Splendors & Civilizations of Iran | Dr. S. Zaheer Hasan & Dr. Samina Hasan

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Ahlul Bayt Center of Toledo
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Splendors & Civilizations of Iran | Dr. S. Zaheer Hasan & Dr. Samina Hasan at the Ahlul Bayt Center of Toledo

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[0:00]hour Destiny is to unite all the Muslims of Toledo on one

[0:06]platform as one community inshallah so we went to my wife will

[0:13]you know behind every successful man which I am not there is

[0:18]a woman always telling him that he's wrong okay so at any

[0:22]occasion if my wife feels that she needs to interject please welcome

[0:25]to do so briefly of course inshallah because we don't want to

[0:31]stay here all night of course it's a place of blessing but

[0:33]we don't want to stay all night over here inshallah we went

[0:39]to Iran in October 22 a couple of months ago and this

[0:43]was a dream fulfilled for us if you know that the culture

[0:51]of Pakistan and India is heavily influenced by Iran so much so

[0:56]that Farsi was the official language of India for 400 years and

[1:04]our ancestors spoke and wrote Farsi and our her mother and my

[1:08]grandmother they all wrote and spoke Farsi so there's a tremendous influence

[1:12]of Farsi and Persian culture on our language our Cuisine our names

[1:17]you name it everything originated from Central Asia which was under Persian

[1:22]influence and then from Iran directly and there were a couple of

[1:25]invasions from Iran on to India also so this is about fulfillment

[1:32]of a dream to go to Iran and it took about that

[1:37]long for me to ever go I I did plan many times

[1:40]in my life for to go to Iran and that's another story

[1:42]but we were just discussing about the 5 000 year history of

[1:49]Iran with Brothers here and we said why why is it that

[1:55]this nation is so resilient to survive the most extreme odds against

[1:59]them and it came to my mind about a statement rasulullah wasallam

[2:05]said that if there was learning suspended in the highest of Heavens

[2:11]the Persians will find it and that reflects Who would know 1400

[2:17]years ago that people will make it into the heavens but this

[2:22]was the reason that the prophet sallallahu himself appreciated the wisdom of

[2:27]the Persians this trip was not about the politics of Iran it's

[2:32]not about the foreign policy of United States or the foreign policy

[2:35]of Iran it is not about the whatever is happening in Iran

[2:40]which we all have our point of view but it was purely

[2:46]about and this trip was planned a year before so it's been

[2:49]in the making for a year before the association of Pakistani Physicians

[2:54]of North America arranged this trip and it was an opportunity we

[2:57]took and ran because we were going as American pakistanis and believe

[3:01]me we got the protocol treatment as if we were from Pakistan

[3:05]so America was honored by us Pakistan was honored by us and

[3:13]all the propaganda which you hear in the news about relationships between

[3:17]Iran and United States it doesn't do not exist at the personal

[3:19]level this is all government talking every hotel that we stayed there

[3:25]was a flag of Pakistan outside and inside on the counter there

[3:28]was a flag of United States flag of Iran and a flag

[3:32]of Pakistan and I'll show you one of those pictures so this

[3:34]was a very different trip Iran is a country in western Asia

[3:40]the present Iran is much more truncated than the Persian Empire which

[3:43]extended all over it was many famous Scholars came from Iran in

[3:48]the early Islamic period and these were philosophers Physicians scientists astronomers they

[3:55]were all influenced by Persian thinking and Persian scientific advancement and so

[4:00]the influence of Iran goes all over the place in Central Asia

[4:04]including turkey Iran is surrounded by many countries it's in Western area

[4:10]Asia and it's you can say it's within the hot spots of

[4:15]the world so it has its own influence it is surrounded by

[4:21]it's surrounded by in the north by the albros mountains which you

[4:27]can see in Tehran and then on the western side by the

[4:30]circus mountains everything in between is Desert Iran is 70 desert and

[4:36]it is sitting on oil okay which is inshallah to be used

[4:42]for the benefit of the community and also uh to tell you

[4:48]that the cities are lush green almost forested but in between and

[4:52]I'll show you a glimpse of our travel that it's pitch desert

[4:56]there were many dynasties and civilizations of Iran which is not the

[5:02]subject of this talk but I would highlight the accommodities the seleucids

[5:08]because it's in their time that the sorry the sasanids at the

[5:14]time which Islam came to Iran and of course the Arab and

[5:17]Islamic invasion of Iran and then later on the safavides the khajjar

[5:25]and the pallavis were important dynasties that we will see a glimpse

[5:29]of and of course of the Islamic Republic so when you land

[5:33]in Tehran two things you see as soon as you leave the

[5:35]airport one is the Imam khomani complex but the bus was going

[5:41]so fast that I could not take a picture of that and

[5:43]this is the Milad Tower which is a telecommunications Tower in Iran

[5:50]and this is a slightly better picture of it so then we

[5:52]stayed on our hotel which which was called the espanus and I

[5:57]want to tell you these hotels are beautiful they are very very

[6:01]opulent and extremely high level of hospitality and care so you see

[6:05]we reached there about two in the morning and you see the

[6:09]city of Iran from The Mountaintop the Tehran from The Mountaintop at

[6:12]night and this was a picture of our hotel from outside just

[6:17]their outside welcoming area okay and I'm going to skip that in

[6:23]the interest of time because we have a lot to see I

[6:26]was sort of disappointed that we did not get to see much

[6:31]in Tehran and I I sensed that it was a security issue

[6:33]they did not want us to go to many places and they

[6:36]were I could sense from the tour guides in the tour company

[6:41]that there were some intelligence people and foreign office people there the

