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119-520: A critical edition of the poem based on unique manuscript of the work is found in a collection held in the British Museum (OR 2780) and published in a critical edition by Professor Jalal Matini , and in an English translation by Kaveh L Hemmat. The manuscript collection contains five epic poems: Asadi Tusi 's Garshasp-nama, Ahmad Tabrizi's Shāhanshāh-nāma , Tārikh-e Changiz Khān va Jāneshinānash "The History of Genghis Khan and his Successors",

238-453: A buildings committee was set up to plan for expansion of the museum, and further highlighted by the donation in 1822 of the King's Library , personal library of King George III's, comprising 65,000 volumes, 19,000 pamphlets , maps, charts and topographical drawings . The neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke , was asked to draw up plans for an eastern extension to the museum "... for

357-513: A demonic creature. Subsequently, he abandons his son in the forest that was the hiding place of the house of Jamshid. During this time, Abtin (pronounced as Ābtin), the third generation of Jamshid's line (Jamšid > Nunak > Mahāru > Ābtin) appears in the story. Abtin's wife provides shelter to the tusked and elephant-eared son of Kush and he is raised in Abtin 's family. The child shows extraordinary examples of physical fighting and he fights for

476-559: A display of objects from the South Seas brought back from the round-the-world voyages of Captain James Cook and the travels of other explorers fascinated visitors with a glimpse of previously unknown lands. The bequest of a collection of books, engraved gems , coins, prints and drawings by Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode in 1800 did much to raise the museum's reputation; but Montagu House became increasingly crowded and decrepit and it

595-630: A group of Iranian archaeologists that dates back to the late Chibanian . Yarshalman is a Middle Paleolithic shelter that was probably occupied by Neanderthals about 40,000 to 70,000 years ago. Later Paleolithic sites in Gilan are Chapalak Cave and Khalvasht shelter. It seems that the Gelae , or Gilites, entered the region south of the Caspian coast and west of the Amardos River (now called

714-477: A handsome portion of the proceeds. In the mid-19th century, a fatal epidemic among the silk worms paralyzed Gilan's economy, causing widespread economic distress. Gilan's budding industrialists and merchants were increasingly dissatisfied with the weak and ineffective rule of the Qajars . Re-orientation of Gilan's agriculture and industry from silk to production of rice and the introduction of tea plantations were

833-495: A hunting expedition, he becomes separated from his crew and loses his way. On the way, he stops at a house. The wise lord of the palace, who is a pious man, invites him and asks him, what is his name. Kush replies that: "I am God, the Giver of Daily Bread and Guide"!. The owner finds the idea laughable and Kush eventually abandons his claim to divinity. In return, the owner, who was also an expert physician performs surgery on his so that

952-581: A large army goes into battle against the two sons and Kuš. Tur and Salm are killed in battle, and Manuchehr wounds Kush with his bull-headed mace. The wounded Kush was able to escape to Khwāvarān (the East), and gain control of the region. Kush became very powerful again and had collected a formidable army. He rules these lands for a long time. During this era of the story, the armies from Abyssinia and Nubia attack once again. Kush goes to battle against these armies but he has no success. During this era, Kaykavus now

1071-611: A large margin, the heaviest rainfall in Iran: reaching as high as 1,900 millimetres (75 in) in the southwestern coast and generally around 1,400 millimetres (55 in). Rasht, the capital of the province, is known internationally as the "City of Silver Rains" and in Iran as the "City of Rain". Rainfall is heaviest between September and December because the onshore winds from the Siberian High are strongest, but it occurs throughout

1190-453: A location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. The trustees rejected Buckingham House, which was later converted into the present day Buckingham Palace , on the grounds of cost and the unsuitability of its location. With the acquisition of Montagu House, the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759. At this time,

1309-610: A major part of Sir John Evans 's coin collection, which was later sold to the museum by his son J. P. Morgan Jr. in 1915. In 1918, because of the threat of wartime bombing, some objects were evacuated via the London Post Office Railway to Holborn, the National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth) and a country house near Malvern . On the return of antiquities from wartime storage in 1919 some objects were found to have deteriorated. A conservation laboratory

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1428-624: A million books, opened in 1857. Because of continued pressure on space the decision was taken to move natural history to a new building in South Kensington , which would later become the British Museum of Natural History . Roughly contemporary with the construction of the new building was the career of a man sometimes called the "second founder" of the British Museum, the Italian librarian Anthony Panizzi . Under his supervision,

1547-566: A number of recently discovered hoards which demonstrated the richness of what had been considered an unimportant part of the Roman Empire. The museum turned increasingly towards private funds for buildings, acquisitions and other purposes. In 2000, the British Museum was awarded National Heritage Museum of the Year . Today the museum no longer houses collections of natural history , and the books and manuscripts it once held now form part of

1666-492: A partial answer to the decline of silk in the province. After World War I , Gilan came to be ruled independently of the central government of Tehran and concern arose that the province might permanently separate. Before the war, Gilanis had played an important role in the Constitutional Revolution of Iran . Sepahdar-e Tonekaboni (Rashti) was a prominent figure in the early years of the revolution and

1785-569: A person from Jamshid's royal line shall avenge his death. In order to circumvent this prediction, Zahhak sends his brother Kush to Čin (parts of China and Central Asia in Persian mythology ) to get rid of Jamshid's off-springs. These off-springs have in their possession, the chronicle called the Andarz-e Jamshid ("Jamshid's Testament"), a book that foretells events in the family's future and counsels them on what to do when they do. Based on

