#persianate

[along-the-silkroad]

Portal of the Karakhanid caravanserais, Rabat-i-Malik, situated along the road between Bukhara and Samarkand. This marvelous hotel for passing merchants was constructed by the Karakhanid ruler Shams al-Mulk Nasr around 1070 CE.

[taxonomiesofloss]

❤️ یلدا مبارک

[persianatpenn]

Delicious encounters in Ariana

I have lived around the corner from an Afghan restaurant for almost two years and I thought what better excuse to try a new restaurant than to learn more about the Persianate world and try its delicious cuisine? And it did not disappoint! On Friday evening, I took my husband and brother to the restaurant “Ariana,” located on Chestnut and 3rdstreet in the Old City. Ariana, according to Encyclopedia Iranica was the name of ancient Afghanistan.

The restaurant is charmingly decorated with many odes to Afghanistan. The furniture was colorful, with lush rugs, and a lovely corner for floor seating. I immediately felt very at home with the atmosphere and the feel of the place reminded me of the Middle East, so much so that my husband remarked that he felt like we were in a place back home.

We were quite hungry when we arrived, so we got down to the business of ordering. We shared a trio of appetizers: bulanee kachalou (turnover stuffed with potatoes, onions and spices), bulannee gandana (turnover stuffed with scallions, herbs and spices) and aashak (steamed scallion filled dumpling topped with yogurt and meat sauce). For the main dishes we shared a kabob combination of lamb, chicken, and beef with basmati rice, the lamb kabuli palow (lamb over rice with carrots, pistachios, raisins and almonds) and the dal chalow (red lentils with chicken over white rice).

Our waiter was very kind and with the main dishes we were given salads with an addictive white yogurt sauce, that was just so delicious we had to order more sauce for the meats. Everything was quite delicious. The turnovers were tasty, crispy on the outside with a good amount of filling. My favorite were the dumplings with the yogurt and meat sauce, they were pillow-like and just melted in your mouth. Of course, as with all food from the Persianate world, the rice is the star of the show, every grain perfectly fluffed and buttered. The meats were well-seasoned and paired very well with the rice and yogurt side.

While eating, I especially enjoyed the wonderful pictures hung around the restaurant like these two lovely ladies enjoying a water pipe:

Overall, it was a lovely and delicious evening that made me appreciate further the incredible diversity of the cultures in the Persianate world and the impressive variety in cuisine from region to region. Best of all was that feeling even for a brief moment of being back home in a restaurant in Cairo or Beirut just enjoying some delicious food with family. It is always comforting to know that no matter how far from home and how different the cultures are across the Middle East there is always something that brings us together and gives us that sense of familiarity.

DEZ

[along-the-silkroad]

Humayun (r. 1530 – 1540; 1555 – 1556) conversing with his father and the founder of the Mughal dynasty, Babur (r. as padishah 1526 – 1530) , from the Late Shah Jahan Album, India, c. 1640. Smithsonian Babur was not defined solely by his prowess as a warrior and conqueror. He was also a deeply devoted father. Of all his sons, his greatest affection was reserved for Humayun, his heir and the future second Mughal emperor. When Humayun was still young, he fell gravely ill, his condition worsening with each passing day. The finest hakims (physicians) from across the empire were summoned, but all their efforts proved futile. Watching his son suffer, Babur was consumed by grief and despair.

At this moment, a holy man came to Babur and declared that only a great sacrifice—the offering of something most precious—could save the boy’s life. Babur reflected inwardly and concluded that nothing could be more precious to him than his own life. Acting upon this conviction, he folded his hands and circumambulated his son’s sickbed three times, offering prayers to Allah. He implored: “O Allah, I am told to offer You my most precious possession so that my son may live. I have nothing dearer than my own life. Take it in place of his. Let me die so that he may be spared.”

According to tradition, upon completing the third circuit, Humayun rose from his bed, fully restored. At that same moment, Babur himself fell ill. Humayun, overwhelmed with gratitude and love, prayed in turn, acknowledging his father’s boundless devotion and unwavering faith in divine mercy.

After three months of illness, on 26 December 1530, Babur passed from this world. Thus ended the life of a conqueror, poet, and ruler—yet perhaps most memorably, a father whose love for his son knew no bounds.

[along-the-silkroad]

Prince and ascetics, from the Late Shah Jahan Album, attributed to Govardhan (Indian, active c.1596–1645), c. 1630, Mughal India. Cleveland Museum of Art (ID: 1971.79) Most paintings in the Late Shah Jahan Album were commissioned specifically for the album, but some older finished works were chosen to be incorporated; they were removed from their original housings and inserted into the new borders. This painting of a Mughal prince visiting a Sufi holy man in his cave dwelling is one example, chosen probably because it underscores the importance of the religious dimension of Mughal life. The conch on the ground before the ascetic is blown at the beginning of prayer, which in the Sufi tradition is often sung to the accompaniment of music. The pair of ducks in the foreground imply the harmonious union of the spiritual and temporal in the Mughal realm. Mendicant Islamic ascetics fill the borders on this page, except for the one noble retainer standing by the prince. (Cleveland Museum of Art)

[along-the-silkroad]

A mendicant bowing before a holy man, from the Prince Salim Album c. 1585; inner border added in Allahabad c. 1602, Mughal, by Basawan (flourished 1580–1600); outer border added probably 1900s. Cleveland Museum of Art (ID: 2013.296) As the Mughal atelier grew into the 1580s, Indian artists become increasingly adept at incorporating Persian styles with a new dimensionality and naturalism that Akbar promoted, possibly based on his appreciation of European prints and paintings. Here, a sincere holy man wears robes tinged lightly with blue. He stands beneath a tree in the wilderness with a loyal jackal by his side. A devotee touches his head to his feet. The artist’s tiny signature is written on the alms bowl. Connoisseurs of Persian art in the Islamic world praised an artist’s virtuoso ability to work on a microscopic scale. (Cleveland Museum of Art)

[along-the-silkroad]

Alamshah cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel, from volume 11 of a Hamza-nama (Adventures of Hamza), c. 1560s–70s, Mughal India, court of Akbar (r. 1556–1605). Cleveland Museum of Art (ID: 1976.74) The hero, Alamshah the Greek, perches on a cliff above a rushing torrent of water. He has just slain the villain who raised the massive bronze plug on the dam in order to wash away the camp of Alamshah’s father, Hamza. 

The Hamza-nama recounts the adventures of an uncle of the Prophet Mohammed. It was the first major undertaking of the fledgling painting workshop created by Akbar. Originally in 14 volumes of 100 illustrations each, just a little more than 10 percent of the pages survive.