The design of Najafabad,A display of governing thought of regional planning in Safavid era

The Period of Shah Abbass rule was a turning point in the history of Iran. The reforms which this powerful king established in the disturbance conditions resulted in the peace and security، economic growth، city dwelling development، business boom development، improvement of public life and raising the rank of Iran among other countries. Shaiekh Bahaie is one of the most important accompanies of Shah Abbas who did effective efforts in this way. The residents of Najafabad، in the 30 km of the Esfahan west، think that their city was built at the age of this king and established by the supervision of Sheikh Bahaei. This paper is to examine the accuracy of this theory. For this purpose، the available documents and library certificates and also the local evidence were studied and analyzed. The obtained results show that this city was established by Shah Abbas، ordered for the support of new-established capital city of Safavid and Shaikh Bahaie has supervised its construction. The water of this city has been provided by a channel of Qanats within a radius of 35 to 55 kilometers in western Najafabad and transferred by a long channel to the city and distributed through a regular plan on the surface of agricultural lands. Moreover، the city map was designed based on the city–making principles and symmetric-making pattern observation as two squares were on the center of the city and the lanes and streets crossed each other have derivated form them. Making this new city has not caused any problem not only for the previous residences of villages at this region but also resulted in many advantages. Today، after 400 years of constructing this city، this significant monument of Safavid era has not been identified and introduced yet. It is suggested that some interferences which are done at the direction of qanats and watering–channels، be removed and solved. Finally this complex، which is an image of dominated regional thought planning at the age of Safavid، may be recorded as a national work.