9 | December | 2011 |

Once capital of Persia and seat of the Safavid dynasty from 1598, which peaked early under Shah Abbas before falling to alcohol and lazy harem dwelling ways. The last Safavid Shah, Hosein, decreed “taverns, coffee houses and brothels to be closed, banned prostitution, opium, ‘colouful herbs’, sodomy, public music, dancing, gambling and kite flying, and women from mixing with men that were not relatives.”(1) But he went on to become alcoholic, and to collect hundreds of women from across the empire into his harem, before falling from power.

Isfahan soon had a resurgance, to became a city greater than Londonm with 550,000 populationm under Nader Shah, who banned the abduction of women for the harem and concentrated on military conquest. He defeated the Mughals, the Ottomans and others in numerous battles and raised the largest army in the world, of 375,000 soldiers. But he also fell to alcoholism and madness, after ordering his son be blinded for a suspected plot. These days Iran is again a dry state, and upholds nearly all Hossein’s decrees, but for that against kite flying (2).

Isfahan’s population shrank to less than 50,000 amidst the brutal chaos that followed Nader’s death, falling to seige and Afghan occupation. It’s inhabitants had suffered before: In 1387 Isfahan surrendered to the Turko-Mongol warlord Timur (Tamburlaine), who ordered the massacre of city residents, his soldiers killing 70,000 citizens and constructing more than 28 towers, each of 1,500 heads.

A beautiful city, the most beautiful I’ve seen so far.