{"id":691,"date":"2020-03-13T09:30:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T09:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gobetween.wpengine.com\/?p=691"},"modified":"2020-08-12T12:28:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T12:28:53","slug":"sophie-buckman-the-serene-beauty-of-robert-byron-isfahan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/2020\/03\/13\/sophie-buckman-the-serene-beauty-of-robert-byron-isfahan\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Buckman: the serene beauty of Robert Byron&#8217;s Isfahan"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Audio Version<\/h2>\n<p>Read by Christopher Williams<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Spotify Embed: The Serene Beauty of Robert Byron&amp;apos;s Isfahan\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/6fvDu1Z72lJRtKrCsD6mMI?si=-I1h6WZETbWO_5HBphA4Lw&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Text Version<\/h2>\n<p>Being presented with immediate free rein in The Courtauld\u2019s Conway photographic library was delightfully overwhelming, and I spent much of my first day flitting between folders of images of Cumbrian churches, the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Venus_Callipyge\">Callipygian Venus<\/a>, and Florentine stained glass.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually and unsurprisingly, I was drawn to the section of files on the architecture of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Iran\">Iran<\/a>, and soon came across the two on Isfahan. Having visited the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Isfahan\">city<\/a> a few years ago, I was curious to see the photographs of what I remember as one of the most beautiful cities in the country of my family. An ancient <a href=\"http:\/\/idp.bl.uk\/\">Silk Road<\/a> city, Isfahan flourished in the Safavid period, and its skyline is still marked by the imperial sandstone of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Abbas_the_Great\">Shah Abbas<\/a>\u2019 golden age.<\/p>\n<p>The domes and minarets of Isfahan\u2019s mosques and palaces colour the city a vibrant blue, evoking memories of invading Mongols and their eastern ceramics. In <a href=\"http:\/\/gutenberg.net.au\/ebooks14\/1403301h.html\"><em>The Road to Oxiana<\/em><\/a> (1937), travel writer and aesthete <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_Byron\">Robert Byron<\/a> (1905 \u2013 1941) saw reflections of this dominating colour in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zayanderud\">Zayandehrud river<\/a> which cuts through the city; he <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books?id=2TUWgCWjjvoC&amp;pg=RA1-PA74&amp;lpg=RA1-PA74&amp;dq=catching+that+blue+in+its+muddy+silver%E2%80%A6+and+before+you+know+how,+Isfahan+has+become+indelible,+has+insinuated+its+image+into+that+gallery+of+places+which+everyone+privately+treasures&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=pQrbNLgxWj&amp;sig=ACfU3U3u7Zq9Y01cSfMG6YE-mRRj-IeqLg&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiI3erfkvLnAhVAShUIHSDZDP0Q6AEwAXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=catching%20that%20blue%20in%20its%20muddy%20silver%E2%80%A6%20and%20before%20you%20know%20how%2C%20Isfahan%20has%20become%20indelible%2C%20has%20insinuated%20its%20image%20into%20that%20gallery%20of%20places%20which%20everyone%20privately%20treasures&amp;f=false\">describes it<\/a> \u201ccatching that blue in its muddy silver\u2026 and before you know how, Isfahan has become indelible, has insinuated its image into that gallery of places which everyone privately treasures\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Expelled from Merton College, Oxford, Robert Byron was a member of the infamously flamboyant <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hypocrites%27_Club\">Hypocrites Club<\/a>, and in the 1920s a \u201cbright young thing\u201d of the London social scene. While the excess of his early years was immortalised in novels by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Evelyn_Waugh\">Evelyn Waugh<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nancy_Mitford\">Nancy Mitford<\/a>, much of Byron\u2019s life was spent travelling and soon he became a wildly successful travel writer, ahead of his death in combat in 1941.<\/p>\n<p>Here at the Courtauld can be found Byron\u2019s own photos from his Middle Eastern trip of 1933\u201334, taken during the writing of his most famous work, <em>The Road to Oxiana<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_694\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-694\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-694\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/files\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_002.jpg\" alt=\"Item from the Conway Library. Two images of Isfahan, Persia, showing the bridge.\" width=\"600\" height=\"799\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_002.jpg 901w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_002-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_002-769x1024.jpg 769w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_002-768x1023.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-694\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CON_B02478_F001_002 Robert Byron, a\u00a0view along Khaju Bridge from the imperial box in its centre. The throne from where Shah Abbas II would have enjoyed summer evenings is long gone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Central to his view of Isfahan, is the river, &#8220;Zayandeh&#8221; literally meaning &#8220;life-giver&#8221;, and its two main bridges, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Khaju_Bridge\">Pol-e-Khaju<\/a>, Khaju Bridge, and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Si-o-se-pol\">Si-o-se Pol<\/a>, the Bridge of 33 Arches.<\/p>\n<p>Pol-e-khaju and Si-o-se Pol were both built in the seventeenth century, and function as pedestrian bridges as well as weirs. In Byron\u2019s photographs the Zayandehrud tears between their arches, whilst in more recent years the waterbed has been dry.<\/p>\n<p>The river\u2019s pilgrimage from the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zagros_Mountains\">Zagros Mountains<\/a> has fallen short every summer for 10 years now. Some blame bureaucratic mismanagement and the over-allocation of water to steelworks and farms upstream, whilst officials have been quoted as instead <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/middle-east\/iranian-womens-clothing-is-causing-a-river-to-run-dry-cleric-says-a7077021.html\">blaming the immorality of Isfahanis for the drying of the river<\/a>.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_695\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-695\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/files\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-695\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/files\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_001.jpg\" alt=\"Item from the Conway Library, two black and white images of the bridge from different angles. \" width=\"600\" height=\"803\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_001.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_001-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_001-766x1024.jpg 766w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_001-768x1027.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_001-1148x1536.jpg 1148w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-695\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Byron, Khaju Bridge, low water. CON_B02478_F001_001.