Three of the men who travelled with the Sherley brothers wrote accounts of their trips. George Manwaring (who also wrote about the jewels he saw) describes arriving in Kashan in 1589:
So that night we went twelve miles to a gallant city called Cason [Kashan], spending time by the way in hawking and hunting, and we came into the city in the evening, where we were royally entertained by the citizens. The King did lie at his own palace, and we were lodged in a nobleman’s house, where we were entertained by all kinds of dainties from the citizens.
Manwaring goes on to write about how the Persians synchronised a show of lamps:
About ten o clock in the night we were sent for to meet the King in the Piazza, which is a fair place, like unto Smithfield, standing in the middle of the town; there we found the King and all his nobility, with great store of torches, and round about the place were lamps hanged on the sides of their houses unlighted; so the King took us upon the top of a turret, and caused us to look down towards the lamps, which lighted all at the twinkling of an eye, and likewise on the tops of all the houses in the city were lamps which made a glorious show, thicker than the stars in the sky.
After this, there were “such stately fireworks, made by a Turk”:
which seemed as if dragons were fighting in the air, with many other varieties, especially one firework worth the noting, which was this: there was a great fountain of water in the Piazza, out of which from the very bottom would arise things like fishes, throwing fire out of their mouth, about a dozen yards high, which we thought a great wonder.
Of course, there were fireworks in Europe at the time. Click here to see fireworks in Rome in 1579 (with more flames here) – though the earliest picture of fireworks in England I can find is from 1769.
Last week, although of course it wasn’t Iranian New Year, many people from across the world were watching firework displays. This week’s blog is about fireworks in Safavid Iran. An earlier posting has written about a huge festival of lights that Shah Abbas set up in Isfahan in 1595. After the Shirley party arrived in Persia in 1598, they were treated to another impressive display. Read on here for more . .
Also, an important welcome to some new subscribers!
Please don’t hesitate to comment – like Irena did last week to update us all on another parasol article (thanks, Irena!)