[i]
_Note e_. The causes which led to the sign of Sol in Leo becoming the
arms of Persia cannot be distinctly traced, but there is reason to
believe that the use of this symbol is not of very great antiquity.
We meet with it upon the coins of one of the Seljukian princes of
Iconium; and, when this family had been destroyed by Hulaku [A.D.
1258], the grandson of Chengiz, that prince, or his successors,
perhaps adopted this emblem as a trophy of their conquest, whence it
has remained ever since among the most remarkable of the royal
insignia. A learned friend, who has a valuable collection of Oriental
coins, and whose information and opinion have enabled me to make this
conjecture, believes that the emblematical representation of Sol in
Leo was first adopted by Ghias-ud-din Kai Khusru bin Kaikobad, who
began to reign A.H. 634, A.D. 1236, and died A.H. 642, A.D. 1244; and
this emblem, he adds, is supposed to have reference either to his own
horoscope or to that of his queen, who was a princess of Georgia.
_Note f_. Hanway states, vol. i, p. 199, that over the gate which
forms the entrance of the palace built by Shah Abbas the Great [A.
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