Tour of a Photograph: Ritual Objects in the Tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya, April 1958

Keelan Overton

In April 1958, Myron Bement Smith (d. 1970) and a colleague visited Varamin and took an important photograph in the tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya looking south toward the cenotaph and qibla wall. In this interactive Exhibit tour, we take a walk through this photograph and explore the important ritual objects that it has documented for posterity. Among the most important are the wooden screen shielding the cenotaph, a portion of which remains at the site, and a sacred ʿalamat of the Kohneh Gel neighborhood, which may now be dispersed across various museums, like the tomb’s luster tilework.

Figure 1. Interior of the tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya, looking south toward the qibla wall. Photograph possibly by Myron Bement Smith, April 1958. United States Information Service Iran / National Museum of Asian Art Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith, FSA-2023-000001 and FSA-2023-000002.
Figure 2. Bismillah bird (morgh-e bismillah), Iran, ca. 1955, Wereldmuseum, Amsterdam, TM-4136-11 (Checklist, no. 27).
Figure 3. This Exhibit tour uses IIIF image format. Screenshot from edan.si.edu.

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Citation: Keelan Overton, “Tour of a Photograph: Ritual Objects in the Tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya, April 1958.” Interactive feature in The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin: An Online Exhibition of an Iranian Shrine, directed and edited by Keelan Overton. 33 Arches Productions, January 15, 2025. Host: Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online.