Persian Turquoise: The Nishapur Mines
Nishapur (Persian) Turquoise — A Stone Study
← Part of the T.Skies Turquoise Mines Identifier
Real Nishapur (Persian) turquoise from a private collection, photographed in the T.Skies studio, with the blue stone still set in its grey and brown host rock. Tap any stone to see it up close.
Sky blue and blue-green with grey-brown host rock
Bright blue with brown and grey matrix
Blue patches in pale grey host rock
Documented stone examples from a private collection, photographed in the T.Skies studio. Not for sale individually — shown for reference. © Turquoise Skies Inc.
Part of the Turquoise Mines field guides and The Southwest Jewelry Guide.
The mines near Nishapur, in northeastern Iran, are the ones Pogue in 1915 called “the most important turquois deposits in the world.” This page is built from Joseph E. Pogue’s The Turquois, published by the National Academy of Sciences in 1915. Every statement below is quoted from it, with page numbers, so you can check each one. Anything Pogue describes as current describes 1915, not today.
Where the mines are
Writing in 1915, Pogue located them:
“The most important turquois deposits in the world are near the small village of Maden (i. e., mine), 36 miles in a northwesterly direction from Nishapur,”
— Pogue (1915), p. 34 [1]
As of 1915, Pogue reported:
“The mining and cutting give occupation to some 1,500 persons, who inhabit the Maden village and several small hamlets in the neighborhood.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 35 [1]
On how old the mines are, Pogue (1915) was cautious:
“We must come to the tenth century before we are on safe ground, so far as historical evidence is concerned.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 35 [1]
Stacey (1975, p. 26) also held that no foundation earlier than the tenth century could be established on historical evidence. [12]
The mines by name
According to Pogue (1915, p. 37), the oldest Nishapur mine, the Abdurrezzagi, had yielded very few stones since 1880, yet its turquoise was still more esteemed than that of any other mine. [1]
Pogue (1915) on the 'Khaki' diggings in the washed-down debris below the mines:
“The finest turquoises are obtained from these mines—in fact, good ring stones are seldom produced by the rock mines.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 38 [1]
Not all Persian turquoise held its colour. Pogue (1915, p. 37) relates that a walnut-sized stone of fine color, presented to the Shah in 1881, faded and became valueless within two days. [1]
Of the newer Anjiri mines, Pogue (1915) wrote:
“Around 1880 they furnished a great quantity of fine-colored turquoises, which found a ready sale, but subsequently faded.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 38 [1]
Color and grading
Pogue (1915) on the grading of colour at the mines:
“The most valued color is deep sky-blue; the slightest imperfection, or an almost inappreciable tinge of green, decreases the value considerably. A deep indigo-blue, called “talkh,” or bitter, also lessens the value.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 38 [1]
Pogue (1915) added:
“A good stone, in short, must possess an indefinable property called the “zat,” which is something like the “water” of a diamond or the luster of a pearl; a fine-colored turquois without the “zat” is not of much worth.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 38 [1]
Mining, output and trade
Pogue (1915) on mining method:
“Work in the various mines is carried on by means of picks and crowbars and gunpowder. The last was not used prior to 1850. Formerly all work was done by picks, with better results; for, whereas the blasting accomplishes more, it also breaks the stones into small pieces.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 38 [1]
Pogue (1915) on output:
“The annual output of the mines around 1880 was $40,000, valued at the mines; in 1890 the production amounted to $115,000.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 39 [1]
And on where it went, as of 1915:
“The Persian stones reach nearly all parts of the world. They come to Europe chiefly through dealers in Moscow; and in the same way ultimately reach America.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 39 [1]
From the Library: Branson, Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
According to Branson (1975, p. 54), Persian stones had for centuries been the world's standard of quality for turquoise. He held that equally fine turquoise was found in the United States and elsewhere, but probably not in such quantities as in Persia. [3]
Writing in 1975, Branson described the Persian ideal:
“The Persians value most a stone without matrix of a fine blue color.”
