Electronic Resource
Cambridge
:
Cambridge University Press
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
2 (1885), S. 365-389
ISSN:
0080-4401
Source:
Cambridge Journals Digital Archives
Topics:
History
Notes:
By way of introduction to a sketch of Persian history prepared for the new volume of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ I recently wrote as follows:—Oriental history, as told by Oriental historians, is for the majority of readers in Europe a study of little attraction. Its genealogies and oft-repeated names are wearisome; its stories of battle, murder, and rapine are monotonous and cast in one mould; the mind cannot readily impart life to the dry bones of the more prominent dramatis personæ, by conceiving for them any flesh-and-blood individuality. The court-chronicler of an Eastern potentate writes to order, and in accordance with a precedent which fetters style and expression; and even the painter of state-portraits strives rather to turn out a conventional and model monarch than the likeness of an original human being. In the palace of Kirich, near Tehran, is a picture of Fath Ali Sháh and his sons. There may be a certain waxwork beauty in some of the faces, but they give no more signs of innate character or mental idiosyncrasy that do the kings and knaves of a pack of cards.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3677877
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