2Zarihs (screens) endowed by Fath ʿAli Shah
This photograph: Zarih endowed to the tomb of Fatemeh Maʿsumeh at Qom Current whereabouts unknown, presumed lost Steel, silver-plated Photograph by Nuri, 1323/1905. Archives of the Shrine of Fatemeh Maʿsumeh, published online at https://asnad.amfm.ir/old-pic/
A significant aspect of Fath ʿAli Shah’s (r. 1797–1834) religious patronage was the endowment of zarihs (the screen around a cenotaph) to shrines. In doing so, the shah was following a precedent set by his Safavid predecessors. While zarihs given by Safavid rulers were generally wood or steel, the examples endowed by Fath ʿAli Shah were silver. Surviving examples of historical zarihs are rare, as many were replaced in the twentieth or twenty-first centuries, but Qajar court sources like Khavari’s Tarikh-e Zu al-Qarnayn illuminate those given by Fath ʿAli Shah.
In the first few years of his reign, the shah supported the shrine of Emam Hosayn in Karbala (map) in a number of ways. One of his most significant gifts to the shrine was a new silver zarih. The shah appointed the poet and courtier Fath ʿAli Khan Saba (d. 1238/1822–23) to oversee the project and is said to have sent him to Rasht (map), on the Caspian coast, to supervise the construction of the solid silver structure. Saba then accompanied it to Tehran, from where it went on to Karbala.
Later in his reign, the shah is said to have patronized the zarih of Fatemeh Maʿsumeh in Qom, where he would eventually be buried (see no. 10). The sources vary, however, on whether he covered the existing Safavid zarih in silver or gave an entirely new silver structure. The photograph taken by the court photographer Nuri in 1323/1905 (see above) may show the same zarih that Fath ʿAli Shah renovated, albeit with further changes, including the restoration of the silver coating during the reign of his great-grandson Naser al-Din Shah (r. 1848–96).
Fath ʿAli Shah’s very last gift to a shrine, which he ordered right before his death in 1834, was a silver zarih made for the shrine of ʿAbbas ibn ʿAli, also in Karbala (map). 6,000 tomans were allotted to the project (Khavari 1380 Sh/2001, p. 919), which while a large sum, was small in comparison to the 100,000 tomans allocated to the renovation of Fatemeh Maʿsumeh’s shrine. Fath ʿAli Shah died before the work could be completed and so the process was finished by his grandson and successor Mohammad Shah (r. 1834–48).
Fath ʿAli Shah is also recorded as having endowed zarihs to the shrines at Kazemayn (map) (no. 9), Shiraz (map) (no. 12), and Rey (map).
Sources:
- Shirazi, Fazl Allah Khavari. Tārīkh-e Ẕu al-Qarnayn, edited by Nasir Afsharfar. Tehran: Sazman-e Chap va Entisharat, Vizarat-e Farhang va Ershad-i Eslami, 1380 Sh/2001.
- Modarressi Tabatabaʾi, Hossein. Torbat-e pākān: ās̲ār va banāhā-ye qadīm-e maḥdūdah-ye kunūnī-i Dār al-Muʾminīn-e Qom. Qom: Chapkhaneh-ye Mehr, 2535/1976.
Citation: Fuchsia Hart, “Zarihs (screens) endowed by Fath ʿAli Shah.” Catalog 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.