JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN ENGLAND, And of a Journey from and to Syria of Their Royal Highnesses Reeza Koolee Meerza, Najaf Koolee Meerza, and Taymoor Meerza, of Persia. To Which are Prefixed Particulars Respecting Modern Persia, and the Death of the Late Shah.

First edition, first printing. Two volumes. 8vo, xxiii, 306; [vi], 291 pp. Publisher's original blue cloth stamped in blind, gilt centrepiece to the covers, titles in gilt to the spines. Folding facsimile of a letter written in Arabic script by Najaf Koolee Meerza in volume one. A better than very good, unsophisticated set. The bindings are square and firm with a little bumping and minor fraying to the spine tips and corners. The cloth is clean albeit a touch faded to the spines. The contents, with the ownership signature of Isaac M. Williams to the yellow coated endpapers of each volume are otherwise clean and bright throughout.

The work details the escape of three princes from Shiraz following their father's failed attempt to take power in the wake of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar's death in 1834. After spending the summer of 1836 in England, they returned to the Middle East via Europe and eventually settled in Baghdad. Assad Kayat, who worked for the British government and East-India company as a translator, was employed by the brothers as an interpreter for their visit to England and accompanied them for the entirety of their journey. Kayat was an early champion of womens' equality and later trained as a physician at St George's from 1843-46, after which he was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons. Later, he returned to his birth-place of Beirut.