1904-710: A result of British colonisation and resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, or independent spin-offs, the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881. Some of its best-known acquisitions, such as the Greek Elgin Marbles and the Egyptian Rosetta Stone , are subject to long-term disputes and repatriation claims. In 1973, the British Library Act 1972 detached the library department from

2023-609: A result, it was one of the wealthiest provinces in Iran. Safavid annexation in the 16th century was at least partially motivated by this revenue stream. The silk trade, though not the production, was a monopoly of the Crown and the single most important source of trade revenue for the imperial treasury. As early as the 16th century and until the mid 19th century, Gilan was the major exporter of silk in Asia. The Shah farmed out this trade to Greek and Armenian merchants and, in return, received

2142-756: A second frame story about Alexander the Great , and the main narrative which tells the story of Kush the Tusked and his battles with Abtin and Fereydun and their adventures in China, Korea, the Maghreb , and the Iberian Peninsula . The introduction (lines 1-226) begins by the customary tradition of extolling God. Subsequently, the author then references the Bahman-nama as his previous work. Then he gives

2261-543: A while against his father Kush in Abtin's army. However, once Kush and his son recognize each other, they join forces against Abtin. Abin's clan who is now under attack from both Kush and his son consults the chronicle of Jamshid. The chronicle advises that whenever he finds himself in trouble, he should seek refuge with the king of Māchin (inner China in Persian literature). Māchin itself has two section: one which borders Čin and

2380-555: Is Bandar-e Anzali , formerly known as Bandar-e Pahlavi. Early humans were present at Gilan since Lower Paleolithic . Darband Cave is the earliest known human habitation site in Gilan province; it is located in a deep tributary canyon of the Siah Varud and contains evidence for the earliest prehistoric human cave occupation during the Lower Paleolithic in Iran. Stone artifacts and animal fossils were discovered by

2499-519: Is a public museum dedicated to human history , art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. Established in 1753, the British Museum was the first public national museum to cover all fields of knowledge. In 2023, the museum received 5,820,860 visitors, an increase of 42% from 2022. It

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2618-476: Is a Caspian language, and a member of the northwestern Iranian language branch, spoken in Iran's Gilan, Mazandaran and Qazvin provinces. Gilaki is one of the main languages spoken in the province of Gilan and is divided into three dialects: Western Gilaki, Eastern Gilaki, and Galeshi (in the mountains of Gilan and Mazandaran). The western and eastern dialects are separated by the Sefid Roud. Although Gilaki

2737-547: Is a characteristic building of Sir Robert Smirke , with 44 columns in the Ionic order 45 ft (14 m) high, closely based on those of the temple of Athena Polias at Priene in Asia Minor . The pediment over the main entrance is decorated by sculptures by Sir Richard Westmacott depicting The Progress of Civilisation , consisting of fifteen allegorical figures, installed in 1852. The construction commenced around

2856-412: Is also spoken in the province of Gilan as it is Iran's official language, requiring everyone to know Persian. Heritage language data as of 2022: Mother tongue data as of 2022: At the time of the 2006 National Census, the province's population was 2,381,063 people in 669,221 households. The following census in 2011 counted 2,480,874 in 777,316 households. The 2016 census measured the population of

2975-510: Is rerouted. Meanwhile, Kush builds a city by the name of Kushan in the lands beyond the Oxus . Kush decrees that a statue of himself be erected in the city, and he forces the inhabitants to worship it. Fereydun, eventually sends Kāran/Qāran (c.f. with the Parthian house of Karen) to the land of Chin with a vast army. Fereydun's army is victorious and Qāran captures Kush in hand-to-hand combat. Kush

3094-486: Is ruled by a king named Bahak; the other is island which a month's journey and ruled by the King Teyhur. Abtin is warmly received by Teyhur and he stays in the island which is referenced as Basilā , Kuh and Jazira in the book. Abtin also marries the daughter of Teyhur who is named daughter Farārang . During his stay in the island, Abtin is inspired by a dream which tells him to go to Iran. This episode illustrates

3213-519: Is sent back to Iran, and he is imprisoned beside Zahhak, in Damavand. Kush is imprisoned for forty years until Armies from Abyssinia and Nubia (called Mazandaran by the author and should not be confused with the province of Mazandaran in Iran) attack north Africa and advance as Egypt. At this time, the inhabitants of the area seek the help of Fereydun. Fereydun sends his Iranian troops there, to defeat

3332-587: Is the king of Iran. Kush convinces the Iranian ruler to go to war, however the combined forces of Kush and the Iranian armies is not enough to defeat the armies of Abyssinia and Nubia. However, the great legendary hero Rustam is sent to the area and defeats the armies of Abyssinia and Nubia. This part of the epic is very close to Ferdowsi's version of Rustam's mission to Mazandaran (Abyssinia and Nubia). Despite several setbacks, Kush remains determined on his religious aspirations and his proclamation of divinity. During

3451-585: Is the most widely spoken language in Gilan , the Talysh language is also spoken in the province. There are only two cities in Gilan where Talyshi is exclusively spoken: Masal and Masoleh (although other cities speak Talyshi alongside Gilaki) while Talyshi is spoken mostly in the city of Astara , Hashtpar and surrounding towns. The Kurdish language is used by Kurds who have moved to the Amarlu region. Persian

