“We rose early in the morning, went down into a boat, and pushed off for the shore,” says Naser al-Din Shah—a.k.a. the Shah of Persia—in his travelogue, recalling his arrival in Paris on July 6, 1873. It was indeed a reception filled with pomp and ceremony befitting a sovereign.

They all shouted: “Vive le Schah de Perse” and “Vive la France”…and they had prepared a beautiful illumination. In all the streets they had suspended crystal lamps like round globes; but the wind somewhat interfered with these…. A very pretty and choice triumphal arch had been erected also, of flowers and shrubs, bunches of flowers, chandeliers and the like, various devices with weapons—such as pistols, muskets, lance-heads. In truth, they had displayed talent.

At night, the Shah and his entourage, which consisted of almost his entire government after he had entrusted matters of state in Tehran to his son, ambled through the streets of Paris. In his travelogue, he describes a scene that is not too different from a modern-day stroll through Paris, save for electricity.

The lamps of the city are all illuminated with gas; so that it is a very bright, beautiful, and charming city. Numbers of people were seated in carriages and driving about; or, seated in the cafes and similar places, were enjoying themselves.

He visited botanical gardens, palaces, and the Victorian-era zoos that were becoming popular at the time, replete with flora and fauna from exotic and newly conquered places. Of all things to make an impression on the king of Persia was none other than the Kangaroo! He found the strange animal to be very “similar to the jerboa”—a small bouncing rodent endemic in the East.

At one point, the Shah of Persia met a Rothschild, “a Jew who is exceedingly rich,” as he recalls in his travelogue. He went on to document their amusingly prescient conversation.

[Rothschild] greatly advocated the cause of the Jews, mentioned the Jews of Persia, and claimed tranquillity for them. I said to him: “I have heard that you, brothers, possess a thousand crores of money. I consider the best thing to do would be that you should pay fifty crores to some large or small State, and buy a territory in which you could collect all the Jews of the whole world, you becoming their chiefs, and leading them on their way in peace so that you should no longer be thus scattered and dispersed.” We laughed heartily, and he made no reply. I gave him an assurance that I do protect every alien nationality that is in Persia.

Particularly noteworthy about the impressions of the Persian king in a foreign land was how he perceived the seeds of revolution that was defining much of Europe at that time. He writes about “the mayhem of Communes,” and how the people were split three ways in their preference for a monarchy. 

The city of Paris is now, in reality, the property of the peasantry and common people, who do whatever they like, as the Government has no adequate means of repression. The palace of the Tuileries, which was the finest building in the world, is now a mass of ruins, as the men of the Commune set fire to it. Nothing remains of the palace but its walls. We were sadly grieved for this; but, thanks be to God, the palace of the Louvre, which adjoins that of the Tuileries, has been saved and is not destroyed.

He takes note of the French—the “women and men,” as he refers to them—observing that they are “small made and attenuated of limb,” nothing like the inhabitants of Russia, Germany, and England, the places he had already seen. The French, he concludes, “more resemble the people of the East.”

Apparently claustrophobic, he writes of “holes in mountains,” a reference to railroad tunnels. He describes traveling through them as a “suffocating kind of sensation about the heart.”

But there is no mistaking that the King of Persia found a natural affinity with the jewel of Europe.

Paris is a beautiful and graceful city, with a delicious climate. It generally enjoys sunshine, thus much resembling the climate of Persia.

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Khan’s travelogue relies on comparing and contrasting the different cities to which he traveled, thus offering a comparative account of European cultures through the eyes of an outsider, someone who hailed from the East. At times, Khan’s observations inadvertently—and humorously—capture some of today’s clichés about the places he visited.

One example is rudeness. He first came across it while traveling in Ireland. But whatever incident made an impression on him (he does not relay it in detail), he quickly puts it into a broader perspective: “after experiencing the mode of traveling in France, I was convinced my former complaints [in Ireland] were all groundless.”

“The customer is king” is another example, even before the phrase was coined. Khan captures this sentiment when he poopoos the modes of transportation on which he traveled throughout Europe—all except for one place: “there is no country where the same attention is paid to the comfort and ease of the passengers as in England.”

He generally found London to be “superior” to Paris, as he put it, even though the latter offered “more superb buildings.” He adds of Paris, “it is neither so regular, kept so clean, nor so well lighted at night, nor does it possess so many squares or gardens [as London].”

“In short, I thought I had fallen from Paradise into Hell,” he proclaims, humorlessly, referring to his arrival in Paris after having visited Britain’s capital. 

But fear not, lest the lovers of Paris be left disappointed in Khan’s conclusion, he gives us this nugget:

“When I arrived in Italy, I was made sensible of the beauty of Paris.”

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An Iranian in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Diaries of Haj Sayyah 1859–1877 documents Haj Sayyah’s travels throughout Europe and, eventually, America, where he became a naturalized citizen—possibly making him the first Iranian-American. He is said to have been honored by American president Ulysses Grant, and might well have also met Mark Twain during his sojourn in North America. A wanderer and an activist, he was impressed by the democratic ideals of the West and, hastening his own demise, pushed to no avail for reforms in his homeland after he returned there. He died at the age of 89 after political imprisonment.

But there were happier days during his time abroad, and Paris, in particular, bedazzled him.

All the city looked like jewelry. There were music and singing in coffee shops and theatres. They were all full, with no place to sit…. The trees were festooned with green lights. Musicians played, and young people and children danced…. They enjoyed complete freedom.

He also documented exchanges he had with fellow travelers along the way, some of them Muslim.

My companion said: “A lot has been written about paradise in our books, but I don’t believe paradise can be better than this.” I answered: “Do not talk of religion, please. One can compare two places where he sees two of them. How can we judge now that we have not seen paradise? When we were in Lyon and Marseilles, we could not think of Paris being so much better; now that we see Paris we know it.”

Born poor, Haj Sayyah grew up in a peasant family that expected him to carry on with ordinary village life—marry his cousin and till the land until his death. But Sayyah couldn’t shake his wanderlust. So one night, before his marriage, he secretly left the village and embarked on a lifelong journey of travels. In the ensuing years, he learned Russian, French, English, and German, traversing the world. While in North America, he wanted to continue traveling west over the Pacific to Japan, but discovered that—unlike with his travels in Europe—he needed a travel document called a passport, which he did not possess. Seemingly unaware of naturalization hurdles, he asked for a U.S. passport and was granted one, thus becoming the first known Persian to become an American.

His world travels made a lasting impression on him, especially what he perceived as the cleanliness, order, and humanity of 19^th-century Europe.

On the streets the roads for carriages, the paths for animals, and the sidewalks for the pedestrians were separate. Police watched to ensure that all kept to their own places.

My companion said: “Can there be anything better than this?” I said: “Man has the ability to perform whatever he can imagine. He will certainly continue improving things in the future.”

After he returned to Iran, he indeed dared to imagine an improved future for his country, one grounded in personal liberty and democratic ideals. Alas, he was swiftly persecuted and jailed for his modernity by none other than the Shah of Persia, who himself had traveled through Europe and seen firsthand the seeds of revolution there.

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