The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin, a tomb-shrine located south of Tehran, is well known for supplying global museums with iconic examples of Ilkhanid-period luster tilework. After providing a historiography of the site, including its plunder in the late nineteenth century, we explore its current (2018–20) “life” in order to illuminate the many ways that it can be accessed, used, perceived, and packaged by a wide range of local, national, and global stakeholders. Merging past and present history, art history and amateur anthropology, and the academic, personal, and popular voice, this article explores the Emamzadeh Yahya’s delicate and active existence between historical monument, museum object, sacred space, and cultural heritage.
Overton, Keelan., & Maleki, Kimia. (2021). The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin: A Present History of a Living Shrine, 2018–20. Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World, Volume 1 (Issue 1-2), 120-149. https://doi.org/10.1163/26666286-12340005
