Cultural Landscape of Meymand

Maymand is a self-contained, semi-arid area at the end of a valley at the southern extremity of Iran’s central mountains. The villagers are semi-nomadic agro-pastoralists. They raise their animals on mountain pastures, living in temporary settlements in spring and autumn. During the winter months they live lower down the valley in cave dwellings carved out of the soft rock (kamar), an unusual form of housing in a dry, desert environment.  This cultural landscape is an example of a system that appears to have been more widespread in the past and involves the movement of people rather than animals.

Outstanding Universal Value of Meymand

Brief Synthesis

Maymand is a small and relatively self-contained south facing valley within the arid chain of Iran’s central mountains. The villagers are agro-pastoralists who practice a highly specific three phase regional variation of transhumance that reflects the dry desert environment. During the year, farmers move with their animals to defined settlements, traditionally four, and more recently three, that include fortified cave dwellings for the winter months. In three of these settlements the houses are temporary, while in the fourth, the troglodytic houses are permanent.

Sar-e-Āghol are the settlements on the southern fields used from the end of winter until late spring. The houses come in two different types. Markhāneh are circular houses, semi-underground to shelter them from the wind, with low dry stone wall and a roof covering of wood and thatch of wild thistles. Mashkdān houses are above ground and built with dry stone walls and a conical roof of branches. Some of the buildings for cattle are much more substantial and have barrel vaulted brick or stone roofs.

Sar-e-Bāgh houses are sited near seasonal rivers and used during summer and early autumn. When the weather is hot the structures are light: dry stone walls support a roof structure of vertical and horizontal timbers covered with grass thatch. In inclement weather more substantial houses are constructed with taller stone walls and a conical roof. Cattle are collected in roofless stone enclosures. Around these summer villages are the remains of terraces for growing wheat and barley, and the remains of mostly now ruined water-mills. Pits for boiling and straining grape juice are still in use as are Kel-e-Dūshāb which are used to contain the resulting Dūshāb or syrup of grapes.

The winter troglodytic houses are carved out of the soft rock, in layers of up to five houses in height. Around 400 Kiches or houses have been identified and 123 units are intact. Each house has between one and seven rooms, traditionally used for living, and storage.

In the exceptionally arid climate, traditionally every drop of water needed to be collected from a variety of sources such as rivers, springs and subterranean pools and collected in reservoirs or channelled through underground qanats to be used for animals, orchards and small vegetable plots. The community has a strong bond with the natural environment that is expressed in social practices, cultural ceremonies and religious beliefs.

Criterion (v): The Cultural Landscape of Maymand, a small mainly self-sufficient community within one large valley, reflects a traditional three phase transhumance system with unusual troglodytic winter housing in a dry desert environment. It is a good example of a system that appears to have been once more widespread, and involves the movement of people rather than animals to three defined settlement areas, one of which is cave dwellings.

Integrity

All the components of the landscape reflecting the agro-pastoral system and permanent and seasonal dwellings are within the boundaries. The components are however vulnerable, in relation to the resilience of the transhumance systems. This continues for the present, with a decreasing population. Although the small irrigated fields survive in outline they no longer are used to grow staple crops for self-sufficient families.

Improved communications, such as with nearby towns means that people can look after their animals and vegetable plots in different ways than previously. As a result far fewer people are over-wintering in the troglodytic villages than a generation ago and there are far fewer families using the seasonal settlements.  Only around 90 out of 400 of the troglodytic dwellings are inhabited during the winter. A few more of them are inhabited only during weekends, when people return from the nearest town to where they have moved.

The number of Āghols has reduced in the last few years due to the decreasing numbers of pastoralists. In the property there remain at least 8 Āghols that are still living and used by families who have sufficient cattle to ensure their survival. There are two others that are abandoned. Most of the seasonal buildings are largely re-constructed each season and are therefore a reflection of a traditional practice that has persisted for generations. But this is a practice that is highly vulnerable and could disappear within a generation, if the pastoral way of life is not attractive or sufficiently viable for the younger generation.

Authenticity

There is little doubt of the authenticity of most of the components of the property, in terms of the landscape itself and the traditional practices that interact with it, as reflected in troglodytic houses, seasonal shelters and water structures. Some of the latter have been adapted in recent decades and only two of the qanats survive. The troglodytic structures have undergone extensive restoration over the past ten years.

