Sheila S.

Blair:

“The Mongol Capital of Sulṭāniyya, ‘the Imperial’,”

Iran 24 (1986): 139-52

 THE MONGOL CAPITAL OF SULTANIYYA, "THE IMPERIAL"

By Sheila S. Blair
Fine .lrhs Department, Harvard University

In 1965 Jean Aubin remarked that the process of urban agglomeration in Iran was poorly
understood, and twenty years later that is still the case.' Basic problems such as the relationship of city
to hinterland, the conditions leading to the growth or decline of cities, and the types of urban
oranisation which they displayed remain undefined. Yet clearly, the extension of a pastoral society
under the Mongols caused a marked shift in urban type from the traditional city-oasis combination to a
city-pasture one.
A good example of this new Mongol type is the city of Sultaniyya ("the Imperial"), located in
northwestern Iran some 120 km. northwest of Qazvin on the road to Tabriz. The sixth Ilkhanid ruler of
Iran, Arghiin, had selected the site as a summer capital because of its abundant pasture. His son
Oljeytii Khuda-banda transformed it into the capital of the empire. After Oljeytii's death,
the city suffered sporadic devastation, but its triple role as market in a tribal area, strategic site, and
Muh.ammad
stage on the major east-west trade route ensured its importance until the seventeenth century, when
Shah cAbbas moved the capital to Isfahan in central Iran. Sultaniyya declined steadily thereafter,
despite a brief revival in the early nineteenth century when the Qajar ruler Fath cAl Shah used it as his
summer camp known as Sultanabad.2 Today, the enormous octagonal tomb of Oljeytii towers over the
surrounding mud-brick village, the only testament to the once flourishing metropolis (P1. Ia). Excava-
tions may one day reveal more of it, but for the moment we can at least reconstruct parts of this now-
vanished example of a Mongol city in Iran combining three already available sources of information-
textual descriptions by Muslim historians, travellers' journals, and the illustrations in some of the
latter.
Eye-witness texts describing Sultaniyya survive from five contemporary Ilkhanid chroniclers:
Ablu 'l-Qa~sim Wassaf-i Had(rat, Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini, Shams al-Din Amuli and
al-Kasshlini,
Fakhr al-Din )Dawuid Banakati. All were employed in the Ilkhanid bureaucracy and therefore pre-
disposed to describe the city in glowing terms. Contemporary Mamluk writers, in contrast, had usually
not visited the city and were more willing to credit pejorative reports.:"
Abu 'l-Qasim al-Kashani, who supplies the longest description in his history of Oljeytii, was a
member of the renowned lustre-potting family from Kashan. One of his brothers followed their father
as the leading potter of his generation. Another brother was a shaykh in the Suhrawardiyya
khanaqahat Natanz, and Abu 'l-Qasim himself was a scribe in the state bureaucracy under Rashid
.Sifi
al-Din. His upbringing and family connections gave him an interest in artisanry; he was well-versed in
technical vocabulary and wrote a treatise on ceramics, gems, and other matters. However, as Oljeytii's
official biographer, he was particularly given to panegyric descriptions, and his long, internally
rhyming phrases are intended as metaphoric asides or poetic pyrotechnics rather than accurate
observations.4
Kashani's florid style is matched by that ofcAbdallah b. Fadlallah al-Shirazi, commonly known as
Wassaf ("The Panegyrist") or Wassaf-i Hadrat ("The Court Panegyrist"). He too was a scribe in the
state bureaucracy under Rashid al-Din, for whom he wrote a history entitled Tajziyat al-amsdr
wa-tagjiyat al-acsdr ("The Allotment of Lands and Propulsion of the Ages"), a continuation ofJuwayni's
history of Chingiz Khan the World Conqueror (Tdrikh-i Jahan-Gzisha). Rashid al-Dinpresented the
work to Oljeytii on 24 Muharram 712/1 June 1312.5 It is thus our closest contemporary account of the
construction of Sultaniyya, but its bombastic prose yields limited concrete data.
The three other Ilkhanid sources counter the paeans by Kashani and Wassaf. Mustawfi (died after
740/1339-40) includes a description of Sultiniyya in his cosmology and geography entitled Nuzhat
139
140 JOURNAL OF PERSIAN STUDIES

al-qulfib("Hearts' Bliss"). As a state accountant, he had access to official documents, and his text offers
facts and figures about the taxation, revenues, and administration of the empire in a clear, concise
style."Amuli describes the city in the section on history and biography in his encyclopaedia, the NafaTs
al-fiinunfi 'ard'is al-'uyun("Gems of Science and Brides of Springs"). An instructor (mudarris)at
Oljeytii's pious foundations at Sultaniyya, he enumerates personnel and salaries.' Banakati (died 730/
1329-30) includes a few notes about Sultaniyya in his comprehensive history, the uli 'l-albdbJfi
tawdrikhal-akdbirwa 'l-ansab." Rawd.at
Almost a century elapsed before the next group of Persian chroniclers emerged under the
Timurids in Khurasan. The Ilkhanid monarch Ghazan Khan had commissioned his vizier Rashid
al-Din to compile a universal history, thejadmi'al-tawarizkh.Timilr's son, Shah Rukh, commissioned his
court historian Hafiz-i Abru to write a similar comprehensive history, the Majmu'atal-tawdrikh.Section
H of this work is a continuation of Rashid al-Din's universal history, dealing with events in Azarbayjan
and Iraq between 703/1304 and 795/1393. The events of Oljeytui'sreign are largely based on Kashani's
earlier work, but Hafiz-i Abrui'sdescription of Sultaniyya includes details not mentioned in surviving
contemporary sources."He probably visited Sultaniyya, for he accompanied Timilr and Shah Rukh on
their campaigns and mentions that some of the Ilkhanid buildings on the site still existed in the fifteenth
century. His long description, in turn, becomes the source for later Timurid historians."'
From the beginning, travellers heading east always stopped in Sultaniyya. The mendicant Friar
Odoric of Pordenone passed through there about 1320 en route to India and China." More important
were the official visitors sent by Christian leaders in Europe anxious for an alliance with the Mongols
against the rising threat of the Mamluiks in the Mediterranean. Pope John XXII set up an arch-
bishopric at Sultainiyya in 1318, and archbishops were appointed there until 1425.12
By the fifteenth century, the Ottoman threat had replaced the Mamlfk one, but Christian
embassies hopeful of enlisting Mongol support continued. The best documented of these is Ruy
Gonzalez de Clavijo's embassy to Tamerlane from the court of Henry III, King of Castile and Leon.
Clavijo reached Sultfiniyya in June 1404, missing T'imfirby a few weeks. He was received in his stead
by Timiir's son Miran Shrih. Earlier, Timur had appointed him governor of westcrn Iran, but in 1339
Miran Shah has gone on a rampage during which he had destroyed so much of labriz and Sultfiniyya
that Timur had been forced to march west from Khurisain and replace him. Mir-ln Shil-hwas retired to
Baghdad under the eye of his son, but had returned l;riefly to Sultfniyya in 1404 in order to meet his
father. Clavijo followed Timur's trail, finally encountering the seventy-year-old monarch in his court at
Samarqand in the autumn of 1404.': Clavijo gives detailed reports oftmanyof the cities which he visited
along the way, especially Timur's capital at Samarqand, where he spend three months trying to secure
Timilr's aid. His account of Sultaniyya is particularly valuable, for he visited the site only five years
after Miran Shah's devastation.
Clavijo failed to secure Timfir's aid against the Ottomans, but the effort to enlist support
continued. In the 1470's, the Republic of Venice sent Josephat Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini to
encourage the Aq-Qoyunlu leader Uzun Hasan to attack the Ottomans.'-
By the sixteenth century, the Shi'ite Safavids had succeeded the Aq-Qoyunlu in northwestern
Iran, but their control of the area was constantly threatened by Ottoman invasions and occupation. In
940-1/1533 the Ottoman sultan Sulayman the Magnificent went on campaign from Istanbul to Persia.
A unique manuscript dated 944/1537-8 by Matra-qi Nasuih records the stages of his journey. Its
information repeats that found in other historical sources, but the manuscript also contains 107
miniatures that include the earliest extant view ofSultaniyya (P1. Ib). Given the date of the manuscript
and detail of the miniatures, the illustrations must have been executed in Istanbul on the basis of
sketches and notes made en route. They use an architectural shorthand in which conventional forms
are repeated and stylised. City views enumerate buildings, but do not show a topographic relationship
of sites; yet if they are used with appropriate caution, they can be an excellent source. Important or
unusual buildings are rendered accurately, elevations are more accurate than plans, religious buildings
are larger and more individualised than secular constructions.•"' When combined with travellers'
descriptions, Matraqi's miniature is of prime importance in reconstructing the Mongol capital at
Sulta niyya.
 Pl. Ia. The tomb of Oljeytii and surroundingvillage of Sultaniyya.

