Isfahan

Isfahan

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Variant Names	Isfahan, Ispahan, Aspadana, Esfahan
Province	Esfahan Province
Country	Iran
Latitude	32 41 N
Longitude	51 41 E

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Isfahan, the third largest city of modern-day Iran, is famed for its natural and architectural splendor. Most accounts of its beauty refer to the Safavid period: Isfahan was the storied capital of Persia from 1598 to 1722 CE, inspiring the famous adage "Isfahan nisf-i-jahan" (Isfahan is half the world). But the city's history stretches back more than 2500 years.

Pre-Islamic Era (2700 BCE - 652 CE)
Located in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, Isfahan is a city formed at a major crossroads of trans-Asia trade and military routes. As such, the city emerged gradually over the course of the Elamite civilization (2700 - 1600 BCE), though artifacts found at Isfahan date back to the Paleolithic period. During the Median dynasty, this commercial entrepôt began to show signs of a more sedentary urbanism, steadily growing into a noteworthy regional center that benefited from the exceptionally fertile soil on the banks of the Zayendehrud River. Once Cyrus the Great (reg. 559 - 529 BCE) unified Persian and Median lands into the Achaemenid Empire (648 - 330 BCE), the religiously and ethnically diverse city of Isfahan became an early example of the king's fabled religious tolerance. The Parthians (250 BCE - 226 CE) continued this tradition after the fall of the Achaemenids, fostering the Hellenistic dimension within Iranian culture and political organization introduced by Alexander's invading armies. Under the Parthians, Arsacid governors administered a large province from Isfahan, and the city's urban development accelerated to accommodate the needs of a capital city.

The next empire to rule Persia, the Sassanids (226 - 652 CE), presided over massive changes in their realm, instituting sweeping agricultural reform and reviving Iranian culture and the Zoroastrian religion. Extant foundations of some Sassanid-era bridges in Isfahan suggest that the kings were also fond of ambitious urban planning projects. While Isfahan's political importance declined during the period, many Sassanian princes would study statecraft in the city, and its military role developed rapidly. Its strategic location at the intersection of the ancient roads to Susa and Persepolis made it an ideal candidate to house a standing army, ready to march against Constantinople at any moment. One etymological theory argues that the name 'Aspahan' derives from the Pahlavi for 'place of the army.'

Arab Conquest, Buyid, Seljuk and Il-Khanid Periods (652 - 1387 CE)
As the Muslim empire expanded eastward, Islamic polity absorbed, in large part, the great cultural developments of the Sassanid era, but the importance of cities like Isfahan waned. Under the Buyids (934 - 1055), however, Isfahan would receive some more attention: the Jurjir Mosque (976 - 985) and the earliest incarnation of the Friday Mosque date from this period. The subsequent rise of the Seljuks, whose sultan Malik Shah I (1072 - 1092 CE) made Isfahan his capital, led to increasing growth and prosperity in the city. Under the Seljuks, Isfahan experienced its first 'Golden Age.' Notable Seljuk architecture in Isfahan includes the Ali Mosque and Minaret (twelfth century).

Along with most major Islamic cities of the era, the Mongols sacked Isfahan in the thirteenth century, and Timur (Tamerlane) followed suit with a similar massacre in 1387. The city would remain in ruins for two hundred years.

Safavid Period (1597 - 1722)
When Shah Abbas I (1587 - 1629) decided to move the Safavid capital from Qazvin to Isfahan in 1597, he found only vestiges of a once-grand capital, consisting of a walled, oval city, cut into quadrants by axial bazaar routes that intersected on the derelict Maidan-i Qadim. He remade this central square into the new Maidan-i Shah and moved it to the south, but he maintained the vaulted, circuitous bazaar flowing between the maidan and the continually updated Friday Mosque and the old city. The monumental entrance to the bazaar is one of four regular portal interruptions to the arcade that lines the maidan. On the east lies the entrance to the octagonal palace chapel, the Mosque of Shaykh Lutfallah (1603 - 19). Directly opposite Shaykh Lutfallah Mosque on the west is the early seventeenth century Ali Qapu palace complex , which was originally conceived as an architectural transition between the palace gardens and the maidan. The Shah Mosque (1611 - 1638) completes the pattern on the southern side of the square. In many cases, the city's development respected the urban fabric of earlier eras, often renovating buildings rather than razing them: the Safavid-era repairs to the Qara-Qoyunlu era Darb-i Imam funerary complex are just one example of this tradition.

The existing quadripartite organization of the city became a guiding principle of future planning, although Abbas re-oriented it such that the Zayendehrud River formed one of the axes, and the royal avenue Khiaban-i Chahar Bagh formed the other. The central city's cruciform design evokes the traditional design of a chahar bagh (literally "four gardens") expanded to the urban scale. The vast literature the city has inspired testifies to the allegorical significance of this geometry, in both political and religious terms. Indeed, the then-recently realized territorial reach of Shia Islam - to which most of Iran converted under the zealous rule of Abbas' great grandfather Shah Ismail (1501 - 1524) - served to inspire the rapid development of this imperial capital. Architecturally, the Timurid style of Herat (in contemporary Afghanistan), Abbas' birthplace, exerted a powerful influence over his design choices for Isfahan.

