Shah Abbas’ grave?

I’ve been told, at the shrine in Arbabil, that no-one really knows where Shah Abbas is buried. Apparently, after he died, three coffins were prepared – maybe to ensure that his bones couldn’t be disturbed by enemies after his death, or perhaps to signal that he ruled over the whole of Iran. One coffin was taken to Ardabil, one to Mashhad, and one to Kashan, and no one knows which one really contains Abbas.

Iskander Beg doesn’t mention this story at all: he describes how Shah Abbas’ funeral cortege left Mazanderan with his aunt (a daughter of Shah Tahmasp) and other women of the royal household in charge of “the royal treasuries and workshops”. Devoted Sufis “shouldered the bier”. Then in Kashan:

“The people came out to meet the funeral procession and demonstrated their great grief. The throng around the bier was so great that the emirs and other nobles could hardly make their way through the crowd. The bier was taken to the Imamzada Habib ibn Musa, situated behind the burial ground outside the city”

There the body lay in state, with incense, long candles, and “every kind of meat and sweetmeat”, as well as a roster ensuring that the Koran was recited continuously.

But it’s not only the people of Arbabil who claim that Abbas is buried in their town. When Chardin went through Qom in 1672, he was told that Abbas was buried there, near the tomb of Fatima:

“which is overlaid also with China Tiles, painted A-la-moresco, and overspread with cloth of gold, which hangs down on both sides. [Fatima’s tomb] is enclosed with a grate of massy Silver, ten foot high. . and at each corner are Apples of fine Gold. In the two chapels on each side stand the tombs of the two last kings of Persia, viz, Abas and Sophi, both very Magnificent; but on that of Abas are written in large Characters of Gold, seven elegies upon Mahomet and Haly, made by the learned Hafan-Caxa. These are rare pieces of eloquence, and in them may be seen not only the Genius of Perfian Poetry, but the Transports of the Mahometan Devotion”

Just like the 999 caravanserais, the stories can’t all be literally true, but they do show the enduring importance of Abbas.