Salmiya

I have visited northwestern Iran in 2005, just after the election of current Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I stayed only 72 hours or so and went on to Mashhad but, as usual when in Iran, I have met a couple of nice people there, in particular Dawoud and Alireza, who didn’t mind to show me around. So, I had the opportunity of having a ride to Daryacheh Orumiyeh and another to Kandovan. I have reported on these trips here and here on this blog. That memories lasted long was partly due to the purchase of a very nice small Shirvan rug for my own tiny gallery. Its owner Dawoud, a very knowledgeable carpet collector and honorable dealer in Tabriz, was rather reluctant to sell it to me since he had it in his own flat for 20 years. I knew at that time already that Shirvan was a region in Azerbaijan in Transcaucasia. Buying that small rug didn’t make me a collector, though. The people, exotic places, adventures, and the circumstances of finding collectibles in original places, the ...

In Tabriz , Dawoud told me that he had got some back problems recently which he was trying to cure in regular trips to Daryacheh Orumiyeh, a huge (6000 square kilometers) super-salty lake in the northwestern corner of Iran. It is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, about 50 km west of the capital of the Azerbaijan province, Tabriz. There is a special worm living in the water, called Artimasalema . Its remains become over time, a sort of tar which is said to heal rheumatism and other ailing of the joints. When doing the trip twice a week or so, Dawoud always had a bucket and brought some of the tar to his home in Tabriz. Dawoud suggested that I join him and Alireza for an afternoon trip to the site when the bazaar was closed. He drove his old BMW and we had a great time. Unfortunately, the lens of my camera was a bit dirty, what I noticed only when at home. So, some of the pictures have a very old-fashioned ‘paper print touch’. We approached the lake by passing a huge white and glitzy salt dese...

Our ultimate internet carpet expert, Barry O’Connell, has informed us lately that the great bazaar of Tabriz is eventually being registered as a global heritage site. I visited Tabriz a couple of weeks after the presidential elections in the hot summer of 2005. The bazaar is very similar to others in the region, although definitely larger. Its entrance is at the Masjed-e Jomeh, a mosque dating back to the Seljuqs but has been restored in later centuries. As usual in Iran’s busy bazaars, you will quickly get lost in the labyrinthine ‘guts’ of the city. The 35 km of covered bazaar often sports brick-vaulted passages and small caravanserais. There are special areas for carpet sales and sooner or later you may end up there with chay and discussions. A young carpet dealer, Alireza, who had a small shop in the main bazaar, wanted to introduce me to his, say, in a way godfather, Mr. Dawoud, a real gentleman, as he told me, who helped him to establish his small business and educated him as a...