In 1892, Gertrude Bell visited Persia (now Iran) shortly after the appointment of her uncle, Sir Frank Lascelles, as British minister in Tehran. Three years later came Persian Pictures, Gertrude Bell’s first written work, which presents a series of vivid sketches of Persian culture and society at the time. Bell explores various cities and landscapes, and encounters local characters along the way, providing a unique perspective on Persian life and customs. While much of what is depicted in Persian Pictures has long since changed, Bell’s writing is a valuable account of the anachronisms and inconsistencies of the dying dynasty of medieval Persia. Her depiction of Muharram – the month of mourning for Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed – and Ramadan, display a mind finely attuned to the differences and similarities between Islam and Christianity, and East and West. Persian Pictures is both travelogue and meditation – an elegiac and beautifully observed account of a spellbinding land.