3570-588: The Bahman-nama , and the Kush-nama . It originally also contained the Shahnameh , however, this portion was separated from the rest of the codex. Much of the epic was likely based on one or more Middle Persian prose texts. This manuscript has 10,129 couplets and contains some scribal errors. The text can be divided into a preface, a frame story about a king named Kush (different from the main character),

3689-767: The Americas . On 7 June 1753, King George II gave his royal assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum. The British Museum Act 1753 also added two other libraries to the Sloane collection, namely the Cottonian Library , assembled by Sir Robert Cotton , dating back to Elizabethan times, and the Harleian Library , the collection of the Earls of Oxford . They were joined in 1757 by

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3808-510: The Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo (1939) and late Roman silver tableware from Mildenhall , Suffolk (1946). The immediate post-war years were taken up with the return of the collections from protection and the restoration of the museum after the Blitz . Work also began on restoring the damaged Duveen Gallery. In 1953, the museum celebrated its bicentenary . Many changes followed:

3927-708: The Caspian Sea shores of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan as part of the Caspian expeditions of the Rus' . Initially, the Rus' appeared in Serkland in the 9th century traveling as merchants along the Volga trade route , selling furs, honey, and slaves. The first small-scale raids took place in the late 9th and early 10th century. The Rus' undertook the first large-scale expedition in 913; having arrived on 500 ships, they pillaged

4046-589: The Coins and Medals office suite, completely destroyed during the war, was rebuilt and re-opened, attention turned towards the gallery work with new tastes in design leading to the remodelling of Robert Smirke's Classical and Near Eastern galleries. In 1962 the Duveen Gallery was finally restored and the Parthenon Sculptures were moved back into it, once again at the heart of the museum. By

4165-532: The Duke of Blacas 's wide-ranging and valuable collection of antiquities. Overseas excavations continued and John Turtle Wood discovered the remains of the 4th century BC Temple of Artemis at Ephesos , another Wonder of the Ancient World . The natural history collections were an integral part of the British Museum until their removal to the new British Museum of Natural History in 1887, nowadays

4284-643: The Ilkhan Öljeitü conquered the region. This was the first time the region came under the rule of the Mongols after the Ilkhanid Mongols and their Georgian allies failed to do it in the late 1270s. After 1336, the region seemed to be independent again. Before the introduction of silk production (date unknown but a pillar of the economy by the 15th century AD), Gilan was a poor province. There were no permanent trade routes linking Gilan to Persia. There

4403-464: The Natural History Museum in South Kensington . With the departure and the completion of the new White Wing (fronting Montague Street) in 1884, more space was available for antiquities and ethnography and the library could further expand. This was a time of innovation as electric lighting was introduced in the Reading Room and exhibition galleries. The William Burges collection of armoury

4522-699: The Ottoman Empire without rendering tribute to the Sublime Porte , in 1534 and 1591. The Safavid emperor, Shah Abbas I ended the rule of Khan Ahmad Khan (the last semi-independent ruler of Gilan) and annexed the province directly to his empire. From this point onward, rulers of Gilan were appointed by the Persian Shah . In the Safavid era, Gilan was settled by large numbers of Georgians , Circassians , Armenians , and other peoples of

4641-706: The Oxus Treasure . In 1898 Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bequeathed the Waddesdon Bequest , the glittering contents from his New Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor . This consisted of almost 300 pieces of objets d'art et de vertu which included exquisite examples of jewellery, plate, enamel, carvings, glass and maiolica , among them the Holy Thorn Reliquary , probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry . The collection

4760-890: The Persian Socialist Soviet Republic (commonly known as the Socialist Republic of Gilan), which lasted from June 1920 until September 1921. In February 1921 the Soviets withdrew their support for the Jangali government of Gilan and signed the Russo-Persian Treaty of Friendship (1921) with the central government of Tehran. The Jangalis continued to struggle against the central government until their final defeat in September 1921 when control of Gilan returned to Tehran. Gilaks form

4879-862: The Sefid-Rud ) in the second or first century BCE, Pliny identifies them with the Cadusii who were living there previously. It is more likely that they were a separate people, had come from the region of Dagestan , and taken the place of the Kadusii. That the native inhabitants of Gilan have some originating roots in the Caucasus is supported by genetics and language, as the Y-DNA of Gilaks most closely resemble that of Georgians and other South Caucasus peoples, while their mtDNA closely resembles other Iranian groups. Their languages shares typologic features with

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4998-678: The Speaker of the House of Commons . The board was formed on the museum's inception to hold its collections in trust for the nation without actually owning them themselves, and now fulfil a mainly advisory role. Trustee appointments are governed by the regulatory framework set out in the code of practice on public appointments issued by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The Greek Revival façade facing Great Russell Street

5117-419: The languages of the Caucasus . Gilan province was the place of origin of the Ziyarid dynasty and Buyid dynasty in the mid-10th century. Previously, the people of the province had a prominent position during the Sassanid dynasty through the 7th century, so that their political power extended to Mesopotamia . The first recorded encounter between Gilak and Deylamite warlords and invading Muslim armies

5236-422: The "Old Royal Library", now the Royal manuscripts , assembled by various British monarchs . Together these four "foundation collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving manuscript of Beowulf . The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to

5355-399: The 1970s, the museum was again expanding. More services for the public were introduced; visitor numbers soared, with the temporary exhibition "Treasures of Tutankhamun " in 1972, attracting 1,694,117 visitors, the most successful in British history. In the same year the Act of Parliament establishing the British Library was passed, separating the collection of manuscripts and printed books from

