The first of the images of Shah Abbas the Great shown here is an undated and unpublished portrait in a private collection. If its provenance can be confirmed, it is a unique and important representation: especially since it was apparently painted from life, and by an Italian artist. Abbas does indeed look very like John …
This week, my article on Three British Ladies in Bakhtiariland is published in the journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. The article explores the history of the Bakhtiari – through the eyes of three British women who visited the area across a span of 40 years. The first of the women, Isabella Bird, …
I’ve already shown you some (Safavid-era) Persian and (alcoholic) Armenian graffiti at the caravanserai of Siahkuh. So I was pleased to read about more graffiti in another caravanserai – although this time seen, and then added to, by Olearius, the very same ‘sick person with a great beard‘ I introduced you to last week. On …
Many Safavid women were transported in litters – or what the Spanish Ambassador Figueroa described “more accurately as cages”. These were covered wooden boxes, just like those in the Qajar image below. Two boxes were suspended, one on each side of the carrying animal, with the woman facing either backwards or forwards as she chose, …
Professor Sheila Blair was the speaker at the 2011 Yarshater lectures. She discussed four objects – a dish; a rose-water sprinkler; an enormous building; and a pair of carpets. These, she said, were “signals from the past”, as well as each having different resonances now. While Professor Blair was speaking, I couldn’t help but be …
(Those of you looking for this week’s blog, please scroll down!) Dr. Cyrus Alai is doing a series of lectures on ‘Mapping Persia’, all based on his newly published book Special Maps of Persia (Brill, Leiden & Boston, 2010 – or from Amazon here) These include (and remember to check whether it’s in English or …
To add to the other work on this site about Iranian crafts and craftsmen; this posting is about some old windmills – vertical-axis windmills, just like the world’s very oldest. On 1 Nov 644, the caliph Omar is reputed to have asked a Persian slave, Abū Lo’lo’a, about a boast he had made that he …
In 2010, Ashura (‘Āšūrā’) was on 16th December. Ashura, of course, commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hosayn at the Battle of Karbala on 10 Muharram 61 AH (2nd October 680). To show respect to that important date in the Shi’a religious calendar, and also to present some ancient and more modern objects; here is a …
When Shah Abbas set out from Daulatabad with the “six hundred handsome young men” witnessed by Muratowicz, the first stop properly outside Isfahan on the thousand kilometre walk (in 1601) was at Ribat Qazi Ahmad. Melville couldn’t find this ribat (fort) on the War Office Quarter-Inch maps he worked with to retrace the walk – …
For those of you who are claustrophobic, here is a rare chance (for the next few days ONLY: don’t delay, the BBC will take it off the internet soon) to see inside a qanat – a traditional Iranian underground irrigation canal. Click here for the film – to see the qanat section, watch from 15 …