Authenticity is also vulnerable to a weakening of traditional practices which could lead to a reduction in the size of the community that manages the landscape, to more families only living in the valley during the summer months, and to the impacts of tourism in particular on the troglodytic dwellings.

Protection and Management Requirements

The troglodyte village is registered in the National Heritage List, and is protected under the Historical Monument’s Protection and Conservation Law. It is understood that the whole property will be legally protected upon inscription in line with other inscribed properties in Iran.

The property is also protected by other cultural and natural Iranian laws, such as the Iranian Civil Law that forbids transferring the ownership of public monuments and prohibits private ownership of significant cultural property. The Islamic Penal Law also protects the property, as no restoration, repair, renovation, transfer, or change of functions, etc. of registered monuments can be done without the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization approval. The area is also under regulation concerning natural heritage protecting the natural environment.

Since 2001 the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization has assumed responsibility for the property and a Maymand Cultural Heritage Base has been established, with close links to the Maymand village council and the Maymand village administration office. The local council manages the day-to-day affairs in collaboration with the Maymand Cultural Heritage Base. There are currently adequate local resources for administration

A Management Plan in the initial nomination set out regulations for the property area. For the buffer zone, large scale plans that may include industrial complexes and development projects such as highways, etc. must be agreed by the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation.

Details of an augmented plan, arising from a workshop that aimed to encourage sustainable development for the local communities by opening up engagement between them and national and regional agencies, have been provided. This will focus on raising awareness of the legacy that the communities sustain, and put in place a sustainable development framework based on support and encouragement for innovative ways to add value to local produce, as well as some official support such as for dredging qanats and vaccinating livestock. This sustainable development plan has only recently been framed and clearly more work will be needed to translate it into an action plan with an agreed timescale and necessary resources.

Three other plans have also been developed by University Departments. These are: Evaluation of Ecological Capabilities, Agro-Pastoral lifestyle description and comparative study, and Research project on the impact of Water Sources and Farming. In addition a local team is engaged in mapping the activities of the farming year.

In spite of these initiatives and the engagement of the local community in a dialogue on how to sustain the dynamic landscape practices, there is nevertheless still concern that such a small community of some 70 families can form a sustainable and resilient unit that will keep the Maymand agro-pastoral system alive, even if in the future it does not survive in neighbouring valleys. Authenticity and integrity are thus vulnerable to a weakening of traditional practices.

Sustainable development will undoubtedly need to harness appropriate tourism opportunities. A plan is needed to set out how tourism might be managed in such a way that it supports rather than detracts from local traditions and avoids turning the village into a museum and contributing to the demise of agro-pastoral traditions.

References:

  1. Maymand – http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1423

Avicenna (Ibn Sina)

Avicenna was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing – a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine – a medical encyclopedia which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650.

In 1973, Avicenna’s Canon Of Medicine was reprinted in New York. Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicenna’s corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics and poetry.

Avicenna

Early Life

Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was born in 980 A.D. at Afshana near Bukhara. The young Bu Ali received his early education in Bukhara, and by the age of ten had become well versed in the study of the Quran and various sciences. He started studying philosophy by reading various Greek, Muslim and other books on this subject and learnt logic and some other subjects from Abu Abdallah Natili, a famous philosopher of the time.

While still young, he attained such a degree of expertise in medicine that his renown spread far and wide. At the age of 17, he was fortunate in curing Nooh Ibn Mansoor, the King of Bukhhara, of an illness in which all the well-known physicians had given up hope. On his recovery, the King wished to reward him, but the young physician only desired permission to use his uniquely stocked library.

Law-of-Medicine

On his father’s death, Bu Ali left Bukhara and traveled to Jurjan where Khawarizm Shah welcomed him. There, he met his famous contemporary Abu Raihan al-Biruni. Later he moved to Ray and then to Hamadan, where he wrote his famous book Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb. Here he treated Shams al-Daulah, the King of Hamadan, for severe colic. From Hamadan, he moved to Isfahan, where he completed many of his monumental writings. Nevertheless, he continued travelling and the excessive mental exertion as well as political turmoil spoilt his health. Finally, he returned to Hamadan where he died in 1037 A.D.

