reports – William Ouseley
6. A taste of the reports – William Ouseley
In the following quotations, we have retained William Ouseley’s use of italics for foreign place names and titles. But we have not followed him in the use of small capitals for the proper names of people, nor in his insertions of the Farsi script for all Persian words shown.
What William Ouseley had to say A view of slavery in Brazil. [Q1] ‘But like others of our English party who had never before visited a land contaminated by slavery, I was surprised on stepping ashore, and must add, shocked, at the appearance of many wretched Africans employed in drawing water near the landing place. Some were chained in pairs, by the wrists; others, five or six together, by links attached to heavy iron collars. These, it was said, had endeavoured to escape from the lash of their owners, by seeking refuge in the woods and mountains. I remarked that from the iron collar which was fastened round the neck of one, proceeded a long handle, (of iron also) contrived by its projection, to embarrass the wearer, when forcing his way through forests or thickets. This handle also would afford to any European who might unfortunately detect the poor fugitive, very easy means of securing, and even, (by immediate strangulation) of destroying him. All these were as nearly in a state of perfect nakedness, as decency would allow; and many bore, on their backs and shoulders, the marks either of stripes recently inflicted, or of others by which their skins had long since been lacerated.’ 1009 WO1 12/13
Co-existence of different faiths in Mumbai (then Bombay). [Q2] ‘I happened one day to pass by the tomb of some Mohammedan saint, where a venerable Sheikh sat reading with much solemnity in a book, probably the Koran; while near him reposed a Brahman, seemingly absorbed in pious meditation. Within thirty or forty yards was a tank of water where several Hindús performed their ablutions; and adjoining it, a temple, before the idol of which, others were engaged in devotion. On one side was a dwelling-house of some Portuguese family, (or perhaps a little chapel) exhibiting conspicuously on the outside, figures of the Virgin Mary and child; and two or three hundred yards from this, was one of the Parsí fire temples; a small modern edifice of very simple appearance.’ 1101 WO1 97
How the embassy party travelled. [Q3] ‘On the twenty-seventh of March [1811], we began our journey towards Shiraz, at seven o’clock in the morning, accompanied by Mohammed Jaafar Khán [Governor of Bushehr] and Abúl Hassan Khán [former Persian ambassador to London], whose numerous attendants, with the Sepoy dragoons, the Royal Artillery-men, and Sergeants of the forty-seventh regiment, all mounted on horseback, besides ourselves with our grooms, and other servants in European, Indian, Arabian, and Persian dresses, formed a long and variegated cavalcade. There were, besides, many Shaters A taste of the reports – William Ouseley 29 or running footmen, in the Ambassador's train. At the moment of our departure, a grand salute was fired from the Lion, and another soon after, from the Fort of Bushehr. Lady Quseley and her little daughter travelled in the palankin or pálki [kind of sedan chair – see Figure 7], procured at Bombay; whence also, had been brought for the purpose of carrying it, twenty strong and active Indians, who relieved each other under the load by turns, four at a time. Her two English maid-servants followed in a Cajávah: this consisted of two small and inconvenient seats, slung on a mule; and over them were awnings of canvass [sic], supported on slight wooden frames.’ 1103 WO1 250/51
An experience of village life. [Q4] ‘I found the inhabitants of Zahedan extremely civil and obliging; they furnished me with a plentiful dinner of lamb and fowls; pomegranates, apples, small and not quite ripe, but of pleasant flavour; and excellent dates which they recommended as being máli-Jahrum the product of Jahrum; besides roses, lavishly bestowed, as usual. The principal Kedkhodá, or householder, now representing the Zábet [bailiff] , paid me a respectful visit, and seemed anxious to show what he considered most worthy of notice in the village or its vicinity; I accompanied him about half a mile to a large and handsome garden, on entering which he immediately offered me two or three flowers, " not," said he, on account of their beauty - "or their fragrance, but to signify, that the garden is your own." Here we walked in a plantation of date trees, nar ú mádeh "male and female," and seated ourselves, at the asl-i-mián-e-bágh, that place in the very centre of the inclosure from which four walks, one exactly like another, branch off at right angles; in this spot is generally a hawz or reservoir, supplying with water the borders of each walk; but an eye accustomed to the neatness of English horticulture is offended by the weeds and stones, allowed to remain in most Persian gardens, among beautiful shrubs and flowers.’ 1104 WO2 109/10
Seeing how the potters work. [Q5] ‘We then went to a place where several persons were employed in making earthen jars, cups, bowls and other vessels; one man whilst we looked on, turned with his wheel in less than a quarter of an hour, seven or eight dishes, resembling our deep soup-plates, which would have been reckoned good in England; they glaze the clay with much neatness and very expeditiously; and the principal artist had succeeded to such a degree in imitating fine porcelain, that, without minute examination, it was difficult to distinguish the ware made by him, from the Chinese originals, both of the blue and white pattern, and painted in flowers and figures. I saw the materials which he used in every stage; they are procured from stones of the neighbouring mountains; and some were reduced after a certain process, to an impalpable powder, white as snow. This man, in the imitation of china ware, had not received the encouragement due to his ingenuity; he was very poor, and deterred, as he confessed to me, from prosecuting this refined branch of his art, by the exorbitant price of some particular colours.’ 1104 WO2 166/7
30 A taste of the reports – William Ouseley
Birth of the Ouseleys’ daughter. [Q6] ‘We congratulated the Ambassador on the birth of a daughter which occurred this morning at the Takht-i-Cajar Palace. He mentioned, that the Queen had just sent a very polite message of consolation, begging that Lady Ouseley would not afflict herself because the child was a female; since the same being who had, in his divine wisdom, thought proper now to send a girl, might on the next occasion bless the parents with a boy. Sons are, almost exclusively, the objects of Persian wives.’ 1106 WO2 205
Buying manuscripts in Isfahan. [Q7] ‘Among several Manuscripts which I purchased soon after our arrival at Ispahan was a poetical work composed during the full splendour of this palace; the original perfection of its water-works, and beauty of its shady avenues, and of the luxuriant flowers that embellished their variegated borders. It is entitled "The Gulzár-e-Saadet or Rose bed of Prosperity, a poem in praise of the gardens and edifices at Saadetábád", composed about an hundred and ten years ago. Besides the poem written to celebrate these gardens, I procured during my residence under the shade of their noble chinar-trees [oriental plane trees], many other Manuscripts; among which some are only beautiful copies of Arabick [sic] or Persian works, already known in the great libraries of London or Oxford, Paris or Leyden; but three or four may be considered as extremely rare; it is doubtful, indeed whether any duplicates of them exist in Europe; they shall be noticed in another part of this work. But Ispahán did not furnish even one of those ancient Arabick and Persian Manuscripts, that the booksellers undertook, and probably endeavoured to procure, according to a list which I had given them immediately on my arrival.’ 1110 WO3 61
Life in the embassy lodgings. [Q8] ‘On the sixth we removed to the two houses which had been prepared for our reception; and “furnished” according to the Persian definition of that expression; for some carpets were spread on the earthen floors. We had brought, however, from England, beds, chairs, tables and writing-desks, and were soon well established in our respective apartments; at breakfast and at dinner we all assembled, every morning and evening, in that house which became the constant residence of Sir Gore and Lady Ouseley; but to the Secretaries and other English gentlemen were assigned the various chambers of a mansion nearly opposite, once the dwelling-place of Mírzá Bábá [a disgraced high official of the city].’ 1111 WO3 138
A journey to the Caspian Sea and back. [Q9] ‘Having accomplished my original design of exploring the forests, and visiting, however hastily, the principal cities of Mázenderán, and having gratified my curiosity by a view of the Caspian sea, I now resolved on returning to the prince's villa near Bárfurúsh, and thence to Tehrán by such a road as might lead me through some places not seen probably, or at least not described, by any European traveller for nearly two hundred years. On the eighth of March [1812], therefore, I left Ámul about noon, A taste of the reports – William Ouseley 31 crossing on horseback the bed of the river Harhaz as at our entrance, and arrived after a ride of five hours, at the apartments which I had before occupied in the Bahr al Irem. On the ninth, in consequence of arrangements deemed necessary by the Mehmándár, we allowed our horses to rest, and made preparations for traversing the country to Shirgáh in a direction that threatened, according to every report, many obstacles and dangers from the overflowing of rivers, and the badness or total want of roads.’ 1202 WO3 317
Death of the Ouseleys’ daughter. [Q10] ‘Early on the twenty-second [of April, 1812], Eliza Shirin, the infant daughter of Sir Gore Ouseley, was relieved by death from the pains of a tedious illness; and in the evening was buried near some trees of the royal garden called Sultan ábád, between the Cazvín and the Sháh abd al ázím gates, within the city walls; a spot granted by the king for this particular purpose. Mr. Morier read the funeral service; and from the design drawn by him, a little monument was, within four or five days, erected over the place of interment; … ‘ 1204 WO3 349
Georgian women as concubines. [Q11] ‘I saw this day at the house of an European, two very interesting females; one, about fourteen years old, had been given to him several months before by the prince; her countenance was extremely pleasing, and as a gift she was reckoned worth more than eighty pounds, three suits of clothes being included in the calculation. The other girl was also pretty, and did not appear above twelve years of age; she had been lately purchased for a friend of the European, and (with some articles of dress) cost, as her proprietor himself informed me, nearly fifty pounds. Her manners were as yet perfectly childish; and at first she seemed disconcerted in the presence of strangers, whilst the elder (with whom she was now on a visit) treated her with much kindness, assuming however all the gravity of a matron. Such are those girls whom the Persians generally denominate Gurji or Georgians; they are of Christian parents and chiefly come from Georgia, Circassia and Armenia. They consider themselves in every respect as the legitimate wives of those to whose lot they fall; and although their inclinations are never consulted, nor do they see their future companions until they appear in the character of husband, master or owner; yet it is said that these young creatures behave almost invariably with fidelity and affection.’ 1206 WO3 408
The party that left for England. [Q12] ‘Having received the Government despatches, and a variety of letters from the Ambassador, I took leave of my friends in Tabríz on the first of July, (1812), and soon after nine o'clock at night, set out from Major D'Arcy's house; rode through the streets for above a mile, then entered the plain and passed by many gardens. On the journey thus begun, my party consisted of Mr. Price, who had for some time desired to revisit England; Kerbelái Husein Khán appointed by the prince to attend me in quality of Mehmándár, as far as the Persian frontiers; Mustafa, a Tátár or Turkish courier, who, above two months before, had arived [sic] from Constantinople; several armed men under the Mehmándár's command; our servants; a chárwádár or conductor of the 32 A taste of the reports – William Ouseley baggage-horses and mules, with two or three assistants; the Ambassador's English groom; two Persian jilúdárs or head grooms, and two mehters or inferior grooms, having in their charge the beautiful horses sent, with various articles before mentioned (p. 372), as presents from Fateh Ali Sháh to the Prince Regent of England.’ 1206 WO3 418
Figure 14. The fallen statue of Shapúr at Bishapur
Sir William Ouseley, Travels, vol 1, plate xix
A taste of the reports – James Morier 33
7. A taste of the reports – James Morier
Morier makes use of italics only for specific Persian words and his report does not include any Farsi script. The text is notable for frequent biblical references.
