This week I want to show you the Gonbad-i Bāz – an octagonal tower perched atop a conical mountain near Natanz, and an unusual survival of a non-religious Safavid-era building.
Although Kleiss suggests that this domed tower is a royal pavilion for hunting the “numerous deer” in the area; most other writers, and all the many locals I have spoken to, say that it commemorates a very special hunting bird, owned by Shah Abbas the Great.
Encylopedia Iranica writes that Abbas “paid what is probably the greatest tribute ever paid to a single bird”, when in 1592-93 he ordered a mausoleum built for Lavand: ‘the valiant, the gallant’. This bāz – the “king of carnivorous birds”: the word denotes both hawks and falcons – died, “to the great affliction of the shah”, after falling into the water whilst “tenaciously chasing a partridge inside a deep well” during a hunting party near Natanz. A slightly earlier painting in the Met gives a good idea of what this hunting party might have been like.
The version of the story I have heard locally is slightly different. It still concerns Abbas hunting near Natanz, a courageous bird, and a well. But in this account, just as Abbas went to drink, the “King’s darling” inexplicably struck his cup from his hand. And when Abbas tried again, the bird attacked again. On the Shah’s third attempt, and the bird’s third strike, Abbas ordered the bird killed. As the Shah returned to the water to drink unmolested, the Shah, or perhaps one of his falconers, noticed a snake slithering away. The sharp-eyed bird had saved the Shah’s life, but paid the ultimate price for his faithfulness!
According to the Natanzi’s, it was then the mayor of Natanz who had the gonbad – the dome – built. Although many Safavid pavilions were built, most of these have been destroyed – and so this is a rare example of an extant secular building of this type.