Avicenna Stories

Stories are attributed to Avicenna. It is known that he examined his patients remotely, by a thread or string that was between the community of people and his home. People tried to test him, put a cat under a woman’s veil and put thread’s head in cat’s leg. Abu Ali wrote a prescription according to the habit and when they opened it, they saw that they should give it five soft meats and two mice to eliminate the cause. There are many treatments in many chronicles and traumatic conditions that Avicenna guessed by looking at the patient and thought of the pale face, which, for example, dies in a few hours or minutes.

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Books and Contributions

He was the most famous physician, philosopher, encyclopedist, mathematician and astronomer of his time. His major contribution to medical science was his famous book al-Qanun, known as the “Canon” in the West. The Qanun fi al-Tibb is an immense encyclopedia of medicine extending over a million words. It surveyed the entire medical knowledge available from ancient and Muslim sources. Due to its systematic approach, “formal perfection as well as its intrinsic value, The Qanun superseded Razi’s Hawi, Ali Ibn Abbas’s Maliki, and even the works of Galen, and remained supreme for six centuries”. In addition to bringing together the then available knowledge, the book is rich with the author’s original contribution.

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His important original contribution includes such advances as recognition of the contagious nature of phthisis and tuberculosis; distribution of diseases by water and soil, and interaction between psychology and health. In addition to describing pharmacological methods, the book described 760 drugs and became the most authentic materia medica of the era. He was also the first to describe meningitis and made rich contributions to anatomy, gynecology and child health.

His philosophical encyclopaedia Kitab al-Shifa was a monu- mental work, embodying a vast field of knowledge from philosophy to science. He classified the entire field as follows: theoretical knowledge: physics, mathematics and metaphysics; and practical knowledge: ethics, economics and politics. His philosophy synthesizes Aristotelian tradition, Neoplatonic influences and Muslim theology.

Ibn-Sina

Ibn Sina also contributed to mathematics, physics, music and other fields. He explained the “casting out of nines” and its application to the verification of squares and cubes. He made several astronomical observations, and devised a contrivance similar to the vernier, to increase the precision of instrumental readings. In physics, his contribution comprised the study of different forms of energy, heat, light and mechanical, and such concepts as force, vacuum and infinity. He made the important observation that if the perception of light is due to the emission of some sort of particles by the luminous source, the speed of light must be finite. He propounded an interconnection between time and motion, and also made investigations on specific gravity and used an air thermometer.

In the field of music, his contribution was an improvement over Farabi’s work and was far ahead of knowledge prevailing else- where on the subject. Doubling with the fourth and fifth was a ‘great’ step towards the harmonic system and doubling with the third seems to have also been allowed.

Avicenna-Book

Ibn Sina observed that in the series of consonances represented by (n + 1)/n, the ear is unable to distinguish them when n = 45. In the field of chemistry, he did not believe in the possibility of chemical transmutation because, in his opinion, the metals differed in a fundamental sense. These views were radically opposed to those prevailing at the time. His treatise on minerals was one of the “main” sources of geology of the Christian encyclopaedists of the thirteenth century. Besides Shifa his well-known treatises in philosophy are al-Najat and Isharat.

References:

  1. http://wzzz.tripod.com/SINA.html
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna

Omar Khayyam

The Persian astronomer, mathematician, and poet Omar Khayyam (1048-ca. 1132) made important contributions to mathematics, but his chief claim to fame, at least in the last 100 years, has been as the author of a collection of quatrains, the “Rubaiyat.” 

His treatise on algebra (On Proofs for Problems Concerning Algebra) includes a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle. As a scholar, he is most notable for his work on cubic equations and his calendar reform.

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Early Life

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, philosopher, poet and astronomer born in 1048 in Nishapur (modern day Iran). He obtained his early education from a scholar named Sheikh Mohammad Mansuri and later from one of the most renowned scholars of khorasan province. He started his career with teaching algebra and geometry. In his spare evening time, Khayyam also fulfilled his duties as advisor to Malik Shah I and the nights were dedicated to astronomical studies and the Jalali calendar.

After the murder of Malik Shah, he was no longer required as advisor so he decided to fulfill his religious duties and thus went for performing his Hajj pilgrimage. After his return he got the job of the court astrologer and he was granted permission to return to Nishapur where he taught medicine, astronomy and his passion which was mathematics.

