The travels of a French jeweller who spent most of the years 1666–77 in Safavid Iran, with the most detailed description of Isfahan ever written: the Maidan, the palaces and gardens, the Chahar Bagh, the bazaars, caravanserais, colleges, baths and bridges.
Jean Chardin (1643–1713) went to Persia to sell jewels to the Shah and stayed for the better part of a decade, learning Persian and the workings of the court. His Voyages, published in part in 1686 and in full in 1711, devote a whole volume to Isfahan, which he walked street by street. He describes the Royal Square with its uniform arcades of shops and the four great buildings on its sides; the royal bazaar and its gate with the musicians’ gallery; the caravanserais where merchants of every nation traded; the palace precinct with its gardens and pavilions; and the Chahar Bagh, the avenue of gardens with its canal and pools, running down to the bridge of Allahverdi Khan.
His account, written by an attentive outsider at the height of the Safavid city, is the principal source for how the new centre of Shah Abbas I worked, and for parts of it that have since disappeared.
The book, part by part
I Isfahan
The Maidan and its buildings; the bazaars and caravanserais; the palace and its gardens; the Chahar Bagh and the bridges.
Rules: The royal square and its four sides · The bazaar as the spine of the city · An avenue of gardens