[6:45]good thing about going to Iran is you apply to the Embassy

[6:48]of Pakistan in Washington DC which handles the consulate Affairs on the

[6:52]behalf of Iran so the first place we went to in Tehran

[6:57]was the never on Palace and it was really not a terribly

[6:59]impressive there are eight palaces in Tehran and only we got to

[7:03]see two and we made it a point that we are not

[7:07]going to wander away from our tour for various reasons so this

[7:11]is the Summer Palace of the pahelvi dynasty or Muhammad Raza Shah

[7:16]and in there you see a picture of his family and you

[7:20]still see the close of faradiba hanging in the closets and her

[7:24]makeup all of that from about 40 years ago is still there

[7:29]so this was rather and not terribly impressive Palace but the next

[7:33]one you need to see this is a dining hall of our

[7:38]hotel and I want to tell you that this tour was heavy

[7:40]on food almost everybody which was about 350 doctors and their families

[7:46]everybody must have gained at least 10-15 pounds in two weeks because

[7:52]all day long we were eating and eating and eating food was

[7:56]very tasty lots of variety as I will show you and food

[8:04]was also extremely delicious and when you went and bought things outside

[8:08]they were very inexpensive we met another lady from Toledo they have

[8:13]moved since Susan Hashmi but I show you this picture to point

[8:18]your attention to the can of fanta you would say well what's

[8:20]so big about Fanta well Fanta is a Coke product and Coca-Cola

[8:25]is an American company so mind you that majority of the drinks

[8:29]in Iran are Coca-Cola products now where are the sanctions by the

[8:34]way you know think about it so Coca-Cola is a very popular

[8:37]and its products are very popular in Iran this is the Azadi

[8:43]Tower it was built in 1971 at the commemoration of the 2500th

[8:47]year of founding of these Iranian Empire so this is one of

[8:53]the very important places and during the revolution in 1979 this was

[8:57]a place where a lot of demonstrations were held we come out

[9:04]and we see a nice Street very heavy heavy traffic very organized

[9:10]very clean I have never seen a cleaner country than Iran in

[9:15]my life I mean most places in United States are not even

[9:18]as clean as you see most of Europe is not as clean

[9:23]but cleaner than United States but Iran is extremely clean and then

[9:26]this is a picture of jamuria Street and down the street down

[9:31]the road there is a Palestine street so all of these streets

[9:34]are extremely well kept and well organized so now we go to

[9:41]the golistan Palace this was built by Fateh Alisha khajjar but originally

[9:45]was built by the zhan Dynasty and then reclaimed by the palavis

[9:52]the hajjars who preceded the Valerie Dynasty which is Shah of Iran's

[9:56]Dynasty the khajjars were very impressed with the Europeans and they wanted