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Astronomical and Mathematical Works

Khayyam’s most famous works include his highly influential mathematical treatise called ‘Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra’ which he completed in 1070. This treatise highlighted the basic algebraic principles that were ultimately shifted to Europe. He laid the foundation of the Pascal’s triangle with his work on triangular array of binomial coefficients. In 1077 another major work was written by Khayyam namely ‘Sharh ma ashkala min musadarat kitab Uqlidis’ meaning ‘Explanations of the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid’. It was published in English as “On the Difficulties of Euclid’s Definitions. In this book he contributed to non-euclidean geometry even though this was not his original plan. It is said that Omar Khayyam was originally trying to prove the parallels postulate when he proven the properties of figures in the non-euclidean geometry.

His geometrical work consisted of his efforts on the theory of proportion and geometrical algebra topics such as cubic equations. Khayyam was the first mathematician to consider the ‘Saccheri quadrilateral’ in the 11th century. It was mentioned in his book the ‘Explanations of the difficulties in the postulates of Euclid’. It wasn’t until 6 centuries later when another mathematician, Giordano Vitale made further advances on Khayyam’s theory. Other books by Khayyam include his book named ‘Problems of Arithmetic’, a book on music and algebra.

Khayyam, like the other Persian mathematicians of the time was also an astronomer. The Sultan Jalal ud Din Malik Shah Saljuqi requested him to build an observatory with a team of scientists. He was part of the team that made several reforms to the Iranian calendar which was made the official Persian calendar to be followed by the Sultan on March 15th 1079. The Jalali Calendar became the base for other calendars and is also known to be more accurate than the Gregorian calendar.

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Omar Khayyam as a Poet

Omer Khayyam is the writer of more than a thousand ‘Rubaiyat’ or verses. He rose to fame as a poet through the translations of Edward Fitzgerald in 1859 known as ‘Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám’. His poetry is also translated to other languages other than English.

There is a manuscript tradition attributing poetry, mostly in the form of quatrains (rubaiyat) to Omar Khayyam. There are more than 100 manuscripts containing such poetry, but all of them are comparatively late, the earliest such source that can be dated with confidence was written in 1460, and the bulk dates to the 17th to 19th centuries. Bodleian MS. Ouseley 140, a manuscript written in Shiraz in 1460, contains 158 quatrains on 47 folia. The manuscript belonged to William Ouseley (1767-1842) and was purchased by the Bodleian Library in 1844.

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One of his most liked verses are the following:

The Moving Finger writes, and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

References:

  1. http://www.famous-mathematicians.com/omar-khayyam/
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khayyam

Zahhak; the Legend of the Serpent King

In the Shahnameh a poetic opus written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 AD, Zahhak is an evil king who conquers Iran and who has serpents growing out of his shoulders.

A long time ago in between the two great rivers Euphrates and Tigris there was a land called Mesopotamia. Deep inside the castle lived a cruel Assyrian king called Zahhak. His armies terrorised all the people of the land.

All had been well before Zahhak’s rule in Mesopotamia.

It was during the reign of a king called Jemshid that things started to go wrong. He thought himself above the sun gods and began to lose favour with his people.

A spirit called Ahriman the Evil, seized the chance to take control. He chose Zahhak to take over the throne, who then killed Jemshid and cut him in two.

Zahhak-Castle

The Emergence of Snakes

The evil spirit, disguised as a cook, fed Zahhak with blood and the flesh of animals and one day Ahriman merely asked to kiss Zahhak on his two shoulders, which he agreed. Then Ahriman touched Zahhak’s shoulders with his lips and vanished.

At once, two black snakes grew out of Zahhak’s shoulders. They could not be surgically removed, for as soon as one snake-head had been cut off, another took its place.From a psychological viewpoint, the snakes on Zahhak’s shoulders could represent his lust for killing or a form of sadism which, if left unsatisfied, would torment Zahhak.

Zahhak

Ahriman now appeared to Zahhak in the form of a skilled physician. He counseled Zahhak that the only remedy was to let the snakes remain on his shoulders, and sate their hunger by supplying them with human brains for food every day otherwise the snakes will feed on his own.

Zahtak”s rule lasts for a thousand years during which two young men are sacrificed daily to provide their brains to the serpents to alleviate the pain that Zahhak felt.

Since the snake king began his rule over the kingdom, the sun refused to shine. Now all was dark, cold and bleak. The people all over the land were very sad.

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Rise of Kaveh the Blacksmith

Kaveh (also called Kaveh Ahangar or Kaveh the Blacksmith) was a simple blacksmith. He and his wife were weakened by grief and hated Zahhak as he had already taken 16 of their 17 children.

