Iran-traveller will quickly notice the portrait of a man who smiles at you from teapots, cups and glasses mild. He’s wearing a studded jacket with a richly decorated Karakulhut, a fesch the connecting mustache, and bushy eyebrows. His military-looking face stands in some contrast to his fine Persian facial features and sad eyes.

To Ask, who is this man, whose portrait is everywhere to be found in Iranian bazaars, responding to General amazement. Because no Iranians can not imagine that Shah Abbas. Abbas I, came from the dynasty of the Safavids, he was from 1587 to 1629 Shah of Persia.

He was from Iran, a Shiite country, the government today relies on its government to time. The Name is pronounced Abbas, by the way, with an emphasis on the S, as in the case of the Swedish band with the marching Sound on the double-B.

Isfahan was one of the richest trading cities

Abbas came to Power after he had overthrown his father in a Palace coup. A few years later, he left one of his sons killed, and two other panels. He was afraid that they would be the same sweep to do with him, so the own father from the throne.

Shah Abbas, who referred to himself as the king of kings, saw himself both as king of Persia and ruler of Islam, because he was descended from the prophet Mohammed. It was smart of him to give his rule a religious Legitimation. With this double hedge he could make the rich in his spirit and also still good against enterprising neighbors to defend from the Ottomans in the West to the Uzbeks in the East.

Shah Abbas was a Fan of infrastructure. He built roads, bridges, caravanserais, and a new capital of Isfahan. When he chose the site in 1598 as the capital, he was a dusty, small stains in the desert.

Later, Isfahan became one of the richest commercial cities of the Orient. The Naqsh-e-Dschahan square in the center of Isfahans is still one of the greatest places in the world. Shah Abbas, laid the Foundation, called him “the design of the world”.

Shah Abbas is a promotional face for Iran’s government

in 2009, the British Museum in London devoted an exhibition: “Shah Abbas, the re-creation of Iran”. Sheila Canby, curator of the Show, describes him as a “restless, decisive, ruthless and intelligent man”.

He is an art lover was to work with a slope of the hand, such as weaving and sewing. At the same time he strengthened the self-understanding of the country and moved it into the focus of the world at that time.

Today, he is a kind of face for the government. Especially on the Bazaar in Isfahan, the products are stacked with the smiling monarch. Simple jugs are to get, depending on the skill in Action, for ten euros.

Sometimes Abbas will be sold teapots in a metal formwork. You should let the vessels look as if they came from the 19th century. Century, when China was still patched up with metal braces because it was so precious.

such replicas are also with counterfeit stamps of Russian porcelain mark Gardner made a mistake, the Persia end of the 19th century. Century, with its export were flooded. But this is the type of dizziness you don’t fall of course!