The Artist and the Shah: Memoirs of Life at the Persian Court, by Dust-Ali Khan Mo`ayyer al-Mamalek

To the task of chronicling the waning years of Persia's Qajar court, Dust-Ali Khan "Mo`ayyer al-Mamalek" (1876-1966) brought matchless gifts. On his mother's side, he was the grandson of Naser al-Din Shah, ruler of Qajar Iran from 1848 to 1896; on his father's side, he was the descendant of a family of assayers and masters of the royal mint with roots in the Safavid era (1501-1736). He was also a painter and writer with a keen eye for atmosphere and detail. Throughout his long life, he kept journals of the rarefied and sometimes turbulent world in which he moved. Some of those records were incorporated by him into autobiography or descriptions of his grandfather's court-its modes of governance, festivals, royal hunts, palaces and gardens, life in the harem, and much more.

The Artist and the Shah is the product of a seven-year labor of love by Manoutchehr Eskandari-Qajar, a dedicated historian of the Qajar era, to not only translate two of Dust-Ali Khan's memoirs but also to gather together 280 photographs from public archives and private collections. Most of the photographs are presented here for the first time in their proper context. Illuminated with the words of Dust-Ali Khan, they provide a uniquely intimate view of an era now long vanished.