Pl. lb. AlatrdqT'sdepiction of the town o!Sultrinoira: Istanbul I nicersity Library. Vildi: TT3964.bls. lb I d
:'2na).
 Pl. Ha. Olearius'viewof the townof Sultdniyya:Les voyages de Sieur Adam Olearius (Leiden,1718).

viewof thetownofSultaniyya:The travels of SirJohn Chardin into Persia and the East Indies (London,1686),
Pl. JIb. Chardin's.
pl. 11.
P1. Ilia. Le Bruyn'sviewof thetownof Sultdniyya:Travels into Muscovy, Persia, and part of the East Indies (London,1737).

and Asia Minor to Constantinople in the

Pl. IIIb. Morier'sviewof thetownof Sultdniyya:Journey through Persia, Armenia,
years 1808 and 1809 (London,1812).
Pl. IVa. KerPorter'sviewof thewalls andmausoleumof Oljeitii:Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylon ... during
the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820 (London,1821-2), 1, p. 278.

Pl. IVb. Priault'sviewof thetombof Oljeitii:L. Dubeux,La Perse (Paris, 1841), pl. 30.
 mosquein
Pl. Va.Preault'sviewof thecongregational Dubeux,La Perse, pl. 32.
Sult.niyya:

mosquein
Pl. Vb.Preault'sviewof theportalto thecongregational
Sultdniyya:Dubeux,La Perse, pl. 33.
Pl. VI. Viewof thetombof ShaykhBuraqandadjacentkhanaqah.
 THE MONGOL CAPITAL OF SULTANIYYA, "THE IMPERIAL" 141

Shah cAbbas ejected the Ottomans from Azarbayjan. He also established diplomatic relations
with Europe, once more raising the possibility of a grand Persian-European alliance against the
Ottomans. Western historians were now aware of Sultaniyya's existence. The earliest published
information about the city seems to be that given by Paul Jovius, Bishop of Nocera (died 1552),
followed by his copyist Pietro Bizarrus.'6
Merchants, ambassadors, and other travellers to the Safavid court in Isfahan left a wealth of travel
journals, occasionally supplemented by drawings. They were a diverse group: Pietro della Valle, an
Italian seeking solace from an unhappy love affair; Adam Olearius andJean Struys, members of secret
Dutch trade missions trying to divert the silk trade from Russia; Jean Chardin, a bon vivant French
jeweller; Cornelius le Bruyn, another inveterate Dutch traveller; and John Bell, a Scottish doctor who
had been in the service of Peter the Great. The quality of their information also varies. Pietro della Valle
gives a long and fairly precise description of what he saw. Others rely on earlier acounts: Bizarrus's
fantastic account of Sultaniyya as Tigrocerto, the capital of Tigranus, king of Armenia, for example, is
repeated by Struys and questioned by Chardin. Their illustrations, alas, are often deficient: both Pietro
della Valle and Olearius lost their draftsmen en route; della Valle's travels remained unillustrated; and
Olearius filled in the blanks with his own imagination (P1. IIa). Chardin and Le Bruyn (Pls. IIb, IIIa)
give more plausible view of the seventeenth-century city."
This spate of travellers was followed by a lull in the later eighteenth century. However, Fath cAli
Shah's establishment of a summer camp nearby brought the site back into prominence in the early
ninteenth century. James Morier and Robert Ker Porter were among the English emissaries. They give
long descriptions of the buildings, which are rather vague but included illustrations (Pl. IIIb, IVa).'8
More important are the French travellers. The success of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt led
General Gardane to embark on a similar military mission with surveyors and draftsmen to Persia after
the Franco-Persian treaty of Finckenstein was concluded in 1807. The results are less imposing than
the monumental Description de l'Egypte: no full publication ever resulted. The drawings by the official
draftsman Michel-Frangois Preault became part of the archives of the French Foreign Ministry which
disappeared during the Second World War. Some drawings, however, served as the basis for engrav-
ings used to illustrate other publications. For example, Louis Dubeux, adjunct conservator at the
to make them
Bibliotheque Royale, used six engravings based on Pre•ault's drawings, but embellished
more exotic, for his monograph (Pls. IVb, Va-b);"' subsequent French travellers such as Xavier
Hommaire de Hell denounced them as completely false, and some seem indeed to be whimsical
combinations of unrelated parts.20 Yet they remain valuable, for many of the fourteenth-century
structures which they depict were subsequently dismantled to supply building materials for Fath cAli
Shah's new camp. Mid-nineteenth century travellers like Charles Texier, Eugene Flandin and Pascal
Coste provided romantic views of the city, and late nineteenth-century travellers like Maxime and Jane
Dieulafoy and Friedrich Sarre provided more skilled architectural drawings; but by that time only the
tomb of Oljcytii remained lbr study.2"
From this potpourri of sources, at least part of the shape of the Mongol capital at Sultaniyya can be
reconstructed. Information is lacking for the urban infrastructure-none of the sources discussed such
matters as sanitation and streets-and for domestic architecture. It is difficult to gain a sense of scale or
dimensions, for measurements vary widely and the relationship between buildings is rarely discussed.
The major monuments are clearly the features that impressed contemporary viewers most and are
therefore the elements most easily reconstructed.
Like most Iranian cities, Sultaniyya was composed of an outer city and an inner citadel or qal'a.
Mustawfi describes the outer city most accurately. According to him, the ramparts (baru) which
Arghtin had ordered to be built measured 12,000 paces in circumference; work was begun under
Oljeytui to expand them to 30,000 paces, but not finished until after his death in 716/1316.22 These outer
ramparts must have been almost entirely destroyed by the fifteenth century, for both Clavijo and
Barbaro report that the city had no outer and none is visible in Matraqi's illustration (P1. Ib).
wall,"'-
At least one gate survived until the eighteenth century, however, for almost all Western travellers to the
court of Shah cAbbas mention a large stone gate thirty feet high and twelve feet wide and about half a
league west of the tomb of Oljeytfi on the road to Hamadan. Ruins littered the ground between the
142 JOURNAL OF PERSIAN STUDIES

tomb and the gate.24 But it too must have fallen in the course of the eighteenth century, for none of the
nineteenth-century accounts mention it.
Clavijo also mentions an enormous palace of many apartments in the outer city. He tells us that the
great lord who had built it had been buried in it inside a magnificent tomb, but that Mira-n Shah had
had it demolished and had ejected the body."5 This passage cannot refer to the tomb of Oljeytii, for it is
still standing; nor to Oljeytii's main palace, for it was inside the citadel. Clavijo is probably describing
the palace and tomb complex of Oljeytii's son Abui Sacid, who died in 736/1335 and whose coffin,
Hafiz-i Abril tells us, was transported to the mausoleum (marqad) and city which he had built in
Sharufbaz near Sultaniyya.2" In building his funerary suburb, Abuf Sacid was following a Mongol
practice standard in Iran since Ghazan's conversion to Islam; Ghazan and his minister Rashid al-Din
had each founded large suburbs at Tabriz, known as Sham/Shanb-i Gha-zan and Rabc-i Rashidi
respectively, and Oljeytil had built Sultaniyya.27 A detached miniature in an album in Istanbul may
well illustrate the founding of such an area.28
The ruins of Abii Sacid's tomb may have served as the site for Fath cAli Shah's palace at
Sultanabad. The Qajar settlement was situated one or two miles northwest of the Ilkhanid city. The
palace itself was built on an artificial mound, and Adrien Dupre, an early visitor to the site, mentions
that it was erected on the ruins of an earlier complex.29
Of the numerous other public and private buildings in the outer city of Sultaniyya, only one pair
remains: an octagonal tomb tower and adjacent khanaqdhlocated a few hundred metres southwest of
Oljeytfi's tomb (P1. VI). The tower is often called the tomb of Chelebi Oghlu, an otherwise unknown
figure, and dated to ca. 1330," but it is in fact the tomb of Shaykh Buraq and dates from around 1310.
The inscription along the qibla wall of the khanaqdhgives the shaykh's name.3' Kashani tells us that,
following Oljeytii's invasion of Gilan in 706/1306, Shaykh Buraq attempted to cross Gilan on
pilgrimage, but the Gilanis set upon him like wolves and tore him to pieces. His disciples then carried
his bones to Sultaniyya where, at royal command, a high tomb was built over the cenotaph and the sum
of fifty dinars per day was assigned as stipend for his followers.'2
The quality of the well-preserved tomb tower attests to the high rank of its patronage. Its general
shape and architectural details are repeated in the Imamzada Jacfar in Isfahan, the tomb of an 'Alid
shaykh and descendant of the fifth Imam who died in 725/1325."" Its elaborate entrance facade with a
cable binding and stamped brick decoration recur on the Mirjaniyya mosque-madrasa-tomb complex
built in Baghdad in 758/1357 by a manumitted slave of Oljeytii, Mirjan b. 'Abdallah, who was
governor of Baghdad under the Jalayirids.34
The site was obviously an important Stifi centre at least until the succeeding generation, when
Khwaja Shams al-Din Muhammad Qazvini (re)built the adjacent khanaqdh,which consists of a portal
in dressed stone and iwdansand arcades in rubble masonry around a central court. Stucco plaques on the
qibla wall record his endowment of water to another of his khanaqdhsin Qazvin and give the date of 733/
1333.'" The khanaqahwas situated to the north of the tomb so that, as in other major Ilkhanid funerary
complexes like those for Oljeytii's son at Bastam or for Rashid al-Din at Tabriz, the tomb was behind
the mihrabof the larger structure in order to obtain maximum exposure to the blessings of those praying
there.,"
At the heart of Ilkhanid Sultaniyya was a square citadel, whose fortifications elicited comment
from almost all writers. It was built of cut stone and measured 599 gaz. The walls were broad enough
for four horsemen to ride abreast and were articulated with sixteen towers, a machicolated parapet,
and one main iron gate; around it was a moat.37
The city walls were not only defensive but also decorative. Kashani says, euphonically, that they
were of blue stone (sang-i mznarang).3"More accurately, Clavijo says that they were adorned with blue
tiles in an interlaced pattern."9 Morier and Ker Porter mention Arabic inscriptions with the name of
Muhammad Khudabanda and sculptural decoration of confronted horsemen and lion heads.40 Lion
head decoration was an appropriate choice, for Mustawfi tells us that the city was built under the
ascendance of Leo.41 Copper coins issued there between 710/1309 and 713/1313 also have a sun rising
behind a lion.42
Much of the square citadel survived until the 1780s. Matraqi's 1537 illustration (P1. Ib)
 THE MONGOL CAPITAL OF SULTANIYYA, "THE IMPERIAL" 143

