Solivagant

UK - 11-Mar-23 -

Kashan is a city you may well speed by on the 450km highway between Tehran and Isfahan (or vv in our case in 2017). You might stop briefly to see the Fin Garden situated around 8kms outside the city just off the highway, or you may even, as we did, go into the centre and give it a couple of hours or so to see some of its sights. You will find there yet another Iranian “continuity city” with evidence of human habitation at nearby Tepe Sialk, going back 9k years. In historic times it was significant through the Seljuk and Safavid eras (11th to 16th C). However, the town centre was destroyed by earthquake in 1778 and what is “on show” today is mainly an 18th/19th C historic core with just a few (largely reconstructed) pre-earthquake buildings. The town recovered rapidly, based on large volume silk weaving, and this wealth is represented in many of the sights which date from the Qajar period (1789-1925). Its population in 1960 was still only 50k and that core area has survived the subsequent rapid massive expansion to 400k well.

What are we to make of a T List entry titled “The Historical-Cultural Axis of Fin, Sialk, Kashan”? The concept of an “Axis” to justify the linking together of several sites into a single nomination seems to be a particularly Iranian approach; Its T list also contains the “Ghaznavi- Seljukian Axis in Khorasan”; once had “The Historic-Natural Axis of Isfahan city” and is currently pursuing “registration of a Sassanid axis, centered on Taq-e Bostan…”. I note that China has also nominated the “Central Axis of Beijing”. The idea seems to be that, in addition to being geographically “linked” in an approximate “Axis” (= “An imaginary line around which a body rotates”) the items along that axis are also culturally/historically linked and thus justify being treated as an entity for nomination. This trio of sites is certainly in an approximate straight line of c9kms between Fin Garden and Kashan Bazaar passing near to Sialk Tepe. But Sialk Tepe is 9k years old and Fin Garden is Safavid from 1590 - do they have enough of a historical-cultural “connection” to justify use of the concept? Sialk has sat on Iran’s T List as an entry in its own right since 1997 and, presumably, the addition of this site in 2007, which includes Sialk, was intended to supersede the separate entry - but that has never been removed. Fin Garden, on the other hand, gained inscription in 2012 as part of the Persian Gardens WHS. So, as Fin no longer needs to be linked with Kashan to gain inscription, one wonders if Kashan really needs to be linked to Fin in order to gain “added value”. But then, if Fin is removed, does a pairing of just Sialk and Kashan make sense? Whatever - we also visited both Fin and Sialk during our visit but I will confine this review to Kashan as I have already reviewed the individual Sialk entry and others have covered Fin Garden.

In line with the sequencing of the 3 elements in the title, the T List description “leads” on the Fin and Sialk elements and then adds (almost as an afterthought!!) that “the historical region of Kashan is an especial example of civilization from early Islamic period onward. This region contains several properties like mosques, bazaar, tekyehes,…..houses and industrial units” - but then fails to highlight or describe ANY of them!!! It would seem not to really “believe” that anything within Kashan itself is of specific note! In the shortish time we had left after seeing Sialk and Fin (it was also the Prophet’s birthday holiday and everywhere was heaving with visitors!) we limited our “entry visits” to the following 3 buildings (photos) -

 a. The Boroujerdi House. The residence of a wealthy carpet merchant built in 1857 for his bride. She came from the Tabātabāei family - also rich from the Carpet trade whose own house is nearby and is also open for visits. We felt that one 19th C merchant’s house was enough! I gather that, in terms of “magnificence” there isn’t a great deal to choose between them and that they were even designed by the same architect.
b. Sultan Amir Ahmad Bathhouse. A traditional Hammam dating back to the 16th C but heavily restored during the Qajar era. It is certainly “sumptuous” in its size and decoration
c. Agha Bozorg Mosque. Dating from c 1834 (Though many Web sites state “Late 18th C”) – it apparently contains a number of “innovations” regarding mosque design but won’t trouble the memory a great deal in comparison with many of the other mosques which will be seen whilst in Iran. Its double wind towers are a nice “local” feature.

