[6] Sheil served as the British Minister in Ṭihrán from August 1842 to February 1853, except for a period of leave from October 1847 to November 1849, when Col. Farrant deputised for him. Sheil was knighted in 1855. [7] F.O. 248/113. [8] The other pretenders were Ḥusayn-`Alí Mírzá, the Farmán-Farmá, Governor-General of Fárs, and Ḥasan-`Alí Mírzá, the [_Sh_]ujá`u's-Salṭanih, Governor General of Kirmán, both sons of Fatḥ-`Alí [_Sh_]áh. Three of the sons of the Farmán-Farmá managed to take themselves to London. [9] Sir Henry Layard (1817-1894) was the discoverer of the ancient city of Nineveh. He was elected to the British parliament as a Liberal, and served a term as the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 1877 he was appointed Ambassador in Constantinople. His account is taken from _Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia_, Vol. I, pp. 257-61. [10] The Ambassador recalled was Sir John MacNeill and the quarrel between Írán and Britain was over the city of Hirát. This beautiful city had always been considered an integral part of the province of [_Kh_]urásán, but since the assassination of Nádir [_Sh_]áh, the Af[_sh_]ár king, in 1747, Hirát had passed into possession of Af[_gh_]án rulers. Muḥammad [_Sh_]áh was intent on regaining Ḥirát, but Anglo-Russian rivalry and the British fear of Russian designs on India, hitherto almost non-existent, had become dominant factors in the international scene, bound to shadow the destiny of Írán; the British believed that the acquisition of Hirát by the Persians would, in the main, benefit Russia. They took counter-measures in the Persian Gulf and occupied the island of [_Kh_]árg, close to Bú[_sh_]ihr. [11] F.O. 60/95 of February 14th 1843. [12] _ibid._ CHAPTER 1: ALL HAIL [_SH_]ÍRÁZ Opening quotation: Gertrude Lowthian Bell (1868-1926), _Poems from the Divan of Hafiz_, Wm. Heinemann Ltd., London, 1897, No. xxx. [1] Browne, _A Year Amongst the Persians_, (1926 ed.), p. 284. [2] Curzon, _Persia and the Persian Question_, Vol. I, p. 497, n. 2. [3] Browne (ed.), _A Traveller's Narrative_, Vol. II, p. 309. [4] Since they originated from the small town of Bara[_gh_]án, they were known as Bara[_gh_]ání. [5] Qurratu'l-`Ayn's words are quoted in _The Dawn-Breakers_, p. 56 (Brit.), pp. 81-2 (U.S.); and in verse form in _A Persian Anthology_, trans. by E. G. Browne, ed. by E. Denison Ross, Methuen & Co., London, 1927, p. 72. CHAPTER 2: HE WHOM THEY SOUGHT Opening quotation: T. K. Cheyne, _The Reconciliation of Races and Religions_, p. 74. [1] Mír Muḥammad-Riḍá's father was named Mír Naṣru'lláh, his grandfather Mír Fatḥu'lláh, and his great-grandfather Mír Ibráhím. [2] For details of this unedifying transaction, see Kazemzadeh, _Russia and Britain in Persia, 1864-1914_, ch. 4. The contract was signed on March 8th 1890. [3] Translated by H. M. Balyuzi.