Isfahan

Near the site of Masjid-i Tuqchi was the Qushkane or Aviary Gardens, the site for the reception of dignitaries and ambassadors arriving in Isfahan. It is now the public ‘Park of the Birds’.

Masjid-i Tuqchi was the first stopping place for Shah Abbas, just outside the city walls. Now the location is covered by a large roundabout. [SA1.6]

This satellite image shows the modern locations of some of the key sites in Safavid Isfahan. Masjid-i Tuqchi, now destroyed, was just outside the city walls in 1601. The modern ‘Park of the Birds’ was originally an elite bagh (garden), for the reception of dignitaries and foreign ambassadors, visiting Shah Abbas’ Isfahan. [SA1.5]

In 1601, Shah Abbas the First started by walking northwards from his new and still only partly built capital, Isfahan, up towards the busy trading city of Kashan. A Polish carpet merchant, Sefer Muratowicz, had dinner with Shah Abbas the night before the thousand-kilometre walk started and reported: “Starting the next morning, having put on …

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This schematic drawing (Figure 2 in Mawer 2010a) shows how many of the key buildings in Safavid Isfahan had not yet been built in 1601, when the Shah set off on his walk to Mashhad. [SA1.4.]

This annotated map shows some of the key buildings in Safavid Isfahan. Shah Abbas started from the Naqsh-i Jahan Palace, just off Maydan-i Shah, and halted first at Masjid-i Tuqchi, just outside the city walls. [SA1.3]