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53ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURAL NOTES IN THE MEMOIRS BY ENGELBERT KAEMPFER (AZERBAIJAN,
IRAN)
Amenzade R.
Doctor of Architecture, Professor Baku, Azerbaijan
Abstract
The need to study the "literature of travel" and, in particular, Western European (ambassadors, scholars, travelers, etc.) is considerable, including memoirs, notes, reports, etc., which allows the architectural historians of Azerbaijan to add information about lost or modified architectural monuments. It should be noted that memoirs are varied in content, focus, factology, form of presentation of material, and, in this is their exceptional value; this is what makes it possible to see the image that was formed by eyewitnesses hundreds of years ago. Among the authors of the sources should be noted F. Zarre, E. Kaempfer, A. Olear, A. Jacobsthal, W. Kleis, B. Dorn, I. Barbaro, A. Contarini, A. Philippe, and others. Many of them contain no less valuable graphic material, preserving, in most cases, the original appearance of the monuments, which certainly increases their value and uniqueness.
Keywords: architecture, countries and cities, embassy, memoirs, engravings.
A
ENGELBERT KAEMPFER
Speaking of seventeenth-century travelers, it is impossible to pass over in silence the outstanding explorer, naturalist, and physician Engelbert Kaempfer (8). Abandoning a brilliant career, in 1683 he became secretary to a Swedish ambassador on a diplomatic mission to a number of countries. On March 20, 1683, the Swedish King Charles XI set an embassy that was to go through Russia to Iran to establish political ties, as well as business relations with Eastern merchants. Engelbert Kaempfer (16.9.1651-2.11.1716), physician, naturalist, scientist and traveler, a man of remarkable intelligence and ability, accompanied the Swedish ambassador Ludvig Fabritius to Russia and further to Iran.
After Moscow, Kazan, and Astrakhan, the embassy arrived via the Volga along the Caspian Sea at one of its key points, the port city of Niyazabad (Ni-zovaya), located on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, and "thanks to the Volga-Caspian route, there had been a tangible rise in the economy and trade of Azerbaijan throughout the century" (2, p. 25). The city of Niyazabad was the first wharf visited by Russian and West European merchants, it was a place of lively trade,
where there was "the most noble trade, it ... consisted of raw silk..." [3, p.37]. Then the embassy caravan followed through the ancient Azerbaijani cities of Aresh, Derbend, Shabran, Hajikabul, and Shamakhi, and "the favorable geographical location of these cities joined them to the transit trade between East and West" (2, p. 25). But this was only the beginning of his prolific stay in the country, with visits to architectural monuments, with their detailed descriptions and sketches, extremely valuable for architectural historians.
At the very beginning of January, 1683, E. Kaempfer went to Absheron, where he bypassed a number of villages near Baku-Balakhany, Ramana, Bina-gadi, Surakhany (temple of fire-worshippers) village of Masazir (salt deposits), the mountain Beshbarmag. E. Kaempfer described oil production and oil wells, their digging, and provided information on the release of combustible gases that he observed in the oil fields. In addition to oil, one of the valuable products of the Ab-sheron mining industry was excellent quality salt, which was extracted from Lake Masazir, located in the western part of the peninsula (2, p. 27). The notes by E. Kaempfer about the flora and fauna, agriculture, peculiarities of life and manners of the Azerbaijani people are of great interest (1, pp. 22, 23).
Memoirs about Baku contain many lesser-known and completely unknown facts, and others confirm and clarify some of the distortions of the later period. During his stay in Baku, where E. Kaempfer arrived in 1683, he gave a long pictorial description of medieval Baku (Ichery Shahar), spoke about the uniqueness of the city and the strategically correct choice of its location, its fortification-fortress walls, gates and bourjas (towers), a harbor, sketched the city, and, as noted in the sources, the panorama of Baku was given by E. Kaempfer for the first time.
MAP OF ABSHERON.ENGELBERT KAEMPFER
(1, pp.14, 15) According to him "the city of Baku, Absheron Peninsula has the shape of an almost regular square, at which one side is more elongated: each side has a length of a thousand steps and even a few more (6, p.135). Two sides of the city are washed by the sea, one that represents the port, the other that faces the open sea; the other two sides are flanked by a moat carved into the rocky soil of the city. It is surrounded by double walls, at a distance of 15 paces from each other, of which the inner one is much higher than the outer one, there are many semicircular towers in the wall, crenel-lations on the top of the walls... The walls that face the sea are brick, and the rest are adobe. The double gates in the north wall are padded with iron sheets" [4, p.21], and, further "...on the side of the harbor gate for more convenient delivery of goods. The harbor is marked by the double walls of the city, facing the sea, and extending further out to sea and as if parallel to the shore. The harbor is sheltered from the waves by an opposing promontory, which at a distance of about a farsang protrudes into the sea. Ships coming from Russia,.....and
the rest of Persia take shelter here, but they do not get to the harbor safely, because of the rocks scattered both at the entrance and in the bay itself, and they are partly hidden under water and invisible... The city in the part
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on the hillside is rather sparsely populated, due to the poverty of the inhabitants (small quantity of R. A.), the part in the lowland zone is better populated. Of the private buildings, the best is the octagonal caravanserai, built of hewn stone, the inner square is surrounded by a gallery with beautiful columns. Three mosques in the city have cylindrical minaret towers. The public bazaar in the city has no splendor, presents just a huge area"[4, p. 22).
