Relatively few Westerners are known to have been in Isfahan between 1590 and 1602. The notorious Sherley brothers and their party did, however, visit in 1599. Their story was certainly popular: it was considered interesting enough to appear in at least four English versions before 1602. Translations appeared in French and Spanish, and Anthony Sherley …
As for the Persian sources, there are many more Western accounts than can be analysed in detail here. I want to concentrate on those which influenced the creation of the symbolic image of Abbas’ maydan – so, the earlier and more popular reports. In contrast to the Persian sources, it is possible to get some …
The differences between the Persian accounts underline the dynamism of Safavid Isfahan – the maydan was a work-in-progress for many decades, and not simply the static entity we see now. However, all the accounts discussed above use some version of rhetoric, with their own sorts of comparisons and citations. All of the Persian accounts draw …
Iskandar Beg Munshi’s History of Shah Abbas is in perhaps surprising contrast. The author was in the personal service of the Shah[1] and has come – “somewhat by default” – to be seen as “authoritative”, particularly with reference to the replanning of Isfahan after it was decided to make the city the capital[2]. However, Iskandar …
Junabadi, although he wrote later[1], was clearly aware that the maydan was originally intended as a sportsground[2]: “the Isfahanis had laid out a spacious rectangular maydan measuring some 300 jaribs in area… Any observer casting his glance on it would be filled with delight. In the very center of the maydan was [erected] a sublimely …
Jalal-i Munajjim wrote after the 1602 commercial redevelopment, but still whilst several of Abbas’ building projects were underway[1]. His account is considered “valuable for understanding the sequence” of the construction not only due to its contemporaneity but also because the author provides a “wealth of detail not found elsewhere”[2]. Jalal-i Munajjim noted the initial phase …
Construction work on such a large scale must have left many documentary traces[1]. However, I am concerned with the symbolic depiction of Abbas’ maydan – and how its image was formed, and then transformed (in its second phase of construction). I therefore want to consider four of the Persian texts produced by Shah Abbas’ memorialisers. …
As well as the textual and image sources, there is some archaeological evidence for the maydan’s construction. This confirms the idea that it was built in two stages. In its first phase, the maydan was much larger than it is now. At least three sides (the two long sides and the south side) were “planned …
The maydan has been as described as “a hinge between the old and the new city”[1], and as “anchor[ing] the new construction”[2]. It acted not only as the everyday scene of commerce and abundance which epitomised Abbas’ imperial success, but also as the stage-set for special religious and festival celebrations. The maydan was included in …
In 1590/1, three years after he had deposed his father, Shah Abbas visited Isfahan[1]. Aged only nineteen, he was still fighting to re-conquer his own country. He had recently made a humiliating – if pragmatic – peace with the Ottomans; as well as losing Mashhad (and the important Shia shrine there) to the Uzbeks. Shortly …