One day the order came from the castle that Kaveh’s last daughter was to be killed and her brain was to be brought to the castle gate the very next day.

Zahhak’s minions had murdered 16 of his 17 sons so that Zahhak might feed his snakes’ lust for human brains.

Kaveh lay all night on the roof of his house, under the bright stars and rays of the shining full moon thinking how to save his last daughter from Zahhak’s snakes.

Kaveh-Estatua

Instead of sacrificing his own daughter, Kaveh had sacrificed a sheep and had put the sheep’s brain into the wooden bucket. And no one had noticed.
Soon all the townspeople heard of this. So when Zahhak demanded from them a child sacrifice, they all did the same. Like this, many hundreds of children were saved.

Then all the saved children went, under darkness, to the very furthest and highest mountains where no one would find them.

Here, high up in the safety of the Zagros Mountains, the children grew in freedom. They learnt how to survive on their own. They learnt how to ride wild horses, how to hunt, fish, sing and dance.

From Kaveh they learnt how to fight. One day soon they would return to their homeland and save their people from the tyrant king. Time went by and Kaveh’s army was ready to begin their march on the castle. On the way they passed through villages and hamlets. The village dogs barked and the people came out of their houses to cheer them and give them bread, water, yoghurt and olives.

The Destiny of the Demon Snake

As Kaveh and the children drew near Zahhak’s castle both men and women left their fields to join them. By the time they were approaching the castle Kaveh’s army had grown too many thousands.

They paused outside the castle and turned to Kaveh.

Kaveh stood on a rock. He wore his blacksmith’s leather apron and clenched his hammer in his hand. He turned and faced the castle and raised his hammer towards the castle gates.

The large crowd surged forwards and smashed down the castle gates that were shaped like winged warriors and quickly overpowered Zahhak’s men.

Kaveh-Against-Zahhak

Kaveh raced straight to Zahhak’s chambers, down the winding stone stairs, and with his blacksmiths hammer killed the evil snake king and cut off his head. The two serpents withered.

He then climbed to the top of the mountain above the castle and lit a large bonfire to tell all the people of Mesopotamia that they were free.

Soon, hundreds of fires all over the land were lit to spread the message and the flames leapt high into the night sky, lighting it up and cleansing the air of the smell of Zahhak and his evil deeds. The darkness was gone.

The fires burned higher and higher and the people sang and danced around in circles holding hands with their shoulders bobbing up and down in rhythm with the flute and drum. The women in bright coloured sequined dresses sang love songs and the men replied as they all moved around the flames as one.

Some of the youngsters hovered over the flute, drunk with the sound of the music, their arms outstretched like eagles soaring the skies.
Now they were free.

Memoriam of Kaveh Uprising

To this day, on the same Spring day every year, March 21st, (which is also Spring Equinox) Kurdish, Persian, Afghan and other people of the Middle East dance and leap through fires to remember Kaveh and how he freed his people from tyranny and oppression and to celebrate the coming of the New Year.

This day is called Newroz or New Day. It is one of the few ‘peoples celebrations’ that has survived and predates all the major religious festivals.
Although celebrated by others, it is especially important for the Kurds as it is also the start of the Kurdish calendar and celebrates the Kurds own long struggle for freedom.

In the Kurdish myth, Zahhak”s evil reign causes spring to no longer come to Kurdistan.

Kaveh is the most famous of Persian mythological characters known for resisting the despotic foreign rule in Iran. He rebels against the foreign ruler of Persia and leads the people to overthrow the tyrant king.

By the late Sassanid era (224–651), Kaveh’s Banner had emerged as the standard of the Sassanid dynasty. The tomb of Kaveh is believed to be situated on a hill near a village named Mashhad-e Kaveh in Isfahan province.

kaveh-tomb

What are Local Clothes of Lorestan?

Coverage of Lorestan women is the symbol of identity and culture of this region base on the social and economic status and from the other part, traditional conditions have specified characteristics.

Clothes and Sarbands of Lor women are contained colorful clothes with happy designs. Old women prefer clothes with dark colours, simple design, and Sarbands with white or black colour.

Scarfs of Lor women gave beautiful shapes to their heads. These scarfs that they usually have silky stuff are applied in different colours and designs. Lor women knot their scarfs around their heads and corners of them are placed in beautiful shapes in dangling form.

Clothes of Lor women have beautiful cuts and they are long and loose. Designs of their clothes are contained flowers and they are all colorful.

