july 2006
Persian culture, which represents one of the world’s oldest continuous civilisations, originated with the indigenous Elamites of the Iranian plateau, who were first unified by the Medes, a tribe of Aryan descent, during the eighth century BC. Under the consecutive rules of Cyrus, Cambyses and Darius, the Achaemenian Empire (from 648BC to 330BC) became the largest most powerful realm in history up to that point, incorporating territories that stretched from Egypt to Afghanistan. Its introduction of coinage and its seminal respect for multiculturalism and for human rights became powerful influences upon the evolution of the modern world. Alexander, whose Macedonian armies spread out from the Balkans, conquered Persia in 333BC but the nation was subsequently reunited under the Parthians after Alexander’s death. The Parthian Empire (from 250BC to 226AD) provided an important check on the eastward expansion of Rome, the superior cavalry of the former and the superior infantry of the latter meaning that neither was ever able to completely annex the other. The later Sassanian Empire (226AD to 651AD) witnessed some of Persian cultures highest achievements in art and the Islamic conquest in 632AD transmitted much of that into the broader Muslim world. In the split between the Abbasids and the Umayyads after Mohamed’s death, Persia supported the former meaning that their consequent adoption of the Shia form of Islam became an important counterweight to the Sunni form of Islam that developed in Arab countries. During the ninth and tenth centuries there was a cultural movement of resurgent Persian nationalism, effectively in reaction to the perceived Arabisation of the Middle East, which involved the literary promotion of Farsi, their own historic language. This period also saw many significant innovations in technology and in medicine and the guiding value that it placed on science was a key influence for the later Renaissance movement in Europe.
Tehran was first declared the capital during the Safavid dynasty, which came to power in 1501 at a time when Persian civilisation had been decimated by wave after wave of Mongol invasions. They were the first to establish Persia as a Shia Islamic state and their rebuilding programme, which included beginning the impressive Golestan Palace complex in central Tehran, resulted in some of the finest Persian architecture still surviving today. Tehran has long been a focus for the interference in Persian affairs of competing colonial powers interested in Iran for its geo strategic importance. After the Second World War the allies supported the rule of Reza Shah who undertook a modernisation program that led to the regrettable destruction of many of the oldest parts of the city. When the popular election of the democratic nationalist Mohammed Mossadegh led to the state re appropriation of its oil assets, the CIA backed a coup to put the more favourable Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on the throne. Increasing protests against his autocratic rule culminated in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 when the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini instituted the current theocratic regime. During the six years of war with Iraq, begun when Saddam Hussein sought to take advantage of disorder after the Revolution by invading his neighbour, Tehran was substantially damaged but recent decades have seen rapid redevelopment. The cosmopolitan business and residential suburbs in the north now make for a stark contrast with the older areas around the massive crumbling bazaar in the south. Substantial inward migration from the surrounding rural areas has put increasing pressure on the city’s infrastructure and it is today a hectic and oftentimes badly polluted metropolis. The lush and scenic Park e Jamshidiyeh, located in the foothills of Tehran’s encircling Alborz Mountains, provides a tranquil retreat from the city. It is particularly popular with the youth and is one of the few public places in Tehran where you can see young couples socialising in what is a relatively relaxed environment.
The town of Kashan lies to the southeast of Tehran, built on the first of the major oases that occur along the edge of Iran’s central desert. Legend has it that the three magi who followed a star to visit Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem came from Kashan and archaeological evidence certainly suggests that the town has been inhabited since Elamite times. The central bazaar is large enough to wander aimlessly around but small enough not to get completely lost in and is a great place to sample Iranian specialities: the dizzi, a meat and vegetable stew that comes with its own hammer for mashing ingredients together, which is served under the vaulting dome of Teemcheh e Amin o Dowleh is highly recommended, as are the apple tobacco qalyans on offer in Hammam e Khan, a former baths that has nowadays been converted into an atmospheric teahouse. The views that can be seen from the roof of the bazaar belie the intricate stucco and tile work that characteristically adorn the interior of the towns predominantly mud brick structures. Kashan exemplifies the traditional style of Persian urban architecture, being a maze of narrow winding streets called koocheh with high adobe walls that provide maximum shade from the burning sun and protection from the desert dust storms as well as effective insulation during the freezing winters. The gardens at Bagh e Fin were designed for Shah Abbas in the seventeenth century. Intended to represent the Persian vision of paradise, they contain a complex of Safavid and Qajar era buildings arranged amongst orchards and shaded ponds with connecting streams and gravity-fed fountains. Amir Kabir, an important reformist who was chancellor under Nasser al Din, was murdered in the bathhouse here in 1852. Kashan also boasts a number of impressively renovated khans, the large houses of prosperous merchants in days gone by, notable for their aesthetic courtyards and terraces and their ingenious badgirs, towers built to catch the wind and funnel it over pools of water thereby creating a natural form of air conditioning.