[10:00]to have a palace which could resemble or even beat the the

[10:04]opulence of Versailles so if you look at this Palace it is

[10:11]very beautiful I cannot tell you how impressed I was so now

[10:13]you look at the throne which is the King's throne sitting outside

[10:19]and it's called marmar which is uh marble and this is the

[10:25]statue of Fateh Alisha it was so big that I had to

[10:29]take two two shots of it so Fateh Alisha was a Fajr

[10:30]King and that's his statue and this is just an entrance into

[10:39]the palace but that was uh that was from the tomb that

[10:44]they had taken yeah so this is uh just uh I don't

[10:50]know if the projection does Justice to it but this just place

[10:54]is amazingly beautiful and this is the patio to enter into the

[10:57]palace look at the mirror work look at how beautiful this looks

[11:02]and then the stairs are all Onyx marble very beautiful going into

[11:10]the palace and this is called the core this is called the

[11:14]salaam Hall and the amazing thing about salaam Hall is where Muhammad

[11:18]razasha for those of you are old enough to remember 1969 he

[11:24]had a coronation that's when his first born was seven years old

[11:28]Raza and that's where he was allowed to have a coronation so

[11:32]he made a very big deal of it and they say that

[11:36]this was the beginning of his downfall that when he did his

[11:41]coronation in this Hall and you will notice that there is a

[11:48]statue actually a replica of the crown which is on that side

[11:51]in the box that's the crown of Iran and it's a replica

[11:56]and then there is the the king is sitting there and this

[11:59]king is uh in nuradin Shah and so he's sitting on the

[12:05]sun throne which is again a replica the originals are in the

[12:08]treasury and there's a treasury Museum but we were not allowed to

[12:11]go there in that treasury museum is the taus for those of

[12:16]India and Pakistan would know the Peacock Throne and the original Jewels

[12:19]crown jewels and couple of diamonds brought from India by another Shah

[12:23]are there in the National Treasury this is the Hall of Mirrors

[12:29]this is another Hall over there the same Palace and for those

[12:35]of you who had an opportunity to see Versailles next to Paris

[12:38]you will realize that this is far more opulent than that a

[12:44]lot of tile work hand-paired tiles porcelain tiles are part of this

[12:48]this is called the brilliant Hall and this is another dining room

[12:52]over there these are originally my pictures and my wife's pictures which

[12:57]we took but one picture I stole from the internet and because

[13:00]my picture wasn't as good and this is called the shamsul imara

[13:07]it's another extension of the golistan palace it's called the son of

[13:11]all mansions s-u-n and it was also I want you to pay

[13:18]very careful attention to the symbols on top of each one this

[13:20]was at its time the highest building in Iran and the biggest

[13:27]Watchtower so in between the two monuments you will see a big

[13:30]watch in there it was a clock but I want you to

[13:35]pay careful attention to this symbol which is called the Shero Hoshi

[13:37]that was the national symbol of Iran it was a suffer with

[13:43]symbol and it shows the The Lion The Sword and the Sun

[13:45]so and this was on the flag of Iran before the Revolution

[13:52]it's another Hall amazingly beautiful you could just stay there all day

[13:58]looking at it but we had to move and this is the

[14:01]building outside okay so this is golistan Palace next day we went

[14:07]to husseinia jamaran this is the place where Imam Khomeini lived and

[14:12]it's interesting that Sheikh jamaran who owned this property gave it to

[14:20]Imam Khomeini to stay there but Imam Khomeini insisted on paying him

[14:24]rent and it was a very simple play very simple residence this

[14:31]was his room the only thing which looks a little bit outstanding

[14:35]is the carpet but this is not unusual for Iran Iran everywhere

[14:41]you go you get beautiful carpet so it was not out of

[14:43]the ordinary to have a nice carpet but look how simply he

[14:47]lived that's his bed and his table and then he would walk

[14:53]over from his apartment across a little Steel Bridge and he would

[14:56]go into a relatively moderate sized gymnasium about the size of this

[15:00]Hall and that's where he sat right there right above you see

[15:06]this mic and a small table and he would give his hotpas

[15:08]from there so amazing level of Simplicity but they now have a

[15:14]library there and you can see various pictures of his life in

[15:19]there and I I always was very impressed by him see can

[15:22]you can you go back to his bedroom and the picture before

[15:29]that yeah this is the room he received telephone calls and answered

[15:34]and spoke with the leaders of the world including United States Britain

[15:38]name it and he spoke with Russian premiers sitting right in that

[15:44]room there's a telephone the gentleman is holding his hand over there

[15:47]the telephone is right behind it that's where he would answer all

[15:54]the phone calls and make decisions um about whatever he wanted to

[15:59]with the rest of the world so going on now we go

[16:05]to the Jewish area which is another heavily populated District in inner

[16:10]Tehran and this is the subway station but next to it is

[16:16]a Rosa of the Imam Zada Saleh bin Musa qasim so this

[16:21]is this Imam Zada and many many Imam zadas who are the

[16:26]sons and relatives of the imams are buried in Iran by the

[16:28]way if you just it came to my mind that the most

[16:32]common name in Iran is Raza there were like five rasas in

[16:35]a with us we also have a Raza hash mean to leader

[16:41]right so everyone almost without doubt you if you call somebody Raza

[16:50]it's possible you would be right so imams Saleh is buried here

[16:56]and this is the very very beautiful tomb of his that's the

[17:04]inside amazingly beautiful beautiful chandelier when you come out of the the

[17:09]tomb of imams are there you go into the market of tajrish

[17:12]and I was telling my friends just now that Iran is extraordinary

[17:16]inexpensive very inexpensive and you get such a variety of fruit and

[17:24]vegetables some that I've never seen before but very clean and very

[17:27]nicely set up so this is just I just like vegetables so

[17:34]I I could not help but stand there and look around over

[17:40]the taji everywhere every place of civilization you see ayat of the

[17:46]Quran and English translations of it on the walls so this is

[17:50]the tajirish market and then you see again namas Deen Salah is

[17:54]the pillar of Deen everywhere so this is the Jewish Market next

[18:01]morning we came to the Imam Khomeini complex outside Tehran and this

[18:08]is just a architectural wonder and I want to show you how

[18:13]big it is on this little video just get an idea that's

[18:23]where Imam Khomeini his son Ahmad Khamenei and uh hashimir of sanjani

[18:27]are buried in that chamber and I'll show you a picture of

[18:30]it but just see how big it is it's just amazingly beautiful

[18:37]and very very large complex here and you meet people from all

[18:41]over the world over here so inside the chamber is buried Imam

[18:47]Khomeini Ahmad Khomeini and hashimi raswanjani was the president of Iran so

[18:55]we leave there and we are heading towards home and then our

[18:58]tour will continue towards home home is a very historic religious and

[19:05]center of Education within this complex there are three to four colleges

[19:13]and the the mausoleum of Fatima the sister of Imam Raza who

[19:19]unfortunately sadly was poisoned in this place and she stayed there and

[19:26]lingered on till she died so that's a very sad story but

[19:28]Allah wanted to give respect to the lady six Kings of Iran

[19:36]are buried in this complex so for safavid and two hajjar including

[19:40]Fateh Alisha are buried here if you go in she was she

[19:46]was 26 or 28.

[19:50]she was a scholar so you see this complex and these are

[19:54]all the colleges including the college where Imam Khomeini went to so

[19:59]you will see this multiple madrasas seminaries are there very beautiful entrances

[20:07]this is the entrance of the Masjid and this is her grave

[20:12]site or Rota excellent now I want to tell you a little

[20:18]story about this Slide the gentleman in the middle was again a

[20:22]scholar from that complex he had never been outside Iran and he

[20:28]spoke fluent English and German and he was amazingly knowledgeable and we

[20:34]just could not leave his side he was just amazingly uh nice

[20:38]to talk to I wish I could find out his name maybe

[20:43]we could invite him one day over here but we were very

[20:47]impressed by him so from home now excuse me so in the

[20:50]schools over there which was very very impressive was 800 Scholars at

[20:57]a time is what they produce from those schools and amazingly they

[21:05]are taught um not just the Theology and and uh Islamic Studies

[21:11]but of course meeting this gentleman showed us that they are also

[21:15]taught languages and they become Masters in those languages and when they

[21:19]talk and they speak to you you can't tell the difference because

[21:25]they have no accent just like well you know every one of

[21:28]us has accents they don't and it and that is surprising so

[21:33]they're they're taught I think not just the Islamic Studies but languages

[21:38]as well as other Arts and Sciences 800 Scholars from one city

[21:46]of home that was an amazing thing to watch and see so

[21:51]moving on to Isfahan is an amazing City it was the center

[21:58]of the safavid dynasty they say that if there is Isfahan is

[22:03]the head and Shiraz is the heart that's what they talk about

[22:09]is fun so we're going towards Isfahan it's very close is the

[22:14]natan's area where there are nuclear installations but we didn't talk about

