“My dear son, you are part of my body and soul, and whenever I look at you, I feel as if I am looking at myself. If any calamity happens to you, I feel as if it has happened to me. Your death will make me feel as if it were my own. Your affairs are like my affairs. Therefore I commit this advice to paper. I want you to be attentive to it and to guard it well. I may remain longer in your life or I may not, but I want this advice to remain with you….” — from Hazrat Ali’s Letter….Read more excerpts.

This fine steel peacock may have decorated the cross-bar of an alam, a standard carried during religious festivals in Iran. Hazrat Ali and his two sons, Hasan and Husayn, are depicted in the central medallion on the peacock’s fanned tail. The bird is also engraved with stylized inscriptions, princely hunting scenes, human busts and animals in a style typical of the Qajar period (1771-1924) in Iran.
Photo Credit: The Trustees of the British Museum. Copyright. Please click on image for reading.