Starting from Isfahan
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]
Shah Abbas
In 1601, Shah Abbas the First left Isfahan to walk 1200 kilometres to the holy city of Mashhad. In 2008-9, I used the daily records of the Shah’s astrologer to be the first person in four hundred years to pinpoint the journey-route – bumping across salt deserts and around tiny Iranian villages in various unsuitable vehicles.
Starting from Isfahan
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]
Starting from Isfahan
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 …
Starting from Isfahan
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.]
Starting from Isfahan
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]
Shah Abbas
A camel train on the Sang Farsh: Alfons Gabriel, 1933Eating ripe persimmon after the rope expeditionThe 'golden caravanserai' and the large fort at Zafaraniyya: Google Earth imageMe on the Sang Farsh, Shah Abbas' road across 40km of salty mudOne of three tombs for Shah Abbas. This one is in Kashan.The 'golden caravanserai' at ZafaraniyyaThe Sefid ...