The Road south to Shiraz

Isfahan to Shiraz, Iran

We left in the morning to drive south. I had said goodbye to Alireza reluctantly and had met the guide who would be with me for the next two weeks. It was not to be an altogether happy partnership for either of us; his old womanish, fusspot ways drove me quite insane as I knew would be the case from the moment I laid eyes on him, and he undoubtedly thought I was his worst nightmare come true. Our first stop was Yazdikhast of which Ibn Battuta had written;

".....a small town substantially built, and with a fine bazaar; the congregational mosque in it is a marvel, built of stone and with arcades of stone also. The town is on the edge of a valley, in which are its orchards and its streams. In its outskirts there is a ribat in which travellers are lodged; it has an iron gate and is of the utmost strength and impregnability, and inside it there are shops where everything that travellers may need is on sale."

Bridge over the ravine which if removed, effectively sealed off the town. Ibn Battuta used the Moroccan/Maghreb word 'ribat' meaning "fortified monastery" when usually in Iran he used the word 'hospice' meaning caravanserai. It is possible given the size of Yazdikhast, that this had at one time been the entrance to the ribat he mentions and that the town was further along the edge of the cliff as its ruins still are today.

I found a bridge 'over a chasm' but the door was wooden although there were iron pieces in the stone wall. The door was clearly the only way into the now-ruined village, and indeed had the bridge been removed, the village was impregnable with defensive ramparts having been built around the spur of rock to which the village clung. The door was tightly locked shut so the guide, to my complete amazement, climbed up a rock face and over a gap in the wall and I followed, abaya and all. We then walked through the town, most of which was in a parlous state, and found the mosque although it did not appear to have been built of stone - the village consists of houses built of adobe and those actually hewn from the cliff. The whole time we were there the guide fretted; it was forbidden, we did not know who was watching, he could lose his licence - the litany of dire possibilities that surely awaited him never varied for the next two weeks. I became convinced he had been arrested and tortured either by Savak or by the post-revolutionary 'Robespierres' - I could imagine no other reason for such perpetual fearfulness.

Of Fire temples and Chicken Sacrifice

Isfahan, Iran

“My lodging at Isfahan was in a convent which is attributed to the shaikh Ali ibn Sahl, the disciple of al-Jonaid. It is held in great veneration and is visited by the people of those regions, who seek to obtain blessing by visiting it.”

In this convent Ibn Battuta had a momentous moment; he was elated to be initiated into the Suhrawardi Sufi taqqiya, the Sunni school of Sufism founded by Abu an-Najib as-Suhrawardi. (The more famous, or perhaps infamous, as-Suhrawardi was Shahad ad-Din who founded the Illuminationist school, a fusion of Zoroastrian, Platonic and Islamic philosophy, for which he was executed in 1191, his views being considered antithetical to Islam.)  We went off in search of the monastery. Predictably, the people working in the tourism office had never heard of it and had no idea where it was although they told us their director knew everything there was to know, but he was not there. Fortunately its location was in the guidebook...........

The lovely tree-shaded monastery Ibn Battuta would have seen although the adjacent hammam with its tiling has gone.

The Cat and the Raven and the Assassination of the Vizier

Isfahan, Iran

When I was in Isfahan, Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad decided to visit. The Naqsh-e-Jahan square was closed as he was due to make a speech near the Blue Mosque. Early afternoon we watched as crowds of people started making their way towards the square. These were the followers, the believers; the women were all chador-clad, troops of khaki-uniformed Revolutionary Guards ran down the center of the street carrying flags and banners, shouting “ya Hussein”, traditional battle cry of the doomed, some marched more sedately in the shaded avenues leading to the square, while buses were parked everywhere having disgorged the party faithful to the event.

Alireza would not let me take pictures, “these people are very fervent and anything can set them off - it’s better to stay out of their way”. Earlier we had seen a black cat and a raven fighting on the rooftops at the shrine of an Imamzadeh - I thought of Bush and Ahmedinejad.  The raven was squawking loudly and hopping about, flapping its wings to get rid of the cat which was aloof, dismissive and unconcerned. Many Iranians think Bush and Ahmedinejad are the same; both engage in saber-rattling designed to whip up people too lazy or oafish to think overmuch for themselves into a suitably nationalistic frenzy, and both appeal to religious fundamentalists. There is however one glaring difference - Ahmedinejad is a bona fide war veteran.

Giant Posters of the president were everywhere during his visit.

The conversion of Iran to Shi’ism and the struggle against the chador

Isfahan, Iran

”The city of Isfahan is one of the largest and fairest of cities, but it is now in ruins for the greater part, as the result of the feud there between the Sunnis and the Rafidis, which continues to rage between them still to the present day, so that they never cease to fight.”

Panorama of the maidan or square called Naqsh-e-Jahan, Image of the world; the Blue Mosque is to the rear and the dome of Sheikh Lotfallah Mosque is on the left.

Isfahan is not now in ruins, it is a beautiful city with one of the most magnificent public spaces in the world, and wide plane-shaded, boulevards lined with narrow water canals called ‘joob’ which combine to keep the city relatively cool even in the most blistering of summer heats. But the most beautiful buildings were not built at the time of Ibn Battuta’s visit. The splendor of Isfahan was in essence the creation of one man, Shah Abbas I, in the 17th century..........

Many of Isfahan's streets are heavily shaded by old plane trees which keep the city cool and give it a very pleasant aspect.

