Picturing Qājār Persia: A Gift to Major-General Henry Creswicke Rawlinson

Abstract

AbstractThe focus of this essay is a photograph album that Colonel Luigi Pesce created and gave, in 1860, to the British consul in Tehran, Major‐General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson. The album's 42 photographs represent some of the first‐ever taken of Nasir al‐Din Shah's court; the city gates, mosques, and vicinity of Tehran; and the ruins and reliefs of Persepolis, Naqsh‐e Rostam, and Taq‐e Bastan. Sent to Persia to secure a British presence as part of the Great Game, Rawlinson played a key role in the strategic rivalry between the British and Russian Empires, which were vying for supremacy in central Asia. Rawlinson was not only an accomplished military officer and diplomat, he was also an exceptional linguist who has been described as the father of Assyriology because his translations of the Behistun inscription enabled a collective scholarly deciphering of cuneiform. As a visual artifact with a historically precise provenance and a known maker and recipient, the Rawlinson album helps to frame th...