1979.03-02b Shiraz 1979. Location of the historic RUKNABAD stream within تنگ الله اکبر the Tang-i Allahu Akbar, the major entrance into the city from the north. The Qur'an Gate, through which traffic still passed in 1979, is directly above the centre.

This photo has notes.

The photo was taken to show the course of the Ruknabad (or Roknabad) stream in the rocky defile of the Tang-i Allahu Akbar, the major way into Shiraz from the north.

The Ruknabad was a famous stream, referred to by the poets Hafez and Sa'adi., who are both buried in Shiraz.

In Gertrude Bell's translation of Hafez:

"In the Garden of Paradise vainly thou'lt seek
The lip of the fountain of Ruknabad,
And the bowers of Mosalla where roses twine."

Again Hafez, extolling the delights of Shiraz:

"Shiraz, u ab-i-Rukna, va an bad-i-khush-nasim;
'Ayb-ash ma-kun, ki khal-i-rukh-i-haft kishvar-ast!"

"Shiraz, and the stream of Ruknabad, and that fragrant breeze--
Disparage it not, for it is the beauty-spot of the seven regions!"

From English traveller Edward Granville Browne, who travelled to Shiraz in 1888 with his Persian servant Haji Safar who was from Shiraz:
".....on surmounting another pass, Haji Safar cried out "Ruknabad! Ruknabad!" and, with a thrill of pleasure, I found myself at the source of that stream, so dear to every Shirazi, of which Hafiz declared, in perhaps the best known of his poems, that Paradise itself could not boast the like."

"One does not love Hafiz because he wrote of Ruknabad: one loves Ruknabad because it was written of by Hafiz."

"We were now at that point, known to all students of Hafiz, called Tangi-Allahu Akbar, because whoever first beholds Shiraz hence is constrained by the exceeding beauty of the sight to cry out in admiration "Allahu Akbar"--"God is most great!" At our very feet, in a grassy, fertile plain girt with purple hills (on the loftier summits of which the snow still lingered), and half concealed amidst gardens of dark stately cypresses, wherein the rose and thel judas-tree in luxuriant abundance struggled with a host of other flowers for the mastery of colour, sweet and beautiful in its garb of spring verdure which clothed the very roofs of the bazaars, studded with many a slender minaret, and many a turquoise-hued dome, lay the home of Persian culture, the mother of Persian genius, the sanctuary of poetry and philosophy, Shiraz. Riveted on this, and this alone, with an awe such as that wherewith the pilgrim approaches the shrine, with a delight such as that wherewith the exile again beholds his native land, my eyes scarcely marked the remoter beauties of the scene--the glittering azure of Lake Mahalu to the east, the interminable gardens of Masjid-Bardi to the west. Words cannot describe the rapture which overcame me as, after many a weary march, I gazed at length on the reality of that whereof I had so long dreamed, and found the reality not merely equal to, but far surpassing, the ideal which I had conceived. It is seldom enough in one's life that this occurs. When it does, one's innermost being is stirred with an emotion which baffles description, and which the most eloquent words can but dimly shadow forth."
E.G. Browne, A Year Amongst the Persians. First published 1893.

At the time of this photo traffic passed through دروازه قرآن the Koran or Qur'an Gate, The Qur'an Gate can be seen directly above the centre of this photo.

The Qur'an Gate was subsequently bypassed by a new road to the east of it, within the defile, and the area of the Qur'an Gate is now a park.

See the RESEARCH ARTICLE of 2021 by Sima Khalilian, Mahdi Zandieh and Ayda Alehashemi, in MANZAR, 13 (57), pp. 78-79. Winter 2021

Tang-i Allahu Akbar alterations (Farsi) "در جستوجوی ورودی شیراز"

Tang-i Allahu Akbar alterations (English): "In Search of Shiraz Entry"

CURRENT VIEW: The Tang-i Allahu Akbar today on Google Earth

Canon FTb with Kodak Tri-X 35mm film.

Part of my IRAN COLLECTION

Taken in: Iran / Fars / Darband (show map)

Taken on: January 1, 1979

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Iran

ايران

Shiraz

ﺸﯿﺮﺍﺰ

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تنگ الله اکب

Tang-i Allahu Akbar

Qur'an Gate

Koran Gate

Ruknabad

Roknabad

Hafez

Sa'adi

E.G. Browne

Edward Granville Browne

A Year Amongst the Persians

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Mahdi Zandieh

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MANZAR

Kodak Tri-X 35mm film

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David Dorren

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Sets appears in: • Iran: Shiraz 1975-79 ﺸﯿﺮﺍﺰ

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