Shah Abbas I (1589-1627) was the Safavid dinasty shah who designated Isfahan as capital. He reconstituted it with so many new mosques, palaces, bridges, avenues and parks that European travellers referred to it as “half the world”.

Architecturally, the sensationally colored and imaginative details developed by Shah Abbas I predecessors became unified into serene and significant ensembles od immense grandeur and scale.

In 1666 Isfahan had 162 mosques, 48 madrassas, 182 caravanserais and 173 baths or hammams.