Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

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LXXVII AGGRESSION ON AFGHAN 427
had been seated on his thn iring the " rob;
wrath," and that they would he struck with terror and
retire. But, unfortunately for the Shah, the \<
are a brave and not an imaginative people.
An interesting description of the appearance of
Ali Shah is given by Sir Robert Ker Porter, who 1 travelled
through Persia in 1818-20.
He was one blaze of jewels, which literally dazzled the s
on first looking at him ;
but the details of his dress were t!
A lofty
tiara of three elevations was on his head, which shapeappears
to have been long peculiar to the crown of the great kin^.
It was entirely composed of thickly-set diamonds, pearls, rubies,
and emeralds, so exquisitely disposed as to form a mixture of the
most beautiful colours in the brilliant light
reflected from its surface.
Several black feathers, like the heron plume, were intermixed
with the resplendent aigrettes of this truly imperial diadem, whose
bending points were finished with pear^formed pearls of an immense
size. The vesture was gold tissue, nearly covered with a
similar disposition of jewelry and
; crossing the shoulders were
two strings [of pearls, probably the largest
in the world. I call
his dress a vesture, because it set close to his person, from the
neck to the bottom of the waist, showing a shape as noble as
his air.
At that point, it
developed downwards in loose drapery, like
the usual Persian garment, and was of the same costly materials
with the vest. But for splendour, nothing could exceed the
broad bracelet round his arms and the belt which encircled his
waist ; they actually blazed like fire when the rays of the sun
met them.
The Accession of Mohamed Shah, 1834. The death of
Fath Ali Shah unchained fierce rivalries, and it was seen
that two of his sons, the Farman Farma and the Zi/-u-
Sultan, Governors of Fars and Teheran were
respectively,
prepared to bid for the throne. Fortunately
for the
rightful heir, the British Envoy, Sir John Campbell, was
at Tabriz, and by his assistance, both moral and material,
and that of the Russian representative,
the new Shah
able to march on Teheran at the head of a considerable
force commanded by
Sir
Henry Lindsay Bethune. The
circumstance that he was accompanied by the Ministers
of Great Britain and Russia caused the desertion of the
1
Tra-veh in Georgia, Persia, etc., vol. i. pp. 325-26 (London, 1821).