The city of Isfahan, located at the foot of the northern end of the Zagros mountain range, flourished as a way station along trade routes between Europe and Asia. Its stately boulevards, bridges, libraries and mosques show that it was a thriving centre for learning and commerce. During the eleventh century, the city was home to the philosopher Avicenna (or Ibn Sina); his commentaries on Aristotle were highly influential in the development of subsequent metaphysics and his canonical treatises in medicine paved the way for much later European work. At the heart of the city is Imam Square, one of the largest public spaces in the world, bordered on each side by monumental buildings that are linked by two-storey arcades. The southern end of the square is dominated by the Imam Mosque whose towering iwan and flanking minarets frame a central dome that is some 52 metres high, all of them faced in a dazzling turquoise mosaic and adorned with calligraphy of verses from the Qur’an. At the northern end of the square, the Portico of Qaysariyyeh, decorated with frescoes that date from Safavid times, leads into the Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest in the Middle East, with markets for spices, jewellery, woodwork and, of course, Persian carpets and rugs. The wide Zayanderoud river, which has lush parklands all along its banks, is crossed by a series of imposing bridges. The Si o Seh bridge is built on a shallow weir that is commonly crowded with people paddling under its eponymous thirty-three arches. Heading west out of the city brings you to the shaking minarets at Manar Jomban, an interesting engineering oddity where the type of mortar used in their construction gives the towers a natural flexibility that is demonstrated periodically for tourists by pushing them to make their bells ring. Further west again, there are ruins of an ancient ateshkadeh or fire temple that would have been used in Sassanid times by Zoroastrians, the followers of an ancient monotheism which is thought to have been uniquely influential for the development of both Judaeo Christianity in the west as well as the dharmic traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism in the east.
The remote location of the city of Yazd, where the Dasht e Kavir and Dasht e Lut deserts meet, has ensured that is has long remained immune from the ravages of invaders. Both Alexander and Genghis Khan failed in their attempts to reach the city although Marco Polo did visit it in 1272AD and recorded the existence of an important silk weaving industry there at the time. It is one of the few cities in the world where Zoroastrians remain in significant numbers and it has a working fire temple that houses a flame which is reputed to have been kept alight since 470AD. There is also a Tower of Silence on the outskirts of the city where Zoroastrians traditionally placed their dead so that the corpses could be eaten by vultures (since burial is believed to pollute the earth). Yazd is one of the largest cities in the world to be built almost entirely of adobe and, because of the searing summer temperatures, its badgirs are notably large and imposing. It is also famous for one of the most extensive known networks of qanats, underground channels that carry water from distant mountain aquifers, and Yazdis are renowned as among the finest irrigation engineers. Despite the parched surrounds the main city streets are all planted with trees which are watered each morning and evening by opening the sluices on roadside streams. The city is also known for its confectionary, frequently using pastry and pistachios, which is considered to be the best in Iran.
At nearby Kharanaq there is a crumbling mud brick village that offers breathtaking views over the surrounding fields together with an ancient aqueduct that was once used to irrigate them. The buildings are layered on top of one another and many of the tunnels that wind between them are blind-ending, traditionally built that way to trap thieves unfamiliar with the layout of the town. You can climb up the minaret in the local mosque, provided that you can squeeze yourself into one of its cramped spiral passages. A local caravanserai has been restored to pristine condition, giving an insight into the lives of passing traders in days gone by who would have stopped for the night there to water their camels and themselves. The larger town of Meybod has a reconstructed pigeonhouse which was used for the collection of guano and also an impressively designed icehouse which was used to preserve ice made in winter during the hot summer season. In the town centre there is a bustling foodstore where the delicious camel kebab, served along with a condiment of powdered herbs, is simply unmissable. Travelling out into the desert, the temple at Chak Chak is one of Zoroastrianism’s most sacred mountain shrines. Reputed to have been created when Nikbanou, a daughter of the then Sassanian emperor, was fleeing from an invading Arab army in 640AD; she prayed to the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda to protect her and the mountain opened up to provide a hidden shelter. The main sanctuary, which is surrounded by various buildings used to house pilgrims, is protected by large bronze doors that are decorated with representations of Ahura Mazda. The darkened grotto within houses an ancient tree and a fire that is kept burning. Water, which drips from a natural spring in the rockface, is said to be the tears of grief that the mountain sheds in remembrance of Nikbanou.