[22:18]that uh and and then you see these mountains and for pakistanis

[22:25]the most famous thing from this area is halwa Sohan okay that

[22:29]is the best halwa it is paper thin it's sheets of it

[22:36]very soft loaded with zafaran or or saffron and it's so amazing

[22:39]that I I had to buy it but when I realized that

[22:45]I looked around and there were like 50 people in line all

[22:49]of from our group who bought tons of halwa and of course

[22:52]nothing is left so when you enter we entered is fine in

[22:55]the evening time and I want to show you how clean the

[22:59]street is okay so this is just a typical Street heavy traffic

[23:03]but very orderly and then we get to the site which is

[23:09]very famous for Isfahan is the full charistan bridge on a dry

[23:13]river which is called the yandere river this bridge was built in

[23:16]1603 and it's the river now is dry but it is so

[23:22]amazingly beautiful at night daytime it's not that good looking but night

[23:25]time is wonderful so this is It's a walking bridge and it's

[23:31]just amazingly beautiful we stayed in a hotel which is it's a

[23:37]carwan Sarai these were these were let's say old-time hotels where you

[23:42]Travelers and Caravans would stay and they would always be place for

[23:46]people and animals and their goods and they would trade over there

[23:50]so this was a huge caravansara which is called Abbasi karwan Sarai

[23:54]and it is just very beautiful at night I told you the

[24:00]hotels are very opulent and this is the dining room amazingly amazing

[24:05]variety of food in the morning for breakfast and my brother Ismail

[24:09]would agree with me he just returned from Iran at the back

[24:15]of this hotel or karvan Sarai and you see the architecture is

[24:20]a jar Bahar madrasa or madrasa Imam Sadiq and in the olden

[24:27]days this carbons arrived financially supported the madrasa so all the proceeds

[24:31]of earnings from this car Mansa I would go to the support

[24:37]this madrasa now we go on to our tour of Isfahan and

[24:40]we reach we reach a place which was really walking distance from

[24:46]our hotel called chehal satoon means 40.

[24:49]sutun means pillar and you would say well how can there be

[24:52]a building with 40 pillars but this is the reality of it

[24:57]that's the building there are 20 pillars and the reflection of 20

[25:01]pillars in the pond makes it 40.

[25:02]right so this is the chehal satoon palace and it was so

[25:08]beautiful from inside this is one of the Safari dynast Shah Abbas

[25:15]he built this place and is just very opulent and beautiful and

[25:19]this is just the entrance this is the foyer of the entrance

[25:22]and notice how beautiful the carvings and the paintings are and in

[25:30]there about eight to ten murals of battles an important events of

[25:34]in the history of that time and of course all of these

[25:37]battles are the ones which the Persians want didn't show any defeats

[25:43]but they show only the ones they they want and and and

[25:46]even even these paintings some of them are rather lewd you don't

[25:53]want to see dancing girls right but they have tolerated that okay

[25:56]this I zoom down one mural which is a picture of Thomas

[26:03]the first and on the left side he's offering bind to humayun

[26:10]remember the story when humayun was run out by sheer Shah Suri

[26:14]he lost the Throne of daily and he ran to Iran for

[26:19]help and the Safa weeds helped him so tamash gave him Military

[26:22]Support to take back the throne otherwise there would have been no

[26:27]moral Empire on the left and notice this lady in the background

[26:32]and a few other ladies dancing below across the Char uh chahal

[26:40]satoon Palace is a huge complex which I will just show you

[26:44]when you see the picture you will see how beautiful it is

[26:47]but to get to to get to to get a good bird's

[26:51]eye view of the complex you have to go inside this building

[26:57]which is called Palace but um before you go there the jahazatun

[27:01]palace showed us how the Iranians are they were very receptive they

[27:10]knew that we were coming as guests from overseas and it was

[27:18]amazing that we were received with Pakistani national anthem which was loudly

[27:25]being you know sung by just the shopkeepers who were outside the

[27:35]jahal season so it it showed how they wanted to please the

[27:42]guests who were coming and welcoming them thank you so we are

[27:46]entering Ali khupa palace and this Palace was in its time the

[27:49]tallest building of Iran so now then the next one was the

[27:56]uh the uh imara Shams so look how beautiful this Palace is

[28:00]and this is the complex and it's called nakshe jaha Square built

[28:08]by Shah pass and on right in front now we're on the

[28:11]balcony of the palace looking at this Square that's the um then

[28:17]this is the history Bazaar so this Bazaar is covered all entirely

[28:22]there's a Bazaar all around the palace okay and on the right

[28:29]side you see the Masjid Imam and notice that the Masjid and

[28:33]the Gate of the Masjid are a little bit angulated so it

[28:36]was done that way because the Masjid had to face Qibla and

[28:39]the gate was a little bit off-centered but this is also a

[28:45]very beautiful place now we're entering the Charlotte Masjid this according to

[28:51]history was mostly used by the women of the palace so the

[28:54]women went into this very beautiful mosque and for those of you

[28:57]who are from Lebanon was from Lebanon in a place called Jebel

[29:02]Ahmad so that's where the history of but the place is beautiful

[29:09]now my wife will tell you the significance of this picture I

[29:14]see the Dome and that there is a light at the Dome

[29:19]at the end of that the picture is not very clear there

[29:26]is a peacock at the end and it looks like when the

[29:30]light shines through that it's a peacock because the the tail is

[29:37]the light but it signifies the direction of Kaaba and people who

[29:43]are walking in they look at that at about noon when the

[29:51]sun shines it acts and shows the direction of Gaba it's beautiful

[29:55]the picture has not done Justice to it at all um it's

[29:59]it's something to see and watch amazing and also a few pictures

[30:07]back he we he showed you the the courtyard the shops surrounding

[30:16]the pond that's the second largest square of the world um the

[30:22]the first one is in China and this is the second largest

[30:26]um compound or or Square of the world so inside Masjid is

[30:35]just extremely beautiful very nice painting and work handicrafts amazingly beautiful I

