A Traveler's Narrative
page 20
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and restless. In many places she triumphed over the contentious,
expounding the most subtle questions. When she was
imprisoned in the house of [Mahmúd] the Kalantar of Tihrán,
and the festivities and rejoicings of a wedding were going on,
the wives of the city magnates who were present as guests were
so charmed with the beauty of her speech that, forgetting the
festivities, they gathered round her, diverted by listening to her
words from listening to the melodies, and rendered indifferent
by witnessing her marvels to the contemplation of the pleasant
and novel sights which are incidental to a wedding. In short in
elocution she was the calamity of the age, and in ratiocination
the trouble of the world. Of fear or timidity there was no trace
in her heart, nor had the admonitions of the kindly-disposed
any profit or fruit for her. Although she was of [such as are]
damsels [meet] for the bridal bower, yet she wrested preeminence
from stalwart men, and continued to strain the feet of
steadfastness until she yielded up her life at the sentence of the
mighty doctors in Tihrán. But were we to occupy ourselves
with these details the matter would end in prolixity.
Well, Persia was in this critical state and the learned doctors
perplexed and anxious, when the late Prince Muhammad
Sháh died, and the throne of sovereignty was adorned with the
person of the new monarch. Mírzá Taqí Khán Amír-Nizám,
who was Prime Minister and Chief Regent, seized in the grasp
of his despotic power the reins of the affairs of the commonwealth,
and urged the steed of his ambition into the arena of
willfulness and sole possession. This minister was a person
devoid of experience and wanting in consideration for the
consequences of actions; bloodthirsty and shameless; and swift
and ready to shed blood. Severity in punishing he regarded as
wise administration, and harshly entreating, distressing, intimidating,
and frightening the people he considered as a
fulcrum for the advancement of the monarchy. And as His
Majesty the King was in the prime of youthful years the
minister fell into strange fancies and sounded the drum of
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