ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Siyahatnamah-yi Ibrahim Bayg (1895) by Zayn al-Abidin Maraqah’i (1840–1910) in the context of historical developments in 19th-century Iran. It shows that this fictional travelogue summarizes discursive, historical, and literary transformations of the century and that it indicates the rise of a national consciousness in Iran. The chapter first summarizes existing scholarship on Persian travelogues in general and 19th-century Persian travelogues in particular. Moreover, it discusses the significance of the genres of “wonder,” “memoir,” and “rihla” to the development of Persian travelogue over its long history. Then it demonstrates that Maraqah’i’s work is the apotheosis of various developments in Persian travelogue writing on the one hand and that it captures the reformist ideas of 19th-century Iranian liberal intellectuals, such as Fath Ali Akhundzadeh (1812–1878), Mirza Malkum Khan (1833–1908), and Abd al-Rahim Talebof (1834–1911), on the other.
