At the turn of the 20th century, in the popular art and media of the “West,” the “Middle East” was depicted as a mysterious, exotic region. Cliched images such as camels, deserts, half-naked dancing women, and buildings with minarets and domes were ubiquitous in illustrating anything related to Iran or the Middle East.
The images here show some of these cover designs for music sheet books, designs depicting Iran as imagined by the artists of the period.
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- The Padishah (Persian March) (1899) by William Loraine
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- My Persian Love Song (~1910s)
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- Persian Lamb Rag (1908) by E. H. Kelly
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- Perle de Perse (Pearl of Persia) (1912) by Johann C. Schmid
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- A Persian Garden, a one-act operetta (1912), by Edgar Allen Wolf
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- “Meet me ‘neath the Persian moon”, a song from “A Persian Garden” (1912), by Edgar Allen Wolf
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- Persian Garden Tango (1914) by Joan Sawyer
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- My Persian Pearl (1918) by John Cooper
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- A-Mi-Ti-Ya (1919) by Harold Weeks
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- In a Persian Market (1920) by Albert Ketèlbey
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- Persian Moon (1920) by Geo. P. Hulten
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- Song of Persia (1922) by Richard A. Whiting
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- Persian moon (1923) by John Fleming
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- Persian Rug (1927) by Gus Kahn and Neil Moret
✤ Also available in: Persian