— Branson (1975), p. 54 [3]
As of 1975, Branson put the price of such stones this way:
“Stones of this quality sell for hundreds of dollars a carat.”
— Branson (1975), p. 54 [3]
According to Branson (1975, p. 54), the Persian stones he pictured were hard, natural and untreated; he bought them in Persia himself and had them made into jewelry in the Southwestern United States. [3]
Branson (1975) traced the round trip of one Persian bead strand he pictured:
“The turquoise in the beads was mined in Persia and sent to Germany, cut and drilled, and returned to Persia.”
— Branson (1975), p. 54 [3]
Branson (1975, p. 23) illustrated a gem-quality Nishapur turquoise vase, carved in the Orient and weighing about 325 grams. [3]
According to Branson (1975, p. 2), turquoise was used as lavishly in Persia as in Egypt, and Persian writings told of large vases carved from huge pieces of turquoise, one of them said to hold six gallons. [3]
According to Branson (1975, p. 3), a set of stones from the mines near Mashad in northern Persia was chosen specifically to show how widely Persian color varied. [3]
From the Library: Chambless & Ryan, Turquoise in America, Part One (2021)
2021 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2021, not today.
According to Chambless & Ryan (2021, p. 18), Persian turquoise had been the standard for hundreds of years when George F. Kunz, in the 1892 USGS Mineral Resources volume, declared Southwest turquoise equal, if not superior, to it. They call this a startling reversal of his earlier view of Southwest stone as only a curio or mineral specimen. [2]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone (2010)
2010 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2010, not today.
Lowry (2010) located the famous mines:
“The most famous mines are located in the Khorasan Province in the Bar-I-Maden district, about fifteen miles northwest of the town of Neyshapur, north of Madan, at an altitude of 4800 to 5900 feet.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 51 [4]
Lowry (2010) named a second, southern area:
“Other mines are found near the towns of Iblis and Yazd, located in the province of Kerman in southern Iran.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 51 [4]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 51), one historic Neyshapur site, Abu-is-haghi, was by then called the Abdurrezzagi mine, the name Pogue used for the oldest mine. [4]
On the Persian standard of quality, Lowry (2010) wrote:
“They prized turquoise with clarity, cutting their cabochon stones so that no host rock or impurities could be seen on the surface of each deep sky-blue-colored stone.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 50 [4]
As of 2010, Lowry reported on the old workings:
“Several of the old mining tunnels have been searched for turquoise in modern times and have been described as largely abandoned.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 53 [4]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 135), as of 2010 turquoise production and marketing continued into the twenty-first century at Ma'dan Firoozeh Neyshapur, Iran, where Vahid reza Shahsavani was marketing manager. [4]
From the Library: Laufer, Notes on Turquois in the East (1913)
1913 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1913, not today.
According to Laufer (1913, p. 1), a sixteenth-century Turkish work on mineralogy distinguished five principal kinds of turquoise (Nishapuri, Gaznewi, Ilaqi, Kermani and Kharezmi) and ranked the Nishapur stone the most valuable, being hard, fine and permanent in color. [5]
Laufer (1913) quoted the seventeenth-century jewel merchant Tavernier on the two Persian workings:
“The one which is called 'the old rock' is three days' journey from Meshed towards the north-west and near to a large town called Nichabourg”
— Laufer (1913), p. 4 [5]
Laufer (1913) quoted the jewel merchant Tavernier on a royal monopoly at the 'old rock':
“For many years the king of Persia has prohibited mining in the 'old rock' for any one but himself,”
— Laufer (1913), p. 17 [5]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 17), Tavernier explained that the king used the old-rock stones, cut and set in patterns like flowers, in place of enamel to decorate swords, daggers and other work. [5]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 17), General Schindler, who around 1880 governed the mining district and managed the mines, believed the Persian government had probably worked them up to 1725. [5]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 68), the tenth-century geographer Ibn Haukal placed turquoise mines near Nuqan, that is Tus, north of modern Meshed, and mentioned celebrated turquoise mines in Transoxania near the mountains called Jabal-Buttam. [5]
