Page:The Book of Orders of Knighthood and Decorations of Honour of All Nations.djvu/423

 PERSIA.

THE ORDER OF THE LION AND THE SUN. (Plate 60.)

But little or nothing is known of this Order, and we must, therefore, content ourselves with an extract from F. von Hammer's work: 'Fundgruben des Orientes' (Mines of the East). He says:

"The Sultan Selim III., among other innovations, created towards, the end of the past century, the 'Order of the Crescent,' which he divided into two classes. The great one, which is worn as a star, represents the Crescent and the Tuyra (Initials) of the Sultan in brilliants; the smaller one is a mere medal with the above sketches, and is worn suspended by a fire-coloured ribbon. An imitation of that Order —the Turkish Order of the Crescent, presented exclusively to Europeans—was that of the Order of the Sun, founded by Feth Ali Shah, (in 1808), and which was equally divided into two classes; a star and a medal, which Gardane, and other members of the French Legation, received in Persia, and which was subsequently transformed into ' The Order of the Lion and the Sun.' The badge represents the Sun rising upon the back of the Lion or the Sun in Leo, i. e., the Sun in its fullest power in the zodiac."

The form of the curious Eastern diploma is as follows:

"The Emperor by the spirit of enterprise and high merciful look, which always sees the truth by the solar life of his mind,