5474-418: The American architect John Russell Pope , it was completed in 1938. The appearance of the exhibition galleries began to change as dark Victorian reds gave way to modern pastel shades. Following the retirement of George Francis Hill as Director and Principal Librarian in 1936, he was succeeded by John Forsdyke . As tensions with Nazi Germany developed and it appeared that war may be imminent Forsdyke came to

5593-510: The British Library to a new site at St Pancras, finally achieved in 1998, provided the space needed for the books. It also created the opportunity to redevelop the vacant space in Robert Smirke's 19th-century central quadrangle into the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court – the largest covered square in Europe – which opened in 2000. The ethnography collections, which had been housed in the short-lived Museum of Mankind at 6 Burlington Gardens from 1970, were returned to new purpose-built galleries in

5712-454: The British Museum . The British Museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport through a three-year funding agreement. Its head is the Director of the British Museum . The British Museum was run from its inception by a 'principal librarian' (when the book collections were still part of the museum), a role that was renamed 'director and principal librarian' in 1898, and 'director' in 1973 (on

5831-457: The British Museum Library (now part of the British Library ) quintupled in size and became a well-organised institution worthy of being called a national library, the largest library in the world after the National Library of Paris . The quadrangle at the centre of Smirke's design proved to be a waste of valuable space and was filled at Panizzi's request by a circular Reading Room of cast iron, designed by Smirke's brother, Sydney Smirke. Until

5950-486: The British Museum was founded as a "universal museum". Its foundations lie in the will of the Anglo-Irish physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), a London-based doctor and scientist from Ulster . During the course of his lifetime, and particularly after he married the widow of a wealthy Jamaican planter, Sloane gathered a large collection of curiosities , and not wishing to see his collection broken up after death, he bequeathed it to King George II , for

6069-422: The British Museum, but it continued to host the now separated British Library in the same Reading Room and building as the museum until 1997. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport . Like all UK national museums, it charges no admission fee except for loan exhibitions. Although today principally a museum of cultural art objects and antiquities ,

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6188-433: The British Museum. This left the museum with antiquities; coins, medals and paper money; prints and drawings; and ethnography . A pressing problem was finding space for additions to the library which now required an extra 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 miles (2.0 km) of shelving each year. The Government suggested a site at St Pancras for the new British Library but the books did not leave the museum until 1997. The departure of

6307-411: The Caucasus whose descendants still live or linger across Gilan. Most of these Georgians and Circassians are assimilated into the mainstream Gilaks. The history of Georgian settlement is described by Iskandar Beg Munshi , the author of the 17th century Tarikh-e Alam-Ara-ye Abbasi , and the Circassian settlements by Pietro Della Valle , among other authors. The Safavid empire became weak towards

6426-409: The Deylamites were the only warriors in the Caspian region who could fight the fearsome Varangian Vikings as equals. Deylamite mercenaries served as far away as Egypt , al-Andalus , and in the Khazar Kingdom . The Buyids established the most successful of the Deylamite dynasties of Iran. In the 9th–11th century AD, there were repeated military raids undertaken by the Rus' between 864 and 1041 on

6545-602: The King of Iran. A proclamation to which the gentry bears witness is written, so that the pact may be honored. Kush is then sent as the head of the army to Egypt and North Africa. He defeats the enemy and the spoils are sent back to Faridun. Kush also founds several new cities in the region. However, Kush breaks his pledge to Faridun and openly rebels against him. He kills the Iranian members of his army, and orders each home to have an effigy of him and that it be worshipped daily. In order to subdue Kush, Faridun sends his son Salm to vanquish Kush. Salm defeats Kush's army, but Kush flees to

6664-406: The South Wing with its great colonnade, initiated in 1843 and completed in 1847, when the Front Hall and Great Staircase were opened to the public. The museum is faced with Portland stone , but the perimeter walls and other parts of the building were built using Haytor granite from Dartmoor in South Devon, transported via the unique Haytor Granite Tramway . In 1846 Robert Smirke was replaced as

6783-457: The UK. In 1816 these masterpieces of western art were acquired by the British Museum by Act of Parliament and deposited in the museum thereafter. The collections were supplemented by the Bassae frieze from Phigaleia , Greece in 1815. The Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from Mary Mackintosh Rich, the widow of Assyriologist Claudius James Rich . In 1802

6902-447: The West. During this time, the three sons of Faridun, Tur , Iraj and Salm were openly fighting. Iraj demands tribute from his two other brothers, and they on the other hand align with Kush. Together, the brothers kill Iraj and they divide the world with Kush, and take some territory from Faridun. However, Manuchehr the son of Iraj seeks vengeance for his father and with a large army goes to battle against Tur, Salm and Kush. Manuchehr with

7021-482: The advice of this book, Jamshid's descendants remain hidden, roaming the forests and stay away from the reach of Kush. While looking for Jamshid's descendants, Kush stumbles upon the Pilguš (literally, the "elephant-eared") Tribe. He battles this tribe and takes a woman from the tribe as his bride. The woman bears him an elephant-eared and tusked son. But when Kush sees the hideous like face of his son, he flies into an angry range. He kills his wife for giving birth to such

7140-415: The antiquities displays. After the defeat of the French campaign in the Battle of the Nile , in 1801, the British Museum acquired more Egyptian sculptures and in 1802 King George III presented the Rosetta Stone – key to the deciphering of hieroglyphs. Gifts and purchases from Henry Salt , British consul general in Egypt, beginning with the Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, laid the foundations of

