Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (popular-print figure)

The reigning Shah of Persia (r. 1848-1896), depicted as one of a run of cheap popular woodcut prints (lubki) hung in the inn's travelers' room -- a stock exotic figure of the popular print trade, incongruously juxtaposed with a Russian Orthodox holy elder on the same wall; his printed face recurs through the story as the firelight and dawn light play over it.