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HomeAbstracta IranicaVolume 32-334. Histoire, Période Musulmane4.2. Histoire du XVe au XIXe siècle4.2.1. Safavides et QâjârsGrigol Beradze. Paris-Tiflis/Tbil...

4. Histoire, Période Musulmane
4.2. Histoire du XVe au XIXe siècle
4.2.1. Safavides et Qâjârs
233

Grigol Beradze. Paris-Tiflis/Tbilissi-Persépolis : visite de Stanley en Iran via Tbilissi

Giorgio Rota
Bibliographical reference

Grigol Beradze. « Paris-Tiflis/Tbilissi-Persépolis : visite de Stanley en Iran via Tbilissi », in : Florence Hellot-Bellier et Irène Natchkebia, éds., La Géorgie entre Perse et Europe. Paris, L’Harmattan, 2009, p. 155-219.

Full text

1A lesser-known, minor but nonetheless interesting, episode in the adventurous life of Henry Morton Stanley, is related herein: his visit to Georgia and Persia. Stanley was on his way to Zanzibar, the starting point of his expedition to the heart of Africa in search of Dr. Livingstone, an expedition that was to turn a relatively unknown British-American journalist into a worldwide celebrity. After a brief stay in Georgia (presented in detail herein), Stanley arrived in Persia in April or May 1870, where he spent six weeks. He carved his name on one of the walls in Persepolis, an act that provides Beradze with the occasion for a rather long and interesting digression on the grafitti left by visitors, Christians and Muslims alike, on the monuments of the ancient Achaemenid capital (p. 175-189). Several pages (p. 189-195) present the early history of the telegraph in Georgia and Persia, since Stanley was one of the first Europeans to use and praise the services of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, which had been inaugurated in Tehran on 31 January 1870. The article ends with a sketch of Georgia’s current and potential role in modern networks of international communication, transportation and infrastructure (p. 195-197). One may certainly concur with Beradze who, quoting the opinion of another eminent Georgian scholar (Tamaz Gamqrelidze), remarks that it is high time to abandon the Russocentric term “Transcaucasia” for the historically, geographically and culturally accurate expression “southern Caucasus” (p. 159). As usual in works by Beradze, the article ends with a rich and thorough bibliography (p. 198-219).

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References

Electronic reference

Giorgio Rota, Grigol Beradze. Paris-Tiflis/Tbilissi-Persépolis : visite de Stanley en Iran via TbilissiAbstracta Iranica [Online], Volume 32-33 | 2013, document 233, Online since 01 July 2016, connection on 16 May 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/abstractairanica/40646; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.40646

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