Thursday 9 April 2015

A Poetic Gift From a Shah – Fit for a Queen!

So Queen Elizabeth II is not impressed with the present crop of royal party loot bags!

While touring the digitised archive of royal papers, Her Majesty was shown an illuminated manuscript of poetry presented to the Prince Regent in 1812 by the Shah of Persia and remarked to guests: “You don’t get gifts like that any more.”

Indeed, the British monarch is said to have been ‘stunned’ by the beauty of much of the material in the archive but found the Persian book of poetry to be especially appealing.

I was most intrigued by which shah may have been then in power and the sort of poems that the book may contain.

Fath ‘Ali Shah QajarSuccess! I  found some lines written on a ‘cartouche’ - a drawing bearing an inscription – against a window opening in a portrait of The Sultan Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar by the celebrated Persian Court painter, Mihr ‘Ali  and conserved under supervision by Sotheby’s.

The Encyclopaedia Iranica states that the Shah (1769-1834), was the “second ruler of the Qajar dynasty. He transformed a largely Turkic tribal khanship into a centralised and stable monarchy on the old imperial model which brought to the Guarded Domains of Persia (mamālek-e maḥrūsa-ye Īrān) a period of relative calm and prosperity, secured a state-religious symbiosis, and fostered a period of cultural and artistic revival”.  Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar.02

 

The poem,  translated by Persian scholar Manijeh Baiyani-Wolpert reads thus:

 

“The Sultan, Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar.

As You desired, O pure Omnipotence,

You created this celebrated king,

As You embellished this creation,

You created as You wished”.

© Natalie Wood (09 April 2015)

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