7259-549: The architect Sydney Smirke , opened in 1857. For almost 150 years researchers came here to consult the museum's vast library. The Reading Room closed in 1997 when the national library (the British Library) moved to a new building at St Pancras . Today it has been transformed into the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre. With the bookstacks in the central courtyard of the museum empty, the demolition for Lord Foster 's glass-roofed Great Court could begin. The Great Court, opened in 2000, while undoubtedly improving circulation around

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7378-406: The armies from the south. But once those troops leave, the armies from south return and attack the inhabitants of North Africa and Egypt. In a meeting of Faridun with his advisors, they came to a consensus that they must send a harsh tyrant to the West. The unanimous choice is Kush, who is unshackled and brought before Faridun. Kush seeks forgiveness from Fereydun, and swears to be a loyal servant of

7497-488: The block on which the museum stands. The architect Sir John James Burnet was petitioned to put forward ambitious long-term plans to extend the building on all three sides. Most of the houses in Montague Place were knocked down a few years after the sale. Of this grand plan only the Edward VII galleries in the centre of the North Front were ever constructed, these were built 1906–14 to the design by J.J. Burnet, and opened by King George V and Queen Mary in 1914. They now house

7616-433: The collection occupies room 2a. By the last years of the 19th century, The British Museum's collections had increased to the extent that its building was no longer large enough. In 1895 the trustees purchased the 69 houses surrounding the museum with the intention of demolishing them and building around the west, north and east sides of the museum. The first stage was the construction of the northern wing beginning 1906. All

7735-425: The collection of Egyptian Monumental Sculpture. Many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the Charles Towneley collection , much of it Roman sculpture, in 1805. In 1806, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin , ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803 removed the large collection of marble sculptures from the Parthenon , on the Acropolis in Athens and transferred them to

7854-448: The commander of a fortress in Damavand which Zahak has not been able to capture. Agents of Zahak then capture Abtin and put him to death. When, Kush the Tusked learns of Abtin's refuge on the island of Jazira, his marriage to Farārang, and his return to Iran, he sets up plans to take over the island. Despite the fact that island ruled by Teyhur has not been conquered for 3000 years, he craftily takes it over. Afterwards, he actually destroys

7973-419: The courtyard with the East Wing ( The King's Library ) in 1823–1828, followed by the North Wing in 1833–1838, which originally housed among other galleries a reading room, now the Wellcome Gallery. Work was also progressing on the northern half of the West Wing (The Egyptian Sculpture Gallery) 1826–1831, with Montagu House demolished in 1842 to make room for the final part of the West Wing, completed in 1846, and

8092-484: The end of the 17th century CE. By the early 18th century, the once-mighty empire was in the grips of civil war and uprisings. The ambitious Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great) sent a force that captured Gilan and many of the Iranian territories in the North Caucasus , Transcaucasia , as well as other territories in northern mainland Iran, through the Russo-Persian War (1722-1723) and the resulting Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1723) . Gilan and its capital of Rasht, which

8211-471: The face of Kush is restored to human form. The owner wins Kush over to the cause of God, and Kush spents 46 years with learning a variety of disciplines. The wise lord then convinces Kush to return to his homeland. Kush returns to his homeland and encourages everyone to worship God. The story ends by the fact that the wise lord was a descendant of Jamshid, and he was giving the story of Kuš-e Pil-Dandān to Alexander. British Museum The British Museum

8330-427: The few years after its foundation the British Museum received several further gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts and David Garrick 's library of 1,000 printed plays. The predominance of natural history, books and manuscripts began to lessen when in 1772 the museum acquired for £8,410 its first significant antiquities in Sir William Hamilton 's "first" collection of Greek vases . From 1778,

8449-425: The first full-time in-house designer and publications officer were appointed in 1964, the Friends organisation was set up in 1968, an Education Service established in 1970 and publishing house in 1973. In 1963, a new Act of Parliament introduced administrative reforms. It became easier to lend objects, the constitution of the board of trustees changed and the Natural History Museum became fully independent. By 1959

8568-479: The independent British Library . The museum nevertheless preserves its universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and modern. The original 1753 collection has grown to over 13 million objects at the British Museum, 70 million at the Natural History Museum and 150 million at the British Library. The Round Reading Room , which was designed by

8687-422: The largest parts of collection were the library, which took up the majority of the rooms on the ground floor of Montagu House, and the natural history objects, which took up an entire wing on the second state storey of the building. In 1763, the trustees of the British Museum, under the influence of Peter Collinson and William Watson , employed the former student of Carl Linnaeus , Daniel Solander , to reclassify

8806-646: The main trading port between Iran and Europe. The Jangalis are glorified in Iranian history and effectively secured Gilan and Mazandaran against foreign invasions. However, in 1920 British forces invaded Bandar-e Anzali , while being pursued by the Bolsheviks . In the midst of this conflict, the Jangalis entered into an alliance with the Bolsheviks against the British. This culminated in the establishment of

8925-503: The majority are Talysh, and Azerbaijanis make up a significant portion of the population. There are also Kurdish-speaking Gormanj in Talysh county who are immigrants from Khalkhal of Ardabil province . Persians are concentrated in the city of Rasht and are divided into immigrants from Tehran and other central Iranian cities, and the local Gilak people who have adopted the Persian language and became Persianized. The Gilaki language

