IMAGINING THE MODERN: AN OCCIDENTALIST PERCEPTION AND REPRESENTATION OF FARANGI ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM IN 19TH-CENTURY PERSIAN TRAVEL DIARIES A Dissertation by VAHID VAHDAT ZAD Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Robert Warden Committee Members, Peter Lang Rola el-Husseini Mohammad Ghanoonparvar Michael Neuman Head of Department, Ward Wells May 2014 Major Subject: Architecture Copyright 2014 Vahid Vahdat Zad A BSTRACT This study explores the inception of modernity in Iran by examining how the built environment was perceived and represented by Iranian travelers visiting Europe in the mid-19th century. Recent scholarship on modernity in non-Western societies unsettles Euro-centric assumptions that depicted the global circulation of architecture as one way transit between the center and the periphery, the original and the copy. Taking part in questioning this uni- directional cultural dissemination, my project reverses the Orientalist gaze of Postcolonial theories. Here, I discuss how the Iranian traveler constructed tajaddod (Iranian experience of modernity) based on an “Occidentalist” imagery. Many modern institutions and architectural typologies were first introduced to Iran by travelers who visited Europe. These individuals, following a long-standing Persian tradition of travel writing, often kept notes and diaries known as safarnameh. For the purposes of my research, safarnameh serve as non-participant recordings of how Iranians responded to the unfamiliar architectural landscape of the West. To investigate how the message of European modernity was transformed by the travelers, I examine the differences between the descriptions of architecture in each safarnameh and the more prosaic perceptions of those spaces in the Western imagination. I look closely at the literary styles, figures of speech, settings, imagery, symbolism, exaggerations, narrative devices, and tones used by the Iranian writers in their interpretation of European architecture and urban facilities. This study reveals how non-European imaginations, aspirations, fantasies, and agency were a vital part of the transnational dialectic of modernity. By projecting their own Persian/Islamic ideals and imagery onto their observations, these travelers developed a syncretic ii understanding of modernity. Their encounter with a pre-imagined Western “Other” became the foundation of tajaddod. When Iran’s experience of modernity is presented as a distorted copy of a Western phenomenon, Iranian architects are alienated from their heritage. They are presented with a false choice between (Persian) tradition and (Western) modernity. My project emphasizes that the Iranian desire towards a modern utopia is not radically alien to Persian/Islamic tradition. This approach advances humanities research by revisiting genealogical notions of a mythical original modernity by unraveling global entanglements. iii A CKNOWLEDGMENTS Architectural projects are the product of many individuals’ efforts; so too has been the construction process of this research project. Through the course of my research foray, I have been accompanied by many, whose enthusiasm, encouragement, and supervision made this travel enjoyable and fruitful. My profound gratitude goes to my advisors, Robert Warden and Peter Lang, for their unflagging support and advice from the early stages of this work. I am sincerely grateful to Rola el-Husseini, whose guidance grounded my exploration, as well as my other committee members, Mohammad Ghanoonparvar and Michael Neuman. Without them, I would have lost track from the very first steps of my research journey. This study has enjoyed the generous support of the Graduate Stipendiary Fellowship and the Brown-Cruz Fellowship, both offered by the Glasscock Center for Humanities studies. I extend my thanks to the director and staff of the center, who supported me during my one year residence. I am also indebted to the Office of Graduate Studies at A&M. The extended period of writing of this dissertation could not have been sustained without their OGS Dissertation Fellowship. Finally, I would like to thank the staff and management of the Texas A&M library and the University Writing Center for their amazing services, particularly my friend Thadeus Bowerman, whose inputs have greatly enriched the work. iv T ABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ............................................................. II ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................... IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................... V LIST OF FIGURES .................................................... VIII CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .............................................. 1 Prologue .......................................................... 1 Dialectics of modernity and tradition ............................. 3 The first brick ................................................... 4 The inception of modernity in Iran ................................ 7 The circulation of architecture through safarnameh ................ 8 The research odyssey ............................................. 10 A heterotopic discourse .......................................... 11 (1) Modernity as a heterotopia ............................. 11 (2) Modernity as a discourse ............................... 11 Why so serious? .................................................. 12 Research layout .................................................. 13 A note on the text ............................................... 14 CHAPTER II: MODERNITY IN A SUITCASE .................................. 16 Mirza Saleh ...................................................... 17 Biography .................................................. 17 Itinerary .................................................. 19 Narrative organization ..................................... 20 Objectivity ................................................ 22 Didacticism ................................................ 25 Significance ............................................... 26 Rezaqoli Mirza ................................................... 27 Biography .................................................. 27 Itinerary .................................................. 29 Narration .................................................. 30 Writing style .............................................. 31 Fictionalty ................................................ 32 Significance ............................................... 33 Aminoddowleh ..................................................... 34 Biography .................................................. 34 Itinerary .................................................. 35 Format ..................................................... 36 Narration .................................................. 38 Significance ............................................... 40 v Modernity as a souvenir .......................................... 41 CHAPTER III: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE ..................................... 45 Verbalizing space ................................................ 45 Quantifying space ................................................ 50 From motherland to otherland ..................................... 53 Farangestan as a wonderland ...................................... 62 Virtual realities ................................................ 66 Representing the representation .................................. 69 The reincarnated image ........................................... 74 CHAPTER IV: TRAVELS IN FARANGI SPACE ................................. 77 Image of the city ................................................ 77 The absence of form .............................................. 78 Wide, paved, and clean ........................................... 79 Refashioning the Farangi house ................................... 85 Farangestan as a Persian paradise ................................ 89 The looking glass ................................................ 97 Reflecting a different sky ....................................... 98 Fictional functionality .......................................... 99 The breathing city .............................................. 103 The bridal chamber .............................................. 104 Architecture and urban regulations .............................. 108 The high space .................................................. 112 Light upon light ................................................ 115 Space that belongs to nobody .................................... 120 Architecture and urban institutions ............................. 124 Architecture and urban services and facilities .................. 125 The falling hat of wisdom ....................................... 128 From adobe to granite ........................................... 131 Nails on stone .................................................. 134 Columnless structures ........................................... 137 Constructing the magical ........................................ 140 Ornamentalizing the Occident .................................... 143 Spatial lacunae ................................................. 148 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .............................................. 153 Tajaddod as a discourse ......................................... 153 Tracking the roots in the routes ...............................