accurately depicts the machicolated parapet, single gate and sixteen towers. The tower on the lower
right even shows some sort of decoration, and only the moat is missing. By this time, the walls had been
broached, but were substantially intact. Seventeenth-century travellers also mention the enceinte and
its large towers.43 One or two towers still stood in the early nineteenth century, when Morier and Ker
Porter visited the site. They describe the wall as being forty to fifty feet high and twelve feet thick, and
they report that most of the wall had been standing twenty years earlier.44 The foundations of the
square citadel are still discernible in aerial photographs today.45
The largest monument inside the citadel is the tomb of the sultan. It is an enormous octagon, some
38 m. in diameter and oriented almost cardinally. The north wall projects to meet the lateral walls,
thereby creating triangular corner compartments in each of which is a staircase. To the south is a
rectangular hall measuring 15 by 20 m. The central octagonal space, some 25 m. in diameter, is
surmounted by a dome of 50 m. ringed by eight minarets.46
Most Persian historians comment on the size of the monument, calling it the sublime tomb (qubba
or gunbad-i cali). Hafiz-i Abrui gives dimensions of 60 gaz in diameter and 120 gaz in height,47 which fit
the interior measurements of the central hall (25 m. in diameter and 50 m. high) and yield a value of
42 cm. for the gaz which he uses.48
The lavish tomb fittings included metal grille work that covered the three main portals and the
windows, divided the octagonal tomb from the sanctuary, and encased the cenotaph. The Venetian
traveller Barbaro gives the best description of their construction:

At the end it has a gate of brass three paces high, wrought like lattice, within which are diverse sepulchres of past
kings. Opposite that is another like it, and on each side two lesser ones, one at each cross side, so that the great
cupola has four gates, two great and two small, the quarters or sides whereof are of brass, !iof a yard broad and - a
yard thick, excellently well carved with leaves and devices after their manner; so wrought in beaten gold and
silver that it is both marvellous and rich. The lattice of those gates has certain great balls as big as loaves, and then
certain little ones like oranges, with branches that knit loaf to loaf, as I remember I have seen some graven in
wood in a certain place. The workmanship of the gold and silver is so excellent that there is no man in our parts
that durst take the like in hand without very great time."'

Such grilles were common in contemporary tombs. A manuscript of Rashid al-Din's Universal
History dated 714/1314 depicts the tomb of Buddha as a domed square with window grilles of bars
connected by round joints."' According to its endowment deed, Rashid al-Din's own tomb in Tabriz
had similar screened openings (shabbak) dividing the wadn/mosque from the sanctuary/tomb.3' The
same arrangement is used in the funerary complex of Sultan IHasan in
Cairo."2 Screens surrounding
cenotaphs are also found in the major Shicite shrines such as that of the Imaim Ridai at Mashhad.,"
Inside the grille in the centre of the sanctuary stood the cenotaph which della Valle describes as a
typical Islamic cenotaph, like an altar, but wider and larger, and covered with precious draperies of silk
and gold.54 The sanctuary walls probably had a lustre revetement. Certainly, lustre was a common
choice for the interior of an important tomb in the Ilkhanid period.5" and Kashani says that the doors
and walls were studded with gold, peals and gems; Pietro della Valle describes the walls as enriched
with gold and embellished with fine procelain; and Sarre collected fragments of lustre star tiles from the
local inhabitants at the beginning of the twentieth century.5" Olearius and Struys mention enormous,
three-foot high Qur'an manuscripts propped up in the sanctuary.57
Most of these furnishings had been carted away from the site by the early nineteenth century. Bell,
who went there in 1717, is the last to mention the grilles.58 John Johnson, whose account dates from
1817, says that Fath cAli Shah used the bricks and glazed tiles from the tomb for the pavilion in his
palace;59 he undoubtedly helped himself to other materials and furnishings as well. Western travellers
also took away objects, which have since ended up in museum collections. The museums in Leipzig and
Dresden shared a section of a Koran manuscript commissioned by Oljeytii in Baghdad in 706/1305 and
endowed to his tomb at Sultaniyya, which may be one of the manuscripts which Olearius tells us he
took away with him.60 Window balls made of bronze inlaid with gold and silver and nielloed, and
bearing Oljeyti's titles or scenes of cavaliers in Mongol dress, might have come from the tomb or other
buildings at Sultfiniyya.6'
144 JOURNAL OF PERSIAN STUDIES

In some cases, the fame of the monument may have inspired the museum attribution. For
example, the Gulbenkian Collection in Lisbon owns a lustre mihrab measuring 160 by 70 cm., whose
inner frame says that Shams al-Din Husayn ordered these mihrdbs and inscriptions in the year 710
(1310). The catalogue attributes the mihrdbto the tomb of Oljeytii at Sultaniyya, but without reason.62
The tomb of Oljeytii at Sultaniyya now stands in isolation; but this was not always the case. Like
other major Ilkhanid funerary complexes, Oljeytfi's tomb was part of a pious foundation. Various
Persian historians list different components for Oljeytii's complex, including places for prayer, instruc-
tion, Koran reading, residence, and medication (see chart). Although this probably means that the
same spaces were used for a variety of functions, the complex was undeniably still one of the largest
pious endowments of its time: Amuli, who taught there, reports that in Oljeytfi's lifetime its endow-
ments exceeded 100 tumans.63 Kashani tells us that its buildings and iwdns were plastered and painted;
its domes (tarimha) were silvered. All the courtyards were paved with white marble. The roofs over the
arches and arcades had muqarnas.'

Table 1
Components of Oljeytii's Tomb Complex

Kish-ni Amuli Hafiz-i Abrfi Natanzi Mirkhwand Khwandamir

abwabal-birr abwab-ikhayr abwdbal-birr biqdcal-khayr - noble buqca

Mosque - x x x x
Madrasa x - - x
Khanaqah x x - x -
Hospital x - - x x -
Dair al-diyafa x x x x x -
x - - - -
Dair al-huffaz
Dar al-siyaida - X X X - x
Dairal-hadith - - - -
1Called dar
al-qurra'.

We can reconstruct Oljeytii's tomb complex as the classic Iranian pattern of four fwdns connected
by arcades around a courtyard with the tomb projecting behind the south iwan. This plan was also used
for the tomb complexes of Ghazan and Rashid al-Din in Tabriz.65 Flandin and Coste's mid-nineteenth
century drawing of Oljeytii's tomb shows traces of a cap wall projecting from the northeast corner, and
Dubeux's drawing from ten years earlier (P1. IVb)-even if dismissed by Hommaire de Hell as
completely false-at least suggests arcades attached to the tomb. Excavations show traces of a
limestone court to the east and probably to the north and west of the tomb.66
Matra-qi's illustration (P1. Ib) gives the building a domed north portal flanked by minarets. The
tomb itself is clearly identifiable by the eight minarets surrounding the dome above the gallery. In front
of it, Matraqi shows a two-story facade flanked by minarets and surmounted by five domes. A smaller
dome caps the central doorway. His depiction must represent the complex as seen from the north, with
the central courtyard simply eclipsed.
Many features of Oljeytii's tomb are repeated in later buildings. Paired minarets over a portal,
used already in the Seljuq period, became a standard feature of Ilkhanid architecture,67' but the tomb
complex at Sultaniyya suggests that double minarets flanking a facade were also part of the Ilkhanid
imperial repertory. The Ghazaniyya may also have had similar large framing minarets, for one is
visible at the right corner in a fifteenth-century miniature.6" A similar pair flanks the qibla wall of the
mosque in Sultfan HIasan's complex in Cairo.69 Minarets at the corners of an elaborate fapade became a
standard feature of Timurid architecture, used in such buildings as Timuir's palace at Kish (late
fourteenth century), the shrine of Ahmad Yasavi in Turkestan City (797/1394-5) and the mosque of
Bibi Kha-num in Samarqand (801/1398-9).70
The five-domed portal at Sultaniyya also started a trend. It provided a prototype for the Blue
 THE MONGOL CAPITAL OF SULTANIYYA, "THE IMPERIAL" 145