Laufer (1913) opened his case on the age of Persian turquoise with language:
“There is, first of all, no ancient Iranian word for the turquois.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 38 [5]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 38), turquoise was strikingly absent from the many engraved gems of Sassanian Persia (226-642 AD), and no ancient carved turquoise had come to light in Persia or Turkestan. [5]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 40), the Persian mineralogist Ibn Mansur (about 1300) wrote of a stone found near Nishapur that looked like turquoise and was made into chessmen, but whose color soon disappeared; Laufer suspected that the 'turquoise' backgammon men credited to King Khosrau II may have been this stone. [5]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 40), the earliest allusion he could find to the Nishapur turquoise mines was Ibn Haukal's account of 978 AD, based on Istakhri (951), which listed brass, iron, turquoise and malachite among the minerals of the mountains of Nishapur and Tus. [5]
Laufer (1913), summarizing Schindler on the old Kerman workings:
“at a place, twelve miles from Shehr-i-Babek, are seven old shafts, now for a long period not worked, the stones of these mines being of a very pale blue, and having no great value.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 41 [5]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 42), Marco Polo, passing through Persia in 1294, said turquoise was produced in great abundance in the kingdom of Kerman, extracted from the rocks of the mountains; Laufer considered him the first authority to report Kerman turquoise. [5]
Laufer (1913) answered Schindler's remark that the Nishapur pits had been worked for thousands of years:
“We live in a skeptic age and are not willing to believe so easily in millenniums, if no evidence of hard and cold facts is advanced.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 42 [5]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 56), the Chinese Cho keng lu of 1366 graded the Persian stones traded into China: Nishapur turquoise, called the Mohammedan kind, had fine veins, while Kerman turquoise had coarse veins. [5]
Laufer (1913) drew the conclusion:
“We further observe that the Persian turquois became known to the Chinese in the fourteenth century, and was considered as superior to the domestic stone.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 58 [5]
From the Library: Kunz, Gems and Precious Stones of North America (1890)
1890 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1890, not today.
Writing in 1890, Kunz summed up the Persian standard:
“The finest varieties, which generally do not lose their color easily, have been for centuries found in small veins in a clay slate in the vicinity of Nishapoor, Persia.”
— Kunz (1890), p. 54 [6]
From the Library: Schiffer, Turquoise Jewelry (2008)
2008 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2008, not today.
Writing in 2008, Schiffer summarized Persian stone:
“Persian turquoise, which since ancient times has been the world's standard of quality, is found in large quantity with clear blue color.”
— Schiffer (2008), p. 14 [7]
As of 2008, Schiffer (2008, p. 14) reported that Persian producers sent their turquoise to Germany for expert cutting and drilling. [7]
Schiffer (2008, p. 45) illustrated a ranger belt buckle of chisel work set with Persian turquoise dated 1976, and on p. 46 a 1980s concha belt featuring Persian turquoise. [7]
From the Library: Turnbaugh, Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest (2007)
2007 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2007, not today.
Persian stone also reached Southwest smiths directly. Turnbaugh (2007, p. 23) records:
“Between 1895 and 1900 the Indian trader Don Lorenzo Hubbell capitalized on the popularity of the bright bluestone by importing Persian turquoise for trade to the Navajo.”
— Turnbaugh (2007), p. 23 [8]
According to Turnbaugh (2007, p. 23), after 1900 the local supply grew as more mines opened in the Four Corners region. [8]
From the Library: Bassman, The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry (1997)
1997 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1997, not today.
Bassman (1997, p. 11) pictured a bracelet with stampwork, silver balls and seven stones of Persian turquoise among pieces she dated to the 1940s, artists unknown. [9]
Bassman (1997, p. 49) pictured Persian turquoise set in 14-karat gold pieces: textured gold earrings by Kee Joe Benally and a cast and stamped gold bola tie by Chester Kahn. [9]
From the Library: Khazeni, Sky Blue Stone (2014)
2014 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2014, not today.
