Two books by Mirza Reza Khan, Persian diplomat and poet, with related material.

£5,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A small but attractive gathering of items relating to the life of Mirza Reza Khan Arfa’ (1846-1939), a Persian diplomat who fulfilled a diverse array of roles during the late Qajar period. They exemplify the striking visual legacy he left behind in books, artworks and architecture, often mixing Western and Persianate features. Reza was born in Tabriz and looked set for training at a religious school when a downturn in his family’s fortunes redirected his path to Istanbul, where his brother-in-law ran a shop. Outside of working hours he studied the manifold languages of the city, soaking up French and Turkish. It was in Tbilisi, on his return journey to Iran, that he took up a humble role at the Persian consulate and began to learn Russian. He was then in the right place at the right time when “the court of Naser al-Din Shah … needed a Russian interpreter for his journey across the Caucasus on the way to Europe” (Sirjani, Encyclopaedia Iranica ), thus kick-starting his diplomatic career. Having given a good account of himself, he was made third secretary at the Tiflis consulate and later won roles on the frontier commission of Khorasan-Ahal and the suite of the Shah for his final trip to Europe (cf. Diba, Tabriz in Monaco ). After becoming consul-general in Tiflis, increasingly important roles followed, such as Minister to the Russian Court at St Petersburg (1312/1895), representative of Persia at the first Hague Conference (1899) and Ambassador to the Ottoman court (1317/1900

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