When I visited Bedasht, I was taken to see a very lovely little namaskhane (literally ‘prayer house’) – with images of Abul Fazl (just in case any of you still think images are taboo in Islam), and with much more space for women than for men. There’s also a mosque – this was the only …
In 1896, three British men set off on “the longest bicycle ride ever attempted, just 19,237 miles over continuous new ground” – including a ride through Persia. John Foster Fraser’s account of the two year trip is full of colonial-style anecdotes (many of which are a little too close to racism for many modern readers). …
The New Year starts at 05.14 on 20 March in London: click here for the time in other places. To see a very lovely video on the Zoroastrian celebration of New Year, please click here. This video says that the celebration of New Year came even before the time of Zoroaster; and explains how the …
I’ve always wanted to know exactly when (and how) the famous star tiles were taken off the Khargird madreseh. You can see some of the tiles in London (in the V&A and also in the British Museum); in the Met in New York; and in the David Museum in Copenhagen. If you have (lots of) …
The 1910 Munich exhibition is renowned for its innovative ‘white wall’ display of Islamic objects, elevating individual pieces from an element within the faux-oriental ‘fairytale’ set-pieces of earlier exhibitions to works of art displayed in a gallery. At the time, though, perhaps this wasn’t so clear. EM Troelenberg suggests that: “[t]he best way to proceed …
Michele Membré was a Venetian Cypriot, tasked by the Venetian Doge with delivering a letter. This letter, hidden in a book binding, urged Shah Tahmasp to help Venice by attacking the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman from the East. Membré (eventually) reached Tahmasp’s military camp (urdu), and his description of this is uniquely detailed. Membré recording seeing …
I was asked last week about the tomb of Khajeh Rabeh in Mashhad – and had to confess that I’ve never visited it. But my curiosity was piqued – so I did an internet search . . and found that the internal decoration of the octagonal building is simply stunning. Dont miss out on a series …
Erzerum – now in eastern Turkey – was a thriving town until the Safavid-Ottoman wars of the sixteenth century. After that, the records dwindle to almost nothing. There are virtually no accounts from travellers, for example, for more than a century, until Evliya Celebi comes through in 1645. Dickram Kouymjian, however, has found some Ottoman …
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 …
Last week, the blog focused on the story of Bizhan and Manizheh and how it is represented on the Freer beaker. This week, a little more from Dr Marianna Shreve Simpson’s fascinating Khalili Lecture. After saying that she thought that a mina’i (overglaze enamel ceramic) fragment in the Khalili collection also showed scenes from the …