Salmiya

“You might see here landscapes you have never seen before.” My young friend Mojtaba, who had been waiting in vain for my return to Kashan in 2006, had emailed me pictures he had taken with other Westerners on trips to the desert and the Daryacheh Namak, the great salt lake northeast to the small desert city. That time, I couldn’t get a visa to Iran. I was still living in Kuwait and officers at the Iranian Embassy were not really friendly then. International tensions about Iran’s nuclear program, I had assumed. When traveling to Esfahan this year, I planned a stopover in Kashan. I didn’t meet Mojtaba, but made new friends. Hami and his twin sister Hoda took me to Dasht-e Kavir, and in fact, I saw breathtaking sceneries very much different from the desert in Kuwait. Dasht-e Kavir, the northern desert of Iran’s two major deserts (the other is Dasht-e Lut), is huge. It stretches about 800 km from west to east and is 350 km wide, making up altogether more than 77’000 square kilometers. We s...

Today, on the Day of Ashura, grieving for Imam Husayn culminates in Iran and other Shi’a communities with bloody rites. I have reported about the sad events in Karbala in 61 AH elsewhere on this blog . The first ten days of Muharram people in Iran prepare for the holiday. Black flags and banners with Abol Fas, Husayn, Ali are sold, and stalls in the bazaar decorated for the mourning. Religious songs proclaiming ‘Ya Husayn!’ were heard everywhere. I attended several Hosseiniyehs , one on my trip to Nain. In Esfahan, every night, in a tent people gathered in front of the Masjed Shah. Interesting, but plenty of basij and hundreds chador -wearing women created an atmosphere of, in fact, subliminal menace. These events were completely organized, plenty of buses took the participants later home. Last Friday, nation-wide demonstrations against the incredible atrocities of Israel to the people in the Gaza strip reached Esfahan with almost a thousand basij and pasdaran entering the maidaan...

Restaurants in Iran are often disappointing. Penetrating neon light illumination, furniture as borrowed from the next railway station, very few locals. And only kebabs in numerous varieties. I know that more sophisticated dishes are prepared at private homes. Something like fesenjun , one of my favorites: chicken breast in a thick but juicy sauce made from grated walnut and pomegranate sirup. Dizzi appears sometimes on the card but is not always available. It is the perfect meal for the numerous older men in Iran with hardly more than certain single teeth left in the mouth. You might easily eat it even if edentulous. What is it? Take a chunk of fatty mutton (better lamb) and cook a soup together with peas, onions, and potatoes in an iron pot in the oven. Then serve it firy hot together with a fitting mortar, a metal bowl, and Iranian bread, nan . But how to eat this stew? You won't believe it, but first pour the soup (without the ingredients) into the bowl and add pieces of nan ....

Flags in a renovated 'traditional house' in Esfahan/Iran.

Bam was hit by an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.6 early in the morning of December 26, 2003. First, the death toll was assumed to be beyond 80'000, but the official number of casulaties was given as 56'000, and the latest estimates were about 26'000. See the official website of the movie Bam 6.6 here .

For the second time since 2006/07 I am spending Christmas and New Year in Iran. The last time, I joined a group of Kuwaiti pilgrims who visited the city of Mashhad on a pilgrimage to Imam Reza’s holy shrine. For me, it was a time of spirituality, good feelings, great Iranian and Kuwaiti hospitality, friendship, adventures, new insights in the semi-tribal life of the Baluchi people, and so much more. And, of course, an inevitable but failed attempt of an Iraqi Seyyed of converting me to Islam. I have reported about this wonderful, in fact even miraculous, journey to Khorasan in the northeastern corner of Iran somewhere else in my blog . The Astan-e Qods Razavi was, by the way, decorated and illuminated because of Eid-e Ghorban . That Saddam had been hanged in Baghdad early in the morning added, of course to the overall happiness of Kuwaitis, and Iranians as well. This year, I hope to participate in the Christmas mass in Esfahan’s marvelous Vank Cathedral in the Armenian Quarter. Among t...

Masjed-e Vakil , close to one of the entrances of the bazaar-e vakil , was built in 1773 by Shiraz’ wise and modest ruler Karim Khan. Most of its decoration, though, was added in the later Qajar period. It is one of Shiraz’ gems. The colors interchange between light blue, pink, red and yellow and floral motifs predominate. The mosque expresses a serene but cheerful, almost Mediterranean, atmosphere. The stained glass windows yield incredible plays of light in the alcoves and porches surrounding the courtyard.