[30:43]just cannot tell you how each one of these massages are so

[30:46]beautiful and so decorated with tiles and pictures this is the entrance

[30:51]of the tesseri bazaar and I just want to show you some

[30:56]of the handicrafts and souvenirs on sale beautiful artwork and I didn't

[31:05]have any picture of cloth so guess what's this so this is

[31:11]the famous product of Isfahan his friend widely available we came out

[31:19]of this complex and we went to this place called the namakdan

[31:22]which in our language in Persian means a salt shaker right so

[31:26]this was the restaurant this building was owned by Jewish people the

[31:32]esfahan Prides itself in having its Jewish community and Christian Community and

[31:35]zoroastrian community in there so at night we saw this Armenian Orthodox

[31:45]Church and then in the daytime we went to see the church

[31:48]from inside it's called The Church of Joseph of Arimathea and there's

[31:52]a big complex of Armenian Christians and their businesses in this District

[31:56]everywhere you go in Iran in addition to fresh fruits and vegetables

[32:00]you get tons of dry fruit amazing and very inexpensive and extremely

[32:06]nice the same Bridge which you saw at night is this is

[32:11]a daytime picture because the bus was going too fast so that's

[32:13]the best I could do with taking a picture of that bridge

[32:16]during the daytime so we're leaving Isfahan and we're going to go

[32:22]towards yazda and as we go towards yes we're going to travel

[32:26]through the desert as it's mentioned to a place called Nan and

[32:33]Nan is not a terribly significant but it's a bus stop and

[32:36]a good place to eat of course we were eating all the

[32:40]time so I want to show you that this is the desert

[32:44]in between cities okay and this is our group having lunch in

[32:58]nine lots of food so we reach yes now yes is a

[33:05]a very interesting zoroastrian City and in there I want you to

[33:11]notice something which is called that all because it's a desert they

[33:17]had to collect water so they had cisterns and ponds and underground

[33:22]Wells but to keep the water fresh they used to aerate it

[33:26]with wind and that's what you will see but now we're in

[33:29]yes which is in the middle of this map so this is

[33:34]the most famous Square in yes called Amir Ali who was a

[33:39]tamuri prince and he developed this Masjid and it's square but it's

[33:46]a amazingly beautiful place and all around there's a Bazaar lots of

[33:51]Edibles to eat lots of dry fruit and and handicrafts notice in

[33:56]the back these tall towers are the badger these are the wind

[34:02]towers which they used to and this is the place at night

[34:09]this is at night so it's just very beautiful in the in

[34:15]the middle he can you go back please the the platform that

[34:18]you see no no no I had the platform that was visible

[34:26]over there with the blue uh platform is for the shahada um

[34:31]of the war it is amazing that the Irani um culture has

[34:40]kept their shohada alive by posting their pictures everywhere um it's when

[34:49]you see that you kind of feel that this uh Nation cannot

[34:59]be beaten because if they haven't forgotten those who laid their life

[35:06]for their Nation then they are going to succeed in whatever they

[35:11]have kept them alive so everywhere you go you see something like

[35:18]this um this is in commemoration for the shahada um and the

[35:22]soldiers who some of them were known who they were and some

[35:27]of them were not but they've kept them alive in the city

[35:33]of Yaz is from where the commemorations were Imam Hussain starts so

[35:38]right next to this Masjid is a huge I would call it

[35:43]Tasia in our language but I don't know what you would call

[35:47]it in Arabic huh no I don't have a picture so this

[35:52]is again yes that night and the towers and then next morning

[35:56]we went to a very unusual place for those of us who

[35:58]are from India and Pakistan would know that there is a community

[36:03]of zoroastrians who live who are called Parsi from Paris which is

[36:06]Forest Iran the zoroastrians are very peculiar people they're very hard working

[36:12]they are intermarry and they were ran out of Iran in 16

[36:20]something they also are monotheist their their Nabi or if you may

[36:27]call them their spiritual leader was zardash and he preached monotheism but

[36:32]in their lifestyle they do not bury their dead they do not

[36:36]burn their dead they leave their dead people on high elevation pits

[36:40]with the great and they leave it to the birds of prey

[36:46]so the vultures key come and eat their flesh and their skeleton

[36:49]drops into the well and then they collect and dispose those so

[36:54]they did not believe contaminating the Earth with their body so this

[36:58]is a burial site it was revived by Indian parses and for

[37:02]those of us who are from India and Pakistan you know the

[37:05]famous family marker this was built rebuilt by one of their relatives

[37:11]so it's called marker and then he established a clock tower in

[37:18]yazda also so this is the bed you did they had all

[37:20]these buildings which prepared their bodies by the way nowadays they're burying

[37:25]them in in and I don't have a picture of their grave

[37:28]site but it was still there so these are the places which

[37:34]prepare the bodies and then their their clergy goes and buries them

[37:37]but this is not in use anymore and again the source of

[37:40]water has the badgera next to it these are the towers for

[37:48]wind collection we go to a Parsi Fire temple and this is

[37:50]their fire temple and it's still maintained so those people who talk

[37:53]about intolerance in Iran need to see these things the Jewish Community

[38:01]lives there by the way the biggest place in the world where

[38:04]there is reverse migration from Israel out of Israel is in Iran

[38:10]so the Jews from Israel come back and settle in Iran and

[38:12]some of them are very respectfully treated so this is a non-muslim

[38:20]Parsi zoroastrian Fire temple and notice this very peculiar diagram this is