What James Morier had to say Behaviour of the Persian party on board ship. [Q1] ‘On the 18th of July, 1810, we left Spithead, and after an agreeable passage of eleven days, reached Madeira. Here the Persian Ambassador refused to go on shore, though the curiosity of the people and the politeness of the governor made every effort to prevail on him to alter his determination. His reasons we could not well ascertain, but we guessed that they might be influenced by a little jealousy at the honours paid to the English Embassy. We sailed again on the 1st of August, and on the 28th crossed the line; when the operation of shaving was performed with unusual merriment, although the sailors did not take advantage of the additional stock of beards, which they had in the Persians, to exact from them any extraordinary tribute.’ 1007 M 3
Persian ambassador received good news in Mumbai (then Bombay). [Q2] ‘The Ambassadors were received with great distinction by Mr. Duncan, the late governor of Bombay. Previous to landing, a considerable number of Persian merchants came on board to compliment their Ambassador upon his arrival, and according to the custom of their country, brought with them presents of all sorts of fruit. But that which gave most pleasure to the Persian Ambassador was the notification of his Sovereign's entire approval of his conduct in England, to confirm which he received a special firman [royal mandate] that invested him with the title of Khan. The uncertainty in which he had so long lived upon this head had so much agitated his mind, that when he received his letters, his countenance evinced all the strongest emotions of hope and fear, which soon were succeeded by those of confirmed joy.’ 1101 M 17
Parallels between Indian and Greek architecture. [Q3] ‘The same general resemblance of feature which, in my first visit to India, I had noticed between parts of the architecture of Elephanta, and of the architectural orders of Greece, particularly of the Doric, struck me with renewed force upon a second visit to these celebrated caves. By whatever means such a resemblance may have been produced, whether by chance, or more probably by a chain of connection, now imperceptible, between the two countries, it would perhaps be impossible to decide; but it is most certain, that the entablature with its frieze, cornice, and architrave, the column with its shaft and capital, and the base with its plinth and tores [torus, or moulding on base of a classical column], are as strongly delineated here, although in the rudest and most inelegant style, as in the monuments of Greece and Italy.’ 1101 M 23/24 34 A taste of the reports – James Morier
Persian and British reactions to women. [Q4] ‘Above all things, that which most excited [the Persians’] curiosity, was the circumstance of our Ambassador having brought his harem with him; for although the Easterns look upon it as indecorous to make enquiries about each other's women, yet still we could observe how anxious they were to know something about ours. Perhaps their curiosity about the women of Europe is quite as great as that of Europeans about those of Asia. I can state, in confirmation of the last assertion, that one of the first questions put to me by my acquaintances in Europe, has ever been on that subject; and from the conversations I have had with Asiatics upon the same topic, both parties have universally appeared to entertain in their imaginations the highest ideas of the beauty of each other's women. When a Persian wishes to give an high idea of a woman's beauty, he says, she is Missal Frengui, like an European; and on the other hand, Europeans pay the same compliment to the fair sex of Georgia and Circassia. The Ambassador introduced the Governor into the separate cabin of his wife, where was also another young lady, and two servant maids. After he had sat and wondered for some time, he whispered the Persian Ambassador, and asked, " Are all these the Elchee’s [Ambassador’s] wives ?" ’ 1103 M 39/40
The role of the Mehmándár. [Q5] ‘Our long delay at Bushire was occasioned by some discussions on the appointment of a Mehmandar, an officer of indispensable necessity in a country where there are no public inns, and little safety on the roads, for strangers. He acts at once as commissary, guard, and guide; and also very much in the same capacity as Tissaphernes, who in conducting the ten thousand Greeks through Persia, besides providing markets for them, was also a watch upon them, and a reporter to the king of all their actions. The appointment of a Mehmandar to an Ambassador in eastern countries is always a matter of etiquette; and the degree of consequence in which the said Ambassador and the Court whence he comes is held, is supposed to be announced by the rank of the person who is appointed to attend upon him. The man nominated to conduct us to Shiraz was Mahomed Zeky Khan, favourite of the Prince, Governor of Fars. After our arrival there, it was settled that a person of greater consequence was to be sent direct from the King, to conduct us to Teheran. It is against Persian etiquette to proceed before the arrival of the appointed Mehmandar, and we remained long in expectation of the arrival of Mahomed Zeky Khan.’ 1103 M 46
Going to the baths. [Q6] ‘The first thing the Persians do after a journey, is to go to the hot bath; and to such travellers who never change their linen, nor even take off their clothes but at the termination of their journey, it must be a real enjoyment, and accounts for the sort of craving with which they seek it. I have always remarked, that whenever any of our Persian servants had absented themselves without leave, their excuse always was that they had been at the bath. Having heard of the excellence of the baths of Shiraz, we made a party to go to one, and accordingly ordered the Hummum-e-Vekeel, the finest in the town, to be made ready for our reception. As we were celebrated for paying A taste of the reports – James Morier 35 well, the Shirazees were happy to receive us, although in stricter towns they have refused to admit us, from a religious prejudice that infidels to their faith, whom they look upon as nejes, or unclean, would pollute the water. Our party consisted of almost all the gentlemen of the embassy, most of whom were quite unused to Asiatic customs, and had never frequented Oriental public baths. It was easy to remark the horror with which the natives regarded the great carelessness with which some stripped for bathing, a circumstance the more remarkable, as it may be supposed that the frequency of bathing among them would lead to indifference in matters of decency. They hold total nakedness in great horror; … ’ 1104 M 59
A visitation of locusts. [Q7] ‘On the 11th of June, whilst seated in our tents about noon, we heard a very unusual noise, that sounded like the rushing of a great wind at a distance. On looking up we perceived an immense cloud, here and there semi-transparent, in other parts quite black, that spread itself all over the sky, and at intervals shadowed the sun. This we soon found to be locusts, whole swarms of them falling about us; but their passage was but momentary, for a fresh wind from the S. W., which had brought them to us, so completely drove them forwards, that not a vestige of them was to be seen two hours after. The locusts which we saw at Bushire were like those which Shaw saw in Barbary in 1724 and 518, with legs and body of a bright yellow, and the wings spotted brown. These were larger and of a red colour, and I should suppose are the real predatory locust, one of the Egyptian plagues; they are also the great grasshopper mentioned by the prophet Nahum, no doubt in contradistinction to the lesser, ([Book of Nahum] c. iii. v. 17.). As soon as they appeared, the gardeners and husbandmen made loud shouts, to prevent their settling on their grounds.’ 1106 M 98
Estimating population numbers. [Q8] ‘During our stay at Shiraz, I endeavoured to acquire some correct information concerning the number of its inhabitants, but it is so difficult to attain even an approximation to the truth, from a people whose great characteristic is falsehood, that I despaired of arriving at any satisfactory conclusion. Registers of births are unknown, and the accounts which are kept of the number of houses, are too incorrect to serve as the basis of a correct calculation. However, I set a man in my pay secretly to enquire of the Ketkhodas or chiefs of the different mahals or divisions, what was the number of houses in each mahal … [the result, a total of 7780 houses, is shown in a small table].’ 1106 M 110
Houses and bazaars in Isfahan. [Q9] ‘The houses of Ispahan are one story in height, but are composed of so many compartments, that even the meanest of them occupy a considerable area; for the extent that we occupy in our high houses, is in Persia laid out horizontally. They are built either of earth or brick, and their uniformity in height and colour produces a very dull appearance when seen collectively. The bazars are very extensive, and it is possible to walk under cover in them for two or three miles together. The trades are here collected in separate bodies, which makes it very convenient to purchasers; and 36 A taste of the reports – James Morier indeed we may from analogy suppose the same to have been the case from the most ancient times, when we consider the command of Zedekiah to feed Jeremiah from the " baker’s street." (Jeremiah, xxxvii. 21.) To a stranger, the bazars are the most amusing place of resort; for here is a continual concourse of people, in which characters of all descriptions, each busied in their different avocations, are seen to pass in rotation. Many of the scenes, so familiar to us in the Arabian Nights, are here realised.’ 1107 M 136
