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KASHAN
Located in an altitude of 1,600 m above sea level, Kashan is one of the main cities of Esfahan province. It is 240 km to the south of Tehran and 220 km to the north of Esfahan, and can be reached via a first-class highway, national road, or railway. The town’s population amounts to 400,000, living on an area of 2, 100 hectares.
In addition to its world-famous carpets, Kashan is also well known for its silk and the glazed earthenware tile called kashi after its place of manufacture. Kashan is a beautiful large oasis town on the Qum-Kerman road running along the western edge of the Great Desert, Kevir. The city has long been noted for its silk textiles, ceramics, copperware, and rose water from the well-known rose fields of Qamsar, as well.
One of the most important archaeological sites in central Iran, it has a historical background of over 7,000 years. Kashan is also of interest for its connections with Shah Abbas I – it was a favourite town of his, and he beautified it and asked to be buried here in the mausoleum of a 13th century ancestor. Walking in the silent and peaceful alleys and back-alleys of the town, one can see very old buildings with brick walls constantly baked, as in old times, under the scorching sun.
Majority of historians and travelers to the town have called it a gate to the world civilization. Kashan flourished mainly during the Seljuk and Safavid periods of the post-Islamic history of Iran. Samples of art works created by Kashani artisans can be seen in the famous museums of the world.
The town has many picturesque badgirs (wind towers), essential in the town’s hot and airless summers before the introduction of air-conditioning. Modern industry plays a part in Kashan, in parallel with the ongoing social development. In bazaar, however, carpet-weaving, embroidery work, the making of rose water, scent, pottery, and other crafts are carried on in much the same and with the same skill as of old.
Historic Sights
Agha Bozurg Mosque The Agha Bozurg Mosque and School Complex in Fazel-e Naraghi Street, belong to the second half of the last century (Qajar period), when the country’s architects produced a number of unforgettable masterpieces. The Complex, considered as one of the most beautiful and magnificent Islamic monuments of Iran, was constructed by Haj Mohammad Taghi Khanban for congregational prayers, preaching and teaching sessions held by Mulla Mahdi Naraghi II known as Agha Bozurg. The vast sanctuary of the mosque is in two floors. The first floor, being at the same level with the pool and area allocated to the school garden, houses 12 cells on three sides, and the mosque appears at the top floor. The mosque has a beautiful portal decorated with moqarnas and paintings by Master Mohammad Bagher Qamsari, brick dome and two minarets covered with mosaic tiles seen from two sides of the dome. In plan, the Mosque has three sanctuaries (shabestans). The whole Complex is built of brick and decorated with inscriptions and tile works. The Complex has been repaired several times, and nowadays it stands as one of the sturdy and well-maintained monuments of the city. It is open to visitors every day from 8 AM to 6 PM.
To the north of the Complex and within a few meters, stands a beautiful building with two brick domes, which is known as the Shrine of Khajeh Taj od-Din. Here are buried sons of two Imams, called Shahzadeh Is’haq and Shahzadeh Abitaleb, both relatives of the seventh Imam. Early remains of the Shrine belong to the Seljuk period, and its ceiling was built during the reign of Mongols.
