104 TEHERAN AND A NEWER PERSIA
Indies, who were overcome by the Mogul Kings, are converted into Jewels and Precious Stones to adorn it, it is said to be worth above twenty Millions of Gold; but who can know the value thereof? since it de- pends on the Stones that make the Riches as well as the Beauty thereof, whose weight and excellency must be particularly examin'd, if one would judge of their worth, and by consequence, of the value of the Throne.'
Above, when first mentioning the throne, I designedly said that the Takht-i Ta'us is ' claimed ' to be the Peacock Throne which was carried off from India by Nadir Shah. Lord Curzon has brought forward strong arguments to show that this seat of sovereignty in the palace at Teheran is not the original throne of the Moghul emperor, but was built for Fath Ali Shah, early in the nineteeth century, when he married a lady of a noble house of Isfahan, this information being received through cor- respondence with a former Grand Vizir and the Minister for Foreign Affairs (cf. Persia^ 1. 321). He furthermore points to the statement by Tavernier (already quoted) that the Great Moghul had ' seven thrones,' and to that by Hanway, who re- ported that Nadir Shah carried off ' nine other thrones ' beside the Peacock Throne,^ so that even this alone would throw doubt on the authority of the Teheran throne as the Peacock Throne. He adds, moreover, on the authority of Malcolm, that Nadir was so fond of the real Peacock Throne of India as to have an
1 Hanway, Account Brit Trade have spoken. This is of very great
Caspian Sea, 1 ed. 4. 187-188 = 3 ed. value, and the maker never had the
2.383. The Venetian traveler Manucci, felicity of seating himself upon it.
in his account of the Moghul Court Aurangzeb was the first, who, upon
under Shah Jahan's son, Aurangzib, in the day of his coronation, had the ben-
the 17th century, refers to several other efit of ascending this superb seat. It
thrones besides the Peacock Throne, was placed under lofty tents, and he
which belonged to the Emperor of continues to use it on the festival day
India: 'Aurangzeb was seated on a [New Year's], of which I speak. It
throne in shape like a peacock — is at that time the usage to place on
a marvelous piece of work made each side of the throne, but a little
by King Shahjahan — but he never lower, all the thrones used by the
had the good fortune to sit on it' kings of Hindustan who preceded
(2.49). ' The palaces are decked in- the present monarch' (2.348). See
side and out with high and costly Niccolao Manucci, Storia do Mogor,
hangings, made by order of Shahjahan or Mogul India, 1653-1708, tr. W.
along with the throne of which I Irvine, 2. 49, 348, London, 1907.
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