Their pants are having two parts and two colours from combination and kinds of clothes.

Usually, from their feet to their knee of them are containing simple clothes with beautiful designs and ribbons and the upper parts of them are having clothes with flowers in the other colour.

On the other parts of women, clothes are one special kind of coat with the name of “Calanjeh” that they don’t contain any button to fasten and it is located on all of the clothes of them. The other parts of this coat as same as the corner of that has ribbon and beautiful kind of sewing for itself.

The other parts of their clothes are long until the back of their feet and they contain no button with sleeves until their elbow. The clothes of them are velvet in black, green and red colour.

Around their sleeves and skirts are contain ribbon in the size of 3 fingers.

Its coat only cover the upper parts of their body don’t have any ribbon and it has only one button.

The vest is always open don’t have any button and it has ribbon in front it is sewing in the special design.

Dress of Lor women and their covers are colorful with the simple design, long and loose with flower designs and different colours.

Their clothes contain many parts such as follow:

Jeliqe (vest)

Kamar Chin

Sardary (kind of hat)

Kalanje (Velvet coat)

Kalanje (Velvet coat) is a kind of velvet coat that Lor women wear it on their dresses and corners of that are having the ribbon.

Sardary (kind of hat) is a kind of hat that the length of that is until the back of the leg and it has no button in front.

Jeliqe (Vest) is always open with no button and in front of that is contain beautiful design.

Shalvaar or in the Lor language shavaal (pants) is from colorful clothes and it is loose that they wear it under their dresses. Their pants have two colours with two different kinds of clothes from their feet are simple with ribbon and designs until the top of their knee and the upper part is in the other colour and has flowers.

Clothes of Lor men are simple and beautiful with few designs. These clothes are famous to “Shaal and Setare”.

Their pants are as same as Kurdish people pants and their dress are simple in white and sometimes colorful shapes.

Clothes of Lor men in the Local dialect have both names of “Hume” or “Cros”. These clothes have long sleeves and circle collar. They make from Karbas in white colour.

“Shawl” is a long cotton in the white colour in wide of 60-90 centimeters and lengths of 6-9 meters. This cotton is of the special material that it calls “Chelvaar” that is spinning several times around waist.

“Setareh” is a kind of  “Qaba” that the length of that is until under knee. This clothing is using especially in the official times. It is one of the oldest type of clothes in Iran and has many happy colours and flower designs either. People wear this clothing in happy ceremonies and another one with simple designs and simple colours are using in official and Mourn ceremonies.

Hat and shoes of Lor men are one of the special characters of them.

The felt hat is the kind of hat that is making from felt and the shoes of them with the name of “Give” has bottom from leather or plastic and up of it from threads.

Some of the other clothes of them are such as follow:

  • Kapanik
  • Farji
  • Jouqa

Kapanik is very tight that is made by wool and it is using by Shepherds and the people whom they want to go to war.

Sewing Cahrouq Souvenir of Zanjan

Cahrouq is a traditional footwear that is prepared in several shapes such as follow:

  • Lace
  • Fasten by curtain
  • All leather (Open back and Close back)

Materials that they use in preparing such these footwear are such as follow:

  • Golabatoun Yarn (special kind of Yarn)
  • Cow leather
  • Colorful silk

Charouq is a kind of leather shoe that it was making from the past until now for foots of the peasantry and they have long items and straps that they are spinning around legs.  The straps so-called: Sham, Palik or Palik.

Base on archeology researches the roots of leather industry is back to 2000 years ago. The age of this kind of sewing is probably back to the Sasanid duration and the high parts of its decoration are back to the Safavid duration.

Beautiful parts and variety in designs of these kinds of foot wear fascinated eyes of any people that they love art to these abstract patterns and noble one.

The place of this kind of art in Zanjan state is Soltanieh city that is after that transported to Zanjan.

In recent years special kinds of Charouq is making in this city that it contains red leather and Tanner make them. This kind of Charouq doesn’t contain any strap and the front part of that is contain special shape. This kind of Charouq that it was making from 30 years ago and producing that was very common nowadays is not making a lot.

Today Zanjan Charouq has very thin and special design and it has mostly decoration model. People use them for walking on rugs.

This kind of shoe has the heel and only down of them are making with leather and top parts of them are contains thread with different colours.