The Persians offer dinner in English style. [Q10] ‘The Ameen-ad-Dowlah [second vizier of Persian State] then got up, and invited the Ambassador and the other guests to follow him into another apartment, where we found that an attempt had been made to lay out a dinner in the European manner. On a number of rude unpainted tables, some high, some low, arranged in the horse-shoe fashion, were heaped all the various dishes which compose a Persian entertainment, not in symmetrical order, for their numbers made that impossible, but positively piled one upon the other, so that stewed fowl lay under roasted lamb, omelet under stewed fowl, eggs under omelet, and rice under all, and so on. Every European was provided with a knife, fork, napkin, and plate; but the poor Persians, alas ! made but rueful work of it. Some were seated upon chairs so high that they towered far above the alpine scenery of meats and stews; others again were seated so low that they were lost in the vallies [sic], their mouths being brought to about the level of the table. When a Persian eats his dinner in his ordinary way, the dishes are placed on the ground before him, and crouching himself down, he brings his mouth so close to them as commodiously to transfer the victuals from the dish to his mouth (see Figure 12): but here, his mouth being placed at a great distance from the good things, and his fingers being the only medium of communication between both, their commerce was but slow and uncertain.’ 1108 M 144/5
Sorting out procedures for visiting the Shah. [Q11] ‘The first days of our arrival at Teheran were almost exclusively engaged by discussions on points of etiquette (see Figure 11). The Ambassador demanded that he should deliver the King of England's letter into the Shah's own hands — that on account of his superior diplomatic rank, he should be treated with greater honours than had been shown to all preceding ministers—and that he should receive the first visit from the Grand Vizier [prime minister]. The Persians resisted the first demand, saying it was contrary to their usage—to the second they answered, that with regard to greater honours, they had on former occasions exhausted all which they had to give; but that now, the most they could do was to place the Ambassador's chair nearer to the throne than had been practised in preceding audiences of ministers. As for the last, they refused positively to accede to it. In order to carry his principal point, the Ambassador was obliged to compromise his first visit to the King to a private audience.’ 1111 M 170/1
A taste of the reports – James Morier 37
Finally getting down to negotiations. [Q12] ‘After the solemnities of the Moharrem [period of religious mourning] were over, the Persian ministers entered upon the negociation [sic] of a definitive treaty with the Ambassador which occupied them during the winter; and I should have been happy to give an account of the discussions which the subject of it involved, if the official character which I held in the Embassy did not forbid it. Unacquainted as the Persians are with the law of nations, and unaccustomed to the discussion of great political questions, we found their ignorance a great impediment to the progress of business. Whatever demand we made, however clear and self-evident, they always thought that it had, or might have, some recondite meaning, which they could not understand, consequently they never acceded to it without discussions so long and violent, as frequently to end in quarrel. They have but a very confused idea of Europe, and the position of its different states. The great mass of Persians, very much like their ancestors, look upon Europe as one state, which they call Fireng, and all Europeans Firengees.’ 1201 M 184
Sounds of the city. [Q13] ‘But there are noises peculiar to every city and country; and none are more distinct and characteristic than those in Persia. First, at the dawn of day, the muezzins are heard in a great variety of tones, calling the people to prayers from the tops of the mosques; these are mixed with the sounds of cow-horns, blown by the keepers of the hummums [baths], to inform the women, who bathe before the men, that the baths are heated, and ready for their reception. The cow-horns set all the dogs in the city howling in a frightful manner. The asses of the town generally beginning to bray about the same time, are answered by all the asses in the neighbourhood; a thousand cocks then intrude their shrill voices, which, with the other subsidiary noises of persons calling to each other, knocking at doors, cries of children, complete a din very unusual to the ears of an European. In the summer season, as the operations of domestic life are mostly performed in the open air, every noise is heard. At night, all sleep on the tops of their houses, their beds being spread upon their terraces, without any other covering over their heads than the vault of heaven.’ 1206 M 229
A remarkable natural phenomenon. [Q14] ‘On the 24th [of October, 1813] we proceeded to Shirameen, a village near the lake, and distant three fursungs [equivalent to parasang or just less than four miles] from the preceding stage. At the distance of one fursung on the right of the road, is a spring of chalybeate water [water containing iron salts], and two fursungs farther on, after having discovered the expanse of the lake, we diverged from the road to visit the petrifactions. This natural curiosity consists of certain extraordinary ponds or plashes whose indolent waters by a slow and regular process stagnate, concrete, and petrify; and produce that beautiful transparent stone, commonly called Tabriz marble, which is so remarkable in most of the burial places in Persia, and which forms a chief ornament in all the buildings of note throughout the country. These ponds, which are situated close to one another, are contained in a circumference of about half a mile, and their 38 A taste of the reports – James Morier position is marked by confused heaps and mounds of the stone, which have accumulated as the excavations have increased. We had seen nothing in Persia yet which was more worthy of the attention of the naturalist than this; and I never so much regretted my ignorance of subjects of this nature, because I felt that it is of consequence they should be brought into notice by scientific observation.’ 1310 M 284
Gore Ouseley asked to go to Russia. [Q15] ‘The English Ambassador was requested by the King, in order to further his interests, to return to England by Russia; and as it would not have been convenient for both Ambassadors with their numerous suites, to travel together through that country, Sir Gore Ouseley departed first, and in about two months after was followed by the Persian Embassy. It having been determined that the charge of our affairs was to be made over to me at the boundaries of the Russian and Persian territories, I accompanied His Excellency thither, and we arrived at Tabriz on the 18th of May, 1814 … ’ 1405 M 301
Illness and death. [Q16] ‘As we proceeded on our journey [down to Tabriz], the numbers of sick in our camp rather increased than abated. Of thirty Indian cavalry that formed the body guard, only two attended us on our entry into Tabriz, all the others being unfit for service; and we had not long been arrived before we had to deplore the loss of one of our companions, Captain Snodgrass of the Bombay army, a fine young man in the bloom of life, whom we buried in the Armenian church. Having paid our respects to Abbas Mirza [crown prince and governor of Azerbaijan region], we proceeded to Teheran, where after a short negotiation, Mr. Ellis [envoy sent from London with revisions to British-Persian treaty] and I concluded a definitive treaty with the Persian government. That gentleman, attended by Mr. Willock, then Persian secretary to the mission [Henry Willock, later head of mission in Persia], departed for England on the December following, and left me at Teheran.’ 1409 M 347/8
Spending time while head of mission. [Q17] ‘Where there are so few amusements, exercise on horseback and the care of horses are great enjoyments. We scarcely ever passed a morning without taking a long ride, accompanied by grey hounds [sic] or with our fowling-pieces, and spent at least an hour each day in the inspection of all the details of the stable. In the plain below, when the harvest was finished we found great quantities of the bokara cara, (black- breasted partridges,) blue pigeons, and doves. The mountains abound in foxes, hares, and antelopes; and not far from Demawend we heard of wild boars. Persian sportsmen frequently brought us mountain goats, which they shot in those parts where their passage was frequent.’ 1506 M 359
A taste of the reports – James Morier 39
Glad to be leaving. [Q18] ‘The 6th of October [1815] was at length fixed for my departure, and the King was pleased to grant my audience of leave on the day preceding. Although His Majesty in the most flattering terms expressed his sorrow at my departure, yet I must own that I never felt so much happiness as on the morning when I made my exit from the gates of Teheran. My sensations were exactly those expressed by Tournefort, when he determined to return to France19. Although in the heart of Persia, yet I had scarcely quitted Teheran, before it seemed that I could perceive the dome of St. Paul's church, and the spires of London. In Persia there is nothing to attach the heart — the people (with some exceptions) are false, the soil is dreary, and disease is in the climate. At a distance from civilized life, seldom hearing from our country and friends, without the resources of society, the life we led was little better than a state of exile. My regrets, which were confined to parting from those who had been my companions, were heightened by the thought that I left them to pursue that life which had been so irksome to myself.’ 1510 M 390
Figure 15. Fragment of Persepolis sculpture In the possession of James Morier Esq.
Morier, Second Journey, p. ii (FP)
40 A taste of the reports –William Price
8. A taste of the reports – William Price
Price makes little use of italics for foreign words, but he gives the Farsi script for the Persian place names when they are first introduced. There are also extensive quotations in Farsi and some use of Indian and other scripts. All quotations are from the first edition of volume one of Price’s Journal, published in 1825.
