Half the World: The Social Architecture of Safavid Isfahan, 1590-1722
Stephen P. Blake
Social architecture is a theoretical approach that takes the city itself as a
text. In the anthropologist’s Clifford Gertz’s words the cityscape is “a
story people tell themselves about themselves. The built environment reflects the social
system and the ways in which that system is expressed, reproduced, and experienced. The
defining architectural element of Safavid Isfahan was the Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan, the
great piazza around which Shah ‘Abbas built the nucleus of his new capital. Around
the perimeter of this central square the shah erected the paradigmatic monuments of the
city. Like the courtyard of the mosque or the small central square of the neighborhood
mahalla, the Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan was the focal point for the activities and
institutions of the city. The Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan integrated space and time in Shah
‘Abbas’s new capital, showcasing the emperor’s roles as chief creator of
urban space and as chief manager of the activities that defined urban time. Because of the
centrality of the Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan, the author structures his analysis of the social
architecture of Isfahan around it. After a brief introduction to Safavid Iran in Chapter I
, the author turns in Chapter Two, whose subject is the founding of the imperial capital,
to the relationship between the old and new maidans. In Chapter Three, which focuses on
the cityscape, the maidans serve as twin guideposts, ordering and orienting the buildings
of the northern and southern halves of the city. Chapters Four through Nine on the
imperial palace, great amiri mansion, garden retreat, bazaar, caravanserai, mosque,
madrasa, and imamzada begin with a monument on the maidan, often the defining example of
its type. Having analyzed this building, the author moves to other examples of the type as
they appeared across the city. In this way he attempts to show not only how the buildings
are distributed over the cityscape but also how the institutions they embodied were
reproduced throughout the social fabric. To untangle the dialectic of space and time and
to chart the changes in urban space over time is to uncover the changing relationships
among the political, economic, and religious institutions. This volume offers significant
contributions in three separate fields: (1) it is the first comprehensive study of
Isfahan, one of the great cities of early modern Eurasia (2) it contributes a significant
chapter to our understanding of Iran under the Safavids, 1500-1722 and (3) it adds a great
deal to the literature on cities in the Middle East and to the Islamic city model..
Specifications:
1999:x+206pp.,plates, maps, tables, notes, appendix, bibliography, index.
Islamic Art and Architecture Series, No. 9.
ISBN:1-56859-087-3 $65.00
Social architecture is a theoretical approach that takes the city itself as a
text. In the anthropologist’s Clifford Gertz’s words the cityscape is “a
story people tell themselves about themselves. The built environment reflects the social
system and the ways in which that system is expressed, reproduced, and experienced. The
defining architectural element of Safavid Isfahan was the Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan, the
great piazza around which Shah ‘Abbas built the nucleus of his new capital. Around
the perimeter of this central square the shah erected the paradigmatic monuments of the
city. Like the courtyard of the mosque or the small central square of the neighborhood
mahalla, the Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan was the focal point for the activities and
institutions of the city. The Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan integrated space and time in Shah
‘Abbas’s new capital, showcasing the emperor’s roles as chief creator of
urban space and as chief manager of the activities that defined urban time. Because of the
centrality of the Maidan-i Naqsh-i Jahan, the author structures his analysis of the social
architecture of Isfahan around it. After a brief introduction to Safavid Iran in Chapter I
, the author turns in Chapter Two, whose subject is the founding of the imperial capital,
to the relationship between the old and new maidans. In Chapter Three, which focuses on
the cityscape, the maidans serve as twin guideposts, ordering and orienting the buildings
of the northern and southern halves of the city. Chapters Four through Nine on the
imperial palace, great amiri mansion, garden retreat, bazaar, caravanserai, mosque,
madrasa, and imamzada begin with a monument on the maidan, often the defining example of
its type. Having analyzed this building, the author moves to other examples of the type as
they appeared across the city. In this way he attempts to show not only how the buildings
are distributed over the cityscape but also how the institutions they embodied were
reproduced throughout the social fabric. To untangle the dialectic of space and time and
to chart the changes in urban space over time is to uncover the changing relationships
among the political, economic, and religious institutions. This volume offers significant
contributions in three separate fields: (1) it is the first comprehensive study of
Isfahan, one of the great cities of early modern Eurasia (2) it contributes a significant
chapter to our understanding of Iran under the Safavids, 1500-1722 and (3) it adds a great
deal to the literature on cities in the Middle East and to the Islamic city model..