9044-747: The majority of the population, while Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Talysh and Persians are significant minorities in the province. Gilaks live in most of the cities and villages in the province, except Astara and Hashtpar counties. The city and county of Astara are inhabited by majority Azerbaijanis , and a Talysh minority. There are four groups of Kurds in the province with different origins. Amarlou in Rasht and Rudbar (Districts of Ammarlu, Deylaman, and Raḥmatabad), Reshvand in Rasht , Jalalvand in Langroud , and Kormanj in Hashtpar . In Talysh county (Hashtpar),

9163-438: The mid-19th century, the museum's collections were relatively circumscribed but, in 1851, with the appointment to the staff of Augustus Wollaston Franks to curate the collections, the museum began for the first time to collect British and European medieval antiquities, prehistory , branching out into Asia and diversifying its holdings of ethnography . A real coup for the museum was the purchase in 1867, over French objections, of

9282-446: The military theaters of Iran and Mesopotamia were openly Zoroastrian (for example, Asfar Shiruyeh a warlord in central Iran, and Makan, son of Kaki, the warlord of Rey) or were suspected of harboring pro-Zoroastrian (for example Mardavij ) sentiments. Muslim chronicles of Varangian (Rus', pre-Russian Norsemen) invasions of the littoral Caspian region in the 9th century record Deylamites as non-Muslim. These chronicles also show that

9401-584: The museum became a construction site. The King's Library , on the ground floor of the East Wing, was handed over in 1827, and was described as one of the finest rooms in London. Although it was not fully open to the general public until 1857, special openings were arranged during The Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1840, the museum became involved in its first overseas excavations , Charles Fellows 's expedition to Xanthos , in Asia Minor , whence came remains of

9520-540: The museum in 2000. The museum again readjusted its collecting policies as interest in "modern" objects: prints, drawings, medals and the decorative arts reawakened. Ethnographical fieldwork was carried out in places as diverse as New Guinea , Madagascar , Romania , Guatemala and Indonesia and there were excavations in the Near East , Egypt, Sudan and the UK. The Weston Gallery of Roman Britain, opened in 1997, displayed

9639-458: The museum trustees a loan of £200,000 to purchase from the Duke of Bedford all 69 houses which backed onto the museum building in the five surrounding streets – Great Russell Street, Montague Street, Montague Place, Bedford Square and Bloomsbury Street. The trustees planned to demolish these houses and to build around the west, north and east sides of the museum new galleries that would completely fill

9758-710: The museum's architect by his brother Sydney Smirke , whose major addition was the Round Reading Room 1854–1857; at 140 feet (43 m) in diameter it was then the second widest dome in the world, the Pantheon in Rome being slightly wider. The next major addition was the White Wing 1882–1884 added behind the eastern end of the South Front, the architect being Sir John Taylor . In 1895, Parliament gave

9877-446: The museum's collections of Prints and Drawings and Oriental Antiquities. There was not enough money to put up more new buildings, and so the houses in the other streets are nearly all still standing. Gilan Gilan province ( Persian : استان گیلان ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran , in the northwest of the country. Its capital is the city of Rasht . The province lies along the Caspian Sea , in Iran's Region 3 , west of

9996-667: The museum, dated 31 January 1784, refers to the Hamilton bequest of a "Colossal Foot of an Apollo in Marble". It was one of two antiquities of Hamilton's collection drawn for him by Francesco Progenie, a pupil of Pietro Fabris , who also contributed a number of drawings of Mount Vesuvius sent by Hamilton to the Royal Society in London. In the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated

10115-671: The museum, was criticised for having a lack of exhibition space at a time when the museum was in serious financial difficulties and many galleries were closed to the public. At the same time the African collections that had been temporarily housed in 6 Burlington Gardens were given a new gallery in the North Wing funded by the Sainsbury family – with the donation valued at £25 million. The museum's online database had nearly 4,500,000 individual object entries in 2,000,000 records at

10234-463: The nation, for a sum of £20,000. At that time, Sloane's collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds including some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337 volumes of dried plants, prints and drawings including those by Albrecht Dürer and antiquities from Sudan , Egypt , Greece , Rome , the Ancient Near and Far East and

10353-470: The natural history collection according to the Linnaean system , thereby making the museum a public centre of learning accessible to the full range of European natural historians. In 1823, King George IV gave the King's Library assembled by George III, and Parliament gave the right to a copy of every book published in the country, thereby ensuring that the museum's library would expand indefinitely. During

10472-418: The overall recurring importance of dreams in the epic. With Teyhur's approval, Abtin and Farārang aided by an ancient mariner sail for fourteen months and reach the sea of Gilan and Amol (probably meant the Caspian Sea ). In Iran, Farārang gives birth to the Iranian hero Faridun . When the child reaches the age of four, his father, inspired by a dream, entrusts Faridun to a person by the name of salkat ,

10591-469: The proposed Picture Gallery was no longer needed, and the space on the upper floor was given over to the Natural history collections. The first Synopsis of the British Museum was published in 1808. This described the contents of the museum, and the display of objects room by room, and updated editions were published every few years. As Sir Robert Smirke 's grand neo-classical building gradually arose,

10710-412: The province as 2,530,696 people in 851,382 households. [REDACTED] The population history and structural changes of Gilan province's administrative divisions over three consecutive censuses are shown in the following table. According to the 2016 census, 1,598,765 people (over 63% of the population of Gilan province) live in the following cities: Gilan has a humid subtropical climate with, by