What William Price had to say Time spent ashore in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). [Q1] ‘During our stay, the officers of the ship, and the gentlemen of the Embassy spent most of the time on shore—some on shooting parties, others according to their various tastes, and I was gratified in making sketches of the town and country. In one of my walks I passed a school, the master of which was teaching his pupils to write Cingalese and Tamul; he wrote with an iron pin on the leaves of a tree, and, perceiving I had a curiosity for seeing it, he presented me with some of his writing.’ 1012 P 3
Accommodation and sights in Shiraz. [Q2] ‘The Prince allotted the palace of Kajaria for the use of Sir Gore and his household; the gentlemen of the suite and the Persians encamped near the walls of the palace garden. Shiraz is situate [sic] in the middle of a fertile plain nearly surrounded with mountains; it is defended by a wall flanked with round towers—the domes of its mosques have a grand appearance. The walls of the Prince's palace rise considerably above the others, and it is distinguished by a number of trees growing in its gardens. The Bazaar, called Mauli Vakeel, is very spacious and handsome, and carries on a considerable commerce. Shiraz is the birth-place of the two great poets, Saadi and Hafiz; the tomb of the former stands in a kind of recess of the mountains, about half a parasang distant, and that of the latter is near the city. It is a neat inclosure containing a plantation of shrubs and cypresses, and some commodious apartments for the use of pilgrims or other persons visiting the sacred spot. The tomb itself stands in the middle of a small burial ground, and is of the ordinary size of tombs: it is formed of white marble, having a flat surface, with an inscription, which I copied with the greatest exactness amidst crowds of Persians.’ 1104 P 12
Experience of the Persian countryside. [Q3] ‘ln order to rest the cattle this was a halting day, which was the more agreeable as we were in a temperate atmosphere. There was a great variety of fruit in the gardens and orchards bending the branches of luxuriant trees, while other trees were only coming into blossom. The grain, too, and other things, according to their more or less advanced state, at the same time, and in the same field, displayed different seasons; on one spot was wheat just sprung, on another it was coming into ear, and in an adjoining part it was fit for the sickle. The notes of the blackbird reminded me of Old England, A taste of the reports –William Price 41 and the warblings of smaller birds kept up a constant melody. During the day, however, there came on a violent tornado, and some of our tents were blown down in an instant—the sand that it carried with it resembling a pillar that reached the clouds.’ 1107 P 17
The Armenians in Isfahan. [Q4] ‘Ispahan, in the eyes of a European, has, for the most part, a wretched appearance, owing to the vast number of mud-built ruins which present themselves in every quarter; and with the exceptions of the royal palaces, and some of the mosques (see Figure 10), there is but little to please the sight. The villages round have been cruelly desolated by the Afghans who, some years ago, made inroads, and brought destruction with them. Julfa, the quarter allotted to the Christian community, has also been pillaged in its turn. This was once a populous and flourishing place; but being robbed and persecuted by the government, most of the rich inhabitants have sought shelter in other countries. One of the churches is magnificently decorated with scriptural paintings and other ornaments, and another, which is the church of females, is very handsome: none but females are admitted into it, and the service is performed by priestesses, according to the rites of the Armenian church, the greater part of the people being of that sect. There is also a chapel and convent of the Dominican order, of the church of Rome; the congregation is small, and Father Joseph, an Italian, the only clergyman, who had officiated there eighteen years. It was curious sometimes to meet there (as it is customary for the congregation to assemble in the cloisters before and after the church service) people of all nations, forming a second Babel—I once heard more than a dozen languages spoken by the visitants.’ 1107 P 20
The Persian Shah and his background. [Q5] The name of his Persian majesty is Fateh Ali [Sháh]; his will is the law. He has generally three ministers, is above the middle age, has a great number of wives, and about sixty sons and daughters. He generally dresses plain, but on court days he is covered with jewels. His grandfather was the first of his dynasty; he seized the reins of government at a time when the nation was convulsed by internal commotions; he was of the Kajar tribe, and came from Azerbijan—the Kajars inhabit great part of the country between Tehiran and the Caspian Sea. The court was formerly held at Ispahan; but the Kajars not feeling perfect security so far from their own province, thought proper to remove it to Tehiran, whence should any disturbance occur, the king would soon be in the midst of his own tribe.’ 1111 P 28
Observing the Day of Martyrdom. [Q6] ‘A grand religious celebration among the Persians, called Roozikatle, or the day of martyrdom, being kept in commemoration of Ali and his two sons; they had erected large tents in several parts of the town, some days before, for the people to assemble and weep; which many of them did, or at least pretended to do, previous to the day of martyrdom. The Shah invited the Embassy to this annual ceremony, and ordered a tent to be pitched over some buildings adjoining the palace for the use of Sir Gore and his suite, 42 A taste of the reports –William Price and sat himself in an apartment contiguous. A purple tajeer (walls of a tent) was fixed nearly opposite to the palace, and inside were several men buried up to the chin, to represent the heads of the martyrs. The populace were ranged along the tops of the houses and in the square in every direction; but in front of the palace, in order to give room, two semicircles were formed, one within the other, the people sitting on their heels according to Oriental custom. The Shah made his appearance a little before noon: he sat upon a throne that was placed near the window; no person entered the apartments but when he gave his commands—his Farosh bashee [head servant] came several times to receive his orders. Soon after his majesty was seated, a beautiful vehicle was carried round the square on men's shoulders, It was called Ambaree [canopied howdah]. It was spangled all over with the most costly jewels, the front of it showed the rising sun and other devices; it was preceded by several flags highly ornamented, and a row of Kajars (the king's own tribe) stood on each side of the gate at the entrance of the square, and in front of the palace. Then came a set of men, naked about the shoulders, with small caps like a patch on the crown of the head, a round piece of wood in each hand, dancing like morris-dancers round a ring, and beating the pieces of wood together, twice below and once over their heads.’ [Followed by extensive further descriptions.] 1201 P 29/30
Meeting some Zoroastrians. [Q7] ‘I met a great number of Guebers [Zoroastrians], just arrived from Yazd, going to Karaj to build a new town by order of the Shah. These fire-worshippers are descendants of the ancient Persians, and, though they have been much persecuted, are a fine race of people. Some of them had books of their prayers written in the modern Persian character and language; but the greater part of the labouring class could neither write nor read, and spoke Persian in much the same manner as other Persians of the lower class: those who could read were very circumspect lest their mussulman countrymen should see them, as they ran the risk of being severely punished if informed against; they were very civil, and explained anything I wished to the best of their ability. They said they had not had the benefit of education, but that some merchants, lately arrived, were very intelligent men; I inquired their names, and called at their apartments. … I was much pleased with their society; they were very well- informed men, spoke Pahlavi [middle Persian language], and read the Pahlavi and modern Persian characters with equal facility. They were no less liberal, for they furnished me with some valuable Pahlavi manuscripts, and a variety of information which I intend for a future publication.’ 1204 P 34
Spending time in an artist’s studio. [Q8] ‘Spent some time at the house of Aka Ali Nakosh, one of the king's principal artists; he was doing a set of costumes for me with several pupils round him. His figures, though having Persian stiffness about them were very nicely made out and finely coloured—his productions had a ready sale at high prices. The outlines of his figures were pricked upon pieces of paper, and by dabbing a small linen bag of red lead over the holes, produced the forms, either right or reverse, on the paper under them. When he came to the gilding part, he took some gold leaf, put it into a small quantity of A taste of the reports –William Price 43 melted glue and rubbed it well with the finger in a saucer with a little salt; the sediment was laid on the paper with a hair-pencil, like paint, and when dry, burnished with an agate or dog's tooth. The water is poured off, when laid by, to avoid spoiling the gold, when used again fresh water must be supplied and melted as before. When his gold was fixed, he arranged his colour in little pots, one tint above another, most of them mixed with white, which made the transparent colours become opaque; he filled up the outlines with a thick colour without any softening, and threw in his shades by working deeper tints over the first—his effects were strong and rapid. He grinds his flake white in glue and water with a little serishoom (a kind of thick juice extracted from the grape), or where it is not to be had sugar-candy may be substituted: all other colours he grinds in gum-water only.’ 1205 P 36
Arrival in Tabriz. [Q9] ‘As we approached the city, the road for a considerable way was lined with infantry of very martial appearance (who paid us military honours). They were dressed in blue jackets faced with red, and had much the appearance of our own artillery, with the exception of the Persian cap. When arrived, Sir Gore was taken to the house which Sir H[arford] Jones had formerly occupied, but being too small for the accommodation of the suite, it was some time before houses could be provided for the whole; but in the course of the day several families were turned out of their houses in order to make room for us. A house, belonging to an Armenian priest, fell to my lot: and perceiving the family making up their beds out of doors, I requested them to return, two rooms being sufficient for my use. They expressed many thanks; and I had the pleasure of seeing them in possession of their house again before night.’ 1206 P 62
Departure delayed by the astrologers. [Q10] ‘Prince Abbas Mirza [crown prince and governor of Azerbaijan region] consults his astrologers, and they consulting the planets, discover that if he signs the definitive treaty before the next conjunction, evil may attend it; therefore the signing of the treaty is deferred till the lucky day arrives; consequently Sir William Ouseley and myself are detained from setting out for England with the treaty.’ 1206 P 63
44 A taste of the reports –William Price
Figure 16. Elephant races in Tehran
Price, Journal, vol 1, 1825 ed., after p. 32
Figure 17. Persepolis from the east
Price, Journal, vol 1, 1832 ed., before p. 13
What happened afterwards 45
9. What happened afterwards
The four key writers, whose reports on the embassy to Persia we have followed, returned to Britain at different dates between 1812 and 1816 (see details of journey in Chapter 3). None of them ever returned to Persia again, and, with the exception of Morier, they remained based in Britain. Their lives seem to have diverged after their return. We presume that, as brothers, William and Gore stayed in contact, but there is no record of them working together, or of contacts with other fellow travellers.
It is not surprising that Gore Ouseley, the ambassador, was the person who received most public attention on his return home. He was given a reception by the Prince Regent and an official pension and decorations, but not the peerage that it is said he hoped for. Although he retired from public life and lived in Beaconsfield, Bucks, he continued to be consulted about policy issues relating to Persia and the Middle East. He became active in literary and archaeological matters, being a founder of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts. Gore Ouseley was involved with various editions of Persian literary works, and his own Biographical Notices on Persian Poets was published posthumously20. His extensive collections of oriental manuscripts and paintings eventually found their way to the Bodleian Library in Oxford (see Appendix 3). Gore Ouseley died in 1844.
William Ouseley seems to have been less active in public life on his return. He retired to his family home in Crickhowell on the Welsh border, and spent much time writing his Travels and dealing with his oriental collections. He continued with other scholarly work relating to the Middle East and produced various publications and articles listed in the Bibliography. He was also a member of a number of literary and cultural societies, including the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 1831, he produced a detailed catalogue of his own collection of manuscripts; the collection was subsequently bought by the Bodleian Library in Oxford (see Appendix 3). William Ouseley died two years before his brother in 1842.
