Isfahan
اصفهانHalf the world, as the old saying goes: the Safavid capital of blue domes, river bridges and the great square.
Shah Abbas I made Isfahan his capital in 1598 and rebuilt it around a vast square, the Naqsh-e Jahan, framed by the Shah Mosque, the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, the Ali Qapu palace and the gate of the bazaar. Isfahan nesf-e jahan, people said: Isfahan is half the world.
The Zayandeh River runs through the city under its Safavid bridges, the Si-o-se Pol and the Khaju. The province reaches north to Kashan, with its gardens and merchant houses, and east into the desert.
Cities and towns
Isfahanاصفهان
The Safavid capital on the Zayandeh River
Kashanکاشان
Gardens, rosewater and grand merchant houses
Na'inنائین
A desert town known for fine carpets
Landmarksبناها و نشانهها
Naqsh-e Jahan Square
میدان نقش جهانThe royal square of Shah Abbas, more than five hundred metres long
Fin Garden
باغ فینA Persian garden of running water outside Kashan
Si-o-se Pol
سیوسهپلThe bridge of thirty-three arches across the Zayandeh
Isfahan through time
Iranian historyAfsharids, Zands and Qajarsافشاریان، زندیان و قاجاریان
A soldier-king who sacked Delhi, a regent who rebuilt Shiraz, and a dynasty that made Tehran the capital and lived through Iran's Constitutional Revolution.
- Shah Abbas I makes Isfahan his capital
- Si-o-se Pol completed for Shah Abbas I
- Work begins on the Shah Mosque
- Amir Kabir killed in the Fin bathhouse
- Square inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage site
- Inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Persian Garden
Poets of Isfahanشاعران
Omar Khayyam
خیامMathematician and astronomer of Nishapur, known to the world for quatrains on time, wine and doubt.
Siavash Kasraei
سیاوش کسراییPoet of Arash the Archer, who retold an ancient Iranian legend of sacrifice in the new verse of Nima.
Sohrab Sepehri
سهراب سپهریPainter and poet of Kashan, whose quiet, luminous lines are among the most loved in modern Persian.
Stories from hereداستانها
The goitered gazelle
A small, fast desert gazelle, and in Persian poetry the shape of the beloved's eye and the image of a love that will not be caught.
The nightingale and the rose
A plain brown bird with an extraordinary voice became the lover of Persian poetry, forever singing to a rose that does not answer.
Seljuks, Mongols and Ilkhanids
Turkic and then Mongol conquerors took Iran in turn. The Seljuks built mosques and colleges; the Mongols brought catastrophe, then, as the Ilkhanids, became patrons of history-writing and art.
The Safavids
The Safavids made Twelver Shia Islam Iran's state religion and rebuilt Isfahan as one of the most admired cities in the world.
The Ardabil Carpet
A dated, inscribed Safavid carpet more than ten metres long, signed with a line of Hafez and the name of Maqsud of Kashan.
The city workshops
City carpets are woven to a drawn design, in workshops, by many hands. Each city has its own handwriting.