June 2008 – Page 4 – Paul's Travel Blog

Soldiers, Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Esfahan

I thought that you might enjoy seeing some photographs of the many, many friendly Iranians we met on our trip. Iranians truly deserve their reputation, among travelers, as some of the warmest and most hospitable people on earth. As I mentioned in my post of 5.9, one of the justifications for the hejab, or Islamic dress code, for women is the outstanding beauty of Iranian women, which would drive men to inappropriate or violent behavior–you can judge for yourself how they stack up to their freer sisters in other parts of the world! [Note: None of the individuals pictured was a source of any information for this or any post.]

A fairly typical young man, Shiraz. Persian Iranians generally have dark hair and eyes.

A fashionable young lady, Shiraz. The form of cover here, a black hood separate from the rest of the outfit, is very common among students–it must required in Iranian schools and universities. Shiraz is, after Tehran, the most liberal of Iran’s cities, and this lady fits in–note the ample and dyed hair peaking out from under the veil and the relatively heavy makeup. Iranian women, for all their legal restrictions, are famous for being rather vain–nose jobs are practically de rigueur.

This feisty girl from Hamedan started out fairly friendly, bringing us cookies, but then, with our guide as translator, gave us a taste of her sharp attitude with comments on our backpacker mode of dress (“I thought Americans were rich, why do you look so poor?”) and Derek’s shaved head (“You better put on your hat, or you’ll burn your head.”). Before long, a large crowd was gathered to hear our repartee.

Young girl, Shiraz. The hejab is required starting from age 9 (termed by Derek the “magic year,” and presumably the age at which the religious establishment thinks that women become enticing), and so I assume this girl is around 8 years old.

Young girl, Yazd. Too young to require cover, but cute in it nonetheless!

Some attractive young adults, Kerman, Yazd and Esfahan. There was a huge population boom after the Islamic Revolution (promoted by the government), and now some 70% of Iranians are under the age of 30.

This cute soldier was satisfying his compulsory military service with museum duty, at a museum that is closed for renovation no less. Sweet gig!

Elderly man and woman, Abiyaneh (see post of 5.22)

Elderly man tending shop in the Kerman bazaar. He told us that he had been at his current location selling bathing goods for over fifty years–he had not changed his line of merchandise despite the fact that the bath his shop is located in front of had been converted into a teahouse more than a dozen years ago.

A cleric, looking particularly unpleasant during a procession for the death of Fatima, Esfahan

Cleric, Qom. Qom is, after Mashhad, Iran’s holiest city and is also the center of religious education in Iran. This gentleman worked in the tourist office at the central shrine in Qom, and answered frankly and helpfully my many questions about Iranian Shiite Islam until I asked whether Muslim Iranians are able to change religions if they wish (my question was repeatedly evaded and then answered untruthfully).

Below are pictures of some of Iran’s many ethnic minorities–Persians make up only some 50% or so of Iran’s population (cf. Syrian post of 4.25), the rest consisting of Azeri Turks, Kurds and others.

An Azeri Turk. When asked, this taxi driver answered that his family was originally from Russia, by which I assume somewhere in or around Azerbaijan, which was part of the former Soviet Union. Azeri Turks form Iran’s largest ethnic group after the Persians, comprising some 25% of the population.

Also a Turk, with a bit too sensitive a face to be a waiter!

A Kurd, selling baggy Kurdish pants. Kurds were not only among the friendliest of Iranians (tough competition for this title!) but, we were told by a Persian, “Kurds never lie.” Some Iranians of Persian descent felt that their Persian brothers were sometimes, or even “always,” duplicitous, though this was not our experience at all. Kurds make up some 10% of Iran’s population.

The Lors, Bakhtiary and Qashqai are three nomadic or partially/formerly nomadic ethnic groups, living around central/western Iran. Many believe that these groups are some of the original inhabitants of now Iran.

A young Lorish man. We were told that the Lors hold a privileged position in contemporary Iranian society. They are also known for their strength–the soldiers pictured at the top of this post were from Lorestan, and one was able to match Derek in his finger strength trick.

An elderly Lorish man, in traditional hat

An elderly Qashqai man, in traditional hat

Bakhtiari man, Tehran

Southeastern Iran, as well as the part of Pakistan that is across the border, is known as Baluchistan and is peopled by Baluchis, who are South Asian in appearance and culture. Baluchi man, Kerman.

Jewish man, Hamedan. We were told that there are about 25,000 Jews left in Iran (largely in the biggest cities, where they form a rather wealthy minority). Some Iranians were quick to point out that Jews live peacefully and unmolested in Iran, and that their problem was not with Jews but Israelis and Zionists. This man confirmed that no problems stemmed from his religion in Iran.

