Aspects of the Safavid Ensemble at Isfahan

Any effort to relate the plan and the structures of the royal ensemble of Shāh ᶜAbbās and his successors with the existing remains must draw on the observations of the French jeweler Chardin who was in Persia between 1666 and 1670 and between 1671 and 1677. His first stay coincided with the last years of the reign of ᶜAbbās II and his second with the early years of the reign of Sulayman I. In 1666 he and a friend, Herbert Diager, “Chef du Commerce des Hollandais,” resolved to produce an account of Isfahan, “ou rien ne fut omis de ce que feroit digne d'être sû.” Aided by two local mullas, they piled up voluminous notes, and in 1676 Chardin abridged this material to some eighty pages.According to Chardin, “La beauté d'Ispahan consiste particulièrement dans un grand nombre de Palais magnifiques, de Maisons gaies & riantes, de Caravanserais spacieux, de fort beaux Bazars, & de Canaux & de Ruës, dont les côtez sont couverts de haut platanes.“