TEHRAN -- After a century, “Mozaffar ad-Din Shah’s Europe Travelogue” will be published in Iran by Nashr-e Shahr Publications.

The book was first published in 1902 and after that the book was available in offset printing for researchers, the editor of the book Ahmad Khatami told ISNA.
Narrating one of the first confrontations of Iranians with European culture in the modern period, the book is corrected by Ahmad Khatami, who has also written a preface for the book.
Mozaffar ad-Din Shah wrote the book using simple language and it is considered to be one of the earliest books written in an easily accessible level of Persian.
“The prose style of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah is not as elevated as Nasser ad-Din Shah’s. In the preface I pointed to some mistakes of composition and explain some idioms and the style used in the travelogue,” Khatami mentioned.
He went on to say that he did not change the basic style of the book in order to acquaint readers with the linguistic style of that time.
The preface also includes information about Mozaffar ad-Din Shah and Iran’s social conditions at that time, he said.
Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar (1853-1907) was the fifth shah in the Qajar dynasty of Iran. He is often remembered as a largely ineffectual ruler who often suffered from ill health.
Like his father, Nasser ad-Din Shah, he visited Europe three times. He is credited with establishing the Iranian cinema, creating the Iranian constitution, and composing Iran’s first national anthem