Iran was not a Shi’ite country when Ibn Battuta traveled there, it did not become Shi’ite until forcibly converted by the Safavid Shah, Ismail in 1512. The Safavids were originally a Sunni Turkish sufi order - Sufism being the ‘mystical’ branch of Sunni Islam. In 1501 Ismail inherited the throne aged 15, and having already converted to Shia Islam he later declared Shi’ism the state religion. Shah Ismail claimed he was the representative on earth of the ‘Hidden Imam’ which is intrinsically heretical since the doctrine of the hidden Imam stipulates that he shall have no earthly representation until he himself returns. But Ismail was not only able to waive this theological detail and to convince the people of the validity of his claim, but in the 19th century this claim was transferred to the Shi’ite ulema (clergy), a belief which stands to this day, and explains the position of strength the clergy hold in the current Islamic republic. (It is also one of the the reasons the last Shah lost his throne - he fatally miscalculated the depth of this sentiment in the minds of his subjects.)

The Road of the Atabegs, Funeral ceremonies and Pigeon Towers

Izeh to Isfahan, Iran

Ibn Battuta had been in Izeh when the Atabeg’s son had died. He was perfectly scandalized by the funerary customs of the Lur people;

“.....slaves, sons of princes, viziers and soldiers - all wearing sacks of coarse cloth and horses’ saddle-cloths; they had put dust and straw on their heads and some of them had cut off their forelocks. They were divided into two groups, one group at the top end of the hall and another at its lower end, and each group would advance towards the other, all beating their breasts with their hands and crying khundikarima, which means ‘our master’. The spectacle that I witnessed was an appalling thing and a disgraceful sight, the like of which I have never encountered.”

Funeral customs in Iran differ from region to region. Since the Iran/Iraq war when burials per day ran into the tens of thousands, a foundation run by the government has an extremely efficient, computerized system at Tehran cemetery. The plots are pre-dug, lined with cement, then lightly covered over. When someone dies the body is taken to the cemetery to be washed and prepared for burial. (In Tehran nowadays, most people die in hospital.) As soon as the plot has been paid for by the family or friends of the deceased, it will be assigned by computer. Tehran cemetery is so huge that the section where the plot is located is indicated on a screen by a flashing light. After the body has been interred, the space is cemented over then, not to put too fine a point on it, the plot is lightly covered over again to await the next occupant, unless there are now three in which case the plot is full. In Tehran cemetery as many as three bodies lie in one vertically divided grave - they are usually members of the same family but not necessarily.

Interment takes place as quickly as possible after death, preferably within 24 hours, but in Tehran it is not mandatory. Prayers are said over the body at the graveside - again in Tehran at least, the body does not go to the mosque for any kind of ceremony, although a memorial service called khatm, may be held there three, or seven and/or forty days later. Also uniquely in Tehran women may form part of the graveside mourners whereas in most Muslim countries women are not allowed to participate in the funeral rites and normally visit the grave on the following day. Islamic belief holds that angels visit the deceased on the evening of death and ask the questions which determine if the person goes to heaven or hell. In Iran, at the graveside, a man related to the deceased will climb into the grave and lightly holding the shoulders of the body will pose the same questions, gently shaking the body as he does. (Bodies are merely covered with a white shroud at burial in Islam - there are no coffins.) This is like a ‘rehearsal’ of the real event, symbolizing the importance of the deceased giving the ‘correct’ answers. I was not able to determine if this is ‘Twelver’ or Iranian or Shia custom in general, but whatever it is I cannot begin to imagine what Ibn Battuta would have made of it, I fear he would have been apoplectic.......

A cache of gold and the cult of mourning

Khuzestan province, Iran

“We traveled for three nights across open country inhabited by Kurds in hair tents who are said to be Arabs by origin and then reached the town of Ramiz, a fine city with fruit trees and rivers. I stayed only one night in the town of Ramiz after which we continued our journey for three nights more across a plain where there were are villages inhabited by Kurds. At the end of each stage of this journey there was a hospice at which every traveller was supplied with bread, meat and sweetmeats. ”

Ibn Battuta would find Ramiz is now Ramhormuz. And while a large proportion of the population in this part of Iran is indeed ethnically Arab, they are no longer nomadic, although as recently as the 1920’s, tribal Arab attacks in the countryside were such that the government deferred the building of roads. And the Kurds, who are easily identifiable because of their dress; the men wear baggy pants gathered tightly at the ankle called shalwar, are not Arab. The majority of Iran’s Kurdish population lives in the northern province of Kurdistan, although small communities are still to be found in neighboring provinces. In Ramhormuz we went in search of the Tourism Department who we thought might know if any buildings remained from the 14th century. We met the very helpful director who gave us a list of his town’s 77 monuments of which precisely none corresponded to the time of Ibn Battuta. By way of recompense perhaps he showed us, on the computer, items from a recent extraordinary find; a cache of gold jewelry (and a burial site), dating back to the Elamite and Achaemenid periods. Apparently the ground was being dug for the laying of water pipes when workers came across the find; rings, smooth and ridged rings of kingship, bangles, belts, bracelets, armlets, buttons, fibulae, and beautifully-crafted woven and plaited gold belts with dangling pieces studded with agates and other semi-precious stones, were in miraculous shape. A lovely 19th-century Qajar building currently undergoing renovation will house the collection.