Morier remained as chargé d’affaires in Persia until 1815. On his return to Britain the following year, he continued to be involved with the Foreign Office, and, in 1824, he was appointed a special commissioner to Mexico, working on treaty negotiations there. Meanwhile Morier, having written up his Second Journey through Persia, used his extensive knowledge of Persia and the Middle East to write a very successful novel The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan21. He subsequently concentrated on writing, following up with a second Hajji Baba book and other novels. These somewhat satirical writings earned him criticism from Persians, who disliked the stereotype of their national character that the novels presented. Morier died in 1849, not long after the Ouseley brothers, aged only 69 years.
It is evident from his Journal on the embassy to Persia that the fourth writer, Price, had a wide ranging interest in oriental languages. On his return to Britain, Price developed this interest further by teaching the languages at a seminary near 46 What happened afterwards
Worcester. He also published a number of grammatical and other works on Persian, Arabic and Hindustani, and he became a member of the Royal Society of London and the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He was aged only 50 years when he died in 1830.
Two other things are worth mentioning in the context of the aftermath of the embassy to Persia. The first of these concerns the influence of the embassy on the subsequent history of British-Persian relations and the general political development in the area. This has been discussed by Denis Wright in his book The English amongst the Persians22. It is notable that few of the British representatives who followed Gore Ouseley in Tehran had the equivalent status, and Wright suggests that the control of such appointments continued to move backwards and forward between the Foreign Office in London and the East India Company. Relationships between Persia and Britain also swung up and down in cordiality, and the continuing antagonism between Persia and Russia further complicated matters.
The second point concerns what happened to the families of Gore and William Ouseley and their descendants. Both men had a number of children; the information available records four surviving children for Gore (two boys and two girls), and a possible total of nine children for William (including six sons) (see Appendix 2). Two of these children became well known. William’s eldest, Sir William Gore Ouseley, was a diplomat and writer, and Gore’s youngest, the Rev. Canon Professor Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley, was a composer and church musician. But neither of Gore’s sons married, and, though William Gore Ouseley was married, and had two sons, they both died young without issue.
So it appears that the direct Ouseley name and line died out during the second half of the nineteenth century. We have not been able to locate any direct descendants of either man, through either the sons or the daughters, a matter that has relevance to the possible existence of any family papers that refer back to the embassy and the early nineteenth century. The only family link that we have found, is through Jane, a sister of William and Gore, who married into the Lyster family. This family is well documented, and the line continues into the twentieth century and up to the present day, but we have not so far had any contact with them.
Appendix 1. Further details of the journey 47
Appendix 1. Further details of the journey
The table below shows, in summary form, further details of events during the embassy to Persia, 1810-15, and the journeys from and back to Britain. It is in effect a compilation made from all four of the reports on the trip. There is naturally much more information to be gleaned from the full reports. In the summary, we have used the following abbreviations for the four key members of the embassy: GO = Gore Ouseley, WO = William Ouseley, M = Morier, P = Price.
Date Location Events 1810 July 14 Portsmouth William Ouseley, Morier and Gordon, plus Persian ambassador, arrived. 1810 July 15 Portsmouth Sir Gore and Lady Ouseley and child arrived. 1810 July 18 Portsmouth All in main party embarked on HMS Lion; military escort and stores in HMS Chichester. 1810 July 19-28 At sea (to Madeira) 1810 July 29-31 Madeira Arrived at Funchal, various local visits. 1810 August 1- At sea (to Rio de Party re-embarked, 3/8 passed Palma in the Canaries. September 10 Janeiro) 28/8 at the Equator; ceremonies of crossing the line. 1810 September 11-14 At sea (near Rio de 11/9 saw coast, 12/9 Cape Frio, 14/9 anchored. Janeiro) 1810 September 15-25 Rio de Janeiro 15/9 William Ouseley on shore, 16/9 Gore Ouseley and rest of party on shore, 18/9 ambassador and party introduced at court of Prince Regent. 1810 September 25-28 Rio de Janeiro 25/9 took leave of Prince Regent, 26/9 re-embarked. 28/9 sailed after calm. 1810 September 29- At sea (to Sri Lanka) 18/10 passed Tristan d'Acunha, 28/10 passed Cape of December 19 Good Hope, into Indian Ocean . 1810 December 19-21 Sri Lanka (Pointe de Party on shore and touring around. Galle) 1810 December 22-29 At sea (to Cochin) 29/12 on shore at Cochin. 1810 December 30- At sea (to Mumbai) Up west coast of India. Passed various places e.g. January 11 Calicut, some with British flag. 1811 January 12-29 Mumbai & around Formal landing and procession to governor's house; various events and trips including to Keneri and Elephanta. 1811 January 30- At sea (to Bushehr) 8/2 along coast of Sind, 12/2 near Persian Gulf, then February 28 Hormuz and subsequent islands, encounters with pirates and other craft. 1811 March 1-5 Bushehr 1/3 anchored near Bushehr, visits on board by local governor and representative of East India Co., 2/3 Persian ambassador on shore, 5/3 English ambassador’s party on shore, to tent camp. 1811 March 6-27 Bushehr & around Remained in camp awaiting Mehmándár (official Persian escort). Explored area. 1811 March 28-April 7 To Shiraz Large caravan travelling through mountains, with stops at villages and a number of side trips. 48 Appendix 1. Further details of the journey
Date Location Events 1811 April 8-18 Shiraz Arrived in Shiraz, formal visits to Prince Governor and others, Lady Ouseley visit to Queen mother, exploration of city and surroundings, visits to major sites e.g. tombs of Háfiz and Sa’dí. Waiting for Mehmándár from Tehran. 1811 April 19-May 5 Shiraz & around William Ouseley on longer trip in surrounding country to follow up earlier work on traces of Alexander in area. Return via Persepolis, where met Morier on a shorter trip out. Other members of embassy sent on different trips. 1811 May 5-July 9 Shiraz & around Further exchanges of visits with local notables; 8/6 meeting with new Mehmándár; 13/6 Lady Ouseley gave birth to daughter; 6/7 last formal visit to Prince. 1811 July 10-28 To Isfahan Travelled via Persepolis, Naqsh-e Rustam, Pasagardae and other historical sites, as well as many villages and varied countryside. 1811 July 29-October Isfahan & around Visits to and from local notables; also with Armenian 20 Christians in Julfa. Exploration of local sites and surroundings. Waited till end of Ramadan for departure. 1811 October 21- To Tehran Travelled via Cashan, Qom, many smaller villages and November 9 varied countryside. 1811 November 10 - Tehran Negotiations about etiquette of court visits; private and December 24 formal visits by ambassador and others to Shah; exchanges of visits with other key members of court; Lady Ouseley visit to principal Queen. Explorations of city. Persians unwilling to start political negotiations. 1811 December 25- Tehran Celebrations of Christmas, Persian Eid-e-Ghorban, and February 18 Muharram; 26/1 Persians willing to open political negotiations; 2/2 William Ouseley visit to Shah to present official gifts; various trips out of city for shooting and sightseeing, including to Rai. 1812 February 19- In and outside Tehran Journey by William Ouseley up to Caspian Sea and March 17 back, to get information for ambassador and as part of his own archaeological and geographical research. Difficult journey over mountains and in bad weather, much of the route being new ground for Europeans. Others in party in Tehran; continuing political negotiations. 1812 March 18-May 24 Tehran 20/3 celebrations of Nowruz (Persian New Year); visits to and dinners with various notables; 22/4 death of infant daughter of Sir Gore and Lady Ouseley. Waiting for King to sign definitive treaty and for presents for Shah, brought from Britain, to come from Bushehr. Formal leave taking of Shah. 1812 May 25-June 18 To Tabriz Travelled via Cazvin, Sultaniah, various villages and mountainous countryside. 1812 June 19-30 Tabriz Waiting for additional signing of treaty; visit to Prince; meetings with English officers and others stationed in Tabriz; envoys from Russians in Tbilisi (Teflis) re peace negotiations with Persians. Gordon sent to Tbilisi to meet Russians and Morier sent to Persian camps. 1812 July 1-September WO & P to Istanbul 1/7 William Ouseley and Price departed for the UK via 6 Istanbul, taking final signed treaty and presents for the Prince Regent in the UK. Travelled via Armenia and Turkey stopping at villages, visiting local sites, and Appendix 1. Further details of the journey 49
