STEWART, Colonel Charles E. Through Persia in Disguise with Reminiscences of the Indian Mutiny. Part I The Indian Mutiny and Embeylah Campaign. Part II Through Persia in Disguise...Edited from his Diaries by Basil Stewart. George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1911.
8vo. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt, top edge gilt; pp. xxiv + 430 + [1, ads.]; illustrations to text and from photographs, 2 colour plates, 3 maps (2 folding, one in rear pocket), one folding plate; apart from light spotting to endpapers, a near-fine copy.
First edition, in the superior first issue binding. Stewart, a British army officer in India who later served as surveyor and diplomat, kept voluminous diaries until his retirement in 1899. The first 120 pages of the present work detail his experiences during the 1857 Indian mutiny. The remainder of the book relates his travels through central Iran and parts of Khorasan in 1880-1881. It was during this visit, one of several to the region, that he travelled in disguise, dressed as an Armenian. He thought very highly of the Persian manners and makes several references such as, 'Persians are the French of the East and could give lessons in manners to people of any country'. Remarkable is his visit to the oil fields of Baku and the ancient Zorastrian temple with an eternal flame nourished by a natural mineral oil well, which later became a major Hindhu pilgimage site outside India.
Wilson, Bibliography of Persia p. 217.
#2111345