The power and extent of the Achaemenid Empire is evident in the monumental remains of the city of Persepolis, founded by Darius in 518BC. A pair of winged minotaur guard the Gate of All Nations, through which visiting delegations would have been brought to be received in the Apadana Palace. Magnificently detailed and impressively preserved bas-reliefs decorate the staircase, showing people bringing their tributes to the king of kings; some twenty-three different nations are represented, including Ethiopians, Arabs, Thracians, Indians, Parthians, Cappadocians, Elamites and Medians. The inspiring grandeur of the complex is evident even today in the columns and gateways, the carvings and the cuneiform inscriptions. When Alexander sacked the city in 330BC it is reported that he needed three thousand camels to carry off the contents of its treasury. Darius is buried, along with his heir Xerxes at nearby Naqsh-e Rostam, where massive Zoroastrian funerary chambers are hewn into the cliff-face. A notable carving shows the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before the Sassanian king Shapur who defeated and captured him in 262AD. Further to the northeast are the ruins of Pasargadae, the first capital of the Achaemenids, founded by Darius’ father Cyrus in 546BC. Little of its palaces remain today and the windswept site has lonely sense of timelessness. The largest standing structure is Cyrus’ own mausoleum which, legend has it, formerly bore an inscription that inspired Alexander to order the tomb’s restoration: “Passer-by, I am Cyrus, who gave the Persians an empire and was king of Asia; grudge me not therefore this monument”.
The city of Shiraz, located at the foot of the southern end of the Zagros mountain range, has been a regional trade centre for more than a thousand years. The Shiraz grape takes its name from the city, although they are regrettably no longer grown locally, and the oldest know sample of wine in the world was found in clay jars recovered from excavations here. Entering the city takes you under the Qur’an Gate which used to house a handwritten copy of the Muslim holy book, intended to protect visiting travellers. Shiraz is also renowned as the birthplace of the famous poets, Sa’adi, writing in the thirteenth century, and Hafez, writing in the fourteenth; their mausoleums are popular places of pilgrimage today. Together with their contemporary Rumi, as well Ferdowsi and Omar Khayyam (writing in the tenth and eleventh centuries respectively), they contributed to the Persian tradition for literary mysticism which propagated the tenets of Sufism. An esoteric belief system allied with Islam, Sufism holds that the truth of the divine is ineffable but also inseperable from the material world and that purifying the faculties of sense perception can lead to a realisation that such duality is only an illusion; the psychology of Sufism is notably similar to that of Jewish kaballah and Hindu tantraism.
The seaport of Bushehr is located on a south western peninsula that extends out into the Persian Gulf. During summer months, temperatures in the fifties are not uncommon and the humidity can rise to a stifling hundred percent, meaning that most activity occurs as early or as late in the day as possible. Centuries of trade have created a rich hybrid of Arab, Persian and African cultures exemplified by the Bandari communities that live all along the coast. As such, Bushehr is characteristically laid back and primarily Sunni Muslim and many of the local women still wear a traditional costume of brightly coloured layers. Formerly an important centre for Nestorian Christianity from the time of the fifth century, Bushehr has declined as commercial activity has gravitated towards the larger and more bustling port of Bandar e-Abbas. The old town is nowadays badly decaying but its winding alleyways have a ruined beauty and it is still possible to catch a boat at the docks bound for Kuwait, Bahrain or Doha. It is an especial pleasure, in the evening time, to sit on the esplanade and smoke a qalyan, looking out over the moonlit waters of the gulf as they lap against the traditional wooden dhows in the harbour.