FOLLOW A CULTURE
From Kashan craftsmanship to the Shahnameh: six discoveries connecting Iran with collections around the world.
6 cities · 6 discoveries · Museum sources
Explore these places individually. This is a cultural collection, not a timed travel itinerary.
Munich
Kashan, Iran → Bavaria, via Poland
Residenz Treasury
The Treasury catalogue identifies object 1240 as a silk-and-gold tapestry from Kashan, Iran, around 1600. It came to the Wittelsbach family through a Polish royal marriage in 1642, later travelling through Mannheim to Munich. This is a woven tapestry, rather than a knotted pile rug.
Ask about catalogue no. 1240, inventory ResMü.WC0001, and look for the hunting scenes.
Copenhagen
Kashan, Iran → Copenhagen
The David Collection
A lustre-painted bowl in the David Collection is signed by the potter Abu Zayd of Kashan and dated February–March 1204. Its figures and dense decoration offer another Iranian connection beyond the better-known carpets.
Open inventory 45/2001 and look for the two figures among the scrolling ornament.
London
Iran → London
Victoria and Albert Museum
The V&A’s celebrated Iranian carpet is dated 1539–1540 by its inscription. It connects London with Safavid-era weaving, poetry and the shrine at Ardabil; the museum discusses the uncertainties around its original commission.
Find the date and signature in the border, then compare the two hanging-lamp motifs.
Lisbon
Safavid Iran → Lisbon
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum
The museum’s seventeenth-century “Polonaise” carpet was made in Persia, not Poland. The label reflects the European associations of carpets that sometimes bore Polish coats of arms, showing how an object’s name can obscure its origin.
Look for the arabesques, palm forms and shield-shaped central motif.
Dublin
Iran → Dublin
Chester Beatty
Chester Beatty’s Persian manuscript collection includes illustrated versions of the Shahnameh. These books connect Dublin with Persian storytelling and the skills of calligraphers, painters and illuminators.
Compare a painted scene with its surrounding script in the digital catalogue; paper displays rotate.
Toronto
Safavid Iran → Toronto
Aga Khan Museum
The museum holds The Court of Kayumars, a painting from the Shahnameh made for Shah Tahmasp. The page connects Toronto with Persian epic storytelling and Safavid book arts.
Open the collection record and look at how people, animals and landscape gather around the king; confirm display status.
Gifts, migration, trade, artistic influence, empire and collecting all leave different traces. Read the source and the object label together. These themes are starting points for discovery; a single object or place cannot represent a whole culture.
Prepare for your visit →