As well as giving me the graffiti photos from Qasr-i Bahram, Mariam Emamy also showed me well over a hundred photos taken around the holy city of Qom in 1979. I was thrilled to recognise the photographer: the renowned Kamran Adle helped me walk the Bakhtiari migration.
Sadly, the planned book about Qom has never materialised; and all Kamran’s internet sites seem to be down at the moment.
I was however especially interested in this photo of a Mongol-era dam near Qom. Look how well-constructed it must have been to be in such good condition after so many hundreds of years. It reminded me of a story reported by Yazdi:
“On 22nd rabiol aval [20 Sept,?1601], the news came to Allahverdi Khan that with the lack of rainwater in all the mountains around Shiraz, the farmers were very anxious. Wise people had heard from their elders. . that in the time of the Abbasid Caliphate there was also a lack of rain, and that the then-King was told about an abundant source of water . . within thirty farsakhs [180km] of Shiraz”
Although the Abbasid king had not managed to bring this water to Shiraz, this was yet another of the substantial infrastructure projects from the reign of Shah Abbas:
“Allahverdi Khan took whatever was necessary . . and built a dam very deep and long and strong at the foot of the mountain in the village of Ali, in between 2 mountains [so that]. . a large stream of water started running and another dam was built in that valley. The width, length and height was half that of the first one, so the water rose and started running to Shiraz and. . they built a wall from stones and mortar for around 8 farsakhs . . and they dug ten farsakhs of kariz [qanats, or underground water canals], and as a result they built a stream of water serving Shiraz and it was a result of this water coming to Shiraz that Shiraz became such a big city, and the water started running on 20 Jamada aval [16 November].”
It seems very difficult to believe that two substantial dams, plus nearly 50km of wall and 60 kilometres of qanat could have been built in a couple of months. Perhaps the (very precise) dates refer to different years, or are just plain wrong?
My especial thanks go to Dr Mariam Jazayeri for helping me with the appalling handwriting in (particularly one of) the British Library Yazdi manuscripts.
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