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Shrine of Esther and
Mardocai
Mausoleum of Esther and
Mardocai in a small walled garden on Shari'ati Street 200 m west of Imam
Khomeini Square, is traditionally believed to be the place where
Esther, the Jewish Queen of Susa and Xerxes' wife, and Mardocai, her uncl,
have been buried. It is considered as the most important Jewish pilgrimage
site in Iran, and used to be visited by Jewish pilgrims fromallover the
world. Inside the brick dome and upon the plaster work of the walls there
are some Hebrew inscription. The experts now say Esther was in fact buried
in Susa, and this tomb probably belongs to another Jewish Queen, the wife
of Sassanian king Yazdgird 1(339- 420 AD), Shushan Dokht.
There has been a Jewish colony at Hamadan according to Herzfeld sincethe
latter's time. The simple brick building, constructed in the 13th century
on the site of an earlier (probably a 5th-century tomb), is entered
through a rough stone door, which swings open into a large assembly room,
a vestibule, an elevation, and a Shah Neshin. Actually, it has nothing to
speak about from the architectural point of view. The exterior form of
this mausoleum, built of brick and stone, resembles Islamic constructions.
Another smaller chamber facing the twin tombs is used for prayers aided by
an ancient Torah on vellum. The two ebony tombs are covered with a
striking collection of colorful clothes. |
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The
20th century Mausoleum of Baba Taher (another modernist atrocity),
situated near the northern entrance of the city from Tehran Highway and at
the end of Baba Taher Street in a square named after him, is a rocket-like
monument to a mystic poet contemporary of Avicenna, Baba Taher, who died
in 1019 AD. The mausoleum was reconstructed in 1970. Baba Taher, living in
the first half of the 11th century AD, was one of the great gnostics of
Ahl-e Haq (Dervish or Follower of Truth) sect to which the gnostic
order of mountainous Iran belonged. Baba Taher's songs and maxims were
originally read in Fahlavi, Lurish, Kurdish and Hamadani dialects, taking
their present form in the course of time.