One problem with royalty is that sometimes a country is left with one too young for the job. As here where the young Shah shows off finery from 300 years before and a different Persian Empire with a different royal line and indeed even a different capital. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The state of the Iranian Royals lets down this otherwise well designed stamp. A young son Shah recently replaced his father who was a foot soldier in the Persian Army promoted to an officer since he was the only guy who figured out how to use the army’s sole Russian machine gun. As an officer he was mister coup man until he declared himself Shah. So much for ancient blue blooded royals. Are Iranians to believe this Shah will build great monuments like Shah Abbas II or the ancients like Darius and Cedric. The Shah might answer, don’t worry, I will build plenty of Palaces and steel mills and airports that will far outlast my line.
Todays stamp is issue A71, a 25 Dinar stamp issued by the Kingdom of Iran in 1949. The stamp showed the Chehel Sotoun Palace in Isfahan and was part of a 16 stamp issue in various denominations showing architectural wonders of Iran and Shah Pahlavi. I covered one of the others here,https://the-philatelist.com/2017/10/31/the-party-is-over-and-no-one-cleaned-up-the-mess/ . The stamp is worth $2 unused.
Isfahan was originally founded by Jews who had come from Babylon. The legend is that they had with them examples of the soil and water of Jerusalem and Isfahan closely matched it. Over time the city attracted Georgians and Armenians and had a golden period. In 642 Arabs captured the city and a decline set in. Around 1600 Persians under Shah Abbas were inspired by the beautiful ruins and made Isfahan the new Persian capital. It was during this period when the Chetal Sotoun Palace( 40 columns) was built for the Persian Shah Abbas II to host foreign dignitaries. The insides were elaborately decorated with ceramic tile mosaics depicting history and allegories of love. Many of the tiles are still in place.
In 1722, Isfahan was looted by new invaders, this time from Afghanistan. Nobody will be surprised that they were not good stewards of the city. The Persian Empire capital left for Mashad never to return.
Shah Pahlavi turned out to be not such a bad steward of Isfahan. Under him the biggest steel mill in the middle east was constructed in Isfahan. The airport was expanded and the connected air force base contains many of the Iranian Air Forces F14 Tomcats acquired by the Shah to chase off Soviet cold war overflights by Mig 25s. You may remember the F14 from “Top Gun”. It is now 40+ years old and the Americans don’t use it anymore but the Iranians have found it irreplaceable. It is of course amazing they still fly without outside help.
Well my drink is empty and it would be wrong to get a toasting regarding a Muslim city. So I will patiently wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.