10829-507: The province of Mazandaran , east of the province of Ardabil , and north of the provinces of Zanjan and Qazvin . It borders Azerbaijan ( Astara District ) in the north. The northern section of the province is part of the territory of South (Iranian) Talysh . At the center of the province is Rasht . Other cities include Astaneh-ye Ashrafiyeh , Astara , Fuman , Hashtpar , Lahijan , Langarud , Masuleh , Manjil , Rudbar , Rudsar , Shaft , Siahkal , and Sowme'eh Sara . The main port

10948-481: The public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary and antiquarian element, and meant that the British Museum now became both National Museum and library. The body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House , as

11067-461: The reasons behind their composition and ends with praise of the patron. The story deals with the eventful life of Kush the Tusked (or Persian: Pil-gush , "The Elephant-eared"), the son of Kush who is the brother of the king Zahak . Kush the Tusked is said to have lived 1,500 years. The epic poem is dedicated to the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah I (r. 498—511/1105-18). The writer's name does not appear in

11186-526: The reception of the Royal Library , and a Picture Gallery over it ..." and put forward plans for today's quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old Montagu House was demolished and work on the King's Library Gallery began in 1823. The extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. However, following the founding of the National Gallery , London in 1824,

11305-546: The region had Russian schools and significant traces of Russian culture can be found today in Rasht. Russian class was mandatory in schools and the significant increase of Russian influence in the region lasted until 1946 and had a major impact on Iranian history, as it directly led to the Persian Constitutional Revolution . Gilan was a major producer of silk beginning in the 15th century CE. As

11424-730: The separation of the British Library). A board of 25 trustees (with the director as their accounting officer for the purposes of reporting to Government) is responsible for the general management and control of the museum, in accordance with the British Museum Act 1963 and the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 . Prior to the 1963 Act, it was chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury , the Lord Chancellor and

11543-537: The start of 2023. In 2022–23 there were 27 million visits to the website. This compares with 19.5 millions website visits in 2013. There were 5,820,860 visits to the museum in 2023, a 42% increase on 2022. The museum was the most visited tourist attraction in Britain in 2023. The number of visits, however, has not recovered to the level reached before the Covid pandemic. A number of films have been shot at

11662-572: The tombs of the rulers of ancient Lycia , among them the Nereid and Payava monuments. In 1857, Charles Newton was to discover the 4th-century BC Mausoleum of Halikarnassos , one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World . In the 1840s and 1850s the museum supported excavations in Assyria by A.H. Layard and others at sites such as Nimrud and Nineveh . Of particular interest to curators

11781-510: The view that with the likelihood of far worse air-raids than that experienced in World War I that the museum had to make preparations to remove its most valuable items to secure locations. Following the Munich crisis Forsdyke ordered 3,300 No-Nail Boxes and stored them in the basement of Duveen Gallery. At the same time he began identifying and securing suitable locations. As a result, the museum

11900-495: The way the constitutionalists had strived for, and Iran came to face much internal unrest and foreign intervention, particularly from the British and Russian empires. During and several years after the Bolshevik Revolution , the region saw another massive influx of Russian settlers (the so-called White émigrées ). Many of the descendants of these refugees are in the region. During the same period, Anzali served as

12019-490: The westernmost parts of Gorgan as well as Gilan and Mazandaran , taking slaves and goods. The Turkish invasions of the 10th and 11th centuries CE, which saw the rise of Ghaznavid and Seljuk dynasties, put an end to Deylamite states in Iran. From the 11th century CE to the rise of Safavids , Gilan was ruled by local rulers who paid tribute to the dominant power south of the Alborz range but ruled independently. In 1307

12138-671: The while, the collections kept growing. Emil Torday collected in Central Africa, Aurel Stein in Central Asia, D. G. Hogarth , Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence excavated at Carchemish . Around this time, the American collector and philanthropist J. Pierpont Morgan donated a substantial number of objects to the museum, including William Greenwell 's collection of prehistoric artefacts from across Europe which he had purchased for £10,000 in 1908. Morgan had also acquired

12257-452: The whole island. At this time, news of Zahhak's capture at the hand of Faridun reaches Kush and Kush returns to Čin. Fereydun, shackles Zahhak's hand and foot, and puts a yoke around his neck, imprisoning him the mount Damavand. After vanquishing Zahhak, Fereydun decides to put an end to Kush the Tusked' tyranny in Chin. Fereydun sends an army to Chin to defeat Kush and capture him, but the army

12376-449: The work. The work encompasses events that take place during the reigns of the mythical kings of Iran, Zahhak and Faridun . In a section at the beginning, the story deals with the heroism, triumphs, deceit and philandering of the character Kush the Tusked. The claim of Kush the Tusked being divine is also recounted in the story. The tale starts with the dragon-fiend king Zahhak who was on the verge of slaying Jamshid . Zahhak predicts that

12495-427: The year though least abundantly from April to August. Humidity is very high because of the marshy character of the coastal plains and can reach 90 percent in summer for wet bulb temperatures of over 26 °C (79 °F). The Alborz range provides further diversity to the land in addition to the Caspian coasts. The coastline is cooler and attracts large numbers of domestic and international tourists. Large parts of

