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Under
Shah Abbas I this maidan, larger than an American
football field, was the religious, political, and social center of Isfahan.
It is organized on a rectangular plan which has two main axes: the
short one is imperial and the longer one is public.
The shorter axis can be considered the imperial
axis because Shah Abbas' palace is built so that
it directly faces his private mosque.
The public axis has the large, congregational
mosque at the top which faces the main bazaar.
This placement of Shah Abbas' private buildings intersecting the larger public axis is indicative of his rule. There are a number of 17th-century accounts which tell us that he was an ambitious ruler not only in terms of Iran's economy and international affairs, but he was an active overseer of his country's internal affairs as well. For instance, the maidan was used as a polo field by day and hosted a large market by night. These contemporary accounts tell us that Shah Abbas was known to have wandered through the busy market in disguise in order to make sure the vendors were being honest (this would also have been an efficient way of monitoring public sentiment first-hand). A closer look at the bazaar will provide another example of the manner in which Shah Abbas I ruled his empire.
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