Day 95 A Special Shrine
SYNOPSIS: The most important Safavid Shrine is in Ardabil. I visited the main attractions in town and met two nice old guys who invited me to chat over tea. A shrine is a shrine is not a shrine after all.It was on my itinerary and following the call of duty, I came all this way. But I quietly wondered if all the effort was worth it. After all, the only reason I traveled this far was to see yet another shrine. Seen one, seen them all – so far that was close to true. It’s more or less the same scenario: a domed building with a silver-grid shrine that houses a coffin. Even the silver grid is the same everywhere. And a coffin is a coffin. And I have definitely seen enough silver-mirrored covered ceilings by now. Unless you are a devotee and care about who is actually buried in the shrine, there is little variation. The only thing that varies depending on age or location is the architecture of the shrine itself. In Khuzestan the superstructure of the shrines were pinecone shaped, elsewhere they are more typical dome shapes.What a pleasant surprise to find that the Sheik Safi-od-Din Mausoleum in Ardabil, a 14th Century architectural complex, was definitely worth all the time and effort to see it. It was so different and interesting that I visited it twice, at the beginning and at the end of the day. The Sufi Mystic and ancestor of the future founder of the Safavid dynasty, Sheik Safi, is buried here alongside a lot of other important Sufis, Safavids, and martyrs. The exterior grounds consist of an ancient graveyard of martyrs. Remarkably well preserved tomb stones date back as far as the 10th Century. There is an assembly hall with balconies to separate the women, and a China Hall, literally built to house pieces of porcelain given to the Safavid rulers by the Chinese. Most of the China was stolen by the Russians during an invasion in the 19th Century. Hundreds of niches built all around the octagonal interior ceiling wall are therefore empty and create a bizarre backdrop for the display of the shirt of the sheikh, some candle sticks, books, and indeed a few pieces of China. There is a mosque, but it was not open for visitors, and a park.The whole interior glows in warm yellow light. The “no flash” photography rule makes it difficult to capture anything clearly. Hand-woven rugs, some of enormous size, cover the floors. Calligraphy and dazzling frescoes are found on ceilings and walls but because they are very dark, they are nearly impossible to capture true to their appearance. By any standards this is a unique and impressive complex. In the adjacent garden, old men gather and seem to sit around all day shooting the breeze.Two of these men flagged me down when I strolled around there in the early evening. One of them understood some English. He was the extrovert and despite his age quite the charmer. The other, a lot more reserved, was trying to remember, from the days gone by, what he once had learned. He actually pulled together quite a number of English words. They invited me for tea at their friend’s shop. And so we communicated for a while about God and the world. What they had to say about their world would surprise nobody in the West. How they said it was outright funny. The charmer, whenever he mentioned the name of Khamenei, spat on the ground, and when he talked about Ahmadinejad, he shook his fist. The reserved one was a lot more willing to give his government some credit. Things develop slowly. Step by step, he softened the charmer’s non-verbal condemnations. Neither one would tell me his name. I don’t blame them. The charmer almost wouldn’t stop shaking my hand when we parted – one way of expressing his discontent in a world where a man is not allowed to shake a woman’s hand unless they are family.While processing today’s photos, I turned on the TV again. It was a similar scenario as yesterday. But in addition, there were some animated children’s programs; there was a French mystery, fully dubbed in Farsi; a Laurel and Hardy comedy, and more documentaries. World news again focused on Iran related issues rather than covering the wider world. I did not see any world leaders or people I would have recognized from the world stage. I still don’t know what’s up in the world. But my friend Maria told me in an email about the volcano in Iceland. It looks like I might be stuck in Iran until the flight ban is lifted? I might see Teheran after all.Good night.