Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-29
Copyright. 1908. by Frances Lynn.

congratulations to Gen. Morte-
"a Khan. the minister of Persia. upon
the recent decision of the imperial board
of education, in Persia. to adopt for use
in all the schools of Persia the text books
that the minister has had in preparation
for some time.
Morteza. Khan. envoy extraordinary and
minister plenipotentiary for his imperial
excellency. the Shah of Persia. has been
finding labor of love in the composition
and compilation of six text books, written
after the most approved modern methods.
for the use Of the school children of Old
Omars land. The first two of these vol
umes have been published in Teheran.
Persia; and the minister Of Persia has
named the first Education" and the sec
ond "Encoura cement" The other four
are planned in the ascending scale of
progress from the primer, to the books for
the more advanced pupil.
To have prepared. with his own hands,
the script for these six volumes COM
prising wide range of subjects includ-
ing original drawings, scientific articles
and original stories and verse, has been
no light task. yet the minister of Persia
has found time 10 accomplish this, with
great success, in the leisure hours of his
diplomatic life.
When first 1 called upon Morteza Khan,
he received me in the salon Of the lega-
ton on 10Th street. The table in the true
oriental style. was spread as for feast.
and II did not surprise me when the min
lister. after serving me with cup of de-
licious tea and dairy Persian cakes, said,
with grave formalty:
To-day Friday. is Mohammedan Sun
day, SO l must ask you to come another
day for the Observation-Disclosures at 4?
All, that Is well. You comprehend this
day is for God. This is my Sunday, and
/ may welcome my friends socially today
but no politics, no interviews or business
You see, In Persia We have three Sunday
holidays-the Sunday, on Sunday, of the
Christian; the Sunday, on Saturday. Of
the Israelite. and the Sunday, on Friday,
of the Mohammedan. Oh, yes, we &C
cept the Christ. He was TO us a prophet
OF God-but-you remember He said: L
am the Son of God, and ye are my breth-
rem. We do not believe that God can
have natural son, with natural DESIRES
as humanity. but we do believe that He
sends many prophets. To the Mohamme-
dan there is no God but God Allah IL Allah
and Mohammed is his prophet, So We be-
lievs also that Christ the Son of God
as all the prophets are sons of God and
He was very mighty prophet. Adieu,
goodbye. then, until tomorrow at T."
Promptly at 4 on Saturday. / was ush-
cred into Morteza. khans, study. The
minister himself greeted me at the head
or the stairs and led the way into the
sanctum that bespoke his oriental tastes.
and also gave some evidence of his liter
airy labors. The minister of Persia is
deeply interested in the welfare of the
children of Persia. When questioned
with regard to his labors in behalf of their
education and enlighte nment his oriental
imperturbabiity gave place to keenest in
terest. and his large. dark es s bright
ened the while his voice developed I'M
expectedly tender cadences. as he spoke
of the children of his native land
Yes. have written six volumes two Of
which have now been published. These
are text books. modelled after the present
day European educational methods, for
use among my children of Persia. The
first book is called Education See"'
The little volume. bound in oriental
fashion in beautiful red velvet, and print
ed in Persian. with glossary of French
words and synonyms. and containing
many quaint Illustrations was at this
point exhibited by the author with par
donable pride. The books show the faith
full labor OF the Persian minister's own
hands, the plates for printing having
been made from his original manuscript
not one line word of which has been in
trusted to any secretary or assistant
~
With a smile OF naive happiness and
pride he said:
AT neutrality-suspicious.. l believe you
call it-of the national board of education
of Persia my books were accepted and
ordered 10 be used in the schools OF my
country. See. this is Education 1t con-
tains the words and definitions in French
and Persian, lessons. questions and
swers, and also some good short stories
for the child. Original? Oh. yes-all, all.
There is only my work In the whole six
volumes. See. the second one call En-
coura cement -
The opening page of Education" con-
tains an address or Invocation to the chill
dren OF Persia. Morteza. Khan, calls it
Advice to the Child" The translation
given to me by the minister himself. is
as follows:
oh my sweet. my darling children.
oh. my beautiful. my sweet-singing night