Širâz

Shiraz, the great city of Fars, lies in a cool valley of the Zagros ringed by gardens, vineyards and orchards. Its poets Sa'di and Hafez made its name known across the Persian-speaking world, while shrines, madrasas and bazaars drew scholars, pilgrims and merchants. The tomb of Ahmad ibn Musa, known as Shah Cheragh, was among its most revered sanctuaries, and the wine and roses of its gardens became a byword for pleasure.

Ibn Battuta visited Shiraz in 1347 and found a populous city with separate bazaars for each trade. Hafez wrote at the court of its Muzaffarid ruler Shah Shuja, and when Timur approached in the 1380s Shah Shuja submitted and the city was spared. Timurid and then Aq Qoyunlu rule followed, and in 1504 the Safavid shah Ismail I took Shiraz. Under the Safavids it remained the provincial capital of Fars, and a governor of Abbas I raised palaces and a madrasa in the manner of Isfahan.

After the Afghan raids and a siege and sack by Nader Shah's troops, the population fell to about fifty thousand. In 1762 Karim Khan Zand made Shiraz his capital and rebuilt it with a citadel, the Vakil Mosque, public baths and the covered Vakil Bazaar, together with a moat and new walls. He also repaired the neglected tombs of Sa'di and Hafez. After his death the Zand house split, and in 1792 the Qajar leader Agha Mohammad Khan took Shiraz, pulled down its walls and moved the capital north to Tehran.