… … … It is not clear when Byron actually visited the Minaret of Damghan or anyway when he took the photos of the minaret. Most probably he visited this minaret while visiting the Tarikh Khana, the Gunbad-i Chihil Dukhtaran and the Pir-i Alamdar (all recorded in his travelogue on the date of 13th of…
Tag: seljuk
The Mil-i Sharq Radkan
It was worth the effort On the 6th of May 1934, Robert Byron is once again in Mashhad. This time, during his stay in the city, he also takes the chance to visit the surrounding area. He pays a visit to the tomb tower that is situated nearby the city of Radkan, which is about…
Traces of an early inscription in the Friday Mosque of Ardistan
where stucco is used in a new way Byron is heading back to Isfahan on the 31st of March 1934. On his way back, he stops and pays a visit to two Friday mosques: the Friday mosque of Na’in and the Friday Mosque of Ardistan. In the short paragraph he writes on the Friday…
Mashhad-i Bayazid Bastami: the work of a family
its towers like Kentish oast-houses After having spent in Mashhad the days around Christmas, on the entry dated 9th of January 1934, we find Byron further West: in Bastam. There, the first monument Byron encounters and notes down in his travelogue is the Mashhad-i Bayazid Bastami. January 1934 corresponds to the month of Ramadan. In…
Drinking from the spring of Paradise: the inscription of the Gunbad-i ‘Alaviyyan
The Gunbad-i ‘Alaviyyan is not the most famous building of the Iranian heritage, this is for sure. Considered to have been built around 1150, in the city of Hamadan (the Ancient Greek Ectabana), not much is known about the monument: no inscription provides the date or a name whatsoever. The traditional name is Gunbad-i ‘Alaviyyan,…
Gunbad-i Chihil Dukhtaran
constructed of fine but loosely mortared café-au-lait brick On the 13th of November 1933, Robert Byron visited a bunch of monuments in the area of Damghan. One of these is the Gunbad-i Chihil Dukhtaran, that he records in his travelogue together with the other tomb tower he sees, the Gunbad-i Pir-i ‘Alamdar. Reading the…
Tughril Tower
‘a fluted grave-tower […] whose lower part is Seljuk’ In his entry, dated October 10th 1933, Byron briefly mentions two funerary towers: the first, the Tughril Tower in Rayy, the second, a tomb tower in Varamin. The Tughril Tower, located in Rayy, is indeed a monumental construction built around 1140. It is weird Byron does…
Gunbad-i ‘Alaviyyan
“This at last wipes the taste of the Alhambra and the Taj Mahal out of one’s mouth, where Mohammedan art is concerned. I came to Persia to get rid of that taste.” The very first monument that Byron describes after arriving in Persia, is the Gunbad-i ‘Alaviyyan. The visit is recorded in his journal on…
SquareKufic 