Mosque built in Tabriz in 870/1465 by Saliha Khanum, daughter ofJahanshah Qara-Qoyunlu.71 The
formal origins of this building are obscure, but its portal and projecting sanctuary were undoubtedly
inspired by those of Oljeytii's tomb. In the Tabriz building, however, the central court is smaller and
domed.
The domed vestibule was another Ilkhanid feature which spread to other places by the mid-
fourteenth century. Sultain Hasan's tomb complex in Cairo has an extraordinary nine-metre square
vestibule in two-coloured stone with a 25-metre muqarnasdome. The combination of its awkward
position and technical virtuosity suggests an imported feature imposed on a Cairene plan. The same
combination of muqarnasportal and domed vestibule occurs in a tomb in Urgench, attributed to two
local leaders, Husayn and Yuisuf Sifi, and built sometime before 1361.72
The modern theory that Sultaniyya declined from lack of adequate water"7:is wrong. Almost all
sources comment on Oljeytii's provision for the collection and storage of water through qanats and
wells. The tomb complex was a cool and refreshing spot, filled with gardens. The ebullient Kashani
mentions all sorts of trees, including spruce,juniper, palm, and fruits, and waterways including brooks,
rivulets, and streams. Qazvini, more restrained, says that although the climate was cold, water was
available from qandtsand wells which had to be dug to a depth of two to three gaz.7' Western travellers
were also struck by the abundant water supply. Friar Odoric's one-sentence description of Sultaniyya
describes it as a cool place with an excellent supply of water; Clavijo's as bisected by water conduits;
and Barbaro's as well-furnished with water.'
The gardens around the tomb complex were still being maintained in the seventeenth century.
Della Valle mentions only subterranean canals supplying a quantity of water, but Olearius describes a
garden belonging to the tomb and a summer house. His somewhat fantastic view of the city (P1. IIa) is
dotted with vegetation, as is Matraqi's depiction (P1. Ib). Struys, too, comments on the perfectly
beautiful gardens and agreeable promenades behind the tomb.7"
A large, square fountain, which according to Olearius was supplied with water from a spring in the
Qaydar Mountains, stood in the middle of the courtyard in front of Oljeytu's tomb." Rashid al-Din's
tomb complex in 'abriz had a similarly placed pool (hawd-i db),"' but the one at Sultaniyya must have
been quite special. The Baghdadi biographer Ibn al-Fuwati includes an entry for 'Ayn al-Din
Mahmfid b. Multiammad as the person who made (sana'a) the astonishing, handcrafted fountain and
sent it to Sultfiniyya in 721/1320.7''
Placing Oljeytii's tomb in a garden was an Islamic convention derived from the Qur'an. The word
rawd'a,which originally meant garden, was applied to the railing around the Prophet's tomb in Medina
and was subsequently the term used in Iran for any funerary structure. Rashid al-Din's tomb in Tabriz
was called a rawda; so was in Sultaniyya."" Ilkhanid historians used the same imagery;
describes the tomb Oljeytii's
as a blessed
Ka-shamni eight-doored Paradise (hasht dar-i bihishl) called Paradise
('anna), filled with bliss, places of ascent to Paradise (firdaws), using Qur'anic vocabulary to reinforce
his metaphor."'
Timurid architects not only copied many of the structural features of the Ilkhanid repertory but
metaphorical allusions as well. Architecturally, the octagonal plan was the simplest solution to support
an enormous dome; poetically, it was an obvious metaphor for the eight gates of Paradise. Under the
Timurids, the association of this design and this metaphor became standard; a series of pavilions
known as Eight Paradises (Hasht Bihisht) were built with a central dome surrounded by eight rooms or
apartments. The Safavids and Mughals further refined the Eight Paradise plan in buildings such as the
tomb of Humayfin and the Taj Mahal,82 but the imperial mausoleum with an eight-fold plan in a
garden setting goes back to Ilkhanid Iran.
Oljeytii also built a large congregational mosque. Probably because it was a routine feature of
Islamic cities, Islamic historians rarely describe it; they only mention its existence in connection with a
madrasa with attached hospital, which they compare to the Mustansiriyya in Baghdad."3 However, by
combining the conventionalised depiction at the left in Matraqi's illustration of Sultainiyya (P1. Ib);
descriptions by two seventeenth-century travellers, Olearius and Struys; and engravings done after the
drawings by the French mission to Persia at the beginning of the nineteenth century (P1. Va-b),"4 the
original plan of the four-fwdanmosque can be reconstructed.
146 JOURNAL OF PERSIAN STUDIES

Matraqi's illustration shows a paved enclosure surrounding the entrance portal with its double
minarets, covered section, and qibla dome. According to Struys, the facade measured 30 by 40 feet and
six steps led from the street to the doorway. The nineteenth-century engravings shows a cable binding
outlining the arched portal that was flanked by buttress-like minarets. By this time, the vault behind
the portal had fallen, but Olearius's description of a pyramid somewhat decayed at the top, and
Matraqi's depiction of a triangular roof, suggest a muqarnas-vaulted vestibule.
Inside, a double-story arcade connected four wadnsaround the court. Olearius describes the
covered area as very high and well-arched, with a number of pillars holding up the roof. One of the
nineteenth-century engravings used by Preault (P1. Va) shows the springing of myriad small vaults
flanking the qibla wdan.Behind the iwan is the sanctuary with a high zone of transition leading to a large
dome.
Like the tomb complex, the mosque was elaborately decorated. Hafiz-i Abrui mentions a profusion
of marble and glazed tile (kashfkdr);Struys describes an exterior revetment of mosaic faience with small
squares glazed in different colours and an interior decoration of Moorish painting and half-effaced
Arabic inscriptions in gold. Olearius mentions an elaborate pulpit in the middle.85
When Timuir occupied Sultaniyya in 787/1385, he must have been so impressed that he used the
mosque as a model for the congregational mosque which he had built in Samarqand fifteen years later.
of a favourite wife, and shared many of
Timuir's mosque, like Oljeytii's, was sited opposite the madrasa
its architectural features-monumental projecting portal with cable binding and framing minarets;
multiple small domes and materials; an exterior revetment of glazed tile; and a marble dado. In
Timuir's mosque, however, the domes were supported on stone columns imported from India rather
than on the brick piers suggested in the engravings of Sultaniyya (P1. Va).:86
Hafiz-i Abril gives the best description of the enormous palace which Oljeytii built at Sultaniyya.
It had a square court paved with marble measuring 100 by 100 [gaz]. Around the court were a huge
and twelve smaller units (sardycha), each with a
wadnlike the one in Khusraw's palace at Ctesiphon
window overlooking the main court. The palace also had an audience hall (difwdn-khdna)big enough for
2,000 people and called karyds.87
The general-arrangement follows that of earlier imperial palaces, with public and private rooms
arranged around a central court, and the large fwdn audience hall combination suggests that used by
the Ghaznavids at Ghazna or Lashkar Gah.88 Timir also used the organisation for his palace at Kish/
Shahr-i Sabz.89
Oljeytii intended Sultaniyya to be a functioning capital and not merely a royal encampment.
Kashani tells us it boasted more than 10,000 shops filled with bales of Chinese brocade, small boxes,
cups, ewers and other merchandise.90 While the number may be exaggerated, other authors confirm
the large artisanal community.91 According to Clavijo, in the early fifteenth century it was a more
important market than Tabriz, and was the entrepot for spices from India, silk from Gilan and
Shirwa-n, cotton from Shiraz and cloth from Khurasan; pearls and mother-of-pearl from Hurmuz and
the Persian Gulf were strung or worked into rings or earrings in the city. Numerous hostelries provided
accommodation for merchants.92
the
Matraqi's illustration (P1. Ib) shows a long, arcaded building near the river, probably one of
bazaars which still existed in the sixteenth century. Bazaars were particularly susceptible to fire.
Kashani tells us that on Friday, 9 Safar 712/16 June 1312, fire broke out in part of the Sultaniyya
bazaar. Although it caused a substantial amount of property damage, the vizier Taj al-Din cAll Shah
was able to have it repaired within a week.93
Oljeytii also ordered his notables to build palaces and gardens. The vizier Rashid al-Din
responded by building an entire quarter, which according to HIafiz-i Abrfi, had a thousand houses. In
it, a large building (cimdrat-icdlf) with two minarets flanking an iwdn housed a madrasa, hospital, and
khdnaqdh,each with its own substantial endowment.94 The large structure with two minarets at the right
in Matraqi's illustration must represent Rashid al-Din's pious foundation. These endowment deeds,
unfortunately, have not survived, but in the one for his tomb complex at Tabriz, Rashid al-Din requires
the teachers in this pious foundation (abwdbal-birr) to use his own literary works for instruction.95 When
 THE MONGOL CAPITAL OF SULTANIYYA, "THE IMPERIAL" 147