Zoroastrian man

Afghan boy, Shiraz. Many Afghanis have come to Iran for work, including primarily construction work. Young Afghan boys troll around city parks and other public spaces, selling gum or fortunes to passers-by. Despite the extensive shared history and common language (the Afghanis in Iran seem to be largely Persian/Dari speakers), Afghanis in Iran seem to suffer from a fair amount of discrimination.

Another young man from Afghanistan, this time Hazara, the “Asiatic” minority group of Afghanistan. This young man had lived in Iran all of his life and was working in southeastern Iran as a mechanic. Incredible smile!

This is part of a series of an overview of Iranian history–please refer to my posts of 5.10, 5.11, 5.19 and 5.27.

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Safavid control of Iran (covered in my post of 5.19) began to decline in the end of the 17th century, not long after the reign of Shah Abbas the Great. By the beginning of the 18th century, Afghan forces would overwhelm Iran, invading and occupying cities as far as the Safavid capital of Esfahan. Persian control of Iran was restored by military leader Nader Khan, later self-crowned Nader Shah, who conquered not only now Afghanistan but famously raided India, bringing back some of the Moghul rulers’ greatest treasures, including the diamonds known as the Kuh-e Nur and the Darya-ye Nur (likely from Golconda’s mines–see my post of 3.28). Nader Shah was killed in 1747, after which most of Iran was ruled by Karim Khan Zand, a peaceful and successful ruler who established his capital at Shiraz.

Soon after the death of Karim Khan Zand, Agha Mohammed Qajar, of Azeri Turkish descent, was able to establish control over Iran and found the Qajar dynasty, with its capital at the then-village of Tehran. The Qajars, who ruled Iran from 1794 to 1925, are best known for their failures as rulers, bringing Iran from its glorious past to its troubled twentieth century.

Although the first Qajar rulers were relatively successful, the Qajars in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries lost a series of wars resulting in the loss of substantial territory (now Azerbaijan, now Armenia and part of now Turkmenistan to Russia, parts of now Afghanistan and Pakistan to Britain), as well as the payment by Iran of indemnities and the grant by Iran of extraterritorial rights to foreign governments. Starting in the second half of the nineteenth century, economic decline and Qajar mismanagement also came in the form of the selling of financial, infrastructure and mineral development/exploitation rights to foreign governments and nationals. By the early twentieth century, Iran was essentially run by the Russians and the British, who had carved up the country as part of their other “Great Game” territorial divisions (with the Russians controlling Central Asia and the British controlling their Indian Empire and Afghanistan). The unfair selling of concessions to foreign interests would also leave a deep scar on the Iranian psyche–the control and pricing of Iranian oil concessions are responsible for much of Iranian turbulence in the twentieth century and average Iranian citizens today are still much filled with distrust and suspicion about foreigners coming to “steal” Iran’s resources.

In my view, Qajar rule was not only a period of political and economic decline, but also a period of artistic decline. Qajar-era structures are not only less impressive structurally than those of Iran’s other periods, but decoration becomes downright strange and incongruous. Our guide also suggested (perhaps unfairly but revealing the contemporary Iranian point of view that the Qajars were responsible for a lot of what went wrong with Iran, at least until the Islamic Revolution) that the Qajars were poor stewards of Iran’s cultural heritage, overseeing a period of ruination and destruction.

While we first saw in India mirrors embedded in walls as a form of decoration, it is not clear to me where the idea originated. But the concept seems to have reached its, um, height in Qajar Iran. Still a common form of Iranian interior decoration, not only in private spaces such as homes but also for religious shrines (including religious shrines built by Iran in other countries), such rooms are something of a horror to the taste of a modern non-Iranian viewer, reminiscent of a carnival hall of mirrors, although I must admit that some of the rooms are remarkably sparkly.

A private home in Shiraz, now converted into a museum.

Truly dazzling, the Imamzadeh-ye Ali Ebn-e Hamze in Shiraz. An imamzadeh is a shrine to a relative of one of the twelve Shiite Imams (in this case, a nephew of the seventh Imam) (cf. my post of 5.20 on Shia Islam).

The Marble Throne Veranda at the Golestan Palace in Tehran. The extravagant spending for the construction of the many buildings of the Golestan Palace is said to have aggravated the Qajars’ financial woes.

The Marble Throne is, for something that obviously took much effort and expense to craft, quite ugly. [picture to come]

The Zand-era Regent’s Mosque in Shiraz is a beautiful building [picture to come in a post on Iranian architecture], but its interior has been tainted, in my view, by Qajar tiles. I have two objections to Qajar tilework. The first is the subject matter depicted in them–the Qajars had a fascination with the West, extending to European Christian architecture, a totally unfit image for a tile in a mosque.

Tile inside prayer hall of the Regent’s Mosque, Shiraz, depicting Christian churches

The second is that they are often very poorly executed, as if rushed by conscripted grade school students.

Typically poorly painted tile, Golestan Palace, Tehran