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Horse-racing on wheels?

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All the European visitors to Persia were fascinated by polo. Pinçon (travelling with the Sherleys in 1599) wrote about how: “The King of Persia and his nobles take exercise by playing pall-mall on horseback, which is a game of great difficulty: their horses are so well trained at this that they run after the balls …

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Amusing Shah Abbas

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The Shah didn’t always act like a great warrior, major world leader, and major patron of architecture. Here he is, according to the Chronicle of the Carmelites – acting much more like a very annoying small boy: “One Friday therefore, on the 17th July [1609], while [Fathers Benignus and Redemptus] were in the Maidan near …

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