Date Location Events exploring countryside. 2/9 arrived in Istanbul where plague was rampant. 1812 September 7- WO & P to Izmir & 14/9 William Ouseley and Price travelled from Istanbul November 14 home to Izmir to take boat to UK. 26/9 departed Izmir and sailed past Greek islands, Sicily, Balearics, arriving at Alicante 21/10. 1/11 arrived Gibraltar and visit there. 14/11 return to Portsmouth. 1812 July 1-September GO, M and others in Gore Ouseley, Morier and rest of party remained in 6 and around Tabriz Tabriz, meeting various local notables and exploring the city and surrounding area. 1812 September 7- GO, M and others to 7/9 Gore Ouseley received message from Russians that November 19 Ak Tappeh and Tehran wish to treat for peace. Embassy party departed for Persian camp in Ak Tappeh, visiting sites on way. Meetings there with two sides and visits to Russian camp but no chance of peace. Agreed that hostilities to recommence after fixed number of days. Embassy party returned to Tehran, again visiting sites and countryside on way. 1812 November 20 - Tehran Gore Ouseley, Morier and rest of party based in Tehran. May 25 (1813) No comment on activities. Arranged to go to Hamadan for summer. 1813 May 26-June 9 To Hamadan Left Tehran to go to Hamadan for the summer. Visited villages and sites on way. Problems with etiquette of greeting ambassador in Hamadan. 1813 June 10-15 Hamadan Camp pitched on open green spot. Interest from local people. Exploration of local area and sites. Embassy surgeon saved life of ill Greek merchant, sheltered by Armenian church. 1813 June 16-21 To and in Sultanieh Intelligence from Georgia required immediate conference with Shah (about Russia/Persia peace negotiations). Visited sites on way. Agreed ambassador and party to go to Tabriz, and Shah and army to Ojan. 1813 June 22-July 8 To Tabriz Tabriz reached on 9/7. Shah at Ojan 23/7. 1813 July 9-14 Tabriz Met Mr. Brown, African traveller and explorer, trying to go to Balkh and Samarkand (later killed by robbers). 1813 July 15-October Tabriz and Ojan Early negotiations by letter, followed by visits of 20 Russians to Tabriz and Ojan. Reception of Russians by Shah marred by problems of Persian etiquette. Persian and Russian representatives met in Gulistan but Peace treaty not signed. Embassy party remained in Tabriz. 1813 October 21- To Tehran Varied route back from Tabriz, visiting natural sites and November 23 other areas of interest. 1813 November 24- Tehran Draft peace treaty brought back by Persian April 24 (1814) representative, with details of agreed boundaries. Need for treaty to be signed by Russian Tsar. Mírzá Abúl Hassan Khán again appointed as Persian ambassador to take treaty to Russian and Gore Ouseley asked to return to Britain via Russia to support the treaty. No mention of activities during winter. Gore Ouseley left Tehran c.25/4. Morier to remain in charge in Tehran. 1814 April 25-May 25 To and in Tabriz Gore Ouseley, Morier and party arrived Tabriz 18/5 1814 May 26-June 21 To Kara Klisseh Travelled through Armenia (Persian territory) with (border of Armenia) various escorts. Visits to see local notables and sights. 50 Appendix 1. Further details of the journey
Date Location Events Arrived at main Russian military post on frontier. Morier left the ambassador to return to Persia. 1814 June 22-July 27 GO to UK via St Gore Ouseley and family travelled through Georgia, (1815) Petersburg over the Caucasus mountains and across Russia to Moscow (arrived 11/8) and St Petersburg (arrived 24/8). Remained there through winter waiting for Persian ambassador to arrive. Meetings with Tsar and other notables. Birth of daughter November 1814. Left by boat 27/6/15 and arrived at Yarmouth 27/7/15. 1814 June 22- M to Tabriz* Morier returned very slowly to Tabriz, waiting for September 15 (?) servants and equipment taken by ambassador to return from Georgia. Extensive visits in Armenia including to Patriarch in Etchmiatzin. Waited for arrival of Ellis from Britain. Delayed by illness of Ellis and others. 1814 September 16- Tabriz & to Tehran Death and burial of Captain Snodgrass of Bombay October 31 (?) army; Morier and Ellis returned to Tehran. 1814 November 1- Tehran Revised definitive treaty concluded between Britain and December 31 Persia. Ellis and Willock departed for Britain in December. Shah pre-occupied with rebellion in Khorassan. 1815 January 1-June 17 Tehran No report of activities. 1815 June 18-22 (?) To Damavand Recommended by Shah that Morier and embassy party should spend summer at Damavand east of Tehran. Journey up through mountains. 1815 June 23- Damavand Description of Damavand area and people. Special September 17 festival on 31/8. Three months in area, mainly riding, hunting and visiting local sights. Short trip to Shah’s camp near Asterabad. Waited for the arrival of Mr. Willock, the new head of mission. Arrived 17/9. 1815 September 17-21 To Tehran Morier, Willock and party returned to Tehran. (?) 1815 September 22- Tehran Final participation in court rituals. Delivered ratification October 5 of treaty and other documents to Shah, including Morier’s recall. Morier’s final audience with Shah 5/10. 1815 October 6-26 To Tabriz Morier travelled north west accompanied by Willock and Campbell. 1815 October 27-31 Tabriz Meeting with Prince to give letter and gift from British Prince Regent. Attended festivities marking marriage of Prince's sister. 1815 November 1 - To Istanbul Morier departed escorted by two Turkish Tatars, a December 7 (?) Persian Mehmándár and servants. Travelled through Armenia and then through Turkey to Istanbul. 1815 December 8 - In Turkey and to UK Spent time in Turkey with family and friends. By ship September 15 (?) to Trieste, where quarantined. By land to Paris and then (1816) to UK. Arrived in September 1816.
* all subsequent entries relate to Morier only. Appendix 2. Information on key people 51
Appendix 2. Information on key people
Introduction In the following pages we provide a brief summary of what we know about the family and lives of the four main people who wrote about Gore Ouseley’s embassy to Persia. These data are drawn mainly from secondary sources, notably the following: • Dictionary of National Biography • Encyclopaedia Iranica • H M Johnston’s biography of James Morier and his Brothers (see Bibliography)
The information shown is in many respects incomplete. This is particularly the case for William Price whose life and origins have been little documented. It would require a detailed study of Census and other records to fill in the many gaps for him and other members of the embassy party. This is something that we have not been in a position to undertake.
52 Appendix 2. Information on key people
Sir Gore Ouseley 1770-1844
Family details Parents Captain Ralph Ouseley and Elizabeth Holland Siblings Sir William Ouseley (1767-1842), Ralph Ouseley (d. 1810), Jane P Lyster (née Ouseley), plus ?4 others Wife Harriet Ouseley (née Whitelocke, c1785-1846). Married 1806. Children Mary Jane (1807-?), Eliza Shirin (1810-11), son born in Persia (1814-?), Alexandrine Perceval (1814-?), Wellesley Abbas (1819-44), Frederick Arthur Gore (1826-89).
Summary CV Year Event 1770 Born Monmouthshire 1787 Went to India as trader (age 17) 1792 Established textile factory in Dacca, Bengal 1795-96 Moved to Oudh court in Lucknow 1798 Appointed Major-Commandant at Oudh court 1798? Appointed ADC to Nawab Saadat ‘Ali Khán (Oudh court) 1801 Knighted for services in India 1805 Returned to Britain 1806 Married Harriet Whitelocke 1808 Made Baronet (on Lord Wellesley’s recommendation) 1809 Appointed official host to Mírzá Abúl Hassan, Qajar envoy to George III 1809 Designated Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Qajar court 1810-14 Undertook embassy to Persia 1814-15 Travelled to Moscow and St Petersburg at request of Persian Shah 1815 Returned to Britain 1819 Founder member of London Travellers Club 1823 Founder member of Royal Asiatic Society in London 1839 Intervened on behalf of Qajar envoy visiting Britain 1842 Appointed President of Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts 1844 Died Beaconsfield aged 74 1846 Posthumous publication of Biographical Notices of Persian Poets
Appendix 2. Information on key people 53
Sir William Ouseley 1767-1842
Family details Parents Captain Ralph Ouseley and Elizabeth Holland Siblings Sir Gore Ouseley (1770-1844), Ralph Ouseley (d. 1810), Jane P Lyster (née Ouseley), plus ?4 others Wife Julia F Ouseley (née Irving). Married 1796. Children William Gore (1797), plus 5 other sons and 3 daughters.
Summary CV Year Event 1767 Born Monmouthshire 1787 To Paris to study. Interest in Persian Literature 1788-94 Served in 8th Dragoons (King’s Royal Indian Rifles) in India 1789-91 Fought in 4th Mysore war 1794 Served in West Indies and Flanders 1794 Sold commission. To Leiden to resume Persian studies 1795 Publication of first book, Persian Miscellanies 1796 Returned to Britain 1796 Married Julia Irving 1797 Received Hon LLD at Trinity College Dublin and DPh Rostock 1797-1801 Published journal Oriental Collections plus various edited texts and other works 1800 Knighted for services to oriental studies 1810-12 Travelled to Persia with Gore Ouseley embassy as private secretary to ambassador 1819-23 Prepared and published report on Travels in Various Countries of the East (3 vols) 1831 Published Catalogue of several hundred manuscript works 1830's Sold manuscript collections 1830’s Various publications including editions of oriental works 1842 Died Boulogne aged 75
54 Appendix 2. Information on key people
James Justinian Morier 1780-1849
Family details Parents Isaac Morier and E Clara van Lennep Siblings John (Jack) Morier (1778-1853), David Morier (1784-1877), Emily Morier (1786- 1861), Maria Arundell (née Morier, 1788-?), William Morier (1790-1864), Tolla Morier (1792-1858) Wife Harriet F Morier (née Greville). Married 1820 Children Greville (1822-?).