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Robert Byron\u2019s several visits to the city over those two years provide evidence of the instability of the Zayandehrud\u2019s water levels. In one photograph of Pol-e-Khaju the water is low enough to allow locals to wash and bathe on the crumbling Safavid steps.<\/p>\n<p>In one of Byron\u2019s photos of Si-o-se pol, a group of people seem stranded in his symmetrical framing, the water rising, with several of the men staring deep into the camera\u2019s lens, almost imploring the viewer for help. Photographing this middle section of the bridge isolates these pedestrians, eliminating any view of escape from the Zayandehrud, reframing a simple social scene into a near biblical scene of flooding.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_696\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-696\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/files\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F007_002.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-696\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/files\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F007_002.jpg\" alt=\"Item from the Conway Library, two black and white images of people standing on the bridge, under the arches. \" width=\"600\" height=\"763\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F007_002.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F007_002-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F007_002-805x1024.jpg 805w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F007_002-768x977.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-696\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Byron, high water. CON_B02478_F007_002.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The two bridges have served as meeting-places and social spaces for Isfahanis since their inception, particularly in the evenings, when the workday ends and crowds are drawn to the aureate glow of the lit arcades and arches.<\/p>\n<p>Byron describes the foot passages on Si-o-se Pol being as overwhelmed as the river; &#8220;it was crowded with people, and all the town was hurrying to join them; there was never such a flood in living memory&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Byron\u2019s poetic synonymity of crowd and water, the drought of recent years have allowed for the continued tradition of singing underneath the arches of Khaju. Groups of men drink tea, smoke shisha pipes, or &#8220;hubble-bubbles&#8221; as Byron called them, and sing in groups or unison, their voices echoing off the high, curved roof of the cavernous spaces.<\/p>\n<p>The sound is haunting, and one almost feels transported to a bygone era in awe of this storied tradition.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_692\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-692\" style=\"width: 942px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-692 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/files\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_005.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"942\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_005.jpg 942w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_005-236x300.jpg 236w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_005-804x1024.jpg 804w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/CON_B02478_F001_005-768x978.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 942px) 100vw, 942px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-692\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Byron, daytime under Khaju Bridge, 1933. CON_B02478_F001_005.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_697\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-697\" style=\"width: 608px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/files\/2020\/02\/Picture-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-697\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/files\/2020\/02\/Picture-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"608\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/Picture-1.png 608w, https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/26\/2020\/02\/Picture-1-300x232.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 608px) 100vw, 608px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-697\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photograph from my visit to Isfahan in 2017, nighttime under Khaju Bridge, with singers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Much of Byron\u2019s journey through Persia in <em>The Road to Oxiana<\/em> is impeded by bureaucracy and illness. Many of the entries of his many weeks stuck in Tehran start with some defeated variation of &#8220;Still here&#8221;. By contrast, the verdant splendour of Isfahan is celebrated, in what I find to be the most beautiful passage of the book:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The bridge encloses the road by arched walls, on the outside of which runs a miniature arcade for foot passengers. This was crowded with people, and all the town was hurrying to join them; there was never such a flood in living memory. The lights came out. A little breeze stirred, and for the first time in four months I felt a wind that had no chill in it. I smelt the spring, and the rising sap. One of those rare moments of absolute peace, when the body is loose, the mind asks no questions, and the world is a triumph, was mine. So much it meant to have escaped from Teheran.&#8221;\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Robert Byron on Si-o-se Pol, <em>The Road to Oxiana<\/em><strong><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the first summer in ten years, 2019 saw the Khaju and Si-o-se bridges flushed with water once again. Through drought and flood, from their building in the 1600s, to Byron\u2019s 1930s, to the present, the serene beauty of these &#8220;cafe-au-lait&#8221; bridges endures.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a> The Independent, June 2016, &#8220;Iranian women&#8217;s clothing &#8220;causing rivers to run dry&#8221;, says senior cleric&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/middle-east\/iranian-womens-clothing-is-causing-a-river-to-run-dry-cleric-says-a7077021.html\">https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/middle-east\/iranian-womens-clothing-is-causing-a-river-to-run-dry-cleric-says-a7077021.html<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Sophie Buckman<\/p>\n<p>Courtauld Connects Digitisation Oxford Micro-Internship Participant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Audio Version Read by Christopher Williams Text Version Being presented with immediate free rein in The Courtauld\u2019s Conway photographic library was delightfully overwhelming, and I spent much of my first day flitting between folders of images of Cumbrian churches, the Callipygian Venus, and Florentine stained glass. Eventually and unsurprisingly, I was drawn to the section&hellip;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.courtauld.ac.uk\/digitalmedia\/2020\/03\/13\/sophie-buckman-the-serene-beauty-of-robert-byron-isfahan\/\" title=\"View &lsquo;Sophie Buckman: the serene beauty of Robert Byron&#8217;s Isfahan&rsquo;\">View <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[213,312,349,6],"tags":[412,46,356,18,14,15,21,357,355,352,351,358,350,354,353],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conway-photographers","category-placement","category-robert-byron","category-the-conway-library","tag-audio","tag-black-and-white","tag-bright-young-things","tag-conway","tag-courtauld","tag-courtauld-connects","tag-digitisation","tag-evelyn-waugh","tag-hypocrites-club","tag-iran","tag-isfahan","tag-nancy-mitford","tag-robert-byron","tag-the-road-to-oxiana","tag-zagros-mountains"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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