A Persian Inscription on the Minaret of Saveh

Abstract

HE Middle Ages are out of fashion at the present moment with archaeologists in the Near East, and the importance of prehistoric discoveries leaves little interest over for buried Islamic cities. By the time that such an interest may be expected to revive, one of the chief monuments of the early twelfth century in Persia will only too probably have been destroyed for ever. This is the minaret of Saveh (about 80 miles south-west of Tehran), built of and decorated from top to bottom with burnt bricks in a delicate tracery of geometric patterns and Cufic script. This minaret is mentioned in the Encyclopedia of Islam (p. 184, s.v. Sava): Dieulafoy dates it to the Ghaznavid period, but a comparison with a similar minaret at Khusrawgird (Khurasan A.H. 505, A.D. IIII) suggests that it is of the same period. At the time of writing the above, Professor Minorsky had not seen the text of the middle band of inscription on the minaret itself, and asked me, if possible, to go and examine it. It appears not to have been published hitherto, and corroborates his dating exactly: it gives part of the titles and the name of the prince of the time, viz. ... ed Dunya wa ed Din, Abu Shuja', Muhammad ibn Malikshah (A.D. 1117). There are three bands of script: the upper, only partly decipherable, includes the usual invocation (basmala); the lower consists of the words la nabiy ba'd Muhammad (Muhammad is the last of the prophets) repeated. The minaret is in a perfect state of preservation except for a band about io feet high round the bottom, where people in need of building material have pulled away the bricks, so that now the base is undermined and threatens collapse. Upham Pope visited Saveh some years ago, and left a small sum with the governor there, sufficient to provide for the restoration (which is quite a simple affair). When I visited the place in I93I, nothing had been done, nor did there appear to be any sign of future activity in the matter. Saveh is out of the way of usual traffic: to reach it one must drive for several hours over a particularly bumpy track from Qum. It was once an important city on the great silk route: when that road, in the time of the Mongols, shifted slightly to the north, Saveh and its neighbour Aveh sank into their present insignificance. The outline of the walls of the old town can still be seen under the ground, far beyond the present area of habitation; and the inhabitants spent their time for many years digging shallow holes into the site and obtaining exquisite pottery which they sold to a Mr. Noah (?) from Paris, who dealt in antiques. This destructive traffic has happily been stopped by the present Persian laws of export: when I visited the town, a number of these relics were still about, dug up before the knowledge came that Noah's visits were to cease, and I bought them. The site has been a good deal spoilt by these diggings: but it is so large, and was so prosperous a city, that it would still well repay an excavator; and there is the great advantage that the ancient city is mostly outside the modern town, and has therefore been very little built over during the five centuries that followed its decay.