Summary CV Year Event 1780 Born Izmir (formerly Smyrna) in Turkey 1787 Family moved to London 1799-1806 Moved back to Izmir to work in his father’s business 1807-09 Met Harford Jones and joined his mission to Persia as private secretary 1809 Returned to Britain accompanying Persian envoy Mírzá Abúl Hassan 1810 Joined Gore Ouseley embassy to Persia as political secretary 1812 Published A journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor 1814-15 Remained in Persia as charge d’affaires 1815-16 Returned to London 1818 Published A Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor 1819 Spent time with Mírzá Abúl Hassan, again a Persian envoy in London 1820 Married Harriet Greville 1824 Published The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan 1824-26 Special commissioner to Mexico 1828-49 Publication of sequel to Hajji Baba and other novels 1849 Died Brighton aged 69
Appendix 2. Information on key people 55
William Price 1780-1830
Family details Nothing known at present
Summary CV Year Event 1780 Born Worcester 1795-1810 During these years studied oriental languages and probably worked as teacher/translator 1810-12 Joined Gore Ouseley’s embassy to Persia as assistant secretary and interpreter 1813-30 Taught oriental languages at seminary near Worcester. Produced various translations and books on grammar of oriental languages 1825 Published Journal of the British Embassy to Persia, vol I 1830 Died aged 50 1832 Posthumous publications of two volume edition of Journal of the British Embassy to Persia
56 Appendix 3. The Ouseleys as collectors
Appendix 3. The Ouseleys as collectors
Both William and Gore Ouseley were important collectors of Persian and other Middle Eastern and South Asian antiquities. Their collecting activity began during their time serving in India and continued through the periods they spent in London as well as while they were travelling on the embassy to Persia between 1810 and 1815. The story of their manuscript collections has been well summarised by the Librarians of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, where a large part of both collections is now held.
‘The acquisition in the mid-nineteenth century of the magnificent collections of Sir William and Sir Gore Ouseley greatly enhanced the Bodleian’s holdings of Persian manuscripts. Sir Gore went to India as a young man in 1787 for trade and whilst he was there began to learn Persian and collect manuscripts, many of which were finely illustrated and illuminated. His brother William accompanied him on his embassy to Persia in the years 1810-14 and added to the impressive collection of several hundred Persian manuscripts he had amassed in London. The Bodleian purchased this collection in 1843, and in 1859, through J. B. Elliott, Sir Gore’s collection was donated, thus uniting the two Ouseley collections under the same roof. The most magnificent illustrated Persian manuscript is a copy of the poet Firdawsi’s Shah- namah, copied at Shiraz in the 1430s (MS. Ouseley Add. 176).’23
The Bodleian holdings are fully detailed in a number of separate listings, all of which can be consulted online. These are:
1. Fihrist - Union Catalogue of Islamic Manuscripts This online union catalogue contains descriptions of more than 15,000 Islamic manuscripts from Library collections in the UK, including the Bodleian Libraries.
2. Beeston, Alfred Felix Landon; Ethé, Hermann; Sachau, Eduard; Catalogue of the Persian, Turkish, Hindûstânî, and Pushtû manuscripts in the Bodleian Library (in 3 parts) (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press 1889-1953). [Digitized Versions from The Internet Archive and MENADOC]
3. Madan, Falconer et al., A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (7 vols) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895-1953). These volumes are available in digital form. Details of the various Ouseley collections are in volumes iv and v.
William Ouseley also prepared a catalogue of his own collection in 1831 which is listed in our Bibliography. This covers over 700 items and contains an interesting Preface outlining the history and aims of the collection. Madan’s Summary Catalogue, shown under item 3 above, mentions two catalogues of Gore Ouseley’s collection which were given to the Bodleian Library, but we have so far been unable to locate these items.
Appendix 3. The Ouseleys as collectors 57
The content of both collections ranges very widely including a number of Arabic, Hindu and Burmese manuscripts as well as a very varied selection of Persian texts. In terms of subject matter, Persian texts on history and poetry account for well over two thirds of each collection, with philosophy and religious topics a significant subset of the remainder. The Gore Ouseley collection also included an important component of fine Mughal paintings. We quote again from the Bodleian Librarians.
‘… the Library’s holdings [of Mughal painting] were augmented a few years later [than 1834] by paintings from the manuscript collection of the diplomat Sir Gore Ouseley. Mughal paintings and other fine manuscripts from his library were presented to the Library in 1859 by Mr. J.B. Elliot, a Bengal civil servant who had purchased them after the diplomat’s death in 1844. The outstanding item from Sir Gore’s collection is the Bahāristān manuscript of 1595, which was prepared for the Emperor Akbar and illustrated by leading artists of the time. There is an online guide to the albums of Indian paintings.’24
58 Notes
Notes
1 Edward FitzGerald, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia, translated into English verse. 1st ed. (London: B. Quaritch, 1859). 2 See Appendix 3. 3 Sir Denis Wright, The English amongst the Persians: During the Qajar Period 1787-1921 (London: Heinemann, 1977), p. 13. 4 Sir John Chardin, Travels in Persia 1673-77 (reprint New York: Dover Publications, 1988). Kaempfer, Engelbert, Amoenitatum exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum Fasciculi V (Lemgo: Henrici Wilhelmi Meyeri, 1712). 5 Rev. James Reynolds, “A Memoir of the late Right Hon. Sir Gore Ouseley Bart.” in Sir Gore Ouseley, Biographical Notices of Persian Poets (London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain, 1846). 6 Sir William Ouseley, Travels in Various Countries of the East; More particularly Persia … (3 vols) (London: Rodwell and Martin, 1819-23). 7 James J. Morier, A Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 1816 … (London: Longman Hurst et al, 1818). 8 James J. Morier, A journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople in the years 1808 and 1809 … (London: Longman, Hurst et al, 1812). 9 Henry M. Johnston, Ottoman and Persian Odysseys: James Morier, Creator of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, and his Brothers (London: British Academic Press, 1998). 10 William Price, Journal of the British Embassy to Persia … (London: Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen, 1825). 11 Johnston, Ottoman and Persian Odysseys, pp. 201-03. 12 Detailed references to the sources of the comments discussed in this chapter can be provided on request. We have noted where the quotations given in Chapters 5-8 provide specific examples of the points mentioned. 13 See e.g. note 4. 14 C. Colliver Rice, Persian Women & Their Ways (London: Seeley, Service & Co, 1923). V. Sackville-West, Passenger to Teheran (London, Hogarth Press, 1926). 15 Morier, Second Journey, p. 68. 16 Sir William Ouseley, Travels, Vol I, p. 5. 17 Sir William Ouseley, Travels, Vol III, p. 541. 18 Shaw, Thomas, Travels, or observations relating to several parts of Barbary and the Levant (Oxford: [s.n.], 1738). 19 Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de, A voyage into the Levant ... 2 vols (London: D. Browne et al., 1718). 20 Sir Gore Ouseley, Biographical Notices of Persian Poets (London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain, 1846). 21 James J. Morier, The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan (3 vols) (London: John Murray, 1824). 22 Sir Denis Wright, The English amongst the Persians, pp. 16-18. 23 https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/weston/finding-resources/guides/middleeast. 24 https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/weston/finding-resources/guides/southasia.
Bibliography 59
Bibliography
Reports on the embassy to Persia 1810-15 Ouseley, Sir Gore, Diary of the Right Hon. Sir Gore Ouseley, Bt., K.C.H., F.R.S., (Unpublished manuscript, 1810-15). Ouseley, Sir William, Travels in Various Countries of the East; More particularly Persia … (3 vols) (London: Rodwell and Martin, 1819-23). Morier, James J., A Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 1816 … (London: Longman Hurst et al, 1818). Price, William, Journal of the British Embassy to Persia … 2 vols in one (London: T. Thorpe, 1832). [Volume I was first published separately in 1825.]
Embassy members – principal other writings Ouseley, Sir Gore, Manuscript Catalogue of Mughal Coin Collection (New York: Unpublished MS, American Numismatic Society, 1809). Ouseley, Sir Gore, Biographical Notices of Persian Poets (London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain, 1846).
Ouseley, Sir William, Persian Miscellanies: An essay to facilitate the reading of Persian Manuscripts … (London: Richard White, 1795). Ouseley, Sir William, ed., The Oriental Collections … (3 vols) (London: Cadell and Davies, and J. Debrett, 1797-99). Ouseley, Sir William, ed., The Epitome of the Ancient History of Persia (London: Cadell and Davies, 1799). Ouseley, Sir William, ed., The Oriental Geography of Ebn Haukal … (London: Cadell and Davies, 1800). Ouseley, Sir William, Observations on Some Medals and Gems … (London: E. Harding, 1801). Ouseley, Sir William, ed., The Bakhtyar Nama or Story of Prince Bakhtyar and the ten viziers … (London: J. Debrett, 1801). Ouseley, Sir William, ed., Arabic Proverbs, or the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians … (London: John Murray, 1830). Ouseley, Sir William, Catalogue of several hundred manuscript works in various oriental languages, collected by Sir William Ouseley, LLD. etc. (London: privately printed, 1831). Ouseley, Sir William, ed., A Critical Essay on Various Manuscript Works, Arabic and Persian … (London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain, 1832). Ouseley, Sir William, ed., The Geographical Works of Sadik Isfahani (London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain, 1832).
Morier, James J., A journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople in the years 1808 and 1809 … (London: Longman, Hurst et al, 1812). Morier, James J., The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan (3 vols) (London: John Murray, 1824). Morier, James J., The Adventures of Hajji Baba, of Ispahan, in England (2 vols) (London: John Murray, 1828). [Between 1830 and 1849, Morier also wrote a further series of novels, many based on his experiences in the Middle East.] 60 Bibliography
Price, William, A grammar of the three principal oriental languages, Hindoostanee, Persian and Arabic … (London: Kingsbury, Parbury and Allen, 1823). Price, William, Elements of the Sanscrit Language; or an easy guide to the Indian tongues (Worcester: privately printed, 1827).
