Embodiment of Recreation and Leisure in the Urban Structure of Isfahan in the Safavid Empire (Shah Abbas I)

The urban refashioning of Isfahan in the Safavid Empire appeared with the reign of Shah Abbas I. the urban imperial developments provided new ideas and concepts around urbanization of the early modern era, including recreational axes in the urban structure, Embodiment of recreation and leisure in the city and urban life was reinforced by attention of kingship. Also, the physical appearance of the city typified what has been called the early modern urbanity. The main characteristic of this type could be the emergence of promenade axes. This article follows themes related to the recreational notion in shaping this city. In so doing, we achieved insight in a manner in which the structure was conceived. Exploring the meanings attributed to that idea in this era, we trace practices of social-and courtly- life as they shaped urban configurations and were shaped by. So at the first step, we survey the recreational activities and leisure organization of the Safavid Empire in everyday life. Later, we deal with spatial order, urban structure and planning of Isfahan. To decipher this idea, two types of evidence help us and facilitated our understanding of the matter: Some contemporary studies on leisure and entertainment in Safavid era and supposedly in the urban articulation of Isfahan (historical resources and travelogues) and the other hand, main historical resources. By analyzing and tracing the leisure idea in Isfahan as the one that established new urban identity, it is possible to distinct, clearly between the old urbanization and the new in architecture history of Iran. In other words, novel modes of urban conceptualization and planning of Isfahan provided new perceptions in research and study about Isfahan urbanization. According to we can find some features of the early modern urbanity in Isfahan city plan as we can ordinarily see in other modern 18-19th cities in the world.