However,
Byron moves in circles unknown to me. His companion Christopher is
not explained. In Palestine Christopher is 'received as the son of
his father.' Who
is his father? On
the next page I gather his father is Sir Mark Sykes. Still a blank,
that is, it means nothing, but at least it's a name.
Who
is Rutter? Perhaps a fellow correspondent for a London newspaper if I
presume Byron was in that line already or knew associates in it?
Who
is Herzfeld? I'm left with the distinct impression he must be an
archaeologist, or at the very least has a keen interest in
archaeology, who, 'it seems, has turned Persepolis into his private
domain.'
Names
and networking. What Oxiana
doesn't provide I must
research.
Alternatively, I could, I suppose, accept my conjectures.
*
I
continue to read with one eye on the journey and one eye gathering
information: Christopher breadcrumbs. Christopher is fond of Persia.
Christopher has friends in prominent positions. Christopher reads
Gibbon; he must therefore like history. Christopher's hero is a
German soldier called Wassmuss. Christopher told the Tabriz police
(in French) he was a philosphe. (Byron said he was a painter, whereas
Wikipedia lists him as an author, historian and art critic.)
Christopher is liked by biting insects, particularly fleas.
Christopher
Hugh Sykes, English writer, second son of Conservative Party
politician and diplomatic advisor Sir Mark Sykes. (I failed to take
note of his mother, not even her name, for which I now feel ashamed;
his sister however did raise sufficient interest for me to jot
'Sculptor'. A clue perhaps to more I possibly thought but didn't
follow up.) Christopher led a full and active life, stints here and
there – in the Foreign Office and British Embassy in Berlin where
Harold Nicolson was counsellor, before switching to Oriental Studies
and pursuing other adventures. He married too (with issue), though
again I didn't note who or when, and so the legacy of Sykes'
continues.
Christopher
explained, though the information gained unsupported by any other
source other than Wikipedia.
The
Herzfeld breadcrumbs grow but remain unsolved. At a lunch Byron
introduces him as 'Professor', and Herzfeld speaks, to dissipate the
boredom, of his domesticated porcupine. There it stops...then, some
pages later, I think to turn to the index...Aha! Professor Ernst
Herzfeld.
Who,
though, is Noel?
I
will never know who Noel is, who the Noels were – a party (of
Noels) was mentioned, but I have verified from an unreliable source
that Ernst Emil Herzfeld was a German archaeologist and Iranologist,
who was appointed Professor of Middle Eastern Archaeology in Berlin
in 1920. He surveyed and documented many historical sites, but was
later forced to leave his professorship in 1935 due to his Jewish
descent.
Another
Byron-dropped name is demystified.
From
journal (from a series of Byron entries), August-September 2022.
See
The Road to Oxiana (Vintage
Books) by Robert Byron.
Picture credit: Robert Byron (source: Good Reads).