Rashid al-Din's grandson died in Sultaniyya in 734/1333-4, he was buried in a house his father had
built near his madrasa.96
Rashid al-Din's rival Taj al-Din 'Ali Shah also vied for Oljeytii's favour by building lavishly at
Sultajniyya. Kashani tells us that 'Ali Shah was quite an entrepreneur and that everything he did was
looked upon with royal favour. He built a bazaar out of stone and baked brick. It was cheap to build but
profitable, and cost less than the one which the vizier Sa"d al-Din and his assistant had built of mud,
mud brick, and marble." He also built a lavish palace costing 10,000 dinars. It was so extravagantly
decorated with doors and walls studded with gold, pearls and gems, and walls and floors with rubies,
turquoise, emeralds and amber, that he called it Paradise (bihisht). This name horrified the Amir
Tuiqmaq, who pointed out that when Shaddad of'?Ad had built Iram as an imitation of Paradise, he was
killed as punishment for his hubris.'!
The Mongol monuments at Sultaniyya were built of high-quality materials of baked brick, stone
and wood, and luxuriously decorated with bronze doors, inlaid window grilles, marble revetments and
mosaic faience, in striking contrast to the village of mud brick hovels found there today. In order to
build it, the Mamluik biographer al-Yuisufi (d. 759/1357-8) tells us:
The total of those who worked on the foundations was 10,000 men. Ten [read five?] thousand moved dirt, and
5,000 cut and dressed stone. There were 5,000 wagons to move rock and other materials, for which there were
10,000 donkeys. They made 1,000 kilns for brick (tub) and 1,000 kilns for lime (jir). Five thousand camels
transported wood, and 2,000 persons were assigned to cut wood from the mountains and other places. Three
nails and the like. There
thousand smiths were employed to work sheets of metal (safji'ih), windows (shababi-k),
were 500 carpenters, and 5,000 men laid marble. Supervisors were appointed over them to urge them on in the
work.99
These buildings were obviously the most elaborate that the Ilkhanid court could afford in the early
fourteenth century, and it is no surprise that they were used as prototypes by later rulers. Elaborate
domed facades with cable bindings and framing minarets, muqarnas vestibules, colossal four-twan
mosques with multiple domes and elaborate tomb complexes in garden settings, reflect ideological as
well as architectural imitation. When Timfir established his new capital in Samarqand, he not only
modelled his congregational mosque after the one in Sultaniyya, but in order to enhance its prestige
surrounded his new capital with villages named after the largest cities known to him: Sultaniyya,
Shiraz, Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo.'oo The idea of Mongol imperialism continued down to the
Qajars and Fath cAli Shah's selection of Sultaniyya for a summer camp. The lush pasturage, plentiful
game and cool climate made the site as attractive to the Qajars as it had been to the Ilkhanids. The
Ilkhanid ruins also offered a ready source of building material for new construction. But Fath cAli
Shath's decision to build his new palace directly on top of an Ilkhanid one suggests that notions about
symbolism were also at work.
Sultaniyya also left its mark on contemporary Mamlfik architecture. Even though they were
enemies at the time, the Ilkhanids influenced the Bahri Mamluiks' taste in art in the early fourteenth
century, and following the 722/1322 treaty of Aleppo that influence increased. Mongol chinoiserie-
peonies, lotuses, dragons, and other motifs-permeated the Mamlfik decorative repertory. An
Ilkhanid royal Qur'an manuscript endowed by a Mamluik amir to a Cairene khanaqah in 725/1326
sparked a new tradition in Mamlfik Qur'an illumination. Oljeytii had commissioned the thirty-volume
work in 713/1313 at Hamadan, undoubtedly for some royal foundation, and it probably came into
Mamliik hands either as part ofAbli Sacid's hajj caravan in 1322 or during the Mamlfik embassy to the
Ilkhanid court in 1325.101
Ilkhanid decorative techniques also influenced Cairene architecture. Stucco mihrabs became
increasingly popular. Al-Nasir Muhammad's madrasa, completed in 1303, has a mihrab with a conch
with raised ogival bosses in high relief with punched or stamped ornament. Four other Cairene mihrabs
from the earlier fourteenth century have an unusual type of decoration in plaster and linen on a wooden
base, 102an adaptation of an Ilkhanid technique; Oljeytii's tomb at Sultiniyya has large ogival forms
moulded over coarse cloth and tacked to the interior of the ceiling of the post-713/1313 redecoration.'03
Persian mosaic faience also appeared in Cairene monuments of the fourteenth century. In 730/
148 JOURNAL OF PERSIAN STUDIES

1329/30, the amir Qawsiin imported a Persian craftsman from Tabriz to build two minarets with
mosaic faience for his mosque in imitation of the mosque built by the Ilkhanid vizier Taj al-Din cAli
Shah at Tabriz. The artisan established a workshop in Fustat, which was responsible for the decoration
of several other Cairene buildings.104
The Mamlfiks also copied plans and iconography from Ilkhanid buildings. Qawsuin's mosque had
a twin-minaret portal in a Persian style. In 734/1333-4 the sultan al-Nasir Muhammad used the same
artisan whom Qawsmin had imported from Tabriz to build an enormous iwan on the citadel with a large
dome covered with turquoise-green tile. The audience hall was an enlargement of the one that al-Nasir
had built twenty years earlier. 105In scale and technique, it recalls Oljeytii's tomb and the audience hall
in his palace. The 18-metre span of al-Naisir's dome made it the largest dome in Cairo, for it clearly
surpassed the earlier champion, the 15.50-metre dome in the congregational mosque built by Baybars
al-Bunduqdari in 665/1266.106
When Sultan Hasan commissioned his tomb in 757/1356, he ordered a dome whose diameter was
three metres wider than the earlier one by al-Na-sir Muhammad. Many other features of his funerary
complex also reflect Persian models. The four-Twanplan with the tomb as the sanctuary dome chamber
follows the standard Ilkhanid imperial model used at Tabriz and Sultafniyya, and features like the
double minaret portal, framing minarets over the qibla facade and muqarnasvestibule, are derived from
Persian prototypes. In the eyes of its contemporaries, both Persian and Mamlfik, the Ilkhanid capital
had clearly lived up to its name, "the Imperial".

ADDENDUM

Just as this article was going to press, I was able to consult a manuscript from the British Library
(Or. 2833) of another contemporary source, Hamdallah Mustawfi Qazvini's Zafar-ndma, essentially a
50,000 couplet continuation of Firdawsi's Shdh-ndma.Folios 711-12 contain a description of Sultaniyya,
including much of the data, including the dimensions, repeated by Hafiz-i Abrfi a century later. The
most significant new piece of information is Mustawfi's note that a hair of the Prophet was transported
to the daral-siyada in O!jeytii's tomb complex so that, in the sultan's words, "no matter how many sins I
have committed, with this strand of hair, I still have hope [of redemption]". Could this relic of the
Prophet's be the source for later, apocryphal, stories that Oljeytii wanted to transfer the bodies of All
and Husayn to make a pilgrimage shrine there (SPA, pp. 1111-13)?

