Photograph of Takkiya Dawlat Interior, Tehran (Iran)

Titre

En Photograph of Takkiya Dawlat Interior, Tehran (Iran)

Fr Photographie de l'intérieur du Takkiya Dawlat, Téhéran (Iran)

Type

Photograph

Créateur/ Créatrice

Sevruguin, Antoin (1851–1933)

Sujet

Iran

Identifiant

FSA.A2011.03, Item FSA A2011.03 B.21

Format

Albumen print, b&w

Dimension

21.3 cm. x 16.3 cm.

Lieu de découverte

Iran

Résumé

En Takia Dowlat, the Royal Theater in Tehran, was built in the 1870s by Nāṣer-al-Din Shah. The building was destroyed in 1930 to make room for the new building of National Bank (Bank-I Milli). The first American envoy to Persia, Samuel Benjamin (1837-1914, stayed in Persia in 1883-85), was invited by the royal court to attend the Moḥarram celebrations at the Takia Dowlat and recorded his impressions: "On looking over the vast arena a sight met my gaze which was indeed extraordinary. The interior of the building is nearly two hundred feet in diameter and some eighty feet high. A domed frame of timbers, firmly spliced and braced with iron, springs form the walls, giving support to the awning that protects the interior from the sunlight and rain. ... A more oriental form of illuminating the building was seen in the prodigious number of lustres and candlesticks, all of glass and protected from the air by glass shades open on the top and variously colored; they were concentrated against the wall in immense glittering clusters. Estimating from those attached on one box, I judged that there were upwards of five thousand candles in these lustres. ... In the center of the arena was a circular stage of masonry, raised three feet and approached by two stairways. On one side of the building a pulpit of white marble was attached to the wall. The entire arena with the exception of a narrow passage around the stage was absolutely packed with women, thousands on thousands. At a rough estimate it seemed to me that quite four thousand women were seated there cross-legged on the earthen floor, which was made slightly sloping in order to enable those in the rear to see over the heads of those before them.

Fr Le Takia Dowlat, théâtre royal de Téhéran, fut construit dans les années 1870 sous le règne de Nāṣer-al-Din Shah, puis détruit en 1930 pour faire place au nouveau bâtiment de la Banque Nationale (Bank-e Melli). Samuel Benjamin, premier envoyé américain en Perse (1883-1885), fut convié par la cour royale à assister aux commémorations de Muharram au Takia Dowlat et consigna ses impressions marquantes. Il décrit une arène colossale de près de soixante mètres de diamètre et vingt-quatre mètres de haut, surmontée d'une charpente bombée en bois renforcée de fer, qui soutenait la bâche protégeant l'intérieur du soleil et de la pluie. L'illumination, de style typiquement oriental, reposait sur un nombre prodigieux de lustres et de chandeliers en verre, formant d'immenses grappes scintillantes contre les murs, soit plus de cinq mille bougies. Au centre se dressait une scène circulaire en maçonnerie surélevée d'un mètre, tandis qu'un minbar en marbre blanc était adossé à la paroi. Benjamin estimait à près de quatre mille le nombre de femmes assises en tailleur sur le sol en terre battue, aménagé en pente douce pour optimiser la visibilité. Cette photographie d'Antoin Sevruguin constitue un pendant visuel inestimable aux descriptions architecturales et ethnographiques de Benjamin.

Date

1880s - 1930

Source

Stephen Arpee Collection of Sevruguin Photographs

Washington, D.C., United States

Edition

National Museum of Asian Art Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Référence

Smithsonian Institution (National Museum of Asian Art)

Langue

Fa

Citation bibliographique

Sevruguin, Antoin. Photograph of Takkiya Dawlat Interior, Tehran (Iran). c. 1880s-1930. Stephen Arpee Collection of Sevruguin Photographs, FSA.A2011.03, Item B.21. National Museum of Asian Art Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Droits

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