In Homayoun Garden Neighbourhood, Chaharbagh Paein Street, Isfahan, there is a Safavid house, which is known as the Sheikh-ul-Islam Historic House.
Apparently this building was a gift from Shah Abbas II to his daughter, Sarv-Ghad Khanum, on the occasion of her marriage to Mohaghegh-e Sabzevari, who was a famous scholar of the Safavid period.
Mohaghegh-e Sabzevari was the prominent Sheikh-ul-Islam* of Isfahan during the reign of Shah Abbas II.
This house probably has had more beauty at that time and could have been the best gift from the king for his daughter’s wedding.
Yet, the name of this house is actually derived from its landlords in the Safavid and Qajar periods, i.e. Mohaghegh-e Sabzevari and Abu Abdullah.
Abu Abdullah, who was known as Sheikh-ul-Islam Zanjani, lived and taught in this house in the Qajar era.
Moreover, during the Qajar period, this house functioned somehow as an office for the attorney general, something similar to a justice department.
Later, during the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the house turned into a municipality.
In the Safavid era and later on, Muharram mourning rituals and ta’zieh performances were held in this house for two months of the year.
In the years before the Islamic Revolution, this house was under the control of the Ministry of Culture and Art at the time.
Later, Isfahan Province’s Organisation of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism repaired the house, and nowadays it has turned into the Specialised Museum of Traditional Weaving (the Sheikh-ul-Islam Weaving House).
*the honorary title bestowed upon outstanding scholars of the Islamic sciences
