Namād-e Eṣfahān (The Symbol of Isfahan)

Namād-e Eṣfahān (The Symbol of Isfahan), an iconic¹ emblem based on the constellation Sagittarius, representing the zodiacal ascendant of Isfahan, appears above the main portal of the Qeyṣarīyye Bazaar.

Owing to its unique design on the grand entrance of the Qeyṣarīyye Bazaar, located on the north‑western side of the Naqsh-e Jahān* Square, it has come to be regarded as the emblematic sign of the city of Isfahan. The earliest reference to the zodiacal ascendant of Isfahan occurs in the treatises of Avicenna* (Ebn Sīnā, d. 1037/428), who explicitly identifies the constellation Sagittarius as the ascendant of Isfahan.² Abū Reyḥān Bīrūnī (d. 1050/442), in his al‑Tafhīm, when discussing the correspondence of zodiacal signs with various cities, likewise includes Isfahan under the sign of Sagittarius.³ Amīr‑Muḥammad Mu‛ezzī Neyshābūrī (d. 1127/521), the court poet of Sulṭān Malek‑Shah Saljūqī*, in an ode on the “Conquest of Ghazneyn and the arrival of the caravan of Tāj‑al‑Dīn‑Khātūn, the mother of Sulṭān Sanjar,” while referring to her journey to Isfahan, speaks of the felicitous ascendant of Sepāhān—the auspicious zodiacal sign for entering the city.⁴ Muhammad b. Maḥmūd Ṭūsī (d. 1167/562), in his ‛Ajāʾeb al‑Makh­lūqāt wa Gharāʾeb al‑Mawjūdāt, in the course of defining the zodiacal constellations, explicitly identifies Sagittarius as the ascendant of Isfahan.⁵

Kamāl‑al‑Dīn Esmā‛īl Eṣfahānī* (d. 1237/635), in an ode composed on the occasion of welcoming Atābak Sa‛d b. Zangī—the fifth ruler of the Atābaks of Fārs—upon his entry into Isfahan, makes reference to the “felicitous ascendant of Sepāhān.”⁶ Ḥamdullāh Mustawfī (d. 1340/740), in his Nuzhat al‑Qulūb, likewise speaks of the construction of the city wall (bārū) of Isfahan during the period of the Deylamites and associates its zodiacal ascendant with the constellation Sagittarius.⁷ Jalāl‑al‑Dīn Munajjem Yazdī (d. 1611/1020), in his Tārīkh‑e ‛Abbāsī, while describing the events of 1608–1609/1016, refers to the “ascendant of entry into the city,” which he places under the sign of Sagittarius, at the time of Shah ‛Abbās I*’s arrival in Isfahan.⁸ Jean Chardin*, the French traveler who visited Isfahan twice during the Safavid period, in his travelogue explicitly mentions the connection between the sign of Sagittarius and the zodiacal ascendant of Isfahan, and records the depiction of the constellation Sagittarius on the main portals of the Tabarak (ṭabarak) Fortress, the ‛Ālī‑Qāpū* Palace, and the Qeyṣarīyye Bazaar*.⁹ Mīrzā Hasan Jāberī Anṣārī* (d. 1997/1376) likewise notes that the commencement of the construction of Isfahan’s city wall* during the time of Rukn‑al‑Dawla, the Deylamite ruler (d. 977/366), took place under the sign of Sagittarius in the year 939/328.¹⁰

In the contemporary period, ʿAbbās Beheshtīyān*¹¹ (d. 1964/1343) and Luṭfullāh Hunarfar*¹² (d. 2006/1385) proposed that the emblem displayed on the main portal of the Qeyṣarīyye Bazaar—which had been designed during the Safavid era as an adaptation of the constellation Sagittarius¹³—be officially adopted as the symbol of Isfahan. Furthermore, in 2005/1384., a group of scholars of Isfahan Studies suggested that the first day of Āzar (the first day of the zodiacal sign of Sagittarius) be designated as the Day of Commemoration of Isfahan, because Rukn‑al‑Dawla of the Deylamites, seeking to ensure the security of Isfahan, had ordered the construction of the city’s great fortification in accordance with the city’s ascendant in the sign of Sagittarius.

