Casa Zinat Al Maluk
The Zinat ol Molk or Zeinat Al Muluk house is among the ancient houses of Shirāz (Fārs region) and dates back to the qajaro period. It belonged to the lords Ghavam ol Molk. This palace is located near the “Nārenjestān Ghavām” and is connected to it by an underground way. This house because Mrs. Zinat ol Molk Ghavāmi (daughter of Ghavām ol Molk fourth) resided there has become known as the house of the same.
Its entrance door is carved with wood. Next to it there are two flat stone surfaces to sit. Next to these, on a stone, the image of two guards with a qajaro suit with the weapon in hand has been carved. On the entrance porch there is also an inscription on stone.
After passing through the front door of this house there is a vestibule and the entrance threshold to the courtyard. In it, in addition to the stone plinths with floral designs and grates to distribute the air and illuminate the basement, there are two beautiful little gardens, a large pool consisting of six pieces of a single block of stone and a small one.
On the front of the building have been placed encaustic tiles in which you can see images of the sun, two angels, two lions with a sword together with a verse from the Koran. This building has more than 20 rooms.
These, in addition to having stucco work, paintings, beautiful and refined mirror work, on the first floor have access to each other, so that without entering the courtyard you can access from the room further south to those further north .
The floor of the corridors on the first floor of this building is covered with tiles with beautiful drawings and a watercolor painting and also encaustic tiles (with the name haft rang lett: seven colors meant the ceramic technique in which the decoration was painted over the glaze and fired in different stages) with landscape motifs.
The body and the dividers of the panj dari (large room characterized by five large adjoining windows) of the north wing and also the ceiling and two gushvareh (lit: earrings, protrusions on the sides of the upper part of a door and a window) of the hall of the mirrors of the west wing, are worked in mirrors.
The wooden ceiling of the rooms is adorned with various drawings depicting animals, birds, flowers and foliage. The Talar (portico supported by slender wooden columns) main of the building is located in the west wing of that and has paintings and beautiful mirror work. In its parts and also in some rooms of this building we can see images of European women and children showing a certain influence of European architecture and art on the qajara.
In front of the hall of mirrors there is a summer room with columns worked with reticulated tiles and muqarnas, some seh dari (room characterized by three large adjoining windows) and a stone bathtub.
This building has two basements, one of which was used as a museum of painting and for the exhibition of wax statues of famous people of Shirāz as: Karim Khān Zand, Sa'di, Nasir ol Molk, Zinat ol Molk etc.
