In 1595, three years before Shah Abbas formally designated Isfahan as his capital city, he spent a mind-blowing 22 thousand tumans on an eye-popping ‘festival of lights’ in the city. Fifteeen thousand footsoldiers were gathered from nearby regions, equipped with regalia and banners, and presented to the Shah just outside Isfahan – in the village of Daulatabad – …
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 …
Can I this week share some 1930s aerial photos of Iran from the Oriental Institute in Chicago – and juxtapose them with the Google Earth satellite images (still aerial of course, just from a little higher up!) that I used when identifying and double-checking locations for the stopping places along the thousand kilometre walk of …
Following on the earlier tales of Musulman and Kafir lions on Bakhtiari land, I want to share an amazing short film. Cheetah were traditionally used in the Safavid era for hunting, as you can see in this (apologies!) very poor quality image of a cheetah being carried on the back of a hunter’s horse (from …
I’ve already talked about the Uzbeks returning a looted diamond to Shah Abbas, and the jewels Abbas gifted to Jahangir. Here’s another posting on jewels – this time in the current Iranian collection. When I visited this several years ago, I was lucky enough to be shown round by the Director himself. Pressing my nose …
As well as giving me the graffiti photos from Qasr-i Bahram, Mariam Emamy also showed me well over a hundred photos taken around the holy city of Qom in 1979. I was thrilled to recognise the photographer: the renowned Kamran Adle helped me walk the Bakhtiari migration. Sadly, the planned book about Qom has never …
Mariam Emamy recently and kindly showed me three photos of graffiti at the gorgeous white-stone building of Qasr-i Bahram. Local experts say that Qasr-i Bahram – which has also been called Abbasabad and Siyahkuh (in all sorts of spellings over the years) – was constructed as a hunting lodge for Shah Abbas; and there is …
This week, you need to click the links to see the pictures, please. Don’t miss out on the 1 metre high golden globe with over 51 thousand gemstones (at the bottom of the page)! I wrote previously about the diamond Shah Abbas recognised when it was returned by refugee Uzbek princes in 1601; and the …
I’ve been finishing the first drafts of my two papers about Shah Abbas’ thousand kilometre walk in 1601. Abbas’ stopping places were relatively easy to find in the first part of the walk; but only three specific names were given by Munajjim Yazdi along the Khorassan Highroad. One of those was the Ribat-i Do Dar …
Shortly after the New Year celebrations for 1601, Iskandar Munshi describes how some refugee Uzbek princes reached Shah Abbas’ court in Isfahan. Abbas welcomed them with a reception and “a cash grant of one thousand Iraqi toman in gold, to cover their living expenses”. The princes reciprocated, with “their modest gifts” including a valuable diamond …