The world’s embassies and caravans converge on alchemical Isfahan.A style and a kingdom united;one purpose in politics and art.
Shah Abbas’s sabre:a broad single-edged damascus blade,with walrus ivory hilt,and watered steel mounts adorned with gold inlay;signed in the cartouche “Abbas the slave of the Lord of Holiness”,with the lion-sun motif.
Conversant with all mechanical crafts, the Shah loved making scimitars,arquebuses and saddles. Encouraged by “The Mirror of Princes” he had read as a boy,he proudly emulated the workshops of Timur and Uzan Hasan.
Inside the Shaykh Lutfullah Mosque:walls and dome on fire with blue,yellow,white and turquoise tiles,all intricate arabesques,cartouches and geometric designs;light on light,light within light,luminescence self-reflecting into infinity, the wordless serene.
A golden album page of calligraphy (breathed onto the paper by an assassinated poet), and carpets of silk and gold;such crafts are prized by the wise.
Golden dome,golden minaret,golden portal of the Imam Riza Shrine at Mashhad,illuminated in the malachite night:time and again the Shah came here to worship, kiss the holy ground and weep and pray, giving thanks for victories won and beseeching Allah for fresh conquests.
An elegant brass ewer, incised with palmette arabesques, intertwining vines and cypresses, blossoms and trefoils, the long slender neck and the bulbous body,-all the feminine volume of the earth is shaped into function.
A watercolour portrait of Shah Abbas as an old man,being served wine by an adolescent boy,almost embracing,-he, great king and conqueror,who had killed or blinded his own sons, still craved affection from young men.
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