Isfahan (city)

Isfahan or Eşfahān (historically also rendered as Ispahan, Old Persian Aspadana, Middle Persian Spahān, Persian اصفهان), located about 340 km south of Tehran, is the capital of Isfahan Province and Iran (Persia)'s third largest city (after Tehran and Mashhad). Its population in 2000 was 2,040,000.

Isfahani Art

Architecture of Isfahan

The architecture of Isfahan is made up of eight traditional forms which taken together form the foundation in the same way that music was once based on a finite number of notes. These are modulated by the use of colors and textures to leaven the surfaces and are held together in an overall construction akin to that of a sonata in which connection leads to culmination through a transition space. To appreciate the skill of the architects and designers fully, it is necessary to have an appreciation of these fundamental concepts i.e. garden, platform, porch, gateway, dome, arched chamber, and minaret, although in the geometry and architecture of the buildings they are woven together to present a seamless whole.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A full discussion of the underlying principles can be found in the paper entitled "The Alchemy of the Mosque", given to a joint meeting of the School of Architecture and the Islamic Society of the University of Manchester in 1997.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rugs of Isfahan

See main article: Isfahani Rugs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~