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sites and occurred in the 19th and early 20th century and into the present. Scholar Tomoko Masuya details the looting surrounding the Middle East as occurring in two parts. She asserts that many
Persian tiles such as the ones at Imamzadeh Yahya were stolen from 1862/63-1875 and 1881-1900. According to Masuya, the tiles from Imamzadeh Yahya were stolen during the first phase of 1862/63-1875 where they were systematically removed and sold throughout Europe and the United States. Although some pieces still survive today, for example, the Mihrab from the shrine of luster tiles is at the Shrine Museum in Mashhad.
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The large, pale indent in the wall where the mihrab once stood is often adorned by printed and drawn signs made by local visitors. Some are tilted right to indicate the direction of Mecca, or explain in text that worshippers should angle themselves twenty degrees. Another sign describes the genealogy
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tiles, highly prized mediums of the time that required valuable materials and cultivated skill to produce. The stucco decoration, which is still extant, includes text that wraps around the wall at the viewer’s eye level. It begins with the Qur’an 62:1–4, “glorifying God, His
Messenger, and His Sacred
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and invested heavily in the
Imamzadeh, as he also shared heritage with Hasan ibn Ali. The tomb was constructed using extravagant, valuable materials and incorporates architectural elements that facilitate worship. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, tiles from the Imamzadeh Yahya were looted, and
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The
Imamzadeh Yahya is regarded as the most important Imamzadeh in Varamin county and has been the focus of renovation within the past few years alongside many other urban shrines. The courtyard is used commonly by locals as park space for picnics, and some visit the graves of family members
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As of 2020, historian Dr. Keelan
Overton suggests, the tiles are spread around the world in 30 museums, in cities such as Doha, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi, London, Oxford, Paris, Glasgow, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and probably even Tehran. Looting is common in many Middle Eastern sacred
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Visitors have added and maintained additional decorations to the space. Fairy lights and garlands hang on the walls. The cenotaph holds a mirror, candlesticks, and a Quran. Visitors place paper bills around the floor. Textile elements such as carpets and pillows decorate the space and serve a
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Local residents actively pray at the
Imamzadeh Yahya, and an attendant of the tomb is present to greet visitors. Worshippers who visit the tomb interact with the zarih by touching it, kissing it, praying against it, offering money through the holes in the screen, and adorning it.
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who have been buried there. It is also used as a general event space. Varamin officials have made efforts to promote the site’s historical significance, which appeals to locals as well as tourists. In 2015, the
Imamzadeh was a pilgrimage destination for the observance of
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designs. There are calligraphic inscription columns on both sides of these panels, which are themselves bordered by another set of pilasters supporting a gabled arch. The whole composition is enclosed in calligraphic inscriptions with a stylized floral edge.
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believers regard
Imamzadeh Yahya’s personality as resonant in the tomb, meaning that prayers performed in the space are likely to yield positive outcomes. This reputation has attracted the attendance of many Afghan immigrants who have moved to Varamin.
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functional use for visitors. Also present are filled bookshelves, mirrors, framed artwork, and flowers. Prayer stones made with sacred soil of
Karbala are available for Shi’a prayer. One’s forehead must touch these stones as they prostrate themselves.
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Today, the site can reached off the
Varamin-Tehran highway and the tomb enclosure is entered on the northern side. The exterior of the Imamzadeh is rectangular with a domed roof, enclosed by a low brick wall. At the entrance of the tomb is a
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and includes calligraphy across the top that announces the site as the “Holy Shrine of Emamzadeh Yahya.” After passing through the portal, one arrives in a cemetery filled with tombstones that stand parallel to the
306:. Green fabric is attached to the zarih and divides the space on the right and left for men and women respectively. The luster cover for the cenotaph was created with the most expensive glazed ceramic of the time.
760:"Persian Lustre Ware, by Oliver Watson. (Faber Monographs on Pottery and Porcelain.) 209 pages, index, bibliography, appendixes, map, 148 black-and-white, 16 color plates. Faber and Faber, London1985. ,£48"
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of Imamzadeh Yahya. On either side of the void is a collage of four images that includes views of the entire complex and photographs of the tomb’s tiles on display. However, during holidays like
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The Imamzadeh Yahya has been looted over the last 100 years and the tiles are now spread throughout the world in museums. For example, a set of 160 tiles from the tomb is now in the
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624:"Donald N. WILBER, The Architecture of Islamic Iran. The Il Khānid Period, I vol. in-4°, 208 p., 217 pl. et 60 fig., Princeton (Princeton University Press), 1955"
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period, had flat interior niches and contained a blue plaster mihrab. The portal and arcades were built during the period of Seljuk rule but no longer exist.