The emblem of Isfahan consists of two mirrored figures, inspired by the constellation Sagittarius (the Archer), placed symmetrically on the two spandrel tiles (lechekīs) of the tiled portal of the Qeyṣarīyye Bazaar. In this composition, the archer is depicted with an arrow set upon the bow, aimed backward towards a dragon‑like tail. This dragon‑like tail represents the “tail” (dhanab) of the lunar node (Jawzahar), and from the perspective of traditional astrology it signifies the “exaltation of the tail in the sign of Sagittarius” and is considered a favorable omen.¹⁴ On this basis, Rukn‑al‑Dawla chose the period of the sign of Sagittarius in the year 939/328 for the commencement of the construction of the city wall (bārū)* of Isfahan,¹⁵ and Shah ‛Abbās selected the same sign in the year 1590/999 for laying out the design of the portal of the Qeyṣarīyye,¹⁶ in accordance with the ancient belief in the influence of the heavenly bodies on worldly affairs and the propitious ascendant, so as to safeguard the city against adverse events.

The sun motif depicted on the portal of the Qeyṣarīyye is an emblem of the sovereign or ruler of the Safavid dynasty.¹⁷ The lower half of the archer’s body is rendered in the form of a lion, in accordance with the representations of the zodiacal figures in ancient star atlases, the lion being the house of the Sun. The archer’s attire consists of two elements—a robe and a turban‑crown—both executed in the Timurid style that continued to be current during the early Safavid* period.¹⁸

/Shahin Sepanta/

Bibliography

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Afūshteyī, Maḥmūd b. Hedāyatullāh, Neqāwat al‑Āskhyār fī Ẕekr al‑Akhyār: dar Tārīkh‑e Ṣafavīyya, ed. Eḥsān Eshrāqī, Tehran: Enteshārāt-e ‛Elmī va Farhangī, 2020/1399.

Amīr Mu‛ezzī, Muḥammad b. ‛Abdul‑Malek, Dīvān, ed. ‛Abbās Eqbāl Āshtīyānī, Tehran: Ketābfurūshī-ye Eslāmīyya, 1939/1318.

Beheshtīyān, ‛Abbās, Bakhshī az Ganjīne-ye Āthār-e Mellī, Isfahan: Anjuman-e Āthār-e Mellī, 1964/1343.

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Gunābādī, Muẓaffar b. Muhammad Qāsem, Sharḥ‑e Bīst Bāb‑e Mullā Muẓaffar (on the treatise Bīst Bāb dar Ma‛refat‑e Taqvīm by ‛Abdul‑Ali b. Muḥammad Bīrjandī), lithograph ed., [s.l.], 1859/1276.

Ḥamdullāh Mustawfī, Ḥamdullāh b. Abī Bakr, Nuzhat al‑Qulūb, ed. Muhammad Dabīrsīyāqī, Tehran: Ṭahūrī, 1957/1336.

Hunarfar, Luṭfullāh, Eṣfahān, Tehran: Enteshārāt‑e ‛Elmī va Farhangī, 2007/1386.

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Munajjem Yazdī, Jalāl al Dīn Muhammad, Tārīkh‑e ‛Abbāsī, yā Rūz‑nāme-ye Mullā Jalāl, ed. Seyfullāh Vaḥīdnīyā, Tehran: Vaḥīd, 1987/1366.

Sepantā, Shāhīn, “Namād-e Nujūmī-ye Eṣfahān,” Rahāvard-e Mehr, no. 40 (October–November 2024/Ābān–Āzar 1403).

Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd, ‛Ajāʾeb al‑Makh­lūqāt wa Gharāʾeb al‑Mawjūdāt, ed. Manūchehr Sutūde, Tehran: Enteshārāt-e ‛Elmī va Farhangī, 2008/1387.

1. Sepantā, p. 14.  [↩]
2. Ebn Sīnā, vol. 2, p. 59.[↩]
3. Abū Reyḥān Bīrūnī, pp. 325–341.[↩]
4. Amīr Muʿezzī, p. 555.[↩]
5. Ṭūsī, p. 67.[↩]
6. Kamāl al Dīn Esmāʿīl, p. 43.[↩]
7. Ḥamdullāh Mustawfī, p. 52.[↩]
8. Munajjem Yazdī, p. 330.[↩]
9. Chardin, vol. 7, p. 266; vol. 8, pp. 129–130.[↩]
10. Jāberī Anṣārī, pp. 14–15, 144.[↩]
11. Beheshtīyān, p. 22.[↩]
12. Hunarfar, pp. 87–88.[↩]
13. Sepantā, p. 17.[↩]
14. Gunābādī, p. 78.[↩]
15. Gunābādī, p. 78.[↩]
16. Jāberī Anṣārī, p. 144.[↩]
17. Afūshteyī, p. 280[↩]
18. Gunābādī, p. 183; Ekhwān al Ṣafā, vol. 2, p. 30[↩]