The Shah undertook several new master-planning projects outside the old city as well. The new neighborhoods of Abbas-Abad and Gabrian were built to accommodate the growing urban population, which reached up to one million people at its height. He forcibly moved the entire Armenian community of northwest Iran into a new quarter of Isfahan, which he named New Julfa, ostensibly to protect them from Ottoman persecution. Impressive infrastructure accompanied other types of interventions: the Allahverdi Khan Bridge (1602) links Chahar Bagh avenue to New Julfa.

Within a few generations, Safavid rulers proved unable to continue Abbas' legacy of prosperity and good governance. A legalistic and less tolerant interpretation of the theocratic state ascended while military and political control diminished. In 1722, dissatisfied Safavid vassals from the Afghan territories captured Isfahan after a six-month siege of the city. The vulnerability of the empire also attracted Ottoman incursions from the West, and the dominion of Iran disintegrated. The city again fell into disrepair, accelerated by the increasing preference for maritime trade with Europe over the traditional land routes that led directly through Isfahan. The internecine conflicts during the subsequent Zand and Afsharid periods precluded either dynasty from leaving any significant architectural legacy at Isfahan.

Qajar Period and modern Iran (1781 - 1979)
In 1779, a Qajar tribal leader set out to reunify Iran. Once his empire was established, he moved the capital to Tehran, formally ending Isfahan's political importance. A large province was still administered from the city, and the commanding officer of a suburb of Isfahan built a palatial residential complex in the 1830s, the Manzil-i Sartip Sidihi, which hosted state functions.

The Qajar dynasty was greatly weakened by the Constitutional Revolution (1905 - 11), and it ultimately fell in the coup staged by Reza Shah Pahlavi (Shah of Iran, 1925 - 35). During Pahlavi's reign, architectural activity in Isfahan mainly consisted of conservation and preservation efforts. The influential Society for National Heritage formed in 1921 to "preserve, protect, and promote Iran's patrimony." It remained active for the next sixty years, erecting nearly forty mausolea and conducting sixty preservation projects across Iran. The Society was instrumental in developing an architectural language for Iranian modernism that memorialized avatars of Persian culture such as Avicenna, Nader Shah and, in Isfahan, the 1972 tomb of Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, two American art historians who dedicated their lives to the study of Persian art, architecture and material culture. In 1936, the Art University of Isfahan opened its doors. The Shah is also credited with an expansive modernization campaign, and Isfahan's current status as an important industrial center began in the Pahlavi era. The reign of the Shah was interrupted by a brief interlude of democracy, when Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh (Prime Minister, 1951 - 53), whose career began in Isfahan when that constituency elected him MP, was elected Prime Minister. Mossadegh was removed and the Shah reinstated in 1953. The Shah was deposed during the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and Ayatollah Khomeini's (Supreme Leader, 1979 - 89) rise to power.

Post-Revolutionary era (1979 - present)
Isfahan is the third largest city of the Islamic Republic of Iran, after Tehran and Mashdad. Currently, rural to urban migration in Iran occurs at one of the highest rates in the world: Isfahan's population is estimated to be between 1,500,000 and 2,000,000 people and rising. Isfahan, and New Julfa in particular, continues to be home to an active community of ethnic Armenians, and smaller communities of Jews and Zoroastrians also live in various parts of the city.

The surrounding, eponymous province continues to produce cotton, grain and tobacco, which are processed in the provincial capital's numerous mills and plants. Higher education is also prominent: in addition to the Art University of Isfahan and the Isfahan University of Technology, a tertiary art school was established in 1990, repurposing extant Safavid and Qajar buildings. Other recent architecture in the city ranges from the stylistically contemporary, such as the Kaveh External City Bus Terminal (1990), to the traditional, such as Ministry of Agriculture (2000). The grandeur of the early Safavid built environment, however, still leaves an indelible impression on most visitors, garnering UNESCO World Heritage status for the central maidan in 1979 and making Isfahan one of Iran's most frequented tourist sites.

Sources:
Anonymous. "Qajar". 2005. http://www.iranchamber.com/history/qajar/qajar.php. [accessed October 30th, 2006]

Babaie, Sussan. c1993. Safavid Palaces at Isfahan: Continuity and Change (1590-1666). Self-published dissertation. pp. 20-73.

Cantacuzino, Sherban and Kenneth Browner. 1976. "Making of the City." In Isfahan, Special Issue; Architectural Review vol. 159, no. 951. p. 259.

Herdeg, Klaus. 1990. Isfahan. Informal Structure in Islamic Architecture of Iran and Turkistan. New York: Rizzoli International Publications. pp. 15-34.

