[4] Along with Mehdi Qoli Hedayat (who traveled to Japan in 1904, seven years after Sahhafbashi), he was one of the first Iranians to write an individual travelogue based on firsthand experiences in East Asia.
[5] His itinerary began on 12 May 1896, traveling from Tehran across the Caspian Sea to the port of Anzali by steamship, then a train to Moscow and from thereon to Berlin.
[5][6] From Berlin, he traveled widely across Europe, including London and Paris; across the Atlantic to New York City, Niagara Falls, and Canada.
[7][9] The movie house showed comedies, trick films, Russian documentaries, and newsreels from the First Boer War in South Africa.
[13] During the Persian Constitutional Revolution in 1909, he joined a secret society that advocated for progressive reforms; in one of the group's meetings, he encouraged members to wear black clothing as a show of mourning for "our mother country, [which] is in the throes of death".
[14] Sahhafbashi's son, Abolghasem Rezai, founded a documentary and dubbing studio with Esfandiar Bozorgmehr and an American rug merchant, Stephen H. Nyman, who was also a representative for 20th Century Fox.