Michele Membré was a Venetian Cypriot, tasked by the Venetian Doge with delivering a letter. This letter, hidden in a book binding, urged Shah Tahmasp to help Venice by attacking the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman from the East. Membré (eventually) reached Tahmasp’s military camp (urdu), and his description of this is uniquely detailed. Membré recording seeing …
I was asked last week about the tomb of Khajeh Rabeh in Mashhad – and had to confess that I’ve never visited it. But my curiosity was piqued – so I did an internet search . . and found that the internal decoration of the octagonal building is simply stunning. Dont miss out on a series …
Erzerum – now in eastern Turkey – was a thriving town until the Safavid-Ottoman wars of the sixteenth century. After that, the records dwindle to almost nothing. There are virtually no accounts from travellers, for example, for more than a century, until Evliya Celebi comes through in 1645. Dickram Kouymjian, however, has found some Ottoman …
I’ve been told, at the shrine in Arbabil, that no-one really knows where Shah Abbas is buried. Apparently, after he died, three coffins were prepared – maybe to ensure that his bones couldn’t be disturbed by enemies after his death, or perhaps to signal that he ruled over the whole of Iran. One coffin was …