Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/214

 108 TEHERAN AND A NEWER PERSIA

in letters of green enamel. On his return to Agra, the emperor held a court and sat for the first time upon his throne.'

Now it will be noticed that the general points of the de- scription match well with Tavernier's, particularly in regard to the canopy or its columns, with the decoration of peacocks. This should be borne in mind ; for, as Lord Curzon rightly says, no one would ever mistake the two birds on the back of the throne for peacocks. The eminent Viceroy and Chancelor is mistaken, however, if I be allowed to point it out, in saying ' There is no trace or sign ... of the means by which a van- ished canopy could have been added to the existing throne.' I took particular pains to examine the incrusted metal knobs that run round the railing of the throne. They lift out, and the sockets which hold their pins could plainly have been the holes for the ' twelve emerald columns' supporting the canopy, as stated by Abd al-Hamid. The same number ('twelve columns ') is given by Tavernier.

I next proceeded to examine the inscriptions on the panels along the railing, which are written in most intricate arabesques, exceedingly hard to read at all in the imperfect light in which I was working. One of the Persian princes was just beginning to help me with the decipherment when word came that the Shah was in the garden and that we were to repair thither to be pre- sented to his Majesty. There remained nothing to do but abandon the antiquarian problem at once, leaving it for some future scholar to take this hint, if worth anything, and to settle one way or the other the present mooted question of the authenticity of the throne. See particularly what is said in the footnote below. ^

^ I was sorry not to visit the palace regard to all the characters), and have

on my third journey, but since my been comparing them with the inscrip-

return to America I have, with the tions found on Lord Curzon's picture

help of Dr. Yohannan, been examin- of the throne (1. 319), which was re-

ing under a microscope and with the produced from ' an engraving,' Prom

aid of stereopticon lantern projections this comparison, carefully made, it is

the inscriptions on three photographs extremely difficult to believe that the

of the Peacock Throne (though unfor- inscriptions in the engraving, from

tunately they are not very distinct in which Lord Curzon's reproduction is

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