The Royal Bazaar of Isfahan

Extract

Between the Masjid-i Jāmi^ᶜ and the Maydān-i Shāh was a distance of several kilometers, dotted by minarets, mausoleums, mosques and bazaar areas which served the trade of the central plateau of Persia. They had been built over the intervening centuries since Sasanian times, the old town gradually expanding, some of the small clusters of the bazaar still remaining as satellite villages under Shāh ^ᶜAbbās’ reign. It was his genius which formed the new city, and it was his conception that linked the new with the old.

Today, the least known to the visitor but in many ways quite the most fascinating aspect of Isfahan is the region that lies between the great mosques: the bazaar. Built by Shāh ^ᶜAbbās, the entrance to the bazaar, the Qaysariyah, stands at the center of the north end of the Maydān-i Shāh. Set back from the main plaza in a fivesided recess, it forms a courtyard which once embraced a large pool.