This volume complements the best-seller and award-winning General Maps of Persia, praised by Dr. John Hébert, Chief of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress: “This carefully researched work is a must have item in any collection of research materials on the history of cartography... I cannot wait for the arrival of subsequent volumes of further great scholarship and readable map reproductions on other detailed aspects of the history of mapping of Persia.”

Encouraged by numerous commending reviews in five languages – English, French, German, Persian and Armenian – and gratifying testimonials from many renowned authorities in the fields of ‘History of Cartography’ and ‘Iranian Studies’, Cyrus Alai continued his research and collected further material to produce the present volume: Special Maps of Persia, 1477-1925, covering every map of that region, other than general maps. Thus, it not only complements the General Maps of Persia, it is also a completely new volume in its own right and, providing an even closer insight into the region.

The book is divided into nine chapters: Historical Maps, District Maps, Frontier Maps, Town Maps, Political Maps etc. Like the preceding volume, it has a dual character, being both a carto-bibliography and a mapping history of Persia. It contains 761 map-entries, of which 409 are illustrated, mostly in colour. Concise related historical accounts precede every chapter and section, and essential historical notes are also supplied within many of the map entries.

Undoubtedly, this book is a treasure house not just for cartographers, but also historians, social historians, linguists and archaeologists.