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 1), when the Mughal emperor Jahangir sent a gem merchant to Safavid Iran in 1613 with orders to buy quality turquoise, Shah ʿAbbas I told him the stone was under royal monopoly and could only be given as a gift by the shah himself. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 1), the shah sent six bags of turquoise with a letter apologizing for its inferior quality and reporting that the gem was no longer mined as it once had been. [10]
Khazeni (2014) quotes Jahangir's memoirs on the gift:
“No matter how hard the gem carvers and setters tried, they couldn’t find a stone worthy of being made into a ring.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 1 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 12), the age of the Nishapur mines cannot be determined, but they were in operation by the tenth century C.E. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 12), the Nishapur mines reached their peak of production under the Timurid (1370–1510) and Safavid (1501–1722) dynasties. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 13), the Mughal emperor Humayun visited the Nishapur turquoise mines in 1544, on his way back to India after his exile at the Safavid court, and took stones with him. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, pp. 3–4), the Eurasian turquoise trade flourished until the fall of the Safavid Empire in 1722, after which the ruin of the old Nishapur mines led to its ebb. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 15), in 1882, on his second tour of Khurasan, the Qajar ruler Nasir al-Din Shah tried to revive the turquoise trade by re-establishing state regulation over the Nishapur mines. [10]
Khazeni (2014) on what spurred the Qajar revival:
“Encouraged by reports in Persian gazetteers of the gold rush in the American West and by histories of the New World in circulation at the time, the shah and his ministers strove to reclaim the turquoise mines and to corner the global commerce in the stones.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 15 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 21), Nishapur lies in a vast plain at the foot of the Binalud Mountains in the eastern Iranian province of Khurasan, and for more than a thousand years these mountains were the world's most important source of turquoise. [10]
Khazeni (2014) located the medieval workings:
“By the thirteenth century, turquoise was mined in six valleys about thirty-five miles north of Nishapur in the villages of Maʿdan.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 21 [10]
Khazeni (2014) notes that the Abu Ishaqi mine was so esteemed that the poet Hafiz alluded to it:
“In truth the turquoise ring of Abu Ishaq / Flashed finely but then faded away.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 22 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 25), medieval Persian mineralogical texts named seven famed mines outside Nishapur; after Abu Ishaqi, whose stones they rated bluest, they listed, in order, Azhari, Sulaymani, Zarhuni (whose turquoise was streaked with gold), ʿAbd al-Majidi, Andalibi and Asuman Gun (or Khaki). [10]
Khazeni (2014) quotes the fourteenth-century geographer Hamdallah Mustawfi:
“There are many mines of this stone, but the best mine is that of Nishapur, by reason of the good quality of the stones and the little labor in getting them.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 22 [10]
On price, Khazeni (2014) cites the Nishapur jeweller's handbook:
“The Javahirnama-yi Nizami notes that in Nishapur circa 1200, one dirham of turquoise was worth sixty dinars.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 25 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 25), the Javahirnama-yi Nizami named as the most valuable turquoise of its age an Abu Ishaqi stone weighing less than a dirham but appraised at one hundred dinars for its luster and color; it belonged to the Saljuq Sultan Sanjar, and the author saw it on the hand of the sultan's wife. [10]
Khazeni (2014) followed the stones from the Nishapur mines to the cutters:
“The stones were taken from the mines to the nearby cities of Nishapur and Mashhad, where craftsmen cut them, pasted them onto strips of wood, and polished them on a grinding wheel.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 22 [10]
Khazeni (2014) quoted the fifteenth-century Timurid historian and geographer Hafiz-i Abru on the mountains outside Nishapur:
“In the mountains of Nishapur, there are mines of turquoise, and the good turquoise comes from there.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 29 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 29), in the Timurid period workers mined the six turquoise valleys of the Binalud Mountains with rough tools, hauling stones still in their rock matrix out by windlass, while others searched the weathered debris at the foot of the mountains; middlemen and merchants sorted and bought the stones at the mines and carried them to Mashhad, where lapidaries (hakkakan) cut them on sandstone and polished them with leather and turquoise dust before export. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 30), the fifteenth-century Timurid book of stones by Zayn al-Din Muhammad Jami held that the choicest turquoise came from Nishapur, while newer, less valuable stones that often lost their colour came from Khojand, Zanjan and Kirman; the premium, true turquoise came from the Abu Ishaqi mine of Nishapur. