The furniture of the Chehel Sitoon, which consists indeed of carpets only, is still kept there. The carpets of the time of Abbas are of a large pattern, more regular and infinitely superior in texture to those of the present day. Although the outer part of the fabric is suffered to fall to ruin, the interior is still preserved in repair, as it forms the Dewan Khonéh, or Hall of Audience to the Palace; and is, therefore, kept in readiness for the King’s reception.
Adjoining to the Chehel Sitoon is the harem; the term in Persia is applied to the establishments of the great, zenana is confined to those of the inferior people. This building was lately erected by Mahomed Hossein Khan, the second Minister, and presented by him to his Majesty, and therefore is a very good specimen of the style and workmanship of the present day; and in this view it merits description. It is indeed considered so perfect in its establishment, that if the King were to arrive at Ispahan without a moment’s notice, not one, the smallest domestic article, would be wanting for the convenience of his suite, and the whole palace would present all the comforts which could be found after a residence of many years. From the garden of the Chehel Sitoon an intricate passage leads under an octagonal tower into this new palace, and opens into an oblong square laid out into flower beds, straight walks and basins of water, and surrounded on all its sides by chambers for women of an inferior rank. Proceeding on the left side of this court, a door opens into a species of green-house called the Narangistoon, in which there are only young orange trees. From this there is but one step into the principal court of the building, one whole side of which is occupied by the King’s apartments or drawing-rooms. The front room is adorned by two portraits of his Majesty, on one side seated on his throne, and on the other in the act of killing a deer in a chase on horseback. There are also other pictures, of which the most remarkable are those representing Timoor or Tamerlane, Jenghiz Khan, and Jemsheed. The walls are very richly painted with bouquets of flowers, birds and other animals. The arch, which occupies the side facing the great window, is a beautiful composition of glass and painting, and was the neatest specimen of decorative art which I had then seen in Persia. The ceiling is highly ornamented; gilded flowers and bright looking glasses glisten on every side, and give great liveliness and gaiety to the whole. Behind this is another room equally well painted; the upper windows are here most artfully constructed of plaster, which is pierced into small holes in a great variety of figures and flowers resembling the open work of lace, and admitting a pleasing light. In this room also there are portraits, one of which, that of a European, is called the Shah Zadé Freng, or European Prince. He is represented in our dress of the sixteenth century, in which indeed all the portraits of the Europeans appear, and which is sufficiently explained by the recollection that Shah Abbas had Dutch painters in his pay. The other rooms in this department are similarly decorated and gilded; and in some hang portraits of the King, to which the natives, as they approach, all make an inclination of the head. Under the great room are summer apartments excavated in the ground, which in their season must be delightful retreats. They are all wainscoted and paved with marble slabs, and water is introduced by cascades, which fall from the ground floor, and refresh the whole range. A passage leads to the bath, which, though small, is elegant. The domes are supported by columns, taken from the Armenian churches at Julfa.
From this court, a passage leads into several others for inferior women; and then into two rooms built by Ashreff, one of the Affghan Kings. The latter are indeed much inferior to those which I have already described. They have heavy massive glasses and gildings, and coarse paintings of fruits and flowers, without any representation of the human figure. On the whole, however, we found throughout the palace much sameness, both in the arrangement of the rooms, and in the distribution of the grounds. In the love of water and running streams, a Persian taste is fully gratified at Ispahan, through which the Zaiande-rood affords for all their ornamental purposes an unceasing supply.
Mesjid Loutf Ollah & part of Maidan Shah
Ispahan.
Drawn by James Morier Esqr.
Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811.
