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The Persian Art Galleries
Limited
128 New Bond Street.
London 25th, August 1913 w.

Sept 19
Oct 23/13

Telegraphic Address,
Akemenid, London.
Telephone Mayfair 501.

My dear sir,

I have to thank you for your cable in reply to mine of the 6th inst., and have to express my re-gret for the delay in giving you the required details of the Mihrab.

The reason of this lies in the fact that the monument in question, which is composed of over fifty massive tiles, was packed in cases and stored in Paris fifteen years ago, under lock and key, so that in order to furnish you with some adequate description, I had to go to Paris, get the pieces laid out, inscriptions deciphered, and photographs of some of the pieces taken Hence the delay in the matter.

At the time I cabled you I had just concluded the negotiations of the purchase, that had been going on since October last, when, for the purpose, I had to undertake a journey to Teheran. 

Before proceeding to describe the piece I wish to state briefly the circumstances in which this monument was brought to Europe.

Prior to its removal, it adorned the historic Mongolian Mosque at Vermanin, being in a position equivalent to that held by an alter in a church. Madame Dieulafoy, the great explorer, devotes pages to the description of the magnificence and amazing slendour of the Miharb, in her famous work "Perse-Chaldea et Sussian", which she published on her exhaustive explorations in Persia. She places this in a foremost position and considers it by far the most important amongst Mohammedan monuments of the early epochs.

Mostofy-ul-Memalik, the present War Minister of Persia, who is the only heir to the famous Prime Minister