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Titre
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En
Safar Nameh: Persian Pictures, from the Mountains to the Sea
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Fr
Safar Nameh : tableaux persans, des montagnes a la mer
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Type
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Travelogue
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Auteur.e.s
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Bell, Gertrude Lowthian (1868–1926)
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Contributions
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Ross, Sir E. Denison (preface, 1928 edition) ; Lascelles, Sir Frank (uncle, British Minister to Tehran)
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Résumé
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En
First published work of Gertrude Bell — later renowned as archaeologist, diplomat, and one of the chief architects of the modern Iraqi state — an impressionistic series of prose sketches based on her 1892 stay in Persia, undertaken as a young Oxford graduate visiting her uncle Sir Frank Lascelles, then newly appointed British Minister in Tehran. Published anonymously in 1894, the work moves between Tehran's public face and the "secret, mysterious life of the East," the condition of Persian women, the enclosed gardens of the Zell-e Soltan (the shah's eldest son), and journeys across the plains and the lonely wastelands of Khorasan, rendered in a distinctive fin-de-siecle Decadent and Aestheticist prose style that later scholars have situated within, and as expanding, the tradition of European literary Decadence. The book's index of recurring terms and themes includes explicit references to Muharram, Hussein (Imam Husayn), mollahs, and the Qajar court, indicating sustained engagement with Shi'i religious life and mourning observance during her stay. Of central relevance for the study of Shi'i mourning ritual and ta'zieh, Bell's youthful, aesthetically self-conscious observations — informed by direct access to elite Qajar domestic and garden spaces through her diplomatic family connection — offer both a literary and an unusually gendered vantage point on Muharram-period Tehran during the mature Naseri period, distinct from the more ethnographic or political registers of most other travelogues in this collection.
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Fr
Premiere oeuvre publiee de Gertrude Bell — plus tard celebre archeologue, diplomate et l'une des principales architectes de l'Etat irakien moderne — serie impressionniste d'esquisses en prose fondee sur son sejour de 1892 en Perse, entrepris alors qu'elle etait jeune diplomee d'Oxford rendant visite a son oncle Sir Frank Lascelles, alors nouvellement nomme ministre britannique a Teheran. Publie anonymement en 1894, l'ouvrage se meut entre le visage public de Teheran et la « vie secrete et mysterieuse de l'Orient », la condition des femmes persanes, les jardins clos du Zell-e Soltan (fils aine du shah), et des voyages a travers les plaines et les etendues solitaires du Khorassan, rendus dans un style de prose decadent et esthetisant fin-de-siecle distinctif, que des chercheurs ulterieurs ont situe au sein de, et comme elargissant, la tradition de la Decadence litteraire europeenne. L'index des termes et themes recurrents de l'ouvrage comprend des references explicites a Muharram, Hussein (l'imam Husayn), aux mollahs et a la cour qadjare, indiquant un engagement soutenu avec la vie religieuse chiite et les commemorations de deuil durant son sejour. D'une importance capitale pour l'etude du rituel de deuil chiite et de la ta'zieh, les observations juveniles et esthetiquement conscientes de Bell — nourries d'un acces direct aux espaces domestiques et aux jardins de l'elite qadjare grace a ses liens familiaux diplomatiques — offrent un point de vue a la fois litteraire et singulierement genre sur le Teheran de la periode de Muharram durant la periode nasserienne mure, distinct des registres plus ethnographiques ou politiques de la plupart des autres recits de voyage de cette collection.
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Edition
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Richard Bentley and Son, London
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Date
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1894 (published anonymously; journey 1892)
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Langue
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En
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Citation bibliographique
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Bell, Gertrude. 1894. Safar Nameh: Persian Pictures, from the Mountains to the Sea. London: Richard Bentley and Son.
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Droits
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Public Domain