"Elements pour l'etude des agglomerations urbaines dans l'Iran
mediivale", The Islamic City, ed. A. H. Hourani and S. M. Stern
(Oxford, 1970), pp. 65-76.
2Gavin Hambly, "A Note on Sultaniyeh/Sultanabad in the Early
19th Century", AARP, II (Dec. 1972), pp. 89-98.
'3Mamlu k geographers giving short notices about Sultfiniyya
include Abu 'l-Fida (Giographie d'Aboulfida, II/2, ed. S. Guyard
(Paris, 1883), p. 157), and al-cUmari (Masdlik al-absarfi mamdlik
al-ams.ar, ed. and tr. Klaus Leich, Das Mongolische Weltreich
(Wiesbaden, 1968), Arabic text, p. 86). Mamluk historians
include al-Mufaddal b. Abi 'l-Fada'il (Histoire des Sultans
Mamloukr, ed. and tr. E. Blochet, Patrologia Orientalis, XX (1928),
p. 241); Shihaib al-Din al-Nuwayri (Nih-dat al-arabfJfunun al-adab)
and Mu-sa b. Yahya al-Yuisufi (Nuzhat al-ndazirft sfrat al-Malik
al-Ndsir, both translated in D. M. Little, "The Founding of
Sultfiniyya: a Mamluk Version", Iran, XVI (1978), pp. 170-5).
4 Biographical information about him is found in the prefaces to the
published editions of his works Tdrfkh-i Oljevtu, ed. Mahin Hambly
(Tehran, 1348/1969) and 'Ard'is al-jawdhir wa-naJf'is al-atad'ib, ed.
Iraj Afshair (Tehran, 1345/1962). The section on ceramics (pp.
339-47) has also been published and translated into German by
H. Ritter, J. Ruska, F. Sarre and R. Winderlich, Orientalische
Steinbiicherund Persische Fayencetechnik(Istanbul, 1935), and further
translated into English by James Allen, "Abu 'l-Qaisim's Treatise
on Ceramics", Iran, XI (1973), pp. 111-20. The family genealogy
in A Surverof PersianArt (hereafter SPA), ed. A. U. Pope and
Phyllis Ackerman (Oxford and New York, 1939), p. 1666, needs to
be updated. When at Natanz, Abu 'l-Qasim's brother, Izz al-l)in,
Mahmfid, composed the Sufi treatise Misbdhal-hiddvawa-miftaih
al-kiJiva, introd. and ed. Jalil al-Din Humrn'i (Tehran, 1365/
1946).
5Ed. and tr. Josef von Hammer-Purgstall (Vienna, 1856) (vol. I
only) and ed. Mahdi Isfahani (Tehran, 1338/1959). Wassafs
prose is so florid that even Persians find it difficult to read; hence
'Abd al-Muhammad Ayati has edited an abridged edition,
Tahrir-iTdrikh-iWasseif(Tehran, 1346/1967).
6See EF, art. "Hamd Allfih b. Abi Bakr b. Ahmad b. Nasr
al-Mustawfi al-Kazvini" (Bertold Spuler); TheGeographical Part oJ
the Nuzhat al-Qul-b, ed. and tr. G. Le Strange, GMS, XXIII
(Leiden, 1915-16); and Nuzhat al-qulzib,ed. M. Dabir-Siyaqi
(Tehran, 1336/1958).
7Ed. Abfi Hasan Shacrani (Tehran, 1377/1957, 3 vols.), II, pp.
257-8.
8 EF, art.
"Banaikiti(W. Bartold-H. Masse); Tdrikh-iBandkati,ed.
JacfarShucair (Tehran, 1348/1969), p. 475.
9 , art.
EI2 "Hfifiz-i Abrfi (F. Tauer). Section H of the MajmS'awas
edited by KhainbabSiBayaini, Dhayl-i Jdmi' al-tawadrikh-i Rashdif,
2nd ed. (Tehran, 1350/1972), and partially translated, Chronique
desRois Mongolsen Iran (Paris, 1936).
10Ahmad b. Muhammad Fasihi Khwhfi, Mujmal-iFasihi, 3 vols., ed.
 THE MONGOL CAPITAL OF SULTANIYYA,
Mahmud Farrukh (Mashhad, 1239-41/1962-63), III, pp.
13-14; Mucin al-Din Natanzi, Muntakhabal-tawdrikh-iMuc'nm,ed.
Aubin (Tehran, 1336/1957), pp. 154-5; cAbd al-RazzasqSamar-
qandi, Matla,-i sacdayn wa-majmaca-ibahrayn, ed. cAbd al-
Husayn Nava'i (Tehran, 1353/1975), p. 101; Mir Muhammad b.
Nasir Khwandshah, known as Mirkhwand, Tarikh-iRawdat al-
10 vols. (Tehran, 1339/1960-1), V, pp. 427-8; Ghiyath
saj~',
al-Din b. Humam al-Din al-Husayn, known as Khwandamir,
Habfbal-siydr,4 vols., ed. M. Dabir-Siyaqi (Tehran, 1333/1954-
5), III, pp. 196-7. These Ilkhanid and Timurid sources were used
by more recent European historians, who included descriptions of
Sultaniyya in their histories of the Mongols: see, for example, J.
von Hammer-Purgstall, Geschichte derIlchane,2 vols. (Darmstadt,
1841-3), II, pp. 185-7, or M. d'Ohsson, HistoiredesMongolsdepuis
TchinguizKhanjusqu'cTimourBeyou Tamerlane, 4 vols. (The Hague
and Amsterdam, 1834-5), IV, pp. 485-7.
1 Sir Henry Yule, CathayandtheWayThither,2 vols., Hakluyt Society,
XXXVI-XXXVII (London, 1866), pp. 49-50.
12 Ibid., p. 49, n. 3. A report written ca. 1330 by one archbishop,
probablyJohn de Cora, on the Yuan Dynasty under the Mongols,
has been preserved (English tr., pp. 238-50).
3 Embassyto Tamerlane, 1403-1406,tr. Le Strange (London, 1928), pp.
158-64.
1 Travelsof Venetians in Persia, ed. C. Grey, Hakluyt Society, XLIX
(London, 1873), pp. 68-9, 128-9.
'5 Istanbul University Library Yildiz T 5964. Facs. edn. with introd.
by H. G. Yurdaydin, Beydn-imendzil-isefer-i Irakeyn-iSultanSiiley-
mdn Hdn (Ankara, 1976). A. Gabriel, "Les etapes d'une cam-
paigne dans les deux "Irak", Syria, IX (1929), pp. 328-49, first
called attention to the art-historical importance of the miniatures.
W. Denny, "A Sixteenth Century Architectural Plan of Istanbul",
AO, VIII (1970), pp. 49-64, discusses Matraqi's plan of Istanbul
and the usefulness of his illustrations. N. Johnson, "The Urban
World of the Matriqi Manuscript",JNES, XXX (1971), pp. 159-
67, analyses the manuscript as a source for Near Eastern
urbanism.
16Paul'Jovius (Giovio), Dell' istoriadelsuotempo(Florence, 1550-53),
repr. in his Opera,I, pt. 14, p. 317; Pietro Bizzarus, Persicarum rerum
historiain XII librosdescripta(Antwerp, 1583), p. 402.
17Della Valle, Lesfijameux voyagesde Pietrodella Valle,4 vols. (Paris,
1663-70);, II, pp. 446-50; Olearius, The Voyagesand travelsof the
ambassadors sentbyFrederick dukeofHolsteintothegreatDukeofMuscovy
andtheKingofPersia(London, 1662), pp. 250-2; Struys, Les Voyages
deJean Struysen Moscovie,en Tartarie,en Perse,aux Index,et enplusiers
autresPais itrangers(Amsterdam, 1681), pp. 288-9; Chardin, The
travelsof Sir John Chardininto Persia and the East Indies (London,
1686), pp. 375-77, and Voyages demonsieur le chevalierChardinenPerse
et autreslieux de l'Orient, 10 vols. (Paris, 1811), II, pp. 378-9; le
Bruyn, ReizenoverMoscoviedoorPersie(Amsterdam, 1714), p. 125;
Bell, Travelsfrom St. Petersburgh in Russia to variousparts of Asia, 2
vols. (Edinburgh, 1788), I, p. 99. Sir Roger Stevens gives a
delightful introduction to these characters in "European Visitors
to the Safavid Court", StudiesonIsfahan,ed. Renata Holod, Iranian
Studies,VII (1974), pp. 421-57.J. M. Rogers gives a more critical
art historical perspective in "From Antiquarianism to Islamic
Archaeology", Quadernidell'IstitutoItalianodi Culturaperla R.A.E.,
n.s. II (Cairo, 1974), pp. 37-43.
18J. Morier, A JourneythroughPersia,Armenia,andAsia Minorto Con-
stantinoplein theyears1808and1809 (London, 1812), pp. 257-9; Ker
Porter, Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, ancient Babylon ... during
theyears 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820, 2 vols. (London, 1821-2), I, pp.
275-80. On Fath Shih's summer camp, see Hambly, op. cit.
"All
'9 La Perse (Paris, 1841), p. 27 and pls. 29-34.
20 de Hell, Voyageen Turquie et en Perse exdcutdpar ordre du government
frangais pendant des annoes1846,1847, et 1848, 4 vols. (Paris, 1854-60),
III, pp. 95-7.
21 Texier, Description de l'Armenie, la Perse, et la Mesopotamie, 3 vols.
(Paris, 1842-52), II, p. 76 and pl. XLII; Flandin and Coste, Voyage
en Perse, 2 vols. (Paris, 1851-4), I, pp. 202-4 and pls. XI-XII;
"THE IMPERIAL" 149
Jane Dieulafoy, La Perse, la Chaldie, et la Susiane (Paris, 1887), pp.
88-92; M. Dieulafoy, "Mausol&e de Chah Khoda-bend&", Rivue
Gendrale de l'Architecture et des Travaux Publiques, 4th ser. vol. XL
(1883), pp. 97-104, 145-51, 193-7, 241-3; Sarre, Denkmciler per-
sischer Baukunst, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1901-10), p. 16 and pls. XIII-
XIV.
22Nuzha, ed. Dabir-Siyaqi, p. 60.
23Clavijo, p. 158; Barbaro, p. 68.
24 Olearius, p. 250; Struys, p. 289, Le Bruyn, p. 173.
25p. 162.
26 Pp. 190-1. The name of the site is unclear. Other Timurid histo-
rians who repeat Hafiz-i Abrui's information vary the name: cAbd
al-Razzaq Samarqandi (p. 101) gives Shariyaz; Fasihi Khwafi
(III, p. 46) gives Shahr-i Nazak and tells us that Mirain Shah
destroyed it and that Abui Sacid's body was then moved near that
of his father in the qal'a at Sulttniyya. Presumably this infor-
mation was the source of Minorsky's report in his article
"Sulttniya" in EI' that the old Persian name of the canton was
Shahruyaz.
27On Sham, see D. Wilber, The Architectureof Islamic Iran: the Ilkhanid
Period (Princeton, 1955), no. 27, pp. 124-6, and on the Rabc-i
Rashidi, see Sheila S. Blair, "Ilkhanid Architecture and Society:
an Analysis of the Endowment Deed of the Rabc-i Rashidi", Iran,
XXI (1983). In view of the eponymous nature of these tomb cities,
one wonders if the site of Abui Sacidiyya, known only from coins
minted under Abui Sa-id (eadem, "The Coins of the Later
Ilkhanids: Mint Organization, Regionalization and Urbanism",
AmericanNumismatic Society Museum Notes 27 (1982), p. 224) refers to
this suburb of Sulttniyya.
28Topkapi Saray H2154, fol. 107a. R. Ettinghausen, "Persian
Ascension Miniatures", Accademia dei Lincei (Rome,
Nazionale
1957), pp. 373-6, argued that on the basis of the river and shape of
the minaret, the city must be Constantinople and that the minia-
ture represented an apocalyptic vision of the forthcoming con-
quest of the city; but elsewhere I suggested that a simpler
explanation was the founding of an imperial city by a Mongol
sovereign (Blair, "The Epigraphic Program of the Tomb of
Uljaitu at SultFniyya", Islamic Art, II (forthcoming)).
