Day 14 October 31st - Shiraz

Shiraz has been one of the most important Iranian cities since medieval Islamic times. It is famous for its poets and was also renowned for its vineyards! It became the capital in the 18^th century under Karim Khan Zand who bestowed it with splendid gardens, mosques, hammams...

In terms of sights and sounds, our morning at Shiraz’s Aramgah-e Shah-e Cherag mosque has to be the most striking. The mosque alone is already enough to bedazzle one. It was built in the 18^th century to house the tomb of a brother of Reza, one of the Twelve Imams. As several other mosques we have seen it is characterised by remarkable portals and walls covered in perfect coloured mosaics, but this does not prepare you for the blinding beauty of the mirrored halls inside the mosque. The prayer halls are enveloped in a myriad of small mirrors and multiple reflection that make it very difficult to sense where one room starts and the other ends and how many there actually are. If all of this weren’t enough already, try to imagine thousands of women dressed in their black chadors circulating in the mosque as they queue to touch the tombstone and then stand, sit, move whilst wailing, praying or just taking a break in this chaos. There are many children in the mosque, the little girls wearing their first chador, the little boys wearing a green headscarf. The whole spectacle leaves me dumbfounded. We step into the main mosque square to meet Mansour (only women were allowed in the mosque for the Moharram this morning) and find thousands of men and women standing repeating the behaviour we had seen inside the mosque, intently listening to the ‘muazin’ shouting out from the speakers, himself passing from moments of exaltation to sobbing sorrow in a single sentence. It was worth visiting Iran during Moharram to witness this very interesting and passionate Islamic commemoration of Hossein. Unfortunately I had to leave my bag at the entrance to the mosque as photography is forbidden. A real pity!

The rest of the day proceeds at a less frenetic pace as we visit two traditional Shirazi houses dating back to the 19^th century Qajari era (Naranjestan and Khan-e Zinat ol-Molk), where courtyards lead into the beautifully decorated painted walls and ceilings of the interior. The artwork (curiously) focuses on European motifs and scenes as the powerful of this period in history were very taken by the art and ways of the Europeans.  

We meet Hossein, one of Jaci’s English students and spend a very relaxing afternoon walking around the beautiful gardens and pools of Bagh-e Eram and Aramgah-e Hafez. The latter is home to the tomb of the famous Iranian poet Hafez, a true folk hero in Iran. He rests under an octagonal pavilion beneath a tiled dome. The setting is truly stunning as we walk around in the moonlight, as are the views from Shiraz’s Darvazeh-ye Quran (Quran Gateway), Shiraz’s ancient city gate. We walk up to a panoramic point, stroll around a park built into the hillside and stop to listen to the amazing voice of a young Iranian singing in an alcove built into the rocks... One of those special moments that can’t be planned, they just happen...