Some kind of Charouq in different years are as follow:

  • Different kinds of Canaf (special cotton)
  • Whole skin
  • Agriculture
  • All leather
  • Lace
  • Curtain strap

Abgoosht: Taste of Iranian Tradition

Abgoosht is one of the most traditional Iranian foods. It is also called Dizi, which refers to the traditional stone crock pots it is served in. Whether you call it Abgoosht or Dizi, you should absolutely try this very traditional Persian recipe, which is often a favorite among the Iranian people.

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Abgoosht means “Meat Juice” (ab stands for water and gusht for meat). Abgoosht is a hearty soup or a juicy stew which is traditionally prepared with lamb, chickpeas, white beans, onions, potatoes, and tomatoes. Hundreds of years ago Abgoosht was made with lamb and chickpeas. However, later on when new foods such as potatoes and tomatoes were introduced to Iranian Cuisine, the recipe had some changes.

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Serving Abgoosht

Serving Abgoosht has a special custom. First the broth is poured in a bowl and served with small pieces of bread soaked in it called, Tileet. Tileet is a soup made with this flavorful broth tossed with bite-size pieces of flat bread. The bread soaks up the broth and all of its flavor. Tileet is served alongside Abgoosht and it literally melts in the mouth. Then the remaining ingredients such as potatoes, beans, chickpeas and lamb are mashed up to a mashed-potato type consistency and served separately alongside with the broth. Traditionally, Iranians use a goosht-koob (literally meat mortar) to serve the crushed solid ingredients along with onions, torshi, yogurt, and sabzi khordan (fresh herbs).

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Abgoosht was a meal favored by poorer classes. However, with the introduction of new ingredients in Persian cuisine, this modest meal was improved and became a very popular, comforting dish savored by all Iranians.
Sangak noon is an excellent choice of bread to serve with abgoosht. Traditionally, people eat this dish as they sit on the floor, on a Persian rug, with their legs crossed around a sofreh (tablecloth) placed on the rug.

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Abgoosht Recipe

Course: Main Course, Soup
Cuisine: Persian
Servings: 8 people
Author: Vera Abitbol

Ingredients

  • 3 lb beef or lamb shank , cut into pieces
  • 2 onions , diced
  • 3 cloves garlic , crushed
  • 2 cups chickpeas (previously soaked for 8 hours)
  • 2 cups white beans (previously soaked for 8 hours)
  • 1 lb small potatoes , peeled and halved
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 2 dried limes (limoo amani) or 2 freshly squeezed lemons
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 lb tomatoes , peeled, seeded, and diced
  • 1 green bell pepper , diced
  • 3 tablespoons oil
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • Salt
  • Pepper

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Instructions

  1. Rinse and drain the chickpeas and white beans.
  2. Season the meat with salt and pepper.
  3. Brown the onions in a thick-bottomed pot over low-medium heat. Add the meat.
  4. Poke the Persian limes and add them (or the lemon juice) to the meat.
  5. Add the beans, chickpeas, garlic, turmeric, cinnamon, and 6 cups of boiling water. Stir well.
  6. Cover and simmer over low-medium heat for 2h30.
  7. At the start of cooking, check the contents of the pot and remove any foam that may eventually surface.
  8. After 2h30, add the tomato paste and mix well. Then add the fresh tomatoes and the green bell pepper.
  9. Add the potatoes and season the seasoning. Cover and cook again for 2 hours on low heat.
  10. Once the cooking is finished, place a very fine strainer on a large deep bowl to collect all the broth.
  11. Pour the broth into the pot and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

  12. Two possibilities :- Reduce all solids to puree – Serve the solids as they are and crush them or not with a fork.

  13. Serve broth and solids separately.

 

Tabriz Grand Bazaar

Tabriz Grand Bazaar is one of the most important and largest roofed markets of whole Iran and world that is located in the Tabriz city of Iran.

This market has about the area of one square kilometer and that is one of the biggest covered markets in the whole world.

This market contains variety Market, Corridor, Timche, Serra, and Caravanserai. Mostly because Tabriz city located in the place of The Silk Road Crossroads and every day about thousands of Caravans from different Asian, African and European countries passing this way so this city and its markets have very well boomed.

Tabriz Grand Bazaar rebuilding by time ruler of Tabriz about 3 century ago and after historical Earth quack occurrence in the year 1193.

This market is registered in National Iranian Book List in the date of 1975. It is not clear when this beautiful historical place was built but some of the old tourists that they visited this place until the Qajar period gave good and useful information about this market.

