Full reviews of The
Persian Bazaar: Veiled Space of Desire
New York Times Book Review
(January 22, 1995)
It is the roofs that enchant one first, their hundreds of domes appearing
to have been formed by the winds eternally wearing and rounding the vast
spines of rock that cradle Iran. The enchantment turns to wonder inside;
the domes rest on arches of latticed bricks arranged in forms so delicate
they make the spirit sing. For many centuries bazaars have brought together
in one immense place religion, political power and the economic life of
cities from Morocco to Central Asia. In The Persian Bazaar, Mehdi Khansari
and Minouch Yavari, scholars of history and architecture (and husband and
wife), reveal the social logic underlying these magnificent structures-in
drawings and words, but most vividly in photographs that let one discover
the magic cave that is a bazaar as if one were walking through it, assaulted
by the sounds of potters, cabinet makers, farriers and merchants of everything
from bread to gold, seduced by the odor of spices and coffee, dazzled by
light drifting down from the pierced domes and scattered by brilliantly
glazed arches and ceilings onto crowds winding far below among the fabrics
and carpets, donkeys and carts, dust and incense. From the public hall called
in Arabic qaisariya ("Caesar's room," suggesting a connection
between the oldest bazaars and ancient Roman basilicas) to mosque and seminary
bathhouse, from quiet terraced religious clubhouse to teeming caravansary-here
is the bazaar, made even more appealing by the realization that the global
spread of the modern industrial economy has probably doomed this beautiful
house of life.
Center for Iranian Research
and Analysis Newsletter (Vol. 10, No. 2, Winter 1995)
Persian bazaars, especially in this age of commercial sameness and international
trade and goods, are still fascinating and wondrous places. This book attempts
to capture some of the magnificence of that traditional Iranian marketplace.
The coauthors, Mehdi Khansari and Minouch Yavari, are a husbandwife team,
the former a professional photographer and the latter a practicing architect.
Educated in Iran and both now living in France, they also coauthored Espace
Persan, a book on traditional architecture in Iran. The Persian Bazaar also
contains a Foreword by the art historian, Oleg Grabar, fomlerly of Harvard
University and now at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, a
Preface by Gerard Grandval, an architect working in Paris, and an Introduction
by Marcel Bazin, a professor of geography and planning at the University
of Reims.
This book is principally a collection of photographs of facets of various
Iranian bazaars. about 80 photos in black and white and 40 in color. Brickwork,
tiles, domes, and other architectural features constitute many of the most
dramatic and beautiful photos, although there also are some scenes of life
and activities in the bazaar. Seventeen different bazaars are included,
with Kashan and Isfahan having the most illustrations, although Qazvin,
Shiraz, Yazd, Tabriz, and Kemlan also are well represented. There are a
few photographs from smaller bazaars from towns such as Bandar Abbas, Mahan,
or Zabol. Some maps and plans of many of the major bazaars are included,
although the fact that color pencils are used for the color lends a rather
unprofessional look to them. A few diagrams of types of vaults and domes
appear as well (also colored by pencil).
The photographs themselves are never discussed or analyzed. There is, in
fact, no relationship between the photographs and the bazaar plans, or the
diagrams, or the Forward, or the Preface, or the Introduction. It is as
if each piece had been written separately without seeing any other section,
and there is no attempt to coordinate any part of the book with any or the
photographs. There is no analysis of the architectural elements in the text;
the photographs are only identified by their location (except that a few
photographs have no location given), and sometimes the architectural elements
depictcted is named (such as a crossribbed vault or a half vault). Although
there is a glossary of terms at the end, there is no discussion of the types
of architectural elements in the text. This lack of any discourse on the
architecture or any other aspect of the bazaar related to the photographs
certainly limits the usefulness of the work.
Although not connected to the illustrations, the Introduction by Bazin is
the most substantial written part of the book. He brings in some of the
German academic work on bazaars in particular, even though his use of the
terms "Oriental City" and "IslamicOriental City" in
English are rather anachronistic, even if still used by French scholars
and being a literal translation of the commonly used German terms, "orientalische
Stadt" and "orientalishislamischeStadt". The Bibliography
may be useful to some readers, since some of the lesserknown German and
other European works on the bazaar are included.
A comparative analysis of the architecture, structure, and function of Iranian
bazaars is certainly needed. The Persian Bazaar, unfortunately, does not
provide the material or format toward that goal (although some scholars
may find some of the photos of architecture useful if they are unaware of
certain structures or patterns in specific locations). This work generally
lacks any information or analyses that will further our understanding of
the bazaar in Iran or the Middle East. It does contain some beautiful photographs,
and to those who are enamored with bazaars this book might, indeed, be appropriate
for their mizi qahveh.
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Bookwatch (March 1994)
The architecture of the traditional Persian bazaar involves the manipulation
of light and setting to lend an exotic aura: the authors here utilize photos,
maps, and the insights of urban planners and illustrators to present different
angles on the Persian bazaar experience.
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