299:. The tiles were produced in a variety of shapes to decoratively fill the interior wall space, utilizing interlocking “star and cross” forms along the dado.
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810:. Thomas Mellins, Donald Albrecht, Deborah Pope, Linda Komaroff, Tim Street-Porter, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. New York. 2012.
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many are located today in museums around the world. Local residents and tourists pray at the site and use the courtyard as an event space.
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259:. Apart from the main entrance portal, there is a southern gate to the site that is approached from the neighborhood street.
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arches above a cursive inscription panel. The trefoil arches are surrounded by a cursive band. Surrounding these panels are
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inscriptions along the gables of the arch. Within the portals of the trefoil arch and gabled arch, as well as in their
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leading to a mosque and an octagonal tower with a conical roof. The octagonal tower, thought to be built before the
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wall, which once was decorated with 50-60 handmade tiles. These tiles were commissioned from master ceramicists in
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Overton, Keelan; Maleki, Kimia. "The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin: A Present History of a Living Shrine, 2018–20".
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Presently, the qibla in the Imamzadeh Yahya is without a mihrab. The tiles are currently on display at the
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province when Varamin had been its capital. Fakhr al-Din was the protegé of the fourth Ilkhanate ruler
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period between 1260 and 1310. It had multiple patrons including Fakhr al-Din, the local ruler of the
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Doris Duke's Shangri La : a house in paradise : architecture, landscape and Islamic art
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style portal accented with tiles in shades of blue and orange. This portal was added after the
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The interior tomb is octagonal and formed with bricks. It was once decorated with painted
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721:"Persian Tiles on European Walls: Collecting Ilkhanid Tiles in Nineteenth-Century Europe"
572:"Architecture as a Source for Local History in the Mongol Period: The Example of Warāmīn"
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A cenotaph stands in the center of the chamber and is surrounded by a silver and gold
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between 1262 and 1305, who produced them for other features of the shrine such as the
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Historical accounts describe the monument as including a grand entrance portal with
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in Honolulu. The mihrab includes a depressed central panel crowned with stucco
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The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin: A Present History of a Living Shrine, 2018–20
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Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design
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201:) is the tomb of a sixth-generation descendant of
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838:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
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271:Word,” includes the date,
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776:10.1017/S0026318400059344
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318:, another set is in the
964:Jameh Mosque of Varamin
934:Varamin railway station
758:Carswell, John (1986).
719:Masuya, Tomoko (2000).
640:10.1163/157005858X00551
422:Tile works now kept in
402:Tile works now kept in
382:Tile works now kept in
570:Blair, Sheila (2016).
428:London, United Kingdom
209:was built in southern
158:35.31614°N 51.648336°E
136:Geographic coordinates
1005:Setaregan Varamin FSC
979:Imamzadeh Hosein Reza
842:) CS1 maint: others (
326:in Saint Petersburg.
1010:Shahrdari Varamin VC
476:Present use of tomb
408:Baltimore, Maryland
388:Baltimore, Maryland
191:The Imamzadeh Yahya
163:35.31614; 51.648336
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1000:Safir Varamin F.C.
252:Iranian Revolution
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197:: امامزاده یحیی –
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695:"Art works"
347:high relief
266:as well as
248:neo-Safavid
223:Arghun Khan
161: /
44:Affiliation
1025:Categories
705:2017-04-07
682:Tile panel
668:2017-04-07
634:(2): 219.
510:References
464:Shangri La
462:Mihrab in
149:51°38′54″E
146:35°18′58″N
927:Transport
834:cite book
826:783166340
792:192372013
784:0026-3184
737:0571-1371
731:: 39–54.
648:1570-0585
604:163663924
596:1356-1863
367:arabesque
363:spandrels
343:pilasters
215:Ilkhanate
207:Imamzadeh
297:cenotaph
273:Muharram
80:Location
75:Location
55:Province
38:Religion
1036:Varamin
952:Culture
910:Varamin
745:4434261
628:Arabica
504:Arbaeen
355:helical
339:trefoil
310:Looting
283:on the
236:arcades
211:Varamin
205:. This
195:Persian
84:Varamin
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662:"tile"
646:
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496:Ashura
442:Tiles
351:gabled
289:Kashan
281:mihrab
277:hadith
268:luster
264:stucco
240:Seljuk
97:
88:Tehran
988:Sport
912:city
788:S2CID
741:JSTOR
600:S2CID
483:Shi’a
304:zarih
285:qibla
257:qibla
183:Azeri
49:Islam
844:link
840:link
822:OCLC
812:ISBN
780:ISSN
733:ISSN
644:ISSN
592:ISSN
295:and
293:dado
179:Type
100:Iran
772:doi
636:doi
584:doi
345:in
219:Ray
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
