4to. xix 623 pp. frontispiece portrait, b/w illus, edited by C. J. Willis, with an introduction by Major-General Sir Frederic Goldsmid, contemporary red cloth, lightly faded and soiled at spine, title gilt on spine, half-title, notes, scattered foxing, book plate of Arthur Gladstone & Peter Fraser verso front cover, Lawrence & Bullen Ltd, London 1897.

Synopsis

James Morier (1780-1849), diplomatist, traveller and novelist, was the second son of Isaac Morier, Consul General of the Levant Company at Constantinople. He entered the diplomatic service in 1807, being attached to Sir Harford Jone’s mission to the Court of Persia in the capacity of Private Secretary. The mission arrived at Tehran in February 1809, but after three months Morier was sent home probably with despatches, and made his well known journey by way of Turkey in Asia, arriving in England on 25 November 1809. The record of his journey, published in this book during his second absence in Persia, at once took rank as an important authority on a country then little known to Englishmen. By its admirable style and accurate observation and its humour and graphic power it still holds a foremost place among early books of travels in Persia. It was at once translated into French in 1813, and soon after into German in 1815. Morier had returned but a few months when he was appointed Secretary of Embassy to Sir Gore Ouseley, Ambassador Extraordinary to the Court of Tehran. The Embassy proceeded to Tabriz ,where the Prince Royal of Persia had his government, and opened negotiation with a view to obtaining the support of Persia against the then subsisting Russo-French alliance. The work of the Embassy, and the share taken by Morier in the treaty concluded in May 1812, are described in ” A Second Journey Through Persia” London 1818. On Sir Gore Ouseley’s return to England in 1814, Morier was left in charge of the embassy at Tehran. DNB Vol xiii Page 948.