12614-640: Was a room originally intended for manuscripts, between the Front Entrance Hall and the Manuscript Saloon. The books remained here until the British Library moved to St Pancras in 1998. The opening of the forecourt in 1852 marked the completion of Robert Smirke 's 1823 plan, but already adjustments were having to be made to cope with the unforeseen growth of the collections. Infill galleries were constructed for Assyrian sculptures and Sydney Smirke 's Round Reading Room , with space for

12733-404: Was a small trade in smoked fish and wood products. It seems that the city of Qazvin was initially a fortress-town against marauding bands of Deylamites, another sign that the economy of the province did not produce enough on its own to support its population. This changed with the introduction of the silk worm in the late Middle Ages. Gilan recognized twice, for brief periods, the suzerainty of

12852-523: Was able to quickly commence relocating selected items on 24 August 1939, (a mere day after the Home Secretary advised them to do so), to secure basements, country houses , Aldwych Underground station and the National Library of Wales . Many items were relocated in early 1942 from their initial dispersal locations to a newly developed facility at Westwood Quarry in Wiltshire . The evacuation

12971-416: Was apparent that it would be unable to cope with further expansion. The museum's first notable addition towards its collection of antiquities, since its foundation, was by Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), British Ambassador to Naples , who sold his collection of Greek and Roman artefacts to the museum in 1784 together with a number of other antiquities and natural history specimens. A list of donations to

13090-713: Was at the Battle of Jalula in 637 AD. Deylamite commander Muta led an army of Gils, Deylamites, Persians and people of the Rey region. Muta was killed in the battle, and his defeated army managed to retreat in an orderly manner. However, this appears to have been a Pyrrhic victory for the Arabs, since they did not pursue their opponents. Muslim Arabs never managed to conquer Gilan as they did with other provinces in Iran. Gilanis and Deylamites successfully repulsed all Arab attempts to occupy their land or to convert them to Islam. In fact, it

13209-683: Was bequeathed to the museum in 1881. In 1882, the museum was involved in the establishment of the independent Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society) the first British body to carry out research in Egypt. A bequest from Miss Emma Turner in 1892 financed excavations in Cyprus. In 1897 the death of the great collector and curator, A. W. Franks , was followed by an immense bequest of 3,300 finger rings , 153 drinking vessels, 512 pieces of continental porcelain, 1,500 netsuke , 850 inro , over 30,000 bookplates and miscellaneous items of jewellery and plate, among them

13328-706: Was conquered between late 1722 and late March 1723, stayed in Russian possession for about ten years. Qajars established a central government in Persia (Iran) in the late 18th century CE. They lost a series of wars to Russia (Russo-Persian Wars 1804–1813 and 1826–28 ), resulting in an enormous gain of influence by the Russian Empire in the Caspian region , which would last up to 1946 . The Gilanian cities of Rasht and Anzali were all but occupied and settled by Russians and Russian forces. Most major cities in

13447-686: Was in the tradition of a Schatzkammer such as those formed by the Renaissance princes of Europe. Baron Ferdinand's will was most specific, and failure to observe the terms would make it void, the collection should be placed in a special room to be called the Waddesdon Bequest Room separate and apart from the other contents of the Museum and thenceforth for ever thereafter, keep the same in such room or in some other room to be substituted for it. These terms are still observed, and

13566-524: Was instrumental in defeating Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar . In the late 1910s, many Gilanis gathered under the leadership of Mirza Kuchik Khan , who became the most prominent revolutionary leader in northern Iran in this period. Khan's movement, known as the Jangal movement of Gilan , had sent an armed brigade to Tehran that helped depose the Qajar ruler Mohammad Ali Shah . However, the revolution did not progress

13685-517: Was set up in May 1920 and became a permanent department in 1931. It is today the oldest in continuous existence. In 1923, the British Museum welcomed over one million visitors. New mezzanine floors were constructed and book stacks rebuilt in an attempt to cope with the flood of books. In 1931, the art dealer Sir Joseph Duveen offered funds to build a gallery for the Parthenon sculptures . Designed by

13804-779: Was the Deylamites under the Buyid king Mu'izz al-Dawla who finally shifted the balance of power by conquering Baghdad in 945. Mu'izz al-Dawla, however, allowed the Abbasid caliphs to remain in comfortable, secluded captivity in their palaces. The Church of the East began evangelizing Gilan in the 780s, when a metropolitan bishopric was established under Shubhalishoʿ . In the 9th and 10th centuries AD, Deylamites and later Gilanis gradually converted to Zaydi Shiʿism . Several Deylamite commanders and soldiers of fortune who were active in

13923-478: Was the eventual discovery of Ashurbanipal 's great library of cuneiform tablets , which helped to make the museum a focus for Assyrian studies . Sir Thomas Grenville (1755–1846), a trustee of the British Museum from 1830, assembled a library of 20,240 volumes, which he left to the museum in his will. The books arrived in January 1847 in twenty-one horse-drawn vans. The only vacant space for this large library

14042-653: Was the most popular attraction in the United Kingdom according to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA). At its beginning, the museum was largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane . It opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House , on the site of the current building. The museum's expansion over the following 250 years was largely

14161-576: Was timely, for in 1940 the Duveen Gallery was severely damaged by bombing. Meanwhile, prior to the war, the Nazis had sent a researcher to the British Museum for several years with the aim of "compiling an anti-Semitic history of Anglo-Jewry". After the war, the museum continued to collect from all countries and all centuries: among the most spectacular additions were the 2600 BC Mesopotamian treasure from Ur , discovered during Leonard Woolley 's 1922–34 excavations. Gold, silver and garnet grave goods from

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