_Four Sources on Shah Abbas’s Buildings of Isfahan

Essay from: Muqarnas Volume V: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture

Shah CAbbas’s additions to the cityscape of Isfahan have elicited awe and admiration for centuries (fig. 1). The great Royal Square (Maydan-i Shah), the Palace District (Bagh-i Naqsh-i Jahan), the Royal Mosque (Masjid-i Shah), the pleasance complex outside the city (Bagh-i CAbbasabad or HazarJarib), the long mansionlined avenue (khizydban or chahar bdgh) from the palace complex to the suburban pleasance, and the Bridge of Forty Spans (also known as the Allah Wirdi Khan Bridge and the Bridge of Thirty-Three Spans) have drawn comment, detailed description, and study by Iranians and foreigners alike from the moment of plan-ning and construction down to the present day.’Much of the literary record, especially that produced by Europeans, is fairly widely known. Less well known are materials in Persian, both published and unpublished. It is safe to say that documents and accounts in Persian pertaining to CAbbas’s projects exist in far greater numbers than is generally believed. 2 One would certainly expect that construction work on such a scale as that undertaken during his reign (1587-1629) would have left a trail of written evidence. For one thing, it is difficult to imagine that the shah’s memorializers were any less likely to record the splendor of Isfahan than were foreign visitors. For another, it is impossible to imagine the completion of such immense projects without numerous legal transactions, each of which would have left some documentary spoor.