The Invisible Lake of Sa'ādat-ābād and the Safavid Architecture of Affect.

Isfahan's selection as the capital of Persia's Safavid Empire (1501-1736) at the turn of the seventeenth century set off multiple phases of growth in the city. This included the development of Shah Abbas II's (r. 1642-66) palatial complex of Sa'ādat-ābād, which encouraged Isfahan's engagement with the nearby river Zāyandehrud. This article expands the discourse examining the river beyond the domain of nature by exploring the Zāyandehrud as a designed environment and a site of architectural imagination and action. As shown in this study, the river and the complex interconnections between natural and cultural systems played a central role in shaping the scheme of this royal complex. While a lack of visual and archaeological evidence has kept rivers and lakes on the sidelines in most studies of premodern Islamic water architecture, this article provides a new perspective on the roles of such bodies of water through a close reading of Safavid poetry, contemporary prose, spatial analysis, and architectural reconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]