Friedrich Sarre (1865–1945)

In Varamin: 1897, 1899–1900
Repository: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin

The art historian Friedrich Sarre (1865–1945) undertook five journeys to the Ottoman empire and Greater Persia from 1895 to 1900 to study the architecture and art of the Achaemenian, Parthian, Sasanian, and Islamic periods. Initially, he tried to organize an archaeological excavation, but when this proved unsuccessful, he concentrated on his travels. During these journeys, and also on the international art market, he collected works of art mainly of Islamic origin. In 1904, he founded the Museum für Islamische Kunst (Museum of Islamic Art) with Wilhelm von Bode (d. 1929) and became head of this collection until 1931.

Figure 1. Friedrich Sarre, Berlin, around 1895. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst / Friedrich Sarre.

During his travels, Sarre often focused on architectural tiles from the Islamic period, which he became aware of due to his study of German Renaissance architecture. He published his results in the two-volume Denkmäler Persischer Baukunst, which appeared in fascicles from 1901 onwards and was completed in 1910.

On the 30th of December 1897, Sarre visited Varamin for the first time together with the architect Bruno Schulz (d. 1932). Sarre took a photograph with Mount Damavand in the center and the tomb tower of ʿAlaoddin on the right (fig. 2). This image was published in 1899 in a photographic essay for the general public (Pl. 9074).

Figure 2. Tomb tower of ʿAlaoddin (right) in Varamin, with Mount Damavand in the distance. Photograph by Friedrich Sarre, 30 December 1897, glass plate negative, Pl. 9074. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst / Friedrich Sarre.

Both Sarre and Schulz focused on the congregational mosque of the village, which was then largely in ruins, meaning they could do their work undisturbed. Schulz drew a ground plan, and Sarre took a number of photographs (figs. 3–5; for an excellent view of its stucco mihrab, see Pl. 9083).

Figure 3. View of Varamin looking toward the congregational mosque (left) and tomb tower of ʿAlaoddin (right). Photograph by Friedrich Sarre, print on cardboard with annotations by Kurt Erdmann (1927 or later), photo no. 2729. For the glass plate negative, see Pl. 9072. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst / Friedrich Sarre.
Figure 4. The congregational mosque of Varamin, photographs by Friedrich Sarre. Left: glass plate negative, Pl. 9076. Right: Print on cardboard with annotations by Kurt Erdmann (1927 or later), photo no. 2732. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst / Friedrich Sarre.
Figure 5. The back of the entrance portal of the congregational mosque of Varamin. The tomb tower of ʿAlaoddin is visible in the distance, to the northeast. Photograph by Friedrich Sarre, glass plate negative, Pl. 9082. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst / Friedrich Sarre.

Sarre and Schulz also visited the Emamzadeh Yahya. Sarre took an important view of the monument, but they were not allowed to enter (fig. 6). In a later article, Sarre attributed this restriction to thefts at the shrine (1935, p. 66; also cited in Masuya 2000, p. 45, p. 52n34).

Figure 6. View of the Emamzadeh Yahya taken from the northeast. Photograph by Friedrich Sarre, December 1897, published in Denkmäler Persischer Baukunst, 1910 (textband), p. 59, pl. 65. Source: Heidelberg University Digital Library.

During his fifth journey of 1899–1900, Sarre visited Varamin for a second time but without Schulz. He published the results in the text volume of Denkmäler Persischer Baukunst (1910), where he reproduced his view of the Emamzadeh Yahya (see fig. 6). He also published small images of the tomb tower of ʿAlaoddin and the congregational mosque, as well as the mosque’s ground plan by Schulz and large plates (fig. 7).

Figure 7. Section devoted to the congregational mosque of Varamin in Sarre’s Denkmäler Persischer Baukunst, 1910 (textband), p. 60, pl. 67; p. 62, pls. 69–70 (compare to figs. 4–5 here). Source: Heidelberg University Digital Library.

There can be no doubt that all photographs published by Sarre on Varamin were taken by him. Sarre taught himself professional photography with A. Stegemann in Berlin, the founder of the second oldest camera company in Germany. He used a camera with a long-distance lens and also a Moment-Apparat (9/12 cm, System Neuhaus-Stegemann) for less important pictures taken at short notice. He carried a tripod and a collapsible darkroom in umbrella form made by R. Talbot in Berlin, and he used glass negatives (13 x 18 cm) stored in a special box. This box and tripod can be seen in a photograph that he reproduced in 1896 (pl. VII) (fig. 8).

Figure 8. Portal of the Ak Han, Turkey. On the right is a detail of Sarre’s photographic equipment. Photograph by Friedrich Sarre, plastic negative, Pl. 9150. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst / Friedrich Sarre.

When Sarre became head of the Museum of Islamic art in 1904, all of his glass negatives of architectural photography—around 800 in total—entered the museum and were continuously numbered and stored in the negative archive. It was only in 1945 that some of Sarre’s photographs on glass negatives were transferred to an early plastic material.

Practical resources:

  • Sarre’s photography collection is progressively being digitized and made available to the public online via the digital collection catalogue of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: https://recherche.smb.museum. Interested researchers are welcome to contact isl@smb.spk-berlin.de with any questions.
  • The Friedrich Sarre Papers are held in the Zentralarchiv of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Enquiries can be made directly to the Zentralarchiv: za@smb.spk-berlin.de

Sources:

  • Masuya, Tomoko. “Persian Tiles on European Walls: Collecting Ilkhanid Tiles in Nineteenth-Century Europe.” Ars Orientalis 30 (2000): 39–54.
  • Sarre, Friedrich. Reise in Kleinasien – Sommer 1895 – Forschungen zur seldjukischen Kunst und Geographie des Landes. Berlin: Geographische Verlagshandlung D. Reimer, 1896. (with an appendix, p. 176–84, on photography and other issues) [Internet Archive]
  • Sarre, Friedrich. Transkaukasien-Persien-Mesopotamien-Transkaspien – Land und Leute – 85 photographische Aufnahmen und Uebersichtskarte einer in den Jahren 1897/1898 unternommenen Reise. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), 1899. (with a foreword by Sarre, 15 June 1899)
  • Sarre, Friedrich. Denkmäler Persischer Baukunst. Unter Mitwirkung von Bruno Schulz und Georg Krecker, mit epigraphischen Beiträgen von Eugen Mittwoch und Martin Hartmann. Berlin: 1910. (this volume appeared since 1901 in fascicles) [Heidelberg University Digital Library]
  • Sarre, Friedrich. “Eine keramische Werkstatt von Kaschan im 13.– 14. Jahrhundert.” In Orientalische Steinbücher und persische Fayencetechnik, edited by Hellmut Ritter et al, 57–69. Istanbul, 1935.
  • Kröger, Jens. “Friedrich Sarre, Kunsthistoriker, Sammler und Connaisseur.” In Wie die Islamische Kunst nach Berlin kam. Der Sammler und Museumsdirektor Friedrich Sarre (1865–1945), edited by Julia Gonnella and Jens Kröger (Hg.), 13–46. Berlin: Reimer, 2015.
  • Kröger, Jens. "Friedrich Sarre und die Kunst des Alten Persien." Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin 153 (2021): 13–26.

Jens Kröger Curator emeritus

Citation: Jens Kröger, “Friedrich Sarre (1865–1945).” Photographers entry 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.