This paper examines the forms, styles, and content of two works by the Qajar historian and writer Mirza Hasan Khan E’temad os-Saltaneh (1848-96). Among his many works are two which cover the lives and careers of the prime ministers of Iran from 1795 until 1896. The first text, entitled Sadr ot-Tavarikh, is an official history of the prime ministers over that period. The other, bearing the title The Rapture (Khalseh), or the Book of Sleep, is a fictional work dealing with exactly the same subject. We may surmise that the Sadr represented an official and public history of the prime ministers. The Rapture, however, reflected the writer’s true feelings about the reasons for Iranian decline during the second half of the 19th century. An examination and comparison of these two texts reveals much about the inside workings of Iranian politics and individuals within Naser od-Din Shah’s court. It also reveals something about the politics of writing history and the use of fiction in 19th century Iranian political and historical writing. Therefore, these two starkly different books by the same author and on the same subject reveal much about their author and about important individuals and events in late 19th century Qajar Iran.