This 5 minute film links some work I already did on lemons and the Persian oak – see below.And also adds more on the English Oak. English oaks are – probably – even more entrenched in English folklore and history than Persian oaks are in SW Iran. Quercus robur is England’s national tree and there …
The Bakhtiari are one of the largest of all the Iranian nomadic tribes. I walked the migration (kuch) with the Faridgi family. Kuch traditionally takes place twice a year, when families walk their livestock over the Zagros Mountains, from the winter to the summer pastures. My pictures of this were exhibited at the Brunei Gallery, …
This week, I thought some of you might like to see the trailer for Pedram Khosronejad’s film about Bakhtiari lion tombstones (click here: its 16 minutes). This includes some fascinating testimony from some of the men who made the tombstones (up in situ, accommodated in tents for two or three months by the commissioning families …
I’ve been taking my own advice and enjoying myself looking at the Islamic sales in London. As well as the star tile from Khargird at Christies that I focused on last week, it was also great to see a 1920-21 album of photos of Bakhtiari men at Bonhams. This album includes a photo of Samsan …
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). …
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, …
Yezdikhwast is between Isfahan and Shiraz – or, for Vita Sackville-West in 1927, from Isfahan on the way across the Zagros Mountains when she visited the Bakhtiari. She described the town as: “that fantastic grey eyrie overhanging a chasm. Pierre Loti compared it to the abode of sea birds [click here and scroll down for …
From 334BC onwards Alexander was aiming to conquer the whole of the Persian empire. He raced through Anatolia, defeating Darius III at Issos (click and rollover to see annotations on the mosaic) and then again – at Gaugamela. Babylon and Susa then surrendered without a struggle, giving Alexander access to the immense Achaemenid treasures. Alexander …
This week, my article on Three British Ladies in Bakhtiariland is published in the journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. The article explores the history of the Bakhtiari – through the eyes of three British women who visited the area across a span of 40 years. The first of the women, Isabella Bird, …
Three very different British women travelled in Bakhtiari territory between 1890 and 1927. Although their accounts span only four decades, they encapsulate the meteoric rise – and fall – of the Bakhtiari, all of whose important leaders were immediate relatives of the ‘Great Khan’, Hosaynqolī Khan. Here below is the full bibliography for my article …