29 Voyageen Perse fait dans les annies 1807, 1808 et 1809, 2 vols. (Paris,
1819). II, p. 212, cited in Hambly, "A Note on Sultaniych", p. 90
and n. 24.
3oWilber, no. 80, p. 175; A. Godard, "Le tombeau de Mawlhinfi
Hasan Kaishi a Sultfiniyb", Arts Asiatiques, I (1954), pp. 23-39.
~' Godard, ibid.,
inscription A. His translation is essentially correct,
except that the phrase "shaykh of shaykhs of waqfi" should read
"shaykh of shaykhs of the world".
32 Tdrikh-i Oleyti, p. 70, year 706; Bandikati, p. 475, gives the year
707; Fasihi, Khwifi, III, p. 16, the year 707.
33 ilber, no. 68, pp. 161-2.
34 Godard, op. cit., pp. 33-4 and fig. 15; L. Massignon, Mission en
Misopotamie, Mem. de l'Institut Frangais d'Archeologie
Orientale, XXXI (Cairo, 1912), pp. 5-26.
35Tr. in Godard, op. cit., p. 35. Similarly, in the endowment text
around the walls of the sanctuary in the congregational mosque at
Qazvin, the Seljuq governor Khumartish enumerated other
donations, including a grant to the poor in Medina, a small
convent in Mecca, and the like (J. Sourdel-Thomine, "Inscrip-
tions seljoukides et salles 'a coupoles de Qazwin en Iran", REI,
XLII (1974), pp. 3-43.
36 On Bastim, see Wilber, no. 28, pp. 127-8, and Blair, "The
Inscription from the Tomb Tower at Bastim: an Analysis of
Ilkhanid Epigraphy", Art et societi dans le monde Iranien, ed.
Chahryar Adle (Paris, 1982), pp. 263-86; on Rashid al-Din's
tomb, see eadem, "Endowment deed of the Rabc-i Rashidl".
37 Basic description in Mustawfi, Nuzha, ed. Dabir-Siyiqi, p. 59, and
Hafiz-i Abril, p. 68 (repeated in Mirkhbnd, V, p. 427 and Khwtn-
damir, III, pp. 196-7).
38 Tdrfkh-i Oljeytii, p. 46.
39P. 158.
150 JOURNAL OF PERSIAN
4oMorier, p. 259: Ker Porter, I, p. 279.
4~ Nuzha, ed. Dabir-Siyaqi, p. 59.
42 Blair, "Mint Organization", p. 223. Mehdi Bahrami, Recherches sur
les carreauxde revetment lustri (Paris, 1937), p. 105 and pl. 47a. He
notes that the lion-sun motif already appeared on the coins of the
Seljuq ruler Kaykhusraw b. Qubad and on a mid-thirteenth
century lustre tile, as well as on a Timurid copy of an Ilkhanid
flag. He felt, however, that this symbol could not represent the
sign of Leo as the form of the sun, half-hidden behind the lion, was
not comparable with the round planet which is considered above
the lion among the other constellations.
In fact, the lion-sun motif represents Leo ascendant, an identi-
fication confirmed by two other copper coins from Sultfiniyya.
The reverse of one, formerly in the Saxe-Cobourg collection, has a
sun in the centre surrounded by the legend "Scorpio is the ascen-
dant of the year 713". A larger one in Leningrad has a scorpion in
the centre surrounded by the legend "in the months of 713"
(Philippe de Saxe-Cobourg, "Une medaille commemorative de la
fondation et de l'achivement de la ville de Sultanije (1305-1313)"
CongresInternationalNumismatique(Brussels, 1891), pp. 277-90).
Banfikati (p. 475) tells us that Oljeytii founded the city of
Sultfiniyya during the months of 704 and made it his capital under
the ascendance of Scorpio, referring to Oljeytui'sdedication of the
city in 713.
Zodiacal symbols were also used on Ilkhanid architecture.
According to Wassfif, each of the twelve sides of Ghiza-n's tomb
was decorated with a sign of the zodiac (Wilber, no. 27, pp. 124-
6).
43Olearius, p. 250; Struys, p. 288.
44Morier, p. 259; Ker Porter, I, p. 279; see also Hambly, "A Note on
Sultaniye', p. 90 and n. 17.
45 P. Sanpaolesi, "La cupola di Santo Maria del Fiore ed il mausoleo
di Soltanieh", MAitteilungen des KunsthistorischenInstitutesin Florenz,
XV1/3 (1972), fig. 16.
46Basic description by Godard, "The Mausoleum of Oljeitui at
Sultfiniya", SPA, pp. 1103-18, and Wilber, no. 47, pp. 139-41.
47P. 68; MirkhwZind,V, p. 428; Khwaindamir, Ill, p. 196; Haiji
Khalifa, Jahan-numa(Constantinopole, 1145/1732), p. 232.
48On the problem of the gaz, see Wilber, pp. 44-5. His discussion on
the Ilkhanid gaz on p. 125 is based on a misunderstanding of
Hammer-Purgstall. Wassatf did not use these dimensions, but
rather the Ottoman historian Hiiiji Khalifa, who simply copied
the figures from Hfifiz-i Abru but applied them to different dimen-
sions. U. Harb, "Ilkhanidische Stalaktitengewolbe", AMI,
Erganzungsband 4 (Berlin, 1978) Section 4.1.3, found that
Ilkhanid brick and ceramic revetment used a 21 cm. span and
42 cm. double-span.
Units of measure also differed regionally. While most authors
record the area of the Sultfiniyya qaltaas 500 gaz square, Fasihi
Khwffl tells us that on the exterior the qadlameasured 92 jarfb,
3,2601 gaz and on the interior 74?sjarfbharawl,with onejarfb equal
to 60 by 60 gaz or 3,500 square gaz (III, p. 14). If we compare his
measurement for the interior area of the qalla (268,200 square gaz)
with that given by other authors (250,000 square gaz), then his
Herati gaz was some 3% smaller than the usually cited.
9 Pp. 68-9. I have modified the spelling andgaz grammar used in the
1873 edition. These grilles are also mentioned by H?ifiz-i Abruf
(who gives dimensions of 30 by 15 arash, p. 68), della Valle (p.
449), Olearius (pp. 250-1), Struys (p. 288), and Bell (p. 99). The
seventeenth-century travellers argued over whether the grilles
were of steel or bronze (see Rogers, "Antiquarianism", p. 39).
50 Ex-Royal Asiatic Society, fol. 37b. Illustrated in B. Gray, "The
World History of Rashfd al-Dfn": a Stud)' of the Royal Asiatic Society_
Manuscript (London, 1978), pl. 27.
51Blair, "Rabr-i Rashidi".
52 Colour illustrations in Rogers, The Spread oflslam (Oxford, 1976),
pp. 101-6. See also Sourdel-Thomine and Spuler, Die Kunst des
Islam, Propylien Kunst-Geschichte, Band 4 (Berlin, 1973), no.
294, pp. 326-9.
STUDIES
53D. M. Donaldson, "Significant Mihrabs in the Haram at Mash-
had", Ars Islamica, 1I (1935), pp. 118-27.
54 P. 449.
55E.g. the Imaimzada Yahya- at Varamin or the tomb ofShaykh ,Abd
al-Samad at Natanz (Wilber, nos. 11, pp. 109-11, and 39, pp. 133-
4).
56 Tdrfkh-i Oljevti, p. 47; della Valle, p. 448; Sarre, p. 20.
15Olearius, p. 251; Struys. p. 289.
58P. 99.
59A Journevfrom India to England throughPersia, Georgia, Russia, Poland,
and Prussia in theyear 1817 (London, 1818), p. 84, cited in Hambly,
op. cit., p. 91 and n. 32.
60 H. O. Fleischer and F. Delitzsch, Catalogus civitatis Lipsiensis asser-
vantur, codices orientalium linguarum (Grimma, 1838), p. 352;
M.Ph.W. Schulz, Die persisch-islamische Miniaturmalerei (Leipzig,
1914), pp. 94-9; Ettinghausen, "Manuscript Illumination", SPA,
p. 1954, n. 1(3).
61 G. F6hervari, Islamic Metalwork of the Eighth to the Fifteenth Centuryin
the Keir Collection London, 1976), no. 132, colour pl. J; SPA, pl.
1357; Et. Combe, Gaston Wiet and Jean Sauvaget (eds.), Rdper-
toire chronologiqued'ipigraphie arabe (Cairo, 1936 ff.), nos. 5376-8.
62Persian Art (Lisbon, 1972), no. 4. Shams al-Din was the son-in-law
of Rashid al-Din. In one of his letters (no. 33, Mukatibat-i
Rashdfl
ed. M. Shaft" (Lahore, 1364/1948), and tr. A. I. Falina, Peripiska
(Moscow, 1971), p. 229 Rashid al-Din mentions that he had
appointed Khwaija Shams al-Din Husayn DIamghfini, a descen-
dant ofQaibbis and 'Ali' al-Din, to Huwayza (a small city five days
journey from Kifa--see Dorothea Krawulsky, Iran-das Reich der
Ilhane. 7bopographisch-historische Studie, TAVO() Beihefte B17
(Weisbaden, 1978), p. 352). According to Kiishaini (p. 167) Shams
al-D)in Husayn Daimghalni died in Baghdad on Sunday, 8 Dhu' 1-
Hijja 714 (15 March, 1315). In 736/1336, when Shavkh Hasan
Buzurg defeated Musai and installed Muhammad Khlin on the
Ilkhanid throne, he chose as vizier Shams al-lin's son Jalil
al-Dlin/Shams al-l)in Zakariyyi" (Abuf Bakr al-Ahari, 7arfkh-i
Shavkh :uavs, ed. and tr.J. B van Loon (The Hague, 1954), p. 162;
Hafiz-i AbrO, p. 199; Fasiti Khwfil, III, p. 49; 'Abd al-Razz-iq
Samarqandi, p. 133; Spiuler, Die Mongolen in Iran (Berlin, 1968), p.
288).
63 P. 258.
64 T?rTkh i
Oljeytii, pp. 47-8.
65The Ghaizainiyya is illustrated in a fifteenth-century manuscript
(see Wilber, no. 27, pp. 124-6 and pl. 31); the Rashidiyya has been
reconstructed on the basis of its endowment deed (see Blair,
"Rab'-i Rashidi").
66T'hese excavations are mentioned by Marco Brambilla, "Sul-
tanich-Aspects of the Foundation of the Town", III,
Soltani•e
Quadernidel Seminario de Iranistica, Uralo-Altaistica e Caucasologia dell'
Universita'degli Studi de Venezia. III (Venice, 1982), pp. 63-9.
67Wilber, nos. 74, 75, 77, etc.
68Ibid., pl. 31.
69See above, n. 52.
70Lisa Golombek and D. Wilber's forthcoming survey of Timurid
architecture should treat these monuments in detail. Meanwhile
plans are most readily available in J. Hoag, Islamic Architecture
(New York, 1976).
71SPA, fig. 403.
72See Rogers, Spread of Islam, pp. 102-4, where plans of both build-
ings are available.
73See, for example, Godard, in SPA, p. 1105; repeated in Little,
"Founding of Sultfiniyya", p. 172.
74Tadrkh-i Oljevtii, p. 46; Mustawfi, Nuzha, ed. Dabir-Siyaqi, p. 60;
mentions subterranean canals and
al-"Umarl (Arabic text, p. 86)
Yfisufi talks of baths and canals into which ran large amounts of
water (tr. in Little, op. cit., p. 173).
75Friar Odoric in Yule, p. 49; Clavijo, p. 161; Barbaro, p. 69.
76della Valle, p. 448; Olearius, p. 251; Struys, p. 289.
77Olearius, p. 251; also mentioned in Struys, p. 289.
78
Blair, "Rabc-i Rashidi".
 THE MONGOL CAPITAL OF SULTANIYYA, "THE IMPERIAL" 151

