Re-reading the Kalle-Minar of Šāh Abbās in Isfahan based on Safavid travelogues

In a neighborhood of Isfahan known as Pāšāx, memories mixed with myth are told of a building called the Kalle-Minar (also called the “Bones and Horns Minaret” or  Monāre-ye Shākh) in Safavid Isfahan. The construction of minarets in Iran has had various material and spiritual functions and has had a multifaceted position. Over time, the minarets were also used in the social and political context as a tool to consolidate power and took on symbolic, military, communication and even identity roles, and gradually became known as a symbol of authority, a city guide sign and even a historical monument. After the bloody attacks of foreign enemies on Iran and sometimes civil wars, the construction of another type of minaret with a different function became common. Building mounds of the heads of those killed in wars, known as the Skull Towers, has been common since at least the Mongol invasion of Iran, to show off their power, create fear, and serve as a lesson to those who intended to resist or revolt; however, this particular case was not made of human heads, but of the bones and skulls of hunted animals, with the aim of demonstrating the king's martial power in hunting and his attempt to connect to the sky through the minarets as a symbolic element throughout the city. Due to its unique features, the Kalle-Minar was so famous in its time that tourists went to see it and wrote about it. A building whose construction was rooted in human skull minarets, and although they were considered a symbol of war and constructive power on the surface; but they had a similar function in their core. Despite this fame and special structure, today only the remains of one example remain in the city of Xoī, and the skull minarets of Šāh Abbās need to be depicted. After the passing of years, the devastating events and incidents have left only a faint trace of the minaret in people's memory, and this makes it necessary to re-read this unique building by understanding its historical background based on texts and images from the Safavid era.
To create an image of buildings that no longer exist, rereading and identifying their characteristics is one of the fundamental and challenging questions of archeology and architectural history. Although there is no mention of skull minarets in historical texts from the Safavid era; But there are reports from European travel writers that can help to reinterpret it. Therefore, this research, using content analysis and an descriptive-analytical approach and by comparing the existing reports about this building by reviewing the sources of the Safavid period, seeks to explain the nature of this structure in order to reveal its physical structure and symbolic nature and to locate its approximate location in the city of Isfahan. Due to the lack of information about this building in Iranian written sources, the statistical population of the study was limited to travelogues of the Safavid period. In the meantime, information about the minaret has been obtained from the europian travelogues in Safavid era. The present research studies were generally based on 23 travelogues of the Safavid period and two selected visual documents. The information obtained about the minaret can be categorized into three groups: plan, structure, and ornaments: The structure of the building is made of mortar and soil, and the minaret has a polygonal structure that is circular with decorations, and the bones serve as the reinforcement of the structure, and the heads and horns are placed in a strip between them. The minaret is circular in plan and has a staircase and a saucer, and the pavilion-like building in which the minaret is built is of an octagonal shape. Also, from the average estimates of various travelers, the radius of the pavilion and each of its sides is about 6 meters and the height of the minaret is about 26 meters. The ornaments are placed on the polygonal structure of the minaret, turning it into a circle, and are composed of two groups of skulls, horns, and bones of the arms and legs of hunted animals. The bones are arranged vertically and the heads are arranged in horizontal strips on the minaret, and their combination is reminiscent of rows of columns and capitals arranged 1.5 meters above each other. The minaret's cap is also made of bone, and larger bones and heads were probably used at higher points to maintain perspective. From the presented material, it can be said that the Kalle-Minar was built in a square field with rooms about one meter above the ground. The tower's structure is pyramidal and made of soil, bones, heads, and horns, which were connected with mortar. The tower's facade, with the addition of decorations, became circular and symmetrical, and was formed in a combination of heads and bones, which formed the shape of a column and column capital. Like normal minarets, the tower had a minaret spire and bone and horn spires, and had a staircase to access the saucer. There are also indications in travelogues about the location of the minaret's head, which refer to the area between the New -Naqsh‑e Jahān Square- and Old Squares-Imam Ali Square- of Isfahan and the Dardašt neighborhood on a large scale and the Sārū-Taqī Caravanserai and the Royal Stables on a small scale. Given the existence of some buildings, its approximate area can be estimated to be near the present-day Sārū-Taqī Caravanserai.