[38:24]a picture it's a really very ancient picture called the far hour

[38:28]and this is a symbol of Persian nationalism now each of each

[38:32]part of this picture has a significance and I'm open to talking

[38:38]about it later but notice that this is on top of the

[38:40]fire temple is the Farah and I'll show it to you again

[38:45]this is the fire this is they call it the Eternal fire

[38:49]this fire has never been extinguished and they brought this fire to

[38:52]India with them and then it came to Pakistan from there so

[38:56]this fire has never been extinguished it just keeps burning a little

[39:00]bit about them and then again each place has an underground water

[39:06]cistern and then we went and had again everything's about food so

[39:10]we went and had a dinner but I could not help the

[39:14]to take a picture of these two parrots in a restaurant next

[39:18]to this place all the history of Iran in the past history

[39:23]of Iran is well documented in a poetry called shanama and it

[39:30]was written by ferdausi and in there was a story about rustom

[39:32]and saurabh which is also part of Iranian culture and we know

[39:35]about that so this is that time when the father kills the

[39:43]son by mistake he didn't know that this was his son and

[39:46]this story keeps repeating itself in your travels in Iran but I

[39:48]could not help take a picture notice that American flag Pakistani flag

[39:53]Irani flag so your onions are very open-minded and very tolerant and

[40:00]they don't succumb to useless propaganda in in America if you ever

[40:03]talk to people about Iran they'll say oh they're bad that I

[40:08]said can you explain that to me and they have no explanation

[40:12]so Iranian people are very objective in their relationship again and yes

[40:18]that's the marker Clock Tower and then next to this complex is

[40:21]one of the oldest massages in Iran called the rukmudeen Masjid this

[40:26]is one of the oldest massage in Iran it was built in

[40:32]the sixth Hijra so sorry 724 Hijra and so some of the

[40:34]earliest massage in Iran The Peculiar thing about this Masjid is it's

[40:39]relatively small but the minarets are very tall to disproportionately tall minerals

[40:45]I I really don't know the significance why but very beautiful from

[40:51]inside and this is the bazaar outside the Masjid from here onwards

[40:58]we we went to Shiraz and Shiraz we flew to Shiraz in

[41:02]a 737 Boeing relatively new plane now tell me where are the

[41:08]sanctions right so planes are even imported from United States still so

[41:13]this is Shira again excellent food on 35 minutes flight yes so

[41:20]they said she is I told you if Isfahan is the head

[41:23]Shiraz is the heart of Iran Shiraz is a amazing City it

[41:30]was relatively the center of bahaism but not anymore and it is

[41:36]famous for two poets Saadi and Hafiz so this is the this

[41:42]is the this is the tomb of shirazi very nice nice and

[41:47]a very beautiful garden and notice it still looks like desert but

[41:50]this is the real place of Sadi shirazi and he wrote two

[41:57]famous books gulistan and Boston again stories this is the underground cistern

[42:01]very decorated this is the garden around there now this place which

[42:07]I'm going to show you is my favorite place this is why

[42:12]I went to Iran is persipolis and that means the city of

[42:16]the Persians that's what the Greeks called it and I first saw

[42:23]it when 1971 Iran had a big huge party in the desert

[42:29]food was flown from Paris a lot of dignitaries came president of

[42:35]Pakistan also went and they were made to stay in tents all

[42:39]around the persipolis and those some of those Trends are still there

[42:42]so in 1971 we saw these images on television in Pakistan and

[42:47]this is this place is called Jamshed Jamshed was one of the

[42:51]mythological kings in the past it was built by the Archimedes Empire

[42:58]the place was selected by Cyrus the Great and his son Darius

[43:03]and then his son zerzix developed this Monument when Alexander attacked Iran

[43:09]he destroyed this place and the reason he did so was the

[43:12]Persians destroyed Athens do you all remember the story the 300 Spartans

[43:18]that's when the king the Persian king was zarzix so he they

[43:25]destroyed it when Alexander came back he killed Darius III and he's

[43:28]buried in participalis so when you enter this is like the ceremonial

[43:32]capital of ancient Iran and in there every year delegations came from

[43:38]all over the world to pay respect to the Iranian King and

[43:42]this is the place from where the celebration of nauru starts from

[43:47]here which is an Iranian holiday still observed by many people so

[43:52]the the snow rules or the Spring Equinox starts from here it

[43:56]was burnt by Alexander but later all these people and and it

[44:01]was in the desert covered by sand and now it's been restored

[44:04]so this this entrance to persipolis is called the Gate of all

[44:11]Nations it is guarded by two large bulls and I'll show you

[44:14]the close-up and those bulls have a Persian bearded man as the

[44:20]head bull was the symbol of virility and strength in Iran so

[44:24]lots of columns lots of monuments this is a close-up of the

[44:32]gate this is the bull this is the other side another two

[44:38]balls and then you have the stairway so that place was called

[44:40]the Gate of all Nations this is called the stairway of all

[44:43]Nations the amazing thing is that if you go close to these

[44:50]relics you will find that each and every detail of the statue

[44:54]can tell you the nationality of the people their animals their special

[45:00]weapons and their modes of transportation makes you immediately identify which nation

[45:05]this is so it's it's just an amazing sight to see this

[45:12]place and then you go up in the mountain right next to

[45:16]it and this is where Four Kings are buried possibly Darius the

[45:20]third two notice on the topmost that you see this same symbol

[45:27]of Persian nationalism the pharah which is I tried to take a

[45:34]close-up of it so same line attacking the the horse and these

[45:37]are all the statues of the people including their chariots so you

[45:40]can identify where they're from yeah amazing place this is the Palace

[45:51]of zarzx and in the back you see the zargos mountains okay

[45:55]so from here we go three kilometers further and this is called

[46:02]naksha rustam this is another necropolis where the Persian kings are buried

