“Have you seen Isfahan, that city like Paradise, that holy cypress, that soul nourishing Eden, that palace of the nation and that throne of government, that face of the seven spheres, that eye of the seven lands,” Jamal al-Din al-Isfahani
One essential aspect in the discussion of nineteenth-century Qajar approaches to the Safavid city and Qajar architecture is the fact that Isfahan was no longer the capital, with the inevitable consequences that many Safavid palaces, no longer used by the city's ruling elite, had lost their administrative purpose. Architecture was created and used in a socio-political context, which determined the scope of new construction, function, style, and form. Natural deterioration and socio-economic change also required new constructions for changed purposes.
Construction activity and architectural aspirations in nineteenth-century Isfahan were inseparably tied to the state of the city's overall prosperity, the affluence and beneficence of the city's leading patricians, the relationship of the Tehran court to the city, and, to some extent, the self-image and prestige in which the city perceived itself at various times during Qajar rule.