Some Particulars respecting the present State of Persia. 423 
Shah, by which the paramount influence of the English at 
this Court is, I trust, ensured for ever. Ere this, my brother 
Sir William has reached England with it, and he probably 
before I reach home will have given his researches to the 
world. I sent him into Mazinderan on the banks of the 
Caspian, and gave him every opportunity, whilst with me, of 
rooting up such precious remains of antiquity as yet are al- 
lowed to exist by the present race of barbarians. But I 
gnuch fear that there is little to be seen in Persia which can 
properly be called antique, except the ruins of Persepolis, 
and of another ancient city (name unknown) near Murghat, 
and the tomb of Solomon’s mother. The characters and 
sculptures in both the above are evidently coeval ; the for- 
mer, as yet undecyphered, are the arrow-headed  charac- 
ters delineated in Bruyn, Kempfer, Chardin, and other tra- 
vellers. 
There are a set of sculptures and inscriptions to be found 
in Persia in tolerably good preservation, from 12 to 1500 
years old, all appertaining to the Gassaman dynasty of 
Persian kings, cut on the native rock near Persepolis, at 
Shafur, Bisitun, Gehran, Shiraz, and other places; but, as 
far as I have been able to decypher them, they do not con- 
tain more than De Sacy has very ingeniously given to the 
world. The language is the old Persian, and the character 
Peblevi.. The sculptures are very spirited ; and as Shafur 
(Sapores) conquered the Roman emperor Valerian, it is 
more than probable that he made some of the captive Greeks 
or Romans exert their talents to immortalize him. 
The more modern remains scarcely deserve notice, except 
as proofs of the magnificence and power of the Changizian 
princes and those of the Sefevi dynasty. Some of the for- 
mer, of 6 and 700 years standing, surpass any, structure of 
the present day, and might at a trifling expense be repaired. 
But, uvfortunately, it is not the fashion te repair or finish 
the buildings of other princes ; and therefore the most beau- 
tiful mosques, palaces, and baths of Shah Abbas, Tahmas, 
and others, are gradually giving way to the temporary struc- 
tures of the Kajars built with sun-burnt bricks, and totally 
devoid of tasie or convenience. , 
In short, the sun of Persia has set. Science is confined 
to the modest few. The arts are totally lost, and there/is 
not public spirit or munificence enough to encourage the 
revival of them. I have been greatly disappointed, as you 
may imagine, having conceived so much more exalted an 
idea of Persia from their own books, even after making 
every allowance for the favourite figure of the Persians, 
Dd4 hyperbole. 