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Some of the tourists such as follow admired this old beautiful market:

  • Ibn Battuta
  • Marco Polo
  • Jackson
  • Oliya Chalabi
  • Yaquot Hamavi
  • Gaspar Derville
  • Alexis Soketov
  • Jean Sharden
  • Ouzhen Felanden
  • John Cartwright
  • Jamli Cardi
  • Clavikho
  • Robert Grant Watson
  • Hamdollah Mostofi
  • Moghadasi

Tabriz Grand Bazaar known with containing about 5500 shops, about 40 different kinds of jobs, 35 series of shops, 25 small shops, 30 mosques, 20 parts of sides of the market, 11 corridors, 5 bathrooms and 12 schools is one of the main central parts of trading in Tabriz city and whole Iran.

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Trades in Tabriz Grand Bazaar

English Traders carried their materials to the Silk Road many years ago and there was the place of trading for them.

Tabriz was the main place of business for the European countries many years ago by the North ways. This city had about 25-33 percent of trading of Whole Iran on its hands in the year of 1877. In the year of 1906 Tabriz was the main place of trading of Iran with the middle Asia.

European people enter many materials such as Mirror, All kinds of silk fabrics, Velvet and cotton, sugar, glass, metal and mechanical products to Tabriz market.

This market sold many things to European people either but always these trading have lots of benefits for them.

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Papaya in Sistan and Baluchistan

Tree melon is famous to the local name of Papaya in Sistan and Baluchistan region. The total surface area of this rare tropical product in this region is less than 30 Hectare.

Every Papaya tree that in every season of the year has both flower and fruit, has about thousand kilogram products in a year.

People pay attention to this plant because of Gentle and Pleasant taste that is as same as the taste of Cantaloupe with the special aroma of itself and also because of ease of planting and arriving at the fruit very soon in the whole year.

Local people consume this plant because of its medicinal properties that some of them are as follow:

  • Treatment of digestive diseases
  • Treatment of Heart diseases
  • Treatment of vascular diseases
  • Treatment of Bowel cancer

Papaya is the plant that is in the groups of lentils, ever green, with one trunk and soft wood with the height of 1 to 10 meter.

This kind of plant can live for 20 years but the useful and economic life of that is not more than 3 years.

Usually, the first product of this tree is coming out after 12 months.     Every flower about 145-165 days after pollination come to be a complete fruit. When fruits are coming to be complete the colour of them change from green to yellow and even orange colours.

You can pick these fruits after they are coming to be complete and save them in the warehouse or send them to the distant points.

Keeping or transport these fruits because of the thin skin of them needs lots of attentions.

Sistan and Baluchistan province has good weather for producing and keeping such these fruit. Some of these fruits are as follow:

  • Mango
  • Chico
  • Guava or local olives
  • Papaya
  • Banana

Halvaa Saih Ardebil (Ardebil Black Halva)

Ardebil black halva is one of the Iranian sweets that is prepared in Ardebil province.

Ardebil Halva is preparing from the mixture of flour, wheat germ, water, butter, spices and natural honey extract.

Ardebili women prepared black halva at home and made them in the circle shape and keep them as food for the cold weather of winter base on energy generation of them.

Black halva is one of the most important traditional food and souvenirs of Ardebil.

This food base on natural honey and butter of that and also the way of preparing can remain in average weather can remain for four months without rot.

You can make it as same as the first day of preparing by giving a little heat to it.

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How to prepare Black Halva?

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour: 500 gram.

Walnut Brain: 300 gram.

Sugar: 400 gram.

Grape sap or Date sap: 750 gram.

Spice (Black pepper, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Turmeric, Cloves, Ginger, Cumin): necessary amount.

Solid oil: 300 gram.

(Serve for 8 – 10 people)

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  1. Soak wheat for 2-3 days and wait until it has sprouted.
  2. Crush wheat and then mix it with a little water.
  3. Pour it in the smoother.
  4. Mix flour with wheat water and make a dough.
  5. Add walnut brain and spices.
  6. Put the mixture on the heat and let them boil several times.
  7. Add oil and stir them up and wait until the colour of dough change to golden and don’t stick to the spoon.
  8. Now remove it from the heat and add ready syrup and stir them up. (Wait until dough give the taste of syrup)

This kind of Halva must have the dark colour and peppery taste.

Enjoy it!

 

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