Lockhart, Laurence. 1939 (ca. 1888). Famous Cities of Iran. Brentford, Middlesex: W. Pearce Co.

McChesney, Robert. 1988. "Four Sources on Shah Abbas's Buildings of Isfahan." In Muqarnas V: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. Leiden: E.J. Brill. pp. 14-19.

Abouei, Reza. n.d. "Urban Planning of Isfahan in the Seventeenth Century". http://www.planum.net/topics/themesonline-Abouei-Isfahan.html. [accessed October 16th, 2006]

Scarce, Jennifer. 1976. Isfahan in Camera: 19th Century Persia through the Photographs of Ernst Hoeltzer. London: AARP.

Singer, Caroline and Cyrus Leroy. 1936. Half the World Is Isfahan. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 69-96.

Walcher, Heidi. "Between Paradise and Political Capital: The Semiotics of Safavid Iran," in Yale Forestry and Environmental Studies Bulletin 103. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 17-21.

Welch, Anthony. 1973. Shah Abbas and the Arts of Isfahan. New York: The Asia Society (distributed by New York Graphic Society).

[ All sites (62) | Historical (44) | Contemporary (21) ]

Associated sites

Site Date Century Images

Achamoglan Mausoleum 1

Ali Mosque and Minaret 12th, 16th 4

Ali Qapu early 17th century 17th 16

Ali Qapu, Chehel Sutun and Hasht Behesht Restoration 17th c., restored 1977 17th, 20th 73

All Saviour's Cathedral Begun in 1606, rebuilt 1658-1663 17th 8

Allahverdi Khan Bridge 1602 17th 11

Art University of Isfahan 17th-18th c., restored 1990 17th, 18th, 20th 7

Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman Tomb 1972 20th 2

Baba Qasim Mausoleum 1340-41 14th 1

Bagh-e Qush Minaret 1330-50 14th 2

Bazaar at Isfahan 17th 12

Bell Helicopter Personnel Housing 1984 20th 5

Bemanian House 2003 21st 29

Chahar Bagh 1596-1597 17th 5

Chihil Dukhtaran Minaret 1107-8 12th 3

Chihil Sutun 1647 17th 27

City Central Library 2001 21st 52

Daraziah Minaret 1

Darb-i Imam Shrine 1453, repaired in 1601-02 and 1670-71 15th, 17th 11

Do Minar Dardasht and Tomb c. 1330-40 14th 0

Friday Mosque of Isfahan 8th, 18 77

Friday Mosque of Isfahan: Madrasa 1366, 1367 14th 8

Garladan Iwan 1315, restored 1925 14th 5

Hakim Mosque 1656-62 17th 13

Harun-i Vilayat Mausoleum 1512-13 16th 5

Hasht Behesht Palace 1669 17th 17

Imam Joma House 4

Imam Mia Mosque 3

Imami Madrasa 1325 14th 6

Ismail Mausoleum and Isaiah Mosque 1st quarter of 16th c. and later (Seljuk, Il-Khanid and Muzaffarid remains) 17, 18 8

Jafar Mausoleum 1320's 14th 7

Jolfa Housing 1988 20th 5

Jonban Minaret 16th 0

Jurjir Mosque c. 976-85 10th 14

Kaveh External City Bus Terminal 1990 20th 5

Khwaja Alani Minaret 2

Khwaja Sad Mausoleum 1365 14th 0

Khwaju Bridge 1650 17th 16

Madar-e Shah Madrasa 1706-1714 18th 22

Maidan-i Shah 1590-1602 17th 17

Manzil-i Sartip Sidihi 1820s, 1870s 19th 9

Ministry of Agriculture 2000 21st 45

Ministry of Housing Offices 1996 20th 2

Nazhvan Suburban Natural Park 1999 20th 5

Old Houses Conservation Programme 18th-19th c., conservation 20th c. 18th, 19th, 20th 2

Palace Complex at Isfahan 17th c. 17 2

Park Isfahan Commercial and Housing Complex 1981 20th 5

Pigeon Tower 17th c. and later 17th 1

Polsheer House 17th c., restored 1998-2001 17th, 21st 21

Poulad-Shahr Mosque 1991 20th 5

Qaysariya 17th c. 17th 1

Qotbiyeh Mosque 1543 16th 0

Sadri Residence 1999 20th 40

Safavi Residence 1998 20th 40

Sarban Minaret 1130-55 12th 4

Shah Abbas Hotel 17th c., renovated 1977 17th, 20th 7

Shah Mosque 1611-1638 17 58

Shahid Beheshti Airport VIP Pavilion 1994 20th 5

Shahrestan Bridge 2

Shaykh Lutfallah Mosque 1617 17 25

Takht-i Fulad Complex 6

Zayandeh-roud Vacation Village 1996 20th 5

Associated files

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The Aga Khan Award for Architecture and Project Architect Bemanian House text & image report 2007

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