I’m fascinated by the area around Ahuan. Isidore of Charax’s Parthian Stations run through it. It’s near where Darius was killed by his men as he tried to escape from Alexander. And the Seleucid King Antiochus chased Arsaces across here too, with both forces trying to take control over the water supplies. Now, there’s a …
Even if his splendid mustachios were his defining feature, many European travellers reported on the clothes that Shah Abbas wore. Many of the visitors specifically noted the Shah’s simple costume. Gouvea (visiting between 1602 and 1613) “had to have the King pointed out” as his seat (on the ground), his turban and his dress were …
This week, the winners of the 2011 Jameel Prize were announced. The Prize is for contemporary art or design inspired by traditions of Islamic craft and design, and this year’s official winner is Rachid Koraïchi, for his embroidered cloth banners. The People’s Choice winner is Aisha Khalid, who showed the wonderful ‘Kashmiri Shawl’ (a cashmere …
From the times of Ptolemy’s Geographia, the Caspian Sea was (wrongly!) depicted by European cartographers as widest from east to west. Only as late as 1647 did Adam Olearius manage to correct this mistake. Click here to see Olearius’ map. Elio Brancaforte has described Olearius as an intellectual hybrid: drawing on classical and biblical sources, …
This week’s blog is with many thanks to Kamran Afshar – who also helped me make the contacts I needed to be able to walk the migration with a Bakhtiari family. Kamran wrote to me of how: Those who have travelled to the land of the valiant, namely Chahar Mahal & Bakhtiari province in Iran, …