'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎159] (194/714)

MESHED
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of prayer and inscriptions. ' Before each of them a little group of
the devout is posted, either to pray themselves or to repeat the
petitions after the leader of their common devotions. This they
do with cries and sobs, as though thus to open to themselves the
gates of eternal bliss. It is indeed a singular and sublime
spectacle to see how these rude sons of Asia kiss with unfeigned
tenderness the fretwork of the grating, the pavement, and especially
the great padlock which hangs from the door. Only the priests
and the seyids are uninfluenced by these feelings of devotion.
Their only concern is with the pence which they may collect.
They force their way everywhere among the devout, nor do they
retire till by felicitations or other good offices they have obtained
the desired mite. When the pilgrim, filled with awe, walking
backwards, has at last left the building, he has earned for himself
the honorary title of Meshedi, a title which he has inscribed on his
signet and his tombstone, and which he ever after prefixes to his
name as an agnomen.'
In the absorption consequent upon visiting the mausoleum of
the Imam, the pilgrim probably recks little of the dust of the
Other famous Harun-er-Kashid, which reposes beneath a sar-
tombs cophagus hard by. Nor, perhaps, will he think much of
the tomb of Abbas Mirza, the son of Fath Ali Shah, and grand
father of the present monarch, which also stands beneath the
sacred roof. Other tombs and chambers, moreover, there are
opening out of the principal shrine, but of minor importance, and
these may be dismissed without further notice.
I now come to a very prevalent error which it is desirable in
the interests of truth to expose. It was started by Mr. Eastwick
Europeans i 11 1862, when he claimed for himself that he was
Teen the 6 ' ^ ie 0T1 ly European that ever went into the mosque of
shrine Imam Ileza at Meshed, certainly the only one that entered
as a European.' 1 And it has been repeated and aggravated by the
new edition of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' which says (vide
article on Meshed) : ' Eastwick was the only European before
O'Donovan who penetrated as far as the parallelogram.' Both of
these claims are quite without justification. Before the time of
Eastwick, Eraser in 1822 went into the shrine and into the tomb
chamber itself, and after more than once repeating the Moslem
confession of faith and giving the mullahs to understand that he
1 Journal of a Diplomate, vol. ii. p. 229.