Who is isfahan

This is Beautiful Isfahan. Isfahan Facts 3rd largest city in Iran. And 3rd most populated after Tehran and Mashhad. Cultural capital of the Islamic World Capital of culture and civilization if Islamic Iran and industrial capital of Iran after Tehran. Isfahan is Half of the World. When these mosaics were still vibrant, Isfahan was larger than London, more cosmopolitan than Paris, and grander, by some accounts, than even storied Istanbul.

Who can claim to have seen the most beautiful city of the world without having seen Isfahan? Andre Malraux. Previous Next. Some interesting books. The iwan vaults were elaborated with muqarnas applied ornament which looks like stalactites or honeycombs to which glazed mosaic tile was applied.

Two minarets were added to the main iwan and clad with colored tiles, creating a new iconographic symbol of authority in which the new twin minarets was grafted onto the old. In general, Abbas demonstrated sensitive, if self-serving, reverence for Isfahan's glorious past and concern for its fitting display.

Military victories between the years and had confirmed Abbas's capacity as an empire builder. More capital and labor were put into bridges, roads, and caravanserais to build and facilitate trade. Abbas I was now ready to supplant the city's past and construct a pristine arena of Safavid rule outside the historic center. He established his "new city" in Isfahan to the south of the old city center, to which he transferred the imperial household; merchants and artisans relocated there as well.

In the design of the new city, Abbas mobilized certain elements of the architectural past to generate a new Iranian imperial identity in the name of Safavid religious, commercial, and political ideals. The center of the new city was a magnificent new maidan x meters exultantly called the "Design of the World" Maidan Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan. Its design united all of the facets of the Safavid polity into one spatial diagram: worship the Shah Mosque , commemoration the Mosque of Sheikh Lutfallah , sovereign administration the Imperial Palace , and trade Qaisariya Bazaar.

Abbas I's designers differentiated the new city from the old historical center by organizing the street patterns on orthogonal grids not oriented toward Mecca. The old city had narrow winding streets and the old maidan was oriented toward Mecca. The old and new maidans were connected by the winding covered street of the Great Bazaar 2 km long covered by high stone and brick vaults by the order of Abbas I.

English and Dutch traders lived near the bazaar, as Isfahan was home to one of the East India Company's warehouses. Where the Great Bazaar met the new maidan, a group of buildings was built that constituted the Qaisariya Bazaar Imperial Bazaar--built and maintained by the emperor. They housed imperial manufactures wholesale silks and fine textiles, goldsmiths, silversmiths, jewelers , the state mint, a hospital, public bath, and a caravanserai.

Unlike the shops of the Great Bazaar, these were arranged on a regular grid and aligned with the new city. Their importance to the regime was represented by the Qaisariya Gateway on the new maidan; no other imperial bazaar in the Safavid realm had a monumental entrance. The grand scale and inorganic mathematical order of the new city implied that the values embodied in the old capital had been surpassed and supplanted by Abbas's priorities: religious tolerance, capitalism, state Shiism, Sufi reverence for saintly teachers and concern for the welfare of the masses.

The new maidan turned its back on the old center, creating instead an alignment with the new Chahar Bagh Avenue and the multi-ethnic, multi-faith sacred sites and suburbs south of the Zayandeh River. The latter included Hindu cremation platforms, a Zoroastrian cemetery, and the suburbs of New Julfa for silk-trading Christian Armenians and Abbasabad Chahar Bagh for Tabrizi war refugees.

Many new bridges were built linking the northern city with the southern suburbs.. Operable flood gates on the lower level of the Khwaju Bridge celebrated Safavid technological control of nature, while on the upper level social amenities such as a promenade and pavilions invited passers-by to linger and enjoy the view of the river -- source of the city's pleasure and prosperity.

By designing the avenue, bridges, and streets of the suburbs in alignment with the orthogonal layout of new city, the designers succeeded in embedding Abbas's ideology inescapably into the fabric of urban life. The design of the individual buildings surrounding the new maidan was not shockingly innovative, but their organization into a legible spatial composition was unprecedented in Iran.

The "Design of the World" Maidan was the heart of the new conception. The Imperial Palace occupied the entire west side of the double-storey, arcaded new maidan, having one monumental gateway the Ali Qapu or "Sublime Portal" and two unobtrusive minor gates there.

One grand portal opened onto each of the remaining sides of the maidan, giving access to the Shah Mosque south , the Mosque of Sheikh Lutfallah east , and the Qaisariya Bazaar north. With one prodigious gateway on each of its sides, the new maidan looked as if it were the courtyard of a four- iwan mosque.

Hence, the "Design of the World" was a sacralized one which nevertheless included two hundred shops occupying the arcaded perimeter of the maidan. Many other services were located inconspicuously just behind the maidan, including madrasas, factories, caravanserais, merchants' mansions, and artisans' dwellings. The Imperial Palace was a garden palace complex, a palace type with a long history in Islamic architecture.

This palace was composed of elaborate independent pavilions set in the garden, such as the Chihil Sutun, which served as audience chambers, banqueting halls, and residential apartments for the royal family. Garden palaces were typically surrounded by a wall, but in Isfahan's case it was not a fortification wall. The Imperial Palace is also unusual in that the imperial treasury, arsenal, and cavalry were not located inside the palace complex.

Photos by Shohreh Karimian and Johannes Ziemer. Isfahan was more than just a showcase for the Safavids' imperial power and magnificence; it was also a cosmopolitan city and home to many artists and highly skilled craftsmen. It is surrounded by mosques, markets, palaces and public buildings. Measuring x metres, it is one of largest public squares in the world.

To this day, the metre-long bridge is considered one of the city's architectural masterpieces. To walk along the banks of the Zayandeh River flowing beneath its arches after sunset is to be reminded of Isfahan's golden age.

Hasht Behesht Palace "Eight Paradises Palace" , which was built in the seventeenth century, is said to have been one of the most luxurious of all the imperial residences.

Unfortunately, however, little of the original remains. Hardly anything of the palace's interior decoration has survived intact. Nevertheless, visitors can enjoy the peace and solitude of the Persian garden in which the palace stands.

It is thought that Jameh Mosque was built on top of a Sasanian fire temple. Today, it is both a museum that houses Islamic art and the largest mosque in Iran.

The mosque's blue "iwans" a vaulted space that is open on three sides are considered great treasures. The Shah Mosque is an imposing complex that reflects both the imagination of Shah Abbas I and the skill of his architects. The Shah Mosque is a masterpiece of Islamic architecture and contains numerous examples of different facets of this art: the base stones are made of white marble, while the walls are decorated with painted mosaics. The dome of the main area is a magnificent example of tile-painting.

It is 36 metres high. On the outside, it towers a breath-taking 51 metres above the ground.