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KERMANSHAH FROM HILLTOP (SOUTHWARDS) .

KERMANSHAH Taq-e Bustan was the summertime villa and garden of a sassani king in the preislamic time. This is now the most famous landmark of the city.

BAZAR-E BOZORG BAZAR –E YEHUDI

BAZAR TOPHANE TEKKIEH MOAVEN O MOLK PARK SHIRIN

BAZAR TOPHANEH

– As seen from Park-e Shirin

BAZAR TOPHANEH : THE S-WESTERN GATE

BAZAR TOPHANEH : main corridor

BAZAR TOPHANEH : the Curio section, near N-E Gate

BAZAR E-BOZORG North Gate

BAZAR E-BOZORG inside the North corridor

BAZAR-E BOZORG: East gate & Gold dealers

BAZAR-E BOZORG Shoe market, East side

BAZAR-E BOZORG main corridor, S-W side

BAZAR-E BOZORG , Main yard & gate, West end.

MODARES STREET.

( IN THE BAZAR-E YEHUDI )

BAZAR-E YEHUDI: BLACKSMITH SECTION Kermanshah is notoriously the least iranian stop on the road to Kerbala. Kordi traders abund in the town center, as dozens of buses used to pause there daily from / to Iraq. Down the bazar hill of Kermanshah, pilgrims and inhabitants are wandering in the blacksmith section as soon as sunset.

BAZAR-E YEHUDI: The East gate, junction with Shahid Safavi Square.

KERMANSHAH HILLS In the modern era, the city was much landmarked by iraqi bombings & continuous settlement of thousands military troopers until now. Population is cosmopolit , but Yarsan religion is as « visible » as it can be.

BAZAR-E BOZORG , West gate surroundings, as seen from Park-e Shirin

PASSAGE SOROUSH melomaniacs corner

BAZAR-E BOZORG: East gate & Gold dealers

IRAQI WAR WRECKS abund in the region. Here squatted battletanks in Kermanshah.

TEKKIEH MOAVVEN-O MOLK (Kermanshah).

KANGAVAR southwards rooftop view

PASSAGE SOROUSH ( 2008): TANBUR LUTE MAKER

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KERMANSHAH : SHELTER FOR YARSANISM Due to the continuous flow of pilgrims in Kermanshah, piousness for emam Ali, devoutly nicknamed « Haqq » (« the truth » ), sounds locally much spontaneous than anywhere in Iran. From the original Shi’a , the yarsan sect rose and took over many rites of the yezidi sect (from Lalish, near Mosul). Yarsanism was born in the early middle-age in Lurestan , as a politicised group founded by Sultan SUHAK. Creation is dated from 9th century, ( i.e. presumed 15th century in gregorian calendar), and their sacred texts, or kalams, report mythical tales of their sheikh and local saints. They spread to the gurani-kordi area, south of Kordestan : such as Sahneh, Jeyundabad and also many villages in the Dalahu region , west of Kermanshah. They used to believe in Metempsychosis, and Emam ALI rose to prominent position in worship, so that iranians nicknamed them as « Ali Allahi » ( « Ali is God »), but also « Ahl-e-haqq » (« those of the Truth » or « those of ALI »). Moreover, since they have been following then another mythical pious lori lutenist Shah KOSHIN and his follower Reyham KHANUM since the XI th century, yarsan do hold the kalams singing and tanbur lute music as a sacred mediation with emam Ali and God himself, in the occasion of weekly Djem meet, - very much like the yezidi « Qaul » singers (north Iraq) and the Djem of the alevi Asheq (Anatolia) -. For this reason, Tanbur lute is venerated as a sacred instrument in the area. Unlike the yezidi repertoire of Qauls, [Yezidi adopted tanbur as well, prior to the Ahl-e-Haqq] music of the Ahl-e-Haqq is astoundingly dense, as their modal system is as rich as the persian one. Most themes are named according to their author’s name - many ancient sheikh of the sect -. Proselyte migrant member Nur Ali ELAHI (Jeyundabad) dispatched and translated their texts and refined music in the persian world. As they have been much prosecuted by shiite-twelver regime in Kermanshahan & Mazandaran districts from the 1980’s, they notoriously adopted usual shiite taqiya technics ( dissimulating [their belief] ).

MAPPING DARVISH « TAJ » HATS IN KERMANSHAHAN

Wandering ‘Khaksar’ (Qalandariyyah)

Wandering ‘Khaksar’ (Qalandariyyah)

Nimatullahiyyah

Yarsan Yarsan ‘Khaksar’ (Qalandariyyah) & Gonabadi

FAQIR DERVICHES DARGAH

Tour in Kermanshah was an opportunity to take over investigations about sufi Faqirs of the Khaksariyyah order. The Mir Taher branch of Kermanshah is the main Taifa of this far derivate of the indian –kashmiri Jaliliyyah. This branched from tehrani mother-order (bottom right) in the 1960’s. In their Tekkieh we could have a fascinating historical discusion with Mir Taher’s son.

« FRANCE ? I DON T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE, BUT THEIR SOCCER TEAM IS ‘ ALI !‘ »