Bazaar and Other Sites One of the most fascinating sightseeing places in Kashan is the bazaar historic complex (first erected in the Safavid era, but rebuilt in its present form early in the nineteenth century) with many interesting buildings in it, such as Saraye Amin od-Dowleh, caravansaries (Gomork, Now, Mirpanj, Borujerdiha, and Zoghaliha, nearly 1,100 years old), mosques (Mir Emad, Bala Bazaar, Tabriziha, and Kaffash’ha), baths (Khan and Gozar Now), water storages (Haj Seyed Hossein), and smaller bazaars (copper smiths, gold smiths, dyers, Gozar Now, Pa Nakhl, Qaisarieh, Mianchal, Malek, and Sardar) for the sale of hand-woven carpets of silk and velvet, local perfumes (golab) and sweets. Among other sites of historic interest in and outside Kashan, mention could be made of Mausoleum, of Abu Lo’ Lo’, from Safavid period, at the beginning of Kashan-Fin road; the Jalali Fortication Complex surrounding the town (city walls), from the eleventh century, at the end of Alavi Street; Minar-e Zain od-Din (late eleventh or early twelfth century) in Mulla Habibollah Sharif Street (Darvazeh Esfahan); Ghazi Historical Complex, from Seljuk and Safavid periods, 10 km to the northwest of Kashan; Maranjab Caravansary, built by Shah Abbas I, 50 km to the north of Aran (in Kevir); Imamzadeh Hadi Shrin in Bidgol, from Safavid period, 8 km to the northeast of Kashan; Nushabad Jam’e Mosque, with a brick minaret of Safavid period, in Nushabad, 12 km to the north of Kashan; Niasar Sassanian Fire Temple from the early Islamic period (7th and 8th centuries) in Niasar village, 25 km to the northwest of Kashan; and many other old houses, shrines, mosques, and baths, about which you can find out at Kashan.
Borujerdis Old House The present premises of Kashan Cultural Heritage Department, the Borujerdis Old House was built nearly 130 years ago by a famous merchant named Haj Seyed Ja’far Borujerdi from Natanz, who imported goods from Borujerd in Lurestan Province. The construction date (1293 A.H.) can still be seen on the covered inscription of the building, completion of which required 18 years of work by tens of laborers, master painters and architects. A vast rectangular courtyard is opened up to the visitor after passing an entrance portico and a narrow corridor. Reception, ceremonial, and residential halls and rooms are arranged on the four sides of the courtyard. Provision of well-proportioned spaces, nicely-designed bad-girs (wind towers) to fit the building, particularly paintings by the famous Iranian painter Kamal ol-Molk Ghaffari, have served to convert it to an art masterpiece in itself. The House is located in Alavi street, Sultan Amir Ahmad District, and can be visited every day from 8 AM to 6 PM.
Fin Historic Garden Bagh-e Shah, the King’s Garden (also known as the Bagh-e Tarikhi-e Fin or Bagh-e Amir Kabir) at Fin 6 km to the southwest, and perhaps the finest surviving example in Iran, creates the contrast between the Kevir region and the greenery of the well-tended oasis below the adjoining Karkass mountain. A major part of Kashan’s water was supplied by the perennial source of Suleimanieh spring in the garden. References to Fin in historical sources go back to more than 1,000 years. Designed for Shah Abbas I, this classical Persian vision of paradise has always been prized for its natural springs and still contains the remains of his two-story palace set around a pool. The garden has other Safavid royal buildings, although they were substantially rebuilt, and others were added in the Qajar period. The building housing Kashan Museum was built in 1968, in harmony with the historical monuments within the Garden, covering 900 square meters, and comprising 8 vast galleries, wherein items from Iranian culture and civilization in various periods of history are displayed. At present, the pleasant sight of water from Suleimanieh spring, ever spouting from fountainheads by the sole means of difference in elevation is one of the attractions of this complex. Flowing at an elevation of 1,060 meters above sea level, it passes through numerous paths of the Garden, reaches the Fin village, and water orchards famous for their unparalleled figs and pomegranates. Once it operated 33 water-mills. Apart from being used for medical purposes in the past centuries and attracting the attention of many scholars and physicians, it was estimated that the daily turnover of this spring amounted to one thousand mesghals (5 kg) of pure gold. Although Kashan was in