Selected other references Allibone, S. Austin, A critical dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors ... (Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson, 1859-71). Greaves, Rose L., “Iranian Relations with Great Britain and British India 1798-1921” in Peter Avery et al (eds.), Cambridge History of Iran, vol 7 (London: Cambridge University Press,1991). Johnston, Henry M., Ottoman and Persian Odysseys: James Morier, Creator of Hajji Baba of Ispahan, and his Brothers (London: British Academic Press, 1998). Jones Brydges, Sir Harford, An account of the transactions of His Majesty's mission to the court of Persia … (London: J. Bohn, 1834). Malcolm, Colonel Sir John, The History of Persia: … 2 vols. (London: John Murray and Longman and Co., 1815). Reynolds, Rev. James, “A Memoir of the late Right Hon. Sir Gore Ouseley Bart.” in Sir Gore Ouseley, Biographical Notices of Persian Poets (London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain, 1846). Ward, Thomas H. ed., Men of the Reign (London: G Routledge and Sons, 1885). Watt, Robert, Bibliotheca Britannica, or, A general index to British and foreign literature (Edinburgh: Constable, 1824). Webb, Alfred, A Compendium of Irish Biography … (Dublin: M. M. Gill and Son, 1878). Weston, Stephen, Persian recreations: or New Tales ... (London: Mutlow, 1812). Wright, Sir Denis, The English amongst the Persians: During the Qajar Period 1787-1921 (London: Heinemann, 1977). Wright, Sir Denis, The Persians amongst the English: Episodes in Anglo-Persian History (London: I. B. Tauris & Co., 1985).
Major online resources consulted Oxford Dictionary of National Biography http://www.oxforddnb.com/. Encyclopaedia Iranica http://www.iranicaonline.org/newsite/.
Index 61
Index
For ease of reference, place names are shown in italics, and topics and organisations in bold.
Abbas Mírzá 31, 38, 43, 48, 50 Gibraltar 11, 49 Ak Tappeh 49 Háfiz, Tomb of 10, 40, 48 Alicante 11, 49 Hajji Baba of Ispahan 2, 45, 54, 58, 59, 60 Armenia and Armenians 6, 11, 17, 22, 31, 38, Hamadan 19, 25, 26, 49 41, 43, 48, 49, 50 Husein ‘Ali Mírzá 24, 25, 34, 40, 48 Asiatic Society of Bengal 45, 46 India and Indians v, 1-2, 4, 8, 12, 21-22, 26, Balkh 20, 49 29, 33, 38, 40, 47, 52, 53, 56, 57, 60; see also Bodleian Library, Oxford v, vi, 5, 19, 45, 56- Cochin, Mumbai 57 Isfahan (Ispahan) iv, vii, 10, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, Bombay; see Mumbai 30, 35-36, 41, 48 Brazil 8, 21, 24, 28, 47 Istanbul (Constantinople) iv, vii, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 22, 31, 48-49, 50 British Government and Foreign Office 1, 2, 4, 8, 11, 15, 17, 27, 38, 45, 46 Izmir (Smyrna) vii, 2, 11, 12, 49, 54 Brown, Mr. 20, 49 Johnston, Henry M. 6, 12, 51, 58, 60, 61 Bushehr iv, vii, 8, 10, 13, 16, 20, 22, 25, 28, Jones Brydges, Sir Harford 2, 4, 5, 54, 60 29, 47, 48 Kaempfer, Engelbert 5, 58 Caspian Sea 10, 17, 20, 30, 41, 48 Kara Klisseh 11, 49 Caucasus mountains 4, 11, 22, 26, 50 Lyster, Mrs. Jane (née Ouseley) 46, 52, 53 Ceylon; see Sri Lanka Madeira iv, 6, 8, 33, 47 Chardin, Sir John 5, 58 Mahomed Hussein Khán 25 Circassians 26, 31, 34 Mahomed Zeki (Zeky) Khán 25, 34 Cochin 21, 47 Malcolm, General Sir John v, 4, 60 Colliver Rice, C 18, 58 Martyn, Rev. Henry 20 Damavand 50 Mazendaran 30 Duncan, Mr. 22, 33 Minorca 11 East India Company 4, 46, 47 Mírzá Abúl Hassan Khán 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12, 25, Ellis, Sir Henry 38, 50 28, 33, 34, 47, 49, 50, 52, 54 Embassy to Persia Mírzá Buzurg 25 Composition of party v, 1-3,10, 11-12, 20, 26, Mírzá Shefi, Grand Vizier 25, 36 28-29, 31-32 Mohammed Jaafar Khán 28, 34, 47 Different accounts v, 5-6, 24-44, 45, 53, 54, Morier, James Justinian 55, 58, 59 Journey to Persia, special features 15, 17, 18, Nature of journey 7-14, 19-20, 21-23, 47-50 19, 21, 22, 33, 35, 39 Reasons for, and diplomatic outcomes v, 4, Life history 2, 45, 54 10, 15, 37, 38, 43, 46, 48, 49, 50 Quotations 33-39 Fateh ‘Ali Sháh 4, 10, 11, 16, 17, 22, 25, 26, Moscow 11, 22, 27, 50, 52 32, 36, 41, 42, 48, 49, 50, 52 Muharram 10, 17-18, 48 France 4, 11, 12, 22, 27 Mumbai (Bombay) vii, 8, 9, 21-22, 28, 29, 33, Georgia and Georgians 11, 17, 22, 26, 31, 34, 38, 47, 50 49, 50; see also Tbilisi Napoleon Bonaparte 12, 22, 27 62 Index
Nowruz 10, 18, 48 Prince Regent of Britain 12, 22, 27, 32, 45, 48, Oudh, Wazir of 1, 52 50 Ouseley, Eliza Shirin 10, 30, 31, 52 Qajar (Kajar) dynasty 41, 42, 52, 58, 60; see also Fateh ‘Ali Sháh Ouseley, Lady (née Harriet Whitelocke) 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24-25, 26, 27, 30, Qom (Koom) vii, 18 47, 48, 52 Rai 19, 48 Ouseley, Mary Jane 2, 3, 24, 26, 27, 52 Ramadan 10, 48 Ouseley, Sir Gore Bt. Reynolds, Rev. James v, 5, 22, 24, 58, 60 Collections v, 45, 56-57 Royal Asiatic Society 45, 52 Journey to Persia, special features 15, 20, 22- Russia and Russians 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 15, 20, 22- 23, 26-27 23, 25, 26, 27, 38, 46, 48, 49, 50; see also Life history 1-2, 45, 52 Moscow and St Petersburg Quotations 24-27 Sa’di, Tomb of 10, 40, 48 Ouseley, Sir William Sackville West, V. 18, 58 Collections v, 19, 30, 45, 53, 56-57 Samarkand 20, 49 Journey to Persia, special features 10, 17, 19, Sharpe, Dr. 24 20, 21, 22, 29-30, 31-32 Shiraz iv, vii, 9-10, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 28, Life history 1-2, 45, 53 34-35, 40, 47, 48, 56 Quotations 28-32 Society for the Publication of Oriental Texts 45, 52 Parsis (Parsees) 22, 28; see also Zoroastrians Sri Lanka vii, 8, 21, 40, 47 Persian life St. Petersburg 8, 11-12, 15, 20, 22-23, 27, 50, Countryside 10, 13, 17, 29, 30-31, 37-38, 40- 52 41 Sultaniah 19, 26, 48 Court life and etiquette 8-9, 10, 14, 15-16, 18, 24-25, 26, 34, 36, 37, 41 Tabriz 8, 10, 11-12, 15, 20, 22, 37, 38, 43, 48, 49, 50 Food and drink 16, 17, 20, 23, 29, 36, Tbilisi (Tiflis) vii, 11, 48 Historic sites and antiquities 6, 10, 14, 19, 23, 32, 39, 44 Tehran iv, vii, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50 Minorities and languages 17, 31, 41, 42 Trieste 12, 50, Social conditions and culture 10, 13, 17-18, 29, 34-35, 41-42, 44; see also Muharram, Travellers Club 52 Nowruz, Ramadan Tsar Alexander and Tsarina of Russia 11-12, Towns, cities, markets and industries 17, 29, 23, 27, 49, 50 35-36, 37, 40, 42-43 Waterloo, Battle of 12 Visitors’ activities and living conditions 17, Wellesley, Marquess 1, 52 19-20, 25, 28-29, 30, 38, 40, 43 Willock, George 24 Women and their position 18, 24-25, 31, 34 Willock, Sir Henry 12, 24, 38, 50 Persian Gulf 8, 22, 47 Wright, Sir Denis v, 4, 46, 58, 60 Persepolis iv, 6, 10, 19, 39, 44, 48 Yarmouth 12, 50 Portsmouth 2, 3, 8, 11, 47, 49 Yazd 42 Price, William Yerevan (Erivan) vii, 11, 12 Journey to Persia, special features 17, 21, 40, Zoroastrians 17, 42; see also Parsis 41, 42 Life history 2, 45-46, 55 Quotations 40-44
About this publication
This short book tells the story of the two Ouseley brothers and how they came to be part of an important mission to Persia in the early nineteenth century. Using four different reports of the journey east between 1810 and 1815, the authors describe the experience of the travellers and what they found in Persia and the other countries they visited. There is much to be learned about the way life was lived some 200 years ago, and the book contains verbatim quotations from the individual reports, giving the reader an idea of personal reactions and priorities on what was an extraordinary and eventful journey.
The authors, Bill Martin and Sandra Mason, are independent researchers based in Dry Drayton, Cambridge, UK. They have an extensive list of publications and, in recent years, they have made a particular study of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and its English ‘translator’ Edward FitzGerald. This study led them to become interested in the Ouseley brothers. Recent publications by Bill and Sandra include: The Art of Omar Khayyam (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007); Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, A Famous Poem and Its Influence (London: Anthem Press, 2011); The Man Behind the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Life and Letters of Edward FitzGerald (London: I. B. Tauris, 2016). They also manage a blog covering Omar Khayyám, the Rubáiyát, Edward FitzGerald and related topics; see omarkhayyamrubaiyat.wordpress.com.