[46:05]and this is where Darius the first is Buddy and many of

[46:10]the other four of the other kings are buried here from those

[46:13]times of the archaemonies dynasty so this is called naksha rustam rustam

[46:18]again were Heroes of this Epic shanam Tome of the Darius and

[46:27]right next to it is a big inscription called DNA I really

[46:29]don't know why it's called a DNA but this is the whole

[46:36]history written in inscription on there so amazingly beautiful place and this

[46:43]is where the Epic of rustom and saurabh shows up again and

[46:46]outside this is a cube which is called the kabais or dosht

[46:49]the cube of zoraster what is the significance nobody knows so we

[46:56]come back to Shiraz and this is just an amazingly beautiful garden

[46:59]called irum Garden in in the heart of Shiraz and this is

[47:06]just the place where the hajjar king lived for a while but

[47:13]it's surrounded by a beautiful palace so we go into the inner

[47:17]city of Shiraz now and this is the vakil bazaar and next

[47:20]to it in the Citadel District which is the fort is the

[47:25]Masjid nasaral Mulk another beautiful Masjid but the but this is 16th

[47:30]century or a little later but the hall which I wanted to

[47:37]see after you see the Masjid and see how beautiful it is

[47:42]this is the courtyard of the Masjid this part of the Masjid

[47:47]is called the pink mosque and this is why so this is

[47:52]all 19th century artwork developed later but it's very very beautiful at

[48:00]this time of the day pictures cannot do justice to how beautiful

[48:04]it is so we visited Sadi shirazi now we're going to go

[48:09]to the the mausoleum of Hafiz amazing thing about Hafiz is that

[48:13]Irani people are very sophisticated and have a lot of etiquette and

[48:20]a lot of traditions and one of the tradition is that every

[48:23]evening after dinner when our kids are playing video games Iranian kids

[48:28]sit with the family and they read Hafiz over tea and mewa

[48:34]which is fruit so this is a tradition which they have maintained

[48:37]for a long time not only do they read Hafiz but they

[48:44]do fortune telling so outside the tomb of half is you find

[48:49]so many people who will tell you your fortune if you were

[48:54]interested in that so his diwan is used for that purpose and

[48:57]this is the grave side of Hafiz very beautiful place another thing

[49:04]which my wife would like to elaborate is books shops and libraries

[49:07]we don't even see bookshops anymore you know there used to be

[49:11]one or two bookshops in a mall when I first came to

[49:14]United States now we don't even see bookshops anymore and even in

[49:17]Pakistan I barely see a Bookshop they've all become garment stores but

[49:22]this is still maintained and place to place to place when you

[49:27]go in Iran you will see bookshops so this is a library

[49:29]and a reading room uh not at the bookshops in every neighborhood

[49:34]that's what we saw um amazingly you know when we when we

[49:38]walked to these places our tour guides would ask us are you

[49:44]not going to buy any books uh because uh I guess it's

[49:48]a part of the culture uh or they've at least wanted us

[49:53]to believe that it's a part of the culture um shanama is

[49:55]the other thing that we were told is is a thing of

[50:02]every day or every weekend ritual in in their country [Music] um

[50:10]shanama was amazing because firdausi did the shanama and it really is

[50:19]in poetry form but it just tells the whole entire history of

[50:24]Persia and so if kids are being taught that from day one

[50:30]can you imagine the love that they have for their nation and

[50:35]their country I think every nation should do that every nation should

[50:39]have their history be in a story form so that even children

[50:47]can enjoy it and that's what I saw there in Iran and

[50:52]it was really amazing to see that and especially the book and

[50:57]the bindings of the book books I bought just very uh you

[51:00]know inexpensive form of all three of them a very inexpensive yet

[51:06]if you look at the binding it's so beautiful so that's the

[51:10]art to buy into that okay so a shop in the same

[51:18]complex this is a hotel in Shiraz where we went for lunch

[51:20]and then this is the Fortress of Shiraz again notice on the

[51:25]extreme right of the picture is the badger which is a wind

[51:31]catcher so this is Shiraz and I also wanted to point out

[51:35]to you that while we were there there was a street show

[51:38]you know some acting and people are holding a little nice shoe

[51:45]on the side and women were with them so it's not that

[51:49]they are totally excluding women we saw women in every Walk of

[51:53]Life ladies were participating of course wherever you went you saw a

[51:56]nice picture saying this is our this is our etiquette with the

[52:03]hijab and this is what's expected but we saw a lot of

[52:06]women without hijab now hijab as your is it said the the

[52:11]notice is said that hijab is the identity of a Muslim woman

[52:15]um and that was really a very beautiful way of expressing to

[52:20]people what it means what is hijab but not only that the

[52:24]hijab does not stop you from whatever you want and desire to

[52:29]achieve in life our tour guides every bus had a tour guide

[52:35]who was a woman they had two tour guides in every bus

[52:40]we had seven buses and we were the third group so every

[52:43]group had seven so we were the third and the last group

[52:48]and every group had one woman as a tour guide and one

[52:55]young man as a tour guide it was really wonderful to see

[52:58]them they were they were driving buses uh they we saw them

[53:04]as truck drivers over there so they are participating in everyday life

[53:09]along with the men this is the vakil bazaar and each Bazaar

[53:13]has many bazaars into it so they all merge at one point

[53:18]so this is vakil Bazaar this was another Bazaar called Sarai Mosher

[53:22]which is a jewelry gemstones and Iran is full of gemstones specially

[53:27]what's the English word for feroza turquoise turquoise very famous for turquoise

