Meeting in Isfahan: Vision and Exchange in Safavid Iran

he exhibition takes Isfahan, known, per a popular Persian proverb, as ‘ half the world ’ ( Isfahan, nesf-e jahan ), and reveals its place within the whole world: its connections in and beyond the city. In  , Shah ‘ Abbas I (r.  –  ) moved to Isfahan, reimagining both city and court. He had built a grand new public square and palatial buildings, to play host to a court with a newly ascendant political power base of converted Georgians, Armenians and Circassians. That court ’ s culture sits at the heart of Meeting in Isfahan . Shahs commissioned magnificently illuminated manuscripts, while artists moved between court commissions and work in the wider city. All of this is encompassed in a single room at the Chester Beatty Library. Book arts are joined by a small selection of objects such as amulets and ceramic wares, some loaned from the National Museum of Ireland, to illuminate the network of people and cultural products which met in Isfahan. Green moulded jars with leafy designs and a woman playing a drum sample the style of images in manuscripts. Potters in Isfahan manufactured local versions of Jingdezhen porce-lain drinking vessels, adapted into water pipes, with blue-and-white Chinese-style decoration alongside Persian poetry and foliate details. An Isfahan artist incorporated European visual style into his new paintings for an old Shahnama manuscript. Meeting in Isfahan is a rich and rewarding display. The room is divided into four areas separated by a central wall. The first, ‘ The Safavid Shahs: Piety and Power ’ , introduces viewers to the early Safavid shahs and their sacred lineage, in the generations before the court moved to Isfahan. These include the dynasty ’ s founder, Shah Isma ‘ il I (r.  –  ), and his son Shah Tahmasp (r.  –  ).