Major Herbert Sawyer was an Indian Army officer who, in 1890, carried out a geographical-military reconnaissance in West Persia, including a mapping of the Bakhtiari territories. Even though a detailed version of his map was publicly available in 1894 (click here and scroll down); copies in the India Office collection (now in the British Library) …
Dr Elisabeth Macbean Ross (author of the renowned ‘A Lady Doctor in Bakhtiariland’) was the physician for the “Bibis or great ladies, wives, sisters and mothers of the leading [Bakhtiari] Khans” for around four years from 1910. She usually visited each of the many “Gha[l]ehs or castles” for several weeks, and there “enjoyed the almost …
This week, I went to a fascinating seminar about the Shahnameh at Janet Rady Fine Art, focusing on different representations of the hero Rostam through the ages (click here for Fereydoun Ave’s very original take on this). I was reminded of my own recent posting here about Shahnameh recitations by the Bakhtiari, when Nick Jubber …
Recently I introduced you to Sattara Khanum, and her husband Jaffer Kuli Khan (Sitara and Ja’far Quli Khan in Lorimer’s translated Duraki/Behdarwand poem). The puzzle in the posting this week is a salutary lesson in careful reading of transliterated names and also, perhaps, in not believing everything that even the most renowned authors write – …
This week – something special for my Bakhtiari subscribers. An extra welcome to you all! My posting on Bakhtiari poetry recitations mentioned how the people and places in one of the poems on this website (on the battle of the Duraki and Behdarwand) are, according to their translator DLR Lorimer, traceable in Henry Layard’s book …
The famous Bakhtiari lion gravestones were recorded by the earliest of the European travellers (the line-drawing below was published in 1891) – and they are now being analysed and recorded more formally. When I very first saw them, at dusk on the way northwards from Lali up into the mountains, I was SO excited – …
I’ve been re-reading Henry Layard’s 1887 ‘Early Adventures in Persia’; after I noticed that this apparently included identifying details of the events and individuals in one of the Bakhtiari poems translated by DLR Lorimer. I was especially interested by Layard’s descriptions of Bakhtiari poetry recitations: “I frequently witnessed . . the effect which poetry had …