Kashan in western travelers' records of Safavid and Qajar periods

In this survey, twenty travel books of most famous travelers who visited Kashan from the reign of Shah Abbas the Great to the time of Persian constitutional revolution have been investigated. Accordingly, what a traveler has seen and heard about Kashan is compared to other travelers' records of the same or different time and also to the present situation, and this way, the truth or falsity of these records has been revealed. Among the travelers of Safavid period, Chardin, Anthony and Robert Shirley, Tavernier, Figueroa, Della Valle, Herbert and Olearius, whose descriptions include the typical records of that time, have been chosen. Furthermore the works of Polak, Browne, Curzon, Sykes, De Bode, Olivier, Flandin, De Sercey, De Gobineau, Dieulafoy, Aubin and Pottinger have been examined as the selection books of Qajar period. The data of these sources has been analyzed based on historical geography of Kashan region under the categories: administrative divisions, routes, geographical situation and configuration of the city, weather, water supply, rampart of the city, alleys and neighborhoods, mosques and sacred sites, earthquake, markets, houses, telegraph offices, Fin garden, population, religious minorities, governors, industry, mints, agriculture, mineral materials, genuine or superstitious beliefs and ideas, Heydari-Ne'mati conflicts, recreations, costumes, women's condition, fear of scorpion, insects and diseases, dialects, cookery and the revision of natives' attitudes toward travelers. The relation of traveler's descriptions to his life era and his occupation and character has also been discussed in the article.