a state of decay during the early Qajar times, the village Fin and its beautiful Garden were nevertheless one of the favorite resorts of Fath Ali Shah; in fact he was as fond of the place as any of Safavid predecessors had been. He rebuilt the palace, planted many more cypresses and bordered the stream from the spring with marble slabs. Although usually associated with ease and pleasure (such as the coronation of Safavid kings), Fin was the scene of a tragedy in 1852, when Mirza Taqi Khan known as Amir Kabir, the Grand Vizier of Nasser od-Din Shah, was murdered there. He is considered a national hero and vanguard of modern Iran. Fin can be reached by shared taxi and bus from central Kashan via Amir Kabir Street and 17th Shahrivar Square. It is open to visitors every day from 8 AM to 6 PM. Madraseh Sultani Now called the Imam Khomeini School, it is one of the largest and most magnificent building in Kashan, and was once used as the religious students’ accommodation. The building is located next to the Jewlers’ Bazaar. Built in early 19th century by the order of Fath Ali Shah Qajar in 9 years, the school has a double-shell brick dome, measuring 27 meters from the ground level to its inner surface. There are 52 cells on four sides of the rectangular courtyard of the School. It is open to visitors every day from 8 AM to 6 PM. Masjid-e Jam’e Being Kashan’s oldest building from Seljuk period, the mosque (also known as the Friday Mosque) has a brick dome and a high ivan. It is said that the original building was a fire-temple before the conversion of people to Islam. The older minaret of the mosque is from the eleventh or twelfth century and the third oldest minaret in Iran according to its inscription; rest of the building is later. Original combinations of brick and glazed tile can be seen on the ceiling of the underneath floor. The Mosque is located on Baba Afzal Street. It is open to visitors every day from 8 AM to 6 PM. Religious Ceremonies One of the most interesting religious ceremonies of Shiites is held in Mashhad-e Ardehal, 40 km to the east of Kashan. On arriving in the village, the visitor will find a tomb on a slope of high hill. Inside the tomb lies His Holiness Sultan Ali, son of the fifth Imam, who was invited from Medina to this region nearly 12 centuries ago. The tomb has two magnificent courtyards and a couple of splendid balconies. The whole building complex along with the tall minarets decorated with ceramic tiles, belong to Seljuk period architecture.
A large crowd from Qum, Kashan, Khomein, Mahallat, Saveh, Delijan, Golpayegan, Yazd, and many other towns gather here during the second Friday of the month of Mehr (early October) to commemorate the chain of events leading to the founding of the present-day Ghali Shuyan (carpet washing) ceremony on the occasion of the assassination of His Holiness. Inhabitants of Fin, at the time of the event, on hearing of this, rushed to the place to no avail. They put his body on a carpet and, as is the Muslim custom, washed him in a stream which was 150 meters away from the place, and then buried him. Since then, the people of Fin hold the same ceremony on the same day. They leave the Shrine carrying the remains of the same carpet on their shoulders, and while mourning, symbolically beat the remains with long sticks to show their hatred towards the enemies of His Holiness. No outsider is allowed to touch the remains of the carpet. Tomb of Sohrab Sepehri, a modern Iranian poet and painter, is located in the eastern wing of the Shrine. Another important religious ceremony held annually on the 21st day of Ramazan (fasting month), takes place in the historic side of Mohammad Helal Shrine in Aran, 10 km to the north of Kashan. Helal was a direct descendant of His Holiness Imam Ali. Sultan Amir Ahmad Shrine Sultan Amir Ahmad was the son of Imam Musa ‘bn-e Ja’far, whose shrine along with a sanctuary, wide porticos and a conic dome are of the most interesting sights to see. The Shrine dates back to the Seljuk and Safavid periods. The ceramic works in front of the large ivan and two lateral minarets have been reconstructed during the Qajar period. The site is located in Alavi Street, Sultan Amir Ahmad District. Tappeh Sialk Betwwen the Bagh-e Shah (Fin) and Kashan is the mound of Tappeh Sialk the site of a prehistoric culture which was dated by Ghirshman who excavated the Tappeh in the ‘30s and later, to the second half of the 15th millennium BC. Later discoveries showed that the