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 31), the most widely circulated early modern Islamic text on precious stones, the Javahirnama, was written for the Aq Quyunlu (White Sheep) court of Uzun Hasan at Tabriz, in the name of his son, by Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Shirazi (1425–98), a scholar of the Dashtaki family of Shiraz. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 36), Ibn Mansur's Javahirnama named five kinds of turquoise (Nishapuri, Ghaznavi, Ilaqi, Kirmani and Khvarazmi) and held that only the stones of the seven old-rock mines outside Nishapur kept an unfading sky blue; the richest colour belonged to the old Abu Ishaqi mine, and the other old mines were the Azhari, Sulaymani, Zarhuni, Khaki, ʿAbd al-Majidi and Andalibi. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 39), under the Safavids the Nishapur mines held the most valuable mineral deposits in the empire and were placed under direct imperial control; miners dug galleries and tunnels to let air and light into the workings, overseen by engineers and by the middlemen who carried the stones to the gem cutters of Mashhad. [10]
Khazeni (2014) on the Safavid monopoly:
“Shah ʿAbbas I (r. 1587–1629) put the mining and trade of turquoise from the valuable old rock—all its output—under a royal monopoly.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 40 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 40), Shah ʿAbbas I also restricted the export of raw and unset old-rock turquoise, keeping work on the best stones for Persian goldsmiths, and reserved the premium stones for his treasury and for gifts to kings and princes; what he did not keep he sold, which is how old-rock stones reached the markets of Asia and Europe. [10]
Khazeni (2014) on the old rock and the new:
“In the Safavid period, new turquoise mines were opened to meet the global demand for the stone, but the specimens from the “new rock” were often inferior and could not match the unfading stones from the old rock.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 40 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 39), imperial histories suggest that under Shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524–76) the Safavid state levied a 20 percent tax on the turquoise mines, designated as religious taxes (khums) and paid into the state treasury. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 40), a Safavid chronicle completed in 1577 records that the minister (vazir) of Khurasan acted as prospector and overseer of the turquoise mines and kept their accounts as part of the province's administration. [10]
Throne accounts here are legends recorded in Persian epic and chronicle, reported by Khazeni; they are history as written, not evidence of Sasanian turquoise.
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 57), Persian legend held that the Sasanian king Khusraw Parviz (570–628) sat on a gem-studded Peacock Throne set with gold, silver and 140 turquoises in patterns, one of four royal seats, another of which was called the Turquoise Throne. [10]
Khazeni (2014) placed the Timurid shrine city of Mashhad in relation to the mines:
“It is worth noting that the shrine town of Mashhad, located only one hundred miles from the turquoise mines, henceforth became a hub of Shiʿi pilgrimage and Khurasan’s trade.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 63 [10]
The Castilian ambassador Ruy González de Clavijo passed Nishapur in 1404; Khazeni (2014) quotes him:
““Here they find turquoises [turquesas],” Clavijo wrote, “and, though they are met with in other places, those of Nishapur are the finest that are to be come by.””
— Khazeni (2014), p. 74 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 75), Clavijo described miners breaking into the mountainside day by day, following each vein until they reached a stone, then cutting it out little by little with chisels until the matrix was gone; jewelers then ground and polished the stones on millstones. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 76), Willem Blaeu's hand-coloured map of Safavid Persia, printed in Amsterdam in 1635, marked the turquoise mines in Latin: “Hic turchini gemme repriuntur” (here turquoise gems may be discovered). [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 78), the French jeweler Jean Chardin found Persia's turquoise in two places, Nishapur in Khurasan and a mountain called Firuz Kuh four days' journey from the Caspian, and judged the Nishapur stone the best. [10]
Chardin, as Khazeni (2014) quotes him, on how old-rock stones still reached the market despite the king's monopoly:
“The miners and customs officials are apt to overlook the king’s monopoly and divert what they can”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 78 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 78), Chardin, given access to the Safavid treasury in Isfahan, saw a chamber of rough turquoise piled on the floor like heaps of grain and was shocked that such riches were left to break and turn to dust. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 89), after the fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1722 the old-rock mines outside Nishapur fell into decay. [10]
Khazeni (2014) quotes the envoy Clavijo on how Timur protected the mines:
“So valuable were the turquoise mines for the empire that, as Clavijo reported, “by order of Timur a strong guard had been established at the mines to see to it that his Highness’s rights were respected.””