From the interior of the palaces we ascended the Ali Capi gate, which forms the entrance. This gate, once the scene of the magnificence of the Seffi family, the threshold of which was ever revered as sacred, is now deserted, and only now and then a solitary individual is seen to pass negligently through. The remains of that splendour, so minutely and exactly described by Chardin, are still to be traced; the fine marbles remain, and the grandeur and elevation of the dome are still undemolished. A ragged porter opened a small door to the right, by which we ascended to the pavilion where Shah Abbas was wont to see the games of the Maidan and the exercises of his troops. This also is sinking rapidly into decay, and retains nothing to attest the beauties which travellers describe, except the shafts of the wooden columns, some pieces of glass, and some decayed paintings. From this we ascended by a winding staircase, still further to the very summit. Here, as this is the highest building in the city, we enjoyed a most extensive view, and from this place we could form a tolerably just idea of its real extent. Houses, or ruins of houses, are spread all over the plain, and reach to the very roots of the surrounding mountains. From this point I took a panoramic view of the whole, which I completed undisturbed, as I had secured the door, and the porter at the bottom before I commenced.[36] There is no difference in the colours of the buildings; they are universally of a light yellow, and, if it were not for an abundant intermixture of trees, which in spring and summer cheer and enliven the scene, the view would be monotonous. The trees are mostly the chenars; but, besides these, there are the Lombardy poplar, the willow, and an elm with very thick and rich foliage and a formal shape. The domes of the mosques are a field of green or sometimes blue-lacquered tiles, with ornaments in yellow, blue, and red: the inscriptions are in the same colours. They are crowned by golden balls and a crescent, with the horns bending outwardly.
The mountains, which bound the plain to the Eastward, are the most distant; and those to the West are most strongly marked; all are dark without any verdure. The general appearance of the soil in the town is light, and nearly of the same colour as the houses.
All the cannon, which in Chardin’s day were enclosed in a balustrade before the palace, are removed, and there is not left a vestige even of the balustrade itself. The Maidan Shah, the great public place, no longer presents the busy scene which it must have displayed in the better times of this kingdom. Of all the trees which surrounded it, there is not one standing. The canals, of which the stones remain, are void of water; the houses, which surrounded the Maidan, are no longer inhabited; and the very doors are all blocked up, so that there is now only a dead row of arches to be seen all round. The great market, which once spread the whole area with tents, is now confined to one corner near the Nokara Khanéh. All the rest is quite empty; scarcely a person is seen to pass along. I saw no traces of the pavilion of the clock, which in the time of Chardin so much amused the people by the mechanism of its puppets. The Mesjid Shah or Royal Mosque is still a noble building, if I might judge from its outside; although the lacquered tiles on the dome are in many places falling off. We did not go further than the iron chain, which is thrown across the entrance of its great gate leading into the Maidan. The Mesjid of Louft Ollah is exteriorly in good repair. The great bazar is entered under the Nokara Khanéh by a handsome gate, the paintings on which still exist, but the large clock (of which however the place is still seen) is no longer in existence; nor is there any trace of that also, that was once on the very summit. The other side of the gate opens into the fine bazars (formerly called the Kaiseree) now the Bazar Shah.
There are no modern bazars, except one built by Hajee Mahomed Hossein Khan, the second Minister. He has also made a new Chahar Bagh, in that part of the city towards the bridge, called Pool Hajoo. The bazars, as I had occasion to observe at Shiraz, are all laid out on nearly the same plan as those of Constantinople; generally the different trades in separate bazars. They are on the whole more lively than those of Turkey; being painted and adorned in many places, (particularly under the domes in the centre), with portraits of the heroes of the country, or with combats, or with figures of beasts, and other subjects. In these bazars the confluence of people is certainly great, and if the crowds here were a fair measurement of the general population of the city, the whole numbers of Ispahan would swell rapidly; but as every one in the course of the day has some business in this spot, the rest of the city is comparatively deserted; and as the traders also themselves have here their shops only and return to their homes at night, the mixed multitudes which throng the bazars, again scattered over all the quarters of the town, become a very inadequate proportion for its extent. The women, indeed, except the very lower class, generally remain at home, and during the day form, with their children, all the population of some parts of the city. The N. and E. divisions are the best inhabited. In Chardin’s time the numbers were estimated by those who reckoned largely one million and one hundred thousand souls; but even by the more moderate were fixed at six hundred thousand. Considering, however, the state of ruin in which, perhaps, half of Ispahan is at present, we cannot place its actual population at more than four hundred thousand souls, a calculation which is supported by the accounts of the houses or families, of which there are eighty thousand. This information was subsequently communicated to me by Hajee Mahomed Hossein Khan, second Minister to the King, a native also of the city, and long its Governor, whose opportunities therefore of ascertaining the fact were unquestionable. Much, nevertheless, must be allowed for the exaggeration natural to a Persian.