Site is more than 7,000 years old. It is probably the richest archaeological site so far uncovered in central Iran, although the most interesting finds have been moved to various institutes and museums, including National Museum of Iran in Tehran and Louvre in Paris. There are two mounds here, the largest of which is to the south. Excavated by the French Archaelogical Service in 1933-34 and 1937-38, the site has revealed a large number and variety of pottery and domestic implements of clay, stone and bone from as early as the 4th millennium BC, and is believed to have been first settled in the 5th millennium or earlier. It appears to have been sacked and deserted in about the 8th century BC. You can still see the outline of various mud-brick buildings and a large number of potsherds embedded throughout the two mounds. Perhaps the most interesting finds are some inscribed clay tablets dating from the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BC. The remains here give an interesting record of the waves of immigrants and conquerors who passed this way, and settled near the abundant water supply at the site of the present-day Bagh-e Fin. Nowadays, Tappeh Sialk is situated along the Amir Kabir Street. Abyaneh Abyaneh is a beautiful historic village at the foot of Karkass mountain 70 km to the southeast of Kashan and 40 km to Natanz. This is a village of living traditions, architectural styles (all in red clay), and probably the most interesting example of human adaptation to nature, wherein one can transcend the boundaries of time and space and experience the ancient civilization and culture of Iran. The village is compact, with narrow and sloped lanes, and houses located on the slope as if placed on a stairway. Here, the roofs of some houses are used to serve as the courtyard for other houses higher up on the slope. The language spoken by the literate people of Abyaneh is Parthian Pahlavi. They are deeply committed to honoring their traditions. No matter how well educated a person from Abyaneh might be, he or she puts on the traditional Abyaneh costume on coming back to the village from anywhere in Iran. The women’s traditional costume consisting of a scarf with floral motifs and pleated pants, is particularly attractive. The Abyaneh woman is unseparably attached to her wedding gown inherited from her mother, and is expected to pass it on to her daughter. It bears such an intrinsic value of her that she wouldn’t sell it at any price. There are a good number of old houses in Abyaneh, among them the homes of Gholam Nader Shah and Nayeb Hossein Kashi. In addition to the Zoroastrian fire-temple (from the Sassanian period) in the village, there are three castles, a pilgrimage site, three mosques named Hajatgah, Porzaleh, and Jam’e, all worth a careful visit. Altogether there are eight mosques in the village. The Hajatgah mosque, built next to a rock, dates from the early Safavid period, according to an inscription on top of its door. Inside the mosque there is a beautiful nocturnal prayer hall with wooden capital pillars. Porzaleh mosque, built during the Illkhanid reign in the oldest part of the village, has a very vast nocturnal prayer hall. The ornamentations used here look very much like those of the tomb of Bayazid of Bastam, the great Persian mystic. The Jam’e Mosque of Abyaneh dates back to the eleventh century. There are a number of inscriptions and a manbar (pulpit) in the mosque. The interesting thing is that the pulpit has many features similar to the architectural elements and column heads seen in Persepolis.
ADDRESSES
AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS ACCESS AND DISTANCES: By road, rail and air from Tehran (240 km) and Esfahan (220 km), and by rail and bus from all other towns, such as Qum (85 km), Yazd (419), and Kerman (806 km). The modern airport of the town is equipped for local flights. ACCIDENTS: Traffic
Police 555588 Central
Branch: Shahid Raja’i St., Mir Emad Street, 49412 The city dialing code number of Kashan is 0361. DRUG STORES (24-HOUR): Imam
Khomeini Ave, 47000. 112 Farmandari, 22nd Bahman Street. MEDICAL SERVICES: Darvazeh
Dowlat, Abazar St. 22034, 55004-8 Jomhuri
Square, 24037-9; Road Police, 25555 Post:
15th Khordad Sq. 42032 Available
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© 2003 The Embassy of The Islamic Republic of Iran, Ottawa-Canada All Rights Reserved. Last Updated: October 22, 2003 3:09 PM EST |
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