Qamsar

Qamsar (Persian: قمصر‎, also Qamşar, Ghamsar and Kamsār)[2] is a small town in central Iran. It is the administrative centre of the Qamsar District, which forms part of Kashan County is 15 km south of Kashan in the Province of Isfahan. In the 2006 census the population was 3,566, in 1,048 families.[3]

Qamsar قمصر
Town
A view from Qamsar
Qamsar
Coordinates: 33°44′38″N 51°24′57″E
Country	Iran
Province	Isfahan
County	Kashan
Bakhsh	Qamsar
Population  (2016 Census)
• Total	3,877 [1]
Time zone	UTC+3:30 (IRST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+4:30 (IRDT)

From the 13th century and possibly considerably earlier, cobalt was mined near Qamsar. The metal oxide was exported all over the Muslim world for use as the cobalt blue pigment in the decoration of pottery. It is possible that the cobalt ore was also exported to China.[4] In 1301 Abū'l-Qāsim, who came from a family of tilemakers based in Kashan, wrote a treatise on the manufacture of fritware ceramics in which he mentions the village as a source of cobalt ore.[5][6] Albert Houtum-Schindler visited the village at the end of the 19th century when Qamsar was "a large and flourishing village of about three hundred houses with extensive gardens with fine roses used for the manufacture of rosewater."[7] He described the processing and marketing of the cobalt containing ore.[7]

Vessels used for the preparation of rose water

Ghamsar is host to one of the biggest festivals of Iran called Golabgiri to celebrate the production of rose water in spring.

References

1. https://www.amar.org.ir/english
2. Qamsar can be found at GEOnet Names Server, at this link, by opening the Advanced Search box, entering "-3079465" in the "Unique Feature Id" form, and clicking on "Search Database".
3. "Census of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1385 (2006)". Islamic Republic of Iran. Archived from the original (Excel) on 2011-11-11.
4. Kerr, Rose; Wood, Nigel (2004). Science and Civilisation in China Volume 5. Part 12, Ceramic Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 658–692. ISBN 0-521-83833-9.
5. Allan, J.W. (1973). "Abū'l-Qāsim's treatise on ceramics". Iran. 11: 111–120. doi:10.2307/4300488. JSTOR 4300488. Archived from the original on 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
6. Matin, Moujan; Pollard, Mark (2015). "Historical accounts of cobalt ore processing from the Kashan mine, Iran". Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies. 53 (1): 171–183. doi:10.1080/05786967.2015.11834755. S2CID 117129519.
7. Houtum-Schindler, Albert (1897). Eastern Persian Irak. London: Royal Geographical Society, J. Murray. p. 114. Available from Google books but full view only available in the US.

Further reading

• Matin, M.; Pollard, A.M. (2017). "From ore to pigment: a description of the minerals and an experimental study of cobalt ore processing from the Kāshān mine, Iran". Archaeometry. 59 (4): 731–746. doi:10.1111/arcm.12272.