106 TEHERAN AND A NEWER PERSIA
In the first place, so far as argumentation goes, without referring to the canopy of the throne in detail, there appears to be a fallacy in urging as evidence the fact that ' above all there is no peacock,' or that the two birds on the back of the throne are not peacocks (1.320). The birds are certainly not pea- cocks ; but the descriptions by Tavernier and by Shah Jahan's own chronicler (which I shall cite) distinctly show that the peacock or peacocks were not on the body of the throne, but on the canopy or its supports. Deductions from the figure of the two birds should be eliminated froin the testimony in the case, it seems to me.
Second, the assumption that Morier (to whom in certain other respects Curzon ascribes no great accuracy, p. 320, n. 1) stated that the throne ' is said to have cost 100,000 tomans ' (then about X 100,000), appears to give no really valid reason for presuming that the fabric was of quite recent date.
Third, Lord Curzon himself, if diiBfering from the other au- thorities in regard to the number of supports (* seven legs'), is open to a slight correction on that point, as indicated above in a footnote.
Fourth, I believe, from actual inspection of the throne, that there is a manifest error in the latter part of Curzon's statement (1. 319) that ' there is no trace or sign of a canopy, or of the means by which a vanished canopy could have been added to the existing throne.' But before taking up this point regarding the original canopy, I wish to draw attention to an overlooked descriptionof the Moghul throne by Shah Jahan's court historian.
This passage occurs in the Padshah Ndmah, or * Book of the King,' written by Abd al-Hamid, royal annalist to Shah Jahan, and recorded under the eighth year of his reign, 1044 a.h. = 1634 A.D. The excerpt in question, which I had with me when examining the throne, reads as follows : ^ —
' In the course of years many valuable gems had come into the imperial jewel-house, each one of which might serve as an ear-drop for Venus, or as 1 The translation is from Elliot, History of India, 7. 46-46.
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