[53:33]so this uh even my Pakistani friends can read Urdu Bazaar okay

[53:38]like we have a Urdu Bazaar in every city right in Lahore

[53:43]too famous but I want you to underneath the English Bazaar Business

[53:49]Center you see haramane and I want you to remember that I'll

[53:54]tell you why in later but that was the place that is

[53:59]the place where Four Brothers of Imam so it's called uh had

[54:06]a man shot right Abbas I could not help take a picture

[54:14]of Pakistani mango crate so okay again October is not the season

[54:19]for America but you know what I'm a nationalist too so I

[54:22]had to take that picture of Pakistani mangoes okay another carpet shop

[54:27]and notice the Shero khurshid symbol right there and then outside we

[54:36]all grew up with strings of faluda and ice cream right so

[54:43]another nice I could not help take a picture of this bird

[54:48]this bird is entirely made of plants and it was very close

[54:50]to our hotel but notice again the desert background and that night

[54:55]twice in our stay in Shiraz we went to eat up this

[55:01]famous restaurant called haft Khan and the good thing is each floor

[55:04]is a different ethnic food so there are five floors and each

[55:07]floor has a different flavor of food and then this was a

[55:12]group that night who sang for us these kids are they sang

[55:15]in their mute the kids are mute poor kids and they sang

[55:20]in sign language so this was encouragement to the kids okay from

[55:27]Shiraz we flew to mashath again on a brand new 737 Boeing

[55:35]okay so much for that this is the razavi khorasan all I

[55:41]told you all everything in Iran is about Imam Raza so every

[55:47]street is Raza this Raza street that Raza District Imam Raza Center

[55:55]Imam Prasad street so that's mashad we went to four towns in

[55:59]Russia we went to sandis which is famous I'll tell you why

[56:02]we went to mashad itself we went to thus and we went

[56:08]to nishapur so this is the Masjid area and this is why

[56:11]sandis is famous for his lamb chops the best most succulent large

[56:18]lamb chops we don't smell there's no smell of lamb in it

[56:21]and so this place sandis is famous for us for it and

[56:25]look at the restaurant this is the restaurant so you could sit

[56:29]in a hall but you could sit in private cabins to enjoy

[56:34]the food over there so from uh there we went to tools

[56:41]and this is the gravesite of ferdosi firdausi was the famous poet

[56:45]at the time of memo dalpasni who was commissioned to write the

[56:49]shanama in Farsi and the shanama is a epic story it's a

[56:55]very long it's a whole book about the story of ancient Iran

[56:57]all the way to this time so this this his grave he

[57:02]died in obscurity but his grave was discovered by an Englishman and

[57:07]he reconstructed this whole complex on the same style of how Cyrus

[57:12]the Great's tomb is so that's firdausi and that is his shanama

[57:17]and notice again forever on the top the symbol of Persian nationalism

[57:24]is there on the top so again the Epic of rustom and

[57:29]this is the grave site and you go out as my wife

[57:36]mentioned every town as you enter and leave you see the pictures

[57:40]of the shogada of the war with Iraq and in there everywhere

[57:44]you see a picture of hasim Solomon I couldn't help it every

[57:50]city every city so you know what they did not forget him

[57:53]okay they did not forget him so another hero of the ancient

[57:59]past his statue is there and this is the hotel we stayed

[58:03]in in Shiraz it's called the darwesh hotel very beautiful hotel I

[58:07]can't tell you how beautiful this hotel is and I want to

[58:11]show you as we drive in towards the hotel in mashad going

[58:17]towards the Haram of Imam brother I want to show you this

[58:23]this is how beautiful and how clean it is and that darwesh

[58:28]hotel is on the right side of the picture but notice that

[58:31]you will see the the Rosa of Imam Raza very soon see

[58:39]it it's just breathtakingly beautiful so on the left side the Green

[58:52]Building is the Masjid goharshad she was a the wife of Shahrukh

[58:55]Khan who was the son of temur and there's a story behind

[59:00]it but she built this Masjid and then write the golden structure

[59:04]is the rose of Imam this is inside the complex there's a

[59:10]lot of security getting in but huge complex and a huge underground

[59:13]parking lot amazing this this place is just overwhelming and very beautiful

[59:25]this is inside and that's the very lot of extremely busy place

[59:33]but the interesting thing is all of these monuments are managed by

[59:37]retired government and Military Officers and even a senior officer would be

[59:44]there collecting shoes and putting them in into places so next morning

[59:49]we go to the Grave side of now we went to nishapur

[59:53]which is about an hour or two hours away from mashat this

[59:58]is the grave site of atar in other famous poet and then

[60:06]the the the gravesite of Umar who was a poet mathematician and

[60:13]astronomer very famous are very famous so that's his tomb didn't you

[60:19]say foreign he was the one who had designed and she not

[60:33]only that the first the um Azadi Tower she was involved in

[60:40]the designing of that also so this is a Masjid next to

[60:46]there and that's coming out of nishapur you see again the desert

[60:50]but that's qasim suleimani over there okay now I end this and

[60:55]I want to thank you for your patience because this was a

[60:57]long presentation and I realized that about I only showed you 332

[61:04]232 pictures but I have that many more which I haven't seen

[61:07]but this is a mall and look at a typical Mall in

[61:14]in Marshall now why would you know I'm the last person to

[61:16]go into a mall because I get suffocated and I can't breathe

[61:21]when I go to a mall so I don't go to Omaha

[61:22]but actually when I'm shopping there was a massacre the day before

[61:39]in charge around 21 people died a terrorist organization extremist people killed

[61:43]them and they the security agency did not allow us to go

[61:49]to but there was a compensation and we received lunch from there

[61:55]because people in our group had made a heavy donation the day

[61:59]before so they sent what is called it was the best meal

[62:06]in Iran the best meal we had was that day and that

[62:09]was a compensation for not going into Imam result and we ended

[62:13]up in the mall so I want to thank you for your

[62:16]attention you want to say something actually before I went uh Dr

[62:30]hamdani umdani he told me about the tabaro and he said if

[62:36]you go to the kitchen and present your passport they will give

[62:40]you a meal but again they would not allow us to go

[62:44]so any questions inshallah

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