— Khazeni (2014), p. 75 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 103), Fraser distinguished newly opened mines (taza maʿdan), which often yielded pale blue stones, from the old mines, whose turquoise was a deeper sky blue. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 103), Fraser found the old mines of the superior old rock in a ruinous state in 1822; he reported that the finest and largest stones came from the 'Abdool Rezakee' mine, whose entrance was then choked with debris. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 103), Fraser reported that the mines were the property of the Qajar crown but were farmed out every year to the highest bidder, so the princes who leased them had no reason to invest and subleased them to villagers. [10]
Khazeni (2014) quotes the traveller Alexandre Chodsko on where the best stones were then being found:
“The most valuable stones are found amongst the débris of the old workings and at the bottom of shafts long since abandoned.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 104 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 104), Mohan Lal, who visited the mines in 1831, saw polished turquoise fixed to the ends of sticks with sealing wax for sale, but found the villagers so wary of strangers that he judged the output insignificant. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 105), Fraser recorded that rough turquoise was sold at the mines in three forms, priced by risk: single stones freed from the matrix but not cut or polished cost the most, stones still partly embedded in rock cost less, and 'lumps' with the turquoise completely hidden in matrix were cheapest by weight but the riskiest buy. [10]
Khazeni (2014) describes the cutting trade at Mashhad in Fraser's time:
“The nearby Shiʿi shrine city of Mashhad was home to a number of stonecutters, who polished the gem on a turning wheel of emery and gum lac mixed with sand and water.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 105 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 105), several of Mashhad's caravanserais housed almost nothing but turquoise merchants, and pilgrims to the shrine of Imam Riza bought many stones to carry home a turquoise ring from the sacred city. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 105), by the early nineteenth century Fraser found turquoise dearer at the mines than in the markets where it was sold, because it was so highly esteemed at home in Iran. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 113), the Qajar survey Matlaʿ al-Shams, written with the mines' director Albert Houtum-Schindler from information gathered in 1882-83, placed the Nishapur mountain mines in caves spread across six valleys. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 114), the old Ardalani mine in the Green Valley once had twelve shafts, all blocked by the 1880s; its galleries were so badly ventilated that a lantern would hardly burn, and miners called them Chiraq Kush, 'killers of light'. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 114), the new Anjiri mine produced many beautifully coloured stones in the 1870s and 1880s that sold around the world but faded fast, causing buyers to lose trust in Persian turquoise. [10]
Khazeni (2014) describes the 1894 account of the photographer ʿAbdallah Khan Qajar, who went down the Raʾis mine with sixty labourers:
“Once in the galleries, lit by lanterns of sesame oil, miners followed the veins of turquoise (rag-i sang) and broke the rock into rough pieces with hammers and pickaxes, which ʿAbdallah Khan vividly recalled hearing deep within the mine.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 117 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 118), miners earned on average five qirans a day, paid in turquoise, and owed the Qajar state an annual tax of sixty tumans a head for the right to mine, so a miner broke even only after about 120 days of work. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 118), miners sold stones still in the matrix without knowing their quality; the white beards bought from the head miners, cut and sorted them, and made their best profits on the individually sold angushtari stones plus about 20 percent on sales to agents, merchants and cutters in Nishapur and Mashhad. [10]
Khazeni (2014) describes how the cutters worked:
“The latter cut the larger stones into conical and flat shapes with a rotating wheel made of emery from Afghanistan and gum from India and used rocks and pieces of sandstone for the smaller ones, an older method.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 118 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 119), Mashhad merchants sent turquoise to agents in Europe, where it sold for three to four times its price at the mines; he tells of a white beard who bought an uncut stone for under seven tumans, sold it in Mashhad for ninety, and saw it appraised in Paris, once cut, at fifteen hundred tumans. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 120), under the 1882 fifteen-year concession to the minister of mines Mukhbir al-Dawla, the Shah was to receive nine thousand tumans in the first year and eighteen thousand tumans a year for the remaining fourteen. [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 126), the Qajar attempt to restore an imperial turquoise monopoly on the Safavid model did little to restore the mines of old rock, and the old Abu Ishaqi mine, source of the most brilliant turquoise, lay ruined and abandoned. [10]
Khazeni (2014) on how the American mines changed a market long tied to Iran:
“Fine sky-blue turquoise, it had been thought, could be found only in Iran, and jewelers valued only the Persian stones. By the 1890s, however, turquoise from the newly reopened American mines had taken the market and was in widespread demand, with that of New Mexico rivaling all others.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 131 [10]
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 133), by the nineteenth century European access to New World resources, including the turquoise mines of the Americas, had devalued the stones of Nishapur. [10]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide (2002)
2002 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2002, not today.
Writing in 2002, Lowry (2002) noted:
“However, the Islamic Revolution in the early 1980s severely disrupted the production and distribution of Persian turquoise to Western markets.”
— Lowry (2002), p. 8 [11]
From the Library: Stacey, Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
Writing in 1975, Joseph Stacey on how Persian turquoise was set:
“Jewelers and goldsmiths throughout the world, the American Southwest excepted, work turquoise only with gold. The most valued color of Persian turquoise is deep sky blue.”
— Stacey (1975), p. 26 [12]
A 1975 caption made the same point:
“Only in the Southwest, where the turquoise is a deeper color, is it generally set in silver. Yellow gold ideally complements the pale delicate colorings of Persian turquoise.”
— Stacey (1975), p. 40 [12]
David L. Neumann, a Santa Fe dealer whose El Palacio article the 1975 Turquoise Blue Book reprinted, explained the early-1970s imports:
“For the past four or five years turquoise cutters in the southwestern American area, with few exceptions, have declined to cut cabochon, i.e., rounds, ovals, marquise. (They all cut baroque, that is, free form.)”
— Stacey (1975), p. 68 [12]
Neumann went on, as reprinted in 1975:
“Such stones are, however, available from Persia.”
— Stacey (1975), p. 68 [12]
On quality, Neumann (reprinted in the 1975 Turquoise Blue Book) was blunt:
“Persian turquoise is and for centuries has been the world's best. Very little American turquoise has ever been equal to the Persian.”
— Stacey (1975), p. 68 [12]
From the Library: Manley, Collecting Southwestern Indian Arts & Crafts (1979)
1979 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1979, not today.
A 1979 caption on the Santo Domingo page of Ray Manley's Collecting Southwestern Indian Arts & Crafts dated a Persian piece:
“Left: Persian nuggets and coral with Persian jocla necklace made in the early 1940's.”
— Manley (1979), p. 46 [13]
From the Library: Baxter, Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry (2000)
2000 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2000, not today.
Baxter (2000) dated the imports:
“As a result, Indian traders began to import turquoise from abroad, chiefly from China, India, and Persia (now Iran), as early as the late nineteenth century.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 182 [14]
From the Library: June, Fred Harvey Jewelry 1900–1955 (2013)
2013 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2013, not today.
Describing calibrated stones in early tourist bracelets, June (2013, p. 71) called Persian turquoise a common stone in early Harvey jewelry, imported by a number of traders, including Lorenzo Hubbell and the Harvey company. [15]
June (2013, p. 101) recorded a legend that American turquoise was exported to Persia, where stone cutters had long worked fast and cheaply, and the finished stones were returned to America to be mounted in Harvey-era bracelets; he presented it as a legend, not as documented trade. [15]
Field Notes by Mateo James
Pogue found no firm evidence of mining at Nishapur before the tenth century, though he suspected an earlier start. Chambless & Ryan write that the mines were 'probably first mined during the eleventh century.' The two are close, but not the same. I tend to side with Chambless & Ryan.