79/Talkhis/ Majma' al-adabfi mujam al-alqdb, IV, ed. Mustafa Jawad hall.
90
(Damascus, 1962 fl:), no. 1707, II, p. 1142. Tdrfkh-i Oljeytii, p. 46.
80 On the term rawda, see Blair, op. cit. It was the term used for ,1 Wassaof, p. 477; Yuisufi and Nuwayri, tr. in Little, pp. 171, 173;
Oljeytii's tomb in the endowment of a Qur'an (Fleischer, p. 352). cUmari, Arabic text, p. 86.
81 Tdrikh-i Olje?vti,p. 37; see also Wassaif's panegyric poem about the 9 Clavijo, pp. 159-60.
?1 Op. cit.,
founding of Sultaniyya (p. 477). p. 136.
82Golombek, "From Tamerlane to the Taj Mahal", Essays in Islamic "' Pp. 68-9; repeated in Mirkhwand, V, p. 487.
Art and Architecture in Honor of Katharina Otto-Dorn, ed. Abbas i" Waqfnama-yi Rab,-i RashidI, ed. Afshar and M. Minovi (Tehran,
Daneshvari (Malibu, 1981), pp. 43-50. 1356/1978), p. 241; in his letters, Rashid al-Din also mentions his
83Amuli, p. 258; Kaishani, Tdrikh-i Oljevti, p. 48, mentions copious madrasa and khanaqah and his hospital (Mukatibat-i Rash idf, nos.
mosques, zewivas, and buildings without end; H?ifiz-i Abruf, p. 68. 33,36).
81 None of these three sources is satisfactory by itself. Matraiqi's view 91,Fasihi, III, p. 44.
gives the best idea of the main components of the mosque but is 97Op. cit., p. 122.
stereoscoped. Olearius (pp. 251-2) and Struys (p. 289) attribute 98Ibid., p. 178.
the mosque to Shaih The French engravers obviously 99Tr. in Little, p. 173.
Ismai'il. 100Ibn 'Arabshaih, 'Ajd'ib al-maqdurfi nawd'ib Timur, tr. J. H. Saun-
touched up the original drawings from the Gardane mission:
compare, for example, the different details in the engraving pub- ders, in Tamerlane (London, 1936), pp. 285-6; V. V. Bartol'd, Four
lished in Rogers, Spread of Islam, p. 21, with Dubeux, pl. 33, Studies on the History of Central Asia, III, Ulugh Beg, tr. Minorsky
reproduced here as pl. Vb. They may well have combined various (Leiden, 1966). p. 41; El', art. (Minorsky).
"Sul.tfniya"
units into imaginary complexes. Morier (p. 259) and Ker Porter '01 Rogers, "Evidence for Mamluk-Mongol Relations, 1260-1360",
(II, p. 280) also mention the ruins of the mosque. Colloque international sur l'histoire du Caire (Cairo, 1969); the Oljeytii
85Haifiz-i Abrfi, p. 68; Olearius, pp. 251-2; Struys, p. 289. Koran is now in the Cairo National Library; Lisa Golombek has
86Sharafal-Din cAll Yazdi, Zafar-nama, tr. Petis de la Croix, Histoire suggested the hajj caravan in a lecture at Harvard University in
de Timour Bec (Paris, 1722), III, p. 178; Nizaim al-Din Shaimi, the spring of 1982.
Z afar-nama, ed. F. Tauer (Prague, 1937), pp. 211-12. Rogers 102Rogers, ibid.; Layla Ibrahim, "Four Cairo Mihrabs and their
already noted this relationship (Spread of Islam, p. 21). Dating", Kunst des Orients, VII (1970-1), pp. 130-9.
87P. 68; repeated by Mirkhwaind (V, p. 427), except that the word 103 Illustrated in Eleanor Sims, "The Internal Decoration of the
Mausoleum of Oljeitu Khudabanda: a Preliminary Re-examin-
awdn replaces suffa; D'Ohsson, IV, p. 487; if we assume that the
gaz equals 42 cm., then the court would have been 42 m. square. ation", Soltaniye III, fig. 7.
88A. Bombaci, The Kufic Inscription in Persian Versesin the Court of the 104M. Meinecke, "Die Mamlukischen Fayencemosaikdekorationen:
Royal Palace ofMasuid III at Ghazni (Rome, 1966; D. Schlumberger eine Werkstatt aus Tabriz in Kairo (1330-1350)", Kunst des
and Sourdel-Thomine, Lashkar-i Bazaar, 3 vols., MDAFA, XVIII Orients, XI (1976-7), pp. 85-144.
(Paris, 1978). 1o0Ibid.
106Itself an import of a Persian
89Clavijo, p. 208; Baibur (Bibur-nama, tr. A. S. Beveridge (London, plan: J. Bloom, "The Mosque of
repr. 1969), I, p. 85) describes Timur's palace at Kish as a large Baybars al-Bunduqdairi in Cairo", Annales Islamologiques, XVIII
tdq flanked by smaller tdqs and other rooms around an audience (1982), pp. 45-78.