IMO, these justified their entry fees and time at about the “worth a detour” level! Beyond them lie more houses (at least another 4), together with further mosques, mausolea and bazaars - enough to fill a day if you wished!! I have no doubt that we didn’t “bottom” the city but these were sufficient for us and indicated that the Kashan element of this T List entry has “OUV” which bears comparison with many of the “lesser” European cities which have made it to the list!

In addition I will mention 2 further Kashan “sights” which we didn’t have time for but which are worth knowing about for the extra glimpses they provide about Iranian history and society. 

a. The Mausoleum of Shah Abbas I (“The Great”). The burial place of Shah Abbas appears on Tourist maps in its own right in the centre of Kashan….. but, if you get there you should be aware that the enormous building you will enter was NOT built for him……instead it is an “Imamzadeh” built (and still being enhanced/extended) for the tomb of Habib ibn Mursa al-Kazim son of the 7th Imam in Twelver Shia Islam. Web pages will often show the magnificence of that building and its central tomb as if that is all for Shah Abbas……it is not! The understated black stone tomb of Abbas will be found in a corner of the Imamzadeh. He died at his winter capital on the Caspian and one might have thought his tomb would be among the splendours of his creation at Isfahan – instead he chose to be in a “holy place” near to his favourite garden at Fin. See this Web site. This is another example of the role of Imamazadeh in Shiism which is also relelvant at e.g Bastam and Kangavar as referred to in my reviews of them.

b. The Shrine of Abu Lu’lu’a (a.k.a  Pirouz Nahavandi Mausoleu). The imposition of Shiism as the state religion of Persia commenced by Shah Ismail I is described thus in Wiki “Through their actions, the Safavids reunified Iran as an independent state in 1501 and established Twelver Shi'ism as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning points in the history of Islam.” Among a range of actions to achieve the objective was enforcement of “the ritual and compulsory cursing of the first three Sunni Caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman) as usurpers, from all mosques”. This extended to establishing “a very raucous and colourful, almost carnival-like holiday…….celebrating the…. assassination of Caliph Umar. The highlight of the day was making an effigy of Umar to be cursed, insulted, and finally burned. However, as relations between Iran and Sunni countries improved, the holiday was no longer observed (at least officially)” (Wiki). Caliph Omar, father-in-law of Mohammed, was assassinated in Medina by a Persian slave named Abu Lu’lu’a Firuz in 644CE.  Despite it being stated that Firuz died in Medina (by execution or suicide), he/his body somehow, "magically", arrived in Kashan and got its own tomb! I cannot find a reliable source for the age of the current structure but it could the 13th/14th CCE). The shrine has been completely closed by the Islamic government since 2007 (it is situated near Sialk on the way out to Fin) presumably as a demonstration of Khomeini’s ostensible policy of “Islamic unity”. Sunnis want it to be demolished. This Wiki article tells the story, whilst This Pro Sunni website shows, despite its undoubted extreme views, the historic deep feelings and hatreds (religious and national) surrounding the story and the shrine within the wider Sunni/Shia divide to this day. Nb the use of the word "Majoosi"  -an Arabic slur on Persian Shia as having come from Zoroastrian fireworshippers or "Magi".

So. what of this site’s “chances”? A problem for Iran of course is that it already has a T List of 61 sites and much competition for the limited annual nomination slots. Selection often seems to derive more from regional pressures rather than a clear National Strategy on priorities. Publicly stated intentions are often wildly optimistic, being made more to convince people that their local bureaucrats and politicians are doing “something”, than to reflect reality! I have found this article from Sept 2021 (but nothing since) suggesting some activity on progressing Sialk alone (Note the “Kashan’s tourism chief said…”!) but no mention is made of the Triple “axis”! Kashan does already possess another UNESCO award in the form of the Intangible inscription for “The traditional skills of carpet weaving in Kashan”. That, and the Fin Garden WHS, must reduce pressure for action and it would seem that this T List entry is not likely to progress in the near future - but the Kashan element must surely be worth a couple of hours of any traveller’s time if passing close by?! It probably deserves more but, with so many other things to see, even such a rushed visit is, IMO, still worthwhile.