Traditional Skills of Carpet Weaving in Fars
Photo by eFesenko/Shutterstock

Fars Province is located in the southwest of Iran. Suitable condition and weather in the province led to the popularity of the place among various nomadic tribes such as Qashqai (the largest one), Khamseh, Afshar, and Abade. One of the main income sources of these nomads includes handicraft products and most importantly carpet weaving. Historically, the oldest Fars carpet discovered is over three hundred years old.

However, the oldest document mentioning the Fars carpets refers to the treasury list of Harun al-Rashid (766-809 CE), the fifth Abbasid Caliph. Two books dating back to the 10th century CE also indicate the extent of Fars carpets were spread in the past. One of them is written by Estakhri, the geographer of medieval Islam and the other by an anonymous writer is entitled Hudud Al-Alam Al-Mashregh El Al-Maghreb (the boundaries of the world from the east to the west).

Nowadays, Qashqai tribes weave the carpets that are known as the Fars carpets. This form of carpet weaving, both in terms of style and pattern, is an example of the exquisite nomadic art in Iran.

Qashqai weavers braid the carpet according to symmetrical knots known as Turkish knots, while in some exceptional cases, asymmetric knots are used as well. Fars woofs are mostly in red or blue and are woven on small horizontal looms as in this way, it would be easier to be carried when migrating and then re-setup in another spot. This feature is of salient importance for these tribes that have to migrate frequently.

The most notable feature of a Qashqai carpet is its colors, just like the area they live in their carpets are colorful, while carpets of other Fars tribes like Khamseh consist of darker colors. The main reason behind such difference is that for some tribes like Khamseh, carpet weaving is a serious source of income and so they need to meet the costumers’ wants and demands. In contrast, carpet is an applied tool for the Qashqai tribe; they have not changed their traditional patterns or colors.

Generally, carpets in Iran have a pattern of an octagonal medallion at the center and bergamot in each corner of the carpet. However, the exclusive traditional style of Fars carpets is based on a pattern known as Dastur. This pattern is divided into two major forms, one that follows the traditional patterns or regular motifs including Moharamat, Afshan, Mahi Darham, Botee, and herbal motifs. The other form refers to patterns with imaginary motifs including asymmetrical geometrical structures. In the case of Bakhtiari carpets, the central area is divided into several squares each with a different motif turning the carpets into a collection of motifs and patterns. Qashqai carpets, like Bakhtiari carpet, is a combination of motifs and patterns most of which are imaginary and asymmetrical.

The rug is an outcome of weaving warps and woofs. In mountainous areas of Fars like Darab, Eqlid, Abadeh cotton warps, and woofs are used. Nowadays, Shiraz, Abadeh, and Neyriz cities are the most famous locations to find authentic Fars carpets with traditional motifs and materials and female weavers who know how to apply a mesmerizing amalgam of designs and colors. The traditional skills of carpet weaving in Fars was inscribed in 2010 on the Representative List of the Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.

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Pasargadae was the earliest capital of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great (600 – 530 BCE) who had ordered its construction. Pasargadae was the capital of the Achaemenid dynasty until Cambyses II (559 – 522 BCE) moved it to Susa. The site covers 1.6 square kilometers and includes the Mausoleum of Cyrus II, two royal palaces with gardens, and forts of Tall-e Takht.

The most prominent monument in Pasargadae complex is the tomb of Cyrus. The tomb’s height reaches almost eleven meters consisting of two main parts; a high plinth composed of six receding steps similar to Mesopotamian or Elamite ziggurats, and a tomb chamber with a steep-pitched gable roof resembling Urartu tombs of an earlier period. The main decoration on the tomb is a rosette design over the main entrance door.

Two royal palaces of Cyrus; residential Palace P and audience Palace S put revolutionary impacts on the architectural history of the ancient Near East. While a single-focal axis was dominated in the region for millennia, a symmetric four-sided structure with no principal axis and no fixed focal point was introduced in Pasargadae’s palaces. This structure is considered as the prototype of Persian Gardens. The superb technical application of elements of Lydo-Ionian stone-working including anathyrosis joints was also another architectural revolution in the area. Before then, columned halls were built with mud-brick walls and wood columns.

Audience Palace S consists of a central rectangular columned hall with two rows of four columns, each wall opening to a portico. The plan of Palace P resembles Palace S, the latter has more but smaller columns supported by exceptionally finely-made, horizontally- fluted tori on black and white plinths.

Discovered Inscriptions in Pasargadae are written in Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian cuneiform. Cyrus had introduced himself in one of the inscriptions, but since the Old Persian cuneiform was invented in the reign of Darius, researchers suggest that Darius completed several elements of Cyrus’ unfinished constructions purportedly to tie himself to the heritage of Cyrus. Located at the eastern edge of the Palace, Gate R is visible with a three-meter carved human figure with wings inspired by Assyrian sculpture.

The fortified and solid stone-made platform of Tall-e Takht (or Takht-e Madar-e Soleyman, the Throne of the Mother of Solomon) was built on a massive hill. A fourteen-meter high tower built almost exclusively of finely cut blocks of white limestone known as Zendan-e Soleyman (Solomon’s Prison) was also located in the north of the palaces. Sacred area, Tangeh Bolaghi, and Mozaffari caravanserai (Islamic era) are among other key constituents of the Pasargadae.

This work was globally registered in 2004.

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Mil-e-Karat – Taybad – Khurasan

The history of building shafts goes back to pre-Islam era and the oldest available samples belong to Partian (Mil-e-Noor Abad Mamsani in Fars province) and Sasanian (Firuzabad Tower in Khorasan Razavi Province) Empires.

Shaft found a great importance in Iranian architecture after Islam and it was quickly used as a decorative structure in a way that it became a place to show different decorative arts such as brickwork and tiling. Since 1^st -5^th A. H. centuries, the shafts (which later became a pattern for building minarets as a part of mosques) were mainly built individually (Khosrogerd Minaret and Semnan Minaret), joint to the building (Arsalan Jazeb Tomb) and sometimes there was a distance between shaft and building (minaret of the mosque in Saveh Square).

Left: Khosrogerd Minaret, 12th century AD – Sabzevar, Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran
Photo by Farnaz Ghandi via Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-4.0
Right: Sarban Minaret, 12th century A.D – Isfahan, Isfahan Province, Iran
Photo by Haaft via Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-4.0

During Ilkhante and Timurid empires the minarets were tall. Minaret of Mozafari Jame Mosque in Kerman and minaret of Goharshad Mosque are among the minarets of Ilkhante and Timurid minarets respectively.

Considering shafts and minarets of Iran as a structure, they can be divided into two categories of single and paired. The single minarets have long body with few decorations, and in term of appearance they have three categories: cylindrical (Golpayegan Minaret), conical (Tarikhaneh Minaret in Damghan and Minaret of Semnan) and polygonal or prismatic (Minaret of Jame Mosque in Nain). The most prominent paired minarets of Iran are minarets of Jame Mosque of Yazd having the longest height (8^th & 9^th A.H. centauries).

Jam-e Mosque of Yazd Minaret – Yazd Province, Iran
Photo by Leonid Andronov/ shutterstock

After Safavid Dynasty, building tall minarets was not much common e.g. minaret of Jame Mosque of Shahrud. The minarets of Pamenar, Shah Abdul Azim, Fatima Masumeh Shrine and old Sepahsalar School from Qajar dynasty are exemplary as well.

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