In 1601, Shah Abbas the First started by walking northwards from his new and still only partly built capital, Isfahan, up towards the busy trading city of Kashan. A Polish carpet merchant, Sefer Muratowicz, had dinner with Shah Abbas the night before the thousand-kilometre walk started and reported: “Starting the next morning, having put on …
This schematic drawing (Figure 2 in Mawer 2010a) shows how many of the key buildings in Safavid Isfahan had not yet been built in 1601, when the Shah set off on his walk to Mashhad. [SA1.4.]
This annotated map shows some of the key buildings in Safavid Isfahan. Shah Abbas started from the Naqsh-i Jahan Palace, just off Maydan-i Shah, and halted first at Masjid-i Tuqchi, just outside the city walls. [SA1.3]
According to David Lockhart Lorimer, Bakhtiari poetry “reveals the real interests and outlook, and something of the experiences, of the Bakhtiari people”. He is clear that it is “the genuine product of the Bakhtiari mind” and that it owes nothing to any other poetic conventions. Laments are the most common type of poem, with grief …
Engelbert Kaempfer was a German physician who traveled to Persia with a Swedish embassy in 1683. He is best known, in Persia, for his descriptions of the court of Shah Abbas II and of Persepolis, where he was the first person to identify the inscriptions as a form of writing. He lodged in Isfahan for …
This week, it’s the viewings for the Islamic sales in London. It’s your chance to see high quality Islamic objects up close! If you’re nice, the sales ladies will probably even let you touch! There’s lots – but maybe the highlights for me include: At Sothebys (click here to get to the e-catalogue, then search …
When I visited Bedasht, I was taken to see a very lovely little namaskhane (literally ‘prayer house’) – with images of Abul Fazl (just in case any of you still think images are taboo in Islam), and with much more space for women than for men. There’s also a mosque – this was the only …
In 1896, three British men set off on “the longest bicycle ride ever attempted, just 19,237 miles over continuous new ground” – including a ride through Persia. John Foster Fraser’s account of the two year trip is full of colonial-style anecdotes (many of which are a little too close to racism for many modern readers). …
The New Year starts at 05.14 on 20 March in London: click here for the time in other places. To see a very lovely video on the Zoroastrian celebration of New Year, please click here. This video says that the celebration of New Year came even before the time of Zoroaster; and explains how the …