E. Kaempfer was fascinated by the ensemble of the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, about which he wrote in detail: "In the upper part of the city a beautiful palace, called the Royal Palace, the palace was erected with truly royal luxury on a cliff ledge: everything was built of white stone and beautiful hewing. The gates of the palace have the image of two lions set against each other, and between them is placed the head of another animal, as if a camel. The second gate of the city, also carved above the entrance, shows the same image" [4, p. 23]. According to sources, the engraving "Baku" "bird's eye view" gives the first image of the city, sketches of the Palace of the Shirvanshahs were made by him, due to sources, also made for the first time [4,p.23].
BAKU. ENGELBERT KAEMPFER'S ETCHING
Engelbert Kaempfer's journey to South Azerbaijan and Iran (1684-1685) was accompanied by sketches of monuments and their descriptions, with visits to historic cities - Ardebil (religious center of the Middle Ages, the domain of the Safavid Dynasty), Qazvin, Isfahan (the capital of the Safavid State), and Kashan (regional centers), etc. It is the sketches and narratives of eyewitnesses that make them most authentic, primordial, enable comparative analysis with monuments sketched earlier (or later), clarify their attribution, etc. Sources note authors who visited and recorded some of them, which, in fact, was done by E. Kaempfer later, and, in particular, Matrakci (1532-1555) and Pietro Della Valle (1617-1626).
It was in the splendid 17th century that unique public centers with promenades and gardens, with mey-dans - including large monumental buildings, new types of buildings and constructions unknown before -appeared in the Safavid State, and primarily in the capital centers and in major cities. A similar grandiose community center was successfully implemented in Qazvin, the second capital of the Safavids, Saadatabad-garden city built to the north of existing city to which it was linked, through a khiyaban and 2 squares, mey-dans, and, .. .this public gardens are visible on the plan of Gazvin, drawn by Engelbert Kaemper.
As early as 1590, the center of the Safavid Empire moved to Isfahan, which became the resplendent capital of Shah Abbas (5, p. 181). Xiyaban-i Caharbag made up the main artery that stretched southward into the city, known as "an oblong garden with 4 rows of plane trees, with ponds and flower beds, with monumental gates - pavilions, with gardens of all kinds of shapes and functions" (5, p. 181). Chaharbagh's public character is underscored by the presence of coffee houses here, as well as by the strange Sufi community hospices in its northern part, stretched between Dowlat gate and the Allahverdi Khan Bridge.
The restored plan of Safavid Isfahan drawn according to graphic document mainly found in the manuscripts of Engelbert Kaempfer and P. Coste casts further lights on the layout of individual gardens, today disappear and leads to a better understanding of the urban role complex. In order to recreate the original appearance of the Chaharbagh, it should naturally be resorted to sketches and narratives, and, here Hiyabane Nahshe Jahan sketches by Engelbert Kaempfer clarify and confirm the earlier presence of a coffee house (coffee shops) on this site. The inclusion of the coffee house in the composition of the madrasah is confirmed by records in the wakf-nama, a collection of the most valuable documents (5, pp. 181,183,184). Coffee houses built in many cities of Azerbaijan and Iran (Shamakhi, Na-
khchivan, Ganja, Tabriz, Qazvin, Isfahan, Kashan, Shi-raz) are mentioned in the sources of Western European and Eastern authors, who left a variety of information about coffee houses, their volume and spatial characteristics, decorative design (7, pp. 22, 23).
Numerous sketches by Kaempfer and comments to them are important and necessary for the study of medieval architectural art of Azerbaijan and Iran, including "Meydan-i Shah in Isfahan and the dawlat-khana", "Khiyaban-i Chaharbagh in Isfahan", "Plan of royal garden in Gazvin", "Plan of Gazvin" - these and other engravings and narratives of the outstanding German researcher E. Kaempfer opened little-studied and unknown pages in the research of medieval architectural art of Azerbaijan.
Conclusion The enormous creative contribution of the German explorer and traveler E. Kaempfer, who left numerous travel notes and writings on a number of countries he visited, is of great interest. For us, especially valuable is the part of the material concerning his stay in Persia (Iran, South Azerbaijan) (1684-1685). During this fairly short period, he gathered extensive information about the social structure, history, beliefs and customs, the military organization of the Safavid State. Engelbert Kaempfer's engravings and narratives are part of a golden fund that allows to fill the gap about the architectural and urban monuments of medieval Azerbaijan and Iran. E. Kaempfer published Amoeni-tates Exoticae, but most of his unprinted manuscripts, rich in significant observations, are preserved in the British Museum.
References
1. Ismayilov Sh. N., Some Issues of the Political History and State Structure of the Safavid State of Azerbaijan in the Diaries by Engelbert Kaempfer. Vest-nik KazNU, Almaaty, 2011. https://articlekz.com/arti-cle/7336
2. Seyidova G. Azerbaijan in the relations between the Safavid Empire and the Russian State in the 17th century. Baku, 2007
3. Soimonov F. I. Description of the Caspian Sea. St. Petersburg, 1763
4. Sysoev V. M. Baku before and Baku now, 1929. A Selected Extract from 4 issues of "Izvestiya Azkom-starisa"
5. Mahvash Alemi. Coffeehouses, urban spaces and the formation of Public Sphere in Safavid Isfahan. Muqarnas, Vol. 33, 2016
6. Polievktov M. A. European travelers of the 13th-18th centuries in the Caucasus. Tiflis, 1935
7. Rudi Matthee. Coffee in Safavid Iran: Commerce and Consumption. Jesho, Vol. XXXVI
8. WIKIPEDIA. Engelbert Kämpfer
