The Geographer's Library

The Geographer’ s Library
empire, in commemoration of his master’s finished rule. This ring is commonly
referred to as “The Rising Sun of Ardabil.”
The other two rings are also sapphires; one is red and is called “The Setting
Sun of Ardabil,” and the other, “The World’s End Sun,” is black. Setting
Sun and World’s End Sun both reside in Manchester’s City Art Gallery,
though in the mid-1990s they and a number of other Persian antiquities
toured four American cities.
Date of manufacture: The intricacy of the engraving and the combination
of Islamic (the Arabic script) and pre-Islamic (representation of living
things—leaves) dates the Rising Sun to the century immediately following
the decline of the Sassanid dynasty (middle eighth century).
Manufacturer: In the Sassanid annals, he is known only as Osman the
Jeweler, but whether this is because he had no other names (indicating
humble origins) or because he was so renowned that he needed no other
names remains a mystery.
Place of origin: Ardabil, a city largely constructed by the Sassanid
king Farooz and previously an Achaemenid outpost city on the Persian
empire’s northern border. Today the city lies in northeastern Iran, close to
the Azerbaijani border.
Last known owner: Darius Dimbledon, ageless wonder of Aubrey College.
In 1988 Dr. Dimbledon stole it from the luggage of his traveling companion
while impersonating a museum curator in New York. The theft was not
discovered until several months later, whereupon the previous owner, acting
with the tacit consent of his employers, gained entry to Aubrey College housing
under false pretenses and one evening visited Dr. Dimbledon in his rooms.
He forced the professor to disrobe and sit in his favorite chair while wearing
the stolen ring on his finger and proceeded to remove his fingers one by
one with a small, sharp knife. He arranged the fingers in the pattern of a
caduceus across Dr. Dimbledon’s desk (though he also needed several toes
315