MOUNSEY, Augustus. A Journey Through the Caucasus and the Interior of Persia. London, Smith, Elder & Co. 1872.
8vo. Original cloth with bevelled edges, lettered and decorated in black and gilt; pp. xi, 336, folding map with author's route in red; a very good copy, printed on thick paper; contemporary Paris bookseller's blind-stamp to front fly-leaf.
First edition. The author boarded a ship at Trieste and sailed to Istanbul, from where he continued to Batumi in Georgia, crossed the Caucasus and proceeded into Iran, visiting Tabriz, Tehran, Esfahan, Perspolis, Shiraz and Persepolis (a second time). Returning north to Tehran, he arrived on the Caspian Sea at Rasht, then sailed to Baku and Astrakhan. A very well written and humourous travelogue by the British diplomat. He witnessed the aftermath of the pogrom against the Jewish community of Barfurush (Babol) in May 1866. Together with the British diplomat stationed in Tehran, Charles Alison, he was involved in the relief and protection efforts of the victims.
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