See also Egyptian turquoise and The Written History of Turquoise.
I notice Pogue (1915) puts the Maden mines 36 miles northwest of Nishapur, while Lowry (2010) puts them about fifteen miles northwest of Neyshapur. Both agree on the direction and the village of Maden, but not on the distance. Chambless & Ryan don't cover this point, so both figures stay on the page.
I notice Laufer (1913) found the Nishapur turquoise mines already mentioned by Ibn Haukal in 978, a tenth-century date, while Chambless & Ryan write that they were probably first mined during the eleventh century. I tend to side with Chambless & Ryan.
I notice three distances for the Maʿdan mines. Khazeni (2014) puts them about thirty-five miles north of Nishapur; Pogue (1915) gives 36 miles northwest and Lowry (2010) about fifteen. I have left all the figures on the page.
I notice Khazeni (2014) reports a Persian legend in which Khusraw Parviz's Peacock Throne was set with 140 turquoises, while Laufer (1913) found turquoise almost absent from Sasanian Persia and even doubted that the backgammon men credited to the same king, Khosrau II, were true turquoise. Khazeni reports the throne as legend; Laufer reports what he could and could not find.
I notice two books from the same year pull in opposite directions. David L. Neumann, in the 1975 Turquoise Blue Book, held that very little American turquoise had ever equalled Persian, while Branson (1975), quoted above, held that equally fine turquoise was found in the United States, if not in Persia's quantities. Chambless & Ryan (2021) record Kunz calling Southwest turquoise equal, if not superior, as early as 1892.
How this page is sourced. We strive for accuracy: every factual statement above is quoted from the printed works listed below, with page numbers, and this page is continuously updated with new information as we read more of our library. See something we should correct? Contact us.
Sources
- Pogue, Joseph E. The Turquois: A Study of Its History, Mineralogy, Geology, Ethnology, Archaeology, Mythology, Folklore, and Technology. Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XII, Part II, Third Memoir. Washington, 1915. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions in 1915.
- Chambless, Philip, and Mike Ryan II. Turquoise in America, Part One: The Great American Turquoise Rush, 1890–1910. Revised first edition. Callais Press, 2021. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2021.
- Branson, Oscar T. Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries. Santa Fe: Treasure Chest Publications, 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2010. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2010.
- Laufer, Berthold. Notes on Turquois in the East. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, Vol. XIII, No. 1. Chicago, 1913. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1913.
- Kunz, George F. Gems and Precious Stones of North America. New York: The Scientific Publishing Company, 1890. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1890.
- Schiffer, Nancy N. Turquoise Jewelry. Revised 4th ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2008. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2008.
- Turnbaugh, William A., and Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh. Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest. Foreword by Barry M. Goldwater. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007 (copyright 1996 and 2007; first published 1988). ISBN 0-7643-2577-9. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2007.
- Bassman, Theda. The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry. Photography by Gene Balzer. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing, 1997. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1997.
- Khazeni, Arash. Sky Blue Stone: The Turquoise Trade in World History. The California World History Library 20. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2014.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide. Photography by Mark Nohl. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2002.
- Stacey, Joseph, ed. Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest. Arizona Highways Collectors Series. Phoenix: Arizona Highways (Arizona Department of Transportation), 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.
- Manley, Ray. Ray Manley's Collecting Southwestern Indian Arts & Crafts. Text by Clara Lee Tanner and others; photography by Naurice Koonce, Ray Manley and Alan Manley. Tucson: Ray Manley Photography, 1979. Includes Clara Lee Tanner, "Southwest Indian Silverwork," pp. 39–41. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1979.
- Baxter, Paula A., with Allison Bird-Romero. Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry: A Guide to History, People, and Terms. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 2000. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2000.
- June, Dennis. Fred Harvey Jewelry 1900–1955. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2013. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2013.