Photo Timeline: A Visual History of the Emamzadeh Yahya, 1880s–1980s

This chronological visual timeline explores the physical evolution of the Emamzadeh Yahya over one hundred years, from 1881 to the early 1980s. The majority of the 55 images are photographs, and most were taken by foreign visitors to Iran (art historians, travelers, archaeologists), many of whom are discussed in Photographers. While that feature considers the photographers’ biographies and motivations, this timeline focuses on the images themselves and what they reveal about the Emamzadeh Yahya’s physical condition and architectural evolution. About a fifth of the images are taken from the official reports of the site’s comprehensive restoration in the early 1980s by the Sazman-e Melli Hefazat-e Asar-e Bastani-e Iran (National Organization for the Preservation of the Historical Monuments of Iran).

Given that most of the images in this timeline were taken by preservationists, art historians, and archaeologists, it naturally presents the Emamzadeh Yahya through the frames of architectural history and cultural heritage. Only a handful of images illuminate the community of residents and caretakers that routinely used, visited, cared for, and animated the shrine. A timeline that drew primarily on local, personal, and familial archives, versus those preserved in Paris and cultural heritage offices, would present a much different visual story. For a visual appreciation of the shrine and its community today (2023–24), an equally important temporal frame, please see Maryam Rafeienezhad’s essay.

The total number of images in this timeline is rather arbitrary, and it does not purport to be comprehensive. The one-hundred-year timespan is bookended by the earliest known photographic documentation of the site (Jane Dieulafoy, 1881) and its last major comprehensive restoration (Sazman-e Melli, early 1980s). In between, we witness some milestones, including the significant alteration of the complex around the turn of the twentieth century, the exact details of which remain a mystery (see History of Evolution). While some of the images are precisely dated, others are estimated.

The timeline has three layers. This page presents all 55 thumbnails, allowing the viewer to digest them all at once, skim across their contents, and note the site’s obvious changes. Clicking on any thumbnail leads you to the second layer, which includes a label for each image in a scroll-down format. When available, links are included to the image in high-resolution. From the second layer, clicking on any image leads to the third and final viewing platform: the enlargement screen on a black background that allows you to click through all images continuously. These three layers of presentation are intended to help you see the images in different ways, drawing connections between them (the big picture) and exploring each individually (the minute details).

Acknowledgements: Thank you to the many archives and individuals who have shared their images.