I was really fascinated by the description of places which Mr. Majd visited during his Iran stay. I never knew much about Iran and frankly I just thought that it would be like just another Arab country, but I was proven wrong. Iran is Iran and shares no similarity to any Arab country, except Religion.
Postcards from Iran:
Mashhad : Iran’s second-largest city, is home to Fatima’s brother’s grave, the Imam Reza Shrine, and pilgrims regularly travel from one city to the other as part of their Shia duties.
The shrine of Fatema Mæ'sume
A popular pilgrimage site for Shi'ite Muslims. Local belief has it that the Twelfth Imam (Muhammad al-Mahdi) — a messiah figure Shia believe will lead the world to an era of universal peace — once appeared and offered prayers at Jamkaran. On Tuesday evenings especially large crowds of tens of thousands gather at Jamkaran to pray and to drop a note to the Imam in a well at the site, asking for help with some problem.
Mr Majd went to the Office of Iranian Foreign Ministry, to meet one of his subjects, Manouchehr Mohammadi, is the Deputy foreign minister for research and education of Iran, for the book. He has given a detail description about the surroundings of this building and obviously I was tempted to check its image.
Beautiful Town of Yazd, in Iran
Badger(windcatcher) is a traditional Persian architectural device used for many centuries to create natural ventilation in buildings.
Yazd used to be the centre of Zoroastrianism, before Islam reached Iran. There are still few monuments left, reminiscent of those days.
While reading about ‘Zoroastrians’ I read an interesting fact on Wiki:
India is considered to be home to the largest Zoroastrian population in the world. When the Islamic armies, under the first Caliphs, invaded Persia, those locals who were unwilling to convert to Islam sought refuge, first in the mountains of Northern Iran, then the regions of Yazd and its surrounding villages. Later, in the ninth century CE, a group sought refuge in the western coastal region of India, and also scattered to other regions of the world. In recent years, the United States has become a significant destination of Zoroastrian populations, holding the second largest population of Zoroastrians after India.
Now from Ancient times to something contemporary:
Swords of Qādisīyah are a pair of triumphal arches in central Baghdad, Iraq. Each arch consists of a pair of hands holding crossed swords. The two arches mark the entrances to a parade-ground constructed to commemorate then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's declaration of victory over Iran in the Iran-Iraq war (though the war was considered by many to have ended in stalemate). The arms rest on concrete plinths, the form of which make the arms appear to burst up out of the ground. Each plinth holds 2,500 helmets of, what Saddam claimed, Iranian soldiers killed during the war, and are held in nets which spill the helmets on to the ground beneath.
In February 2007, it was reported that the new Iraqi government had organized the Committee for Removing Symbols of the Saddam Era and that the Arc of triumph monument had begun to be dismantled, which was against the will of most of the Iraqi people. The demolition began on Tuesday, February 20, 2007. At that time, 10-foot (3.0 m) chunks had been cut out of the bronze monument. Numerous Iraqi bystanders and coalition troops were seen taking helmets and bits of the monument away as souvenirs. The decision to remove the monument, made by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, was challenged by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who blocked the demolition on February 21.
Persepolis and the story associated with it.
Qanats, an underground irrigation system.
Ferdowsi and “Shahnameh
”
Built in 1971 in commemoration of the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, this "Gateway into Iran" was named the Shahyad Tower, meaning "Kings' Memorial", but was dubbed Azadi (Freedom) after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Originally intended to remind coming generations of the achievements of modern Iran under the Pahlavi dynasty, it has become a symbol of the country's revival.
Samand Peugeot 206
I really loved the image of Imam Hossein (below) in the background. I tried to find it on web but couldn’t so in the end I copied it from the book.
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