Sheikh Safi al-Din Shrine

In Ardabil, near the Caspian side of north-west Iran, lies the tomb of Sheikh Safi al-Din, a Sufi master who died in 1334. His order, the Safaviyya, grew over two centuries from a religious brotherhood into a political movement, and in 1501 his descendant Ismail I founded the Safavid dynasty, which ruled Iran until the eighteenth century. The shrine, called in Persian a boq'eh, a holy place or tomb complex, is therefore both a Sufi sanctuary and the family seat of a royal house.

Ismail I himself is buried here. The complex gathers tomb towers, prayer halls, a library, kitchens and courtyards, much of it decorated with glazed tile and painted wood. Its most remarkable room is the Chini-khaneh, “porcelain house”, whose walls are honeycombed with hundreds of shaped niches. They were made to display the collection of Chinese porcelain that Shah Abbas I dedicated to the shrine in the early seventeenth century.

The shrine was also home to the Ardabil carpet, dated 1539–40, one of the most celebrated Persian carpets; it is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, with its pair in Los Angeles. The complex was inscribed by UNESCO in 2010. Inside, visitors walk from bright courtyards into shadowed tomb rooms where gilt and tile glimmer in low light.