Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world's great Christian cathedrals, past silver crucifixes and painted stories telling the narrative of biblical redemption.

But I'm not standing in a Christian European city

I'm here in Isfahan and this cathedral was built around

1600 by Shah Abbas the, the great king of early modern Iran.

It's the perfect place to start the question we're going to be looking at this week,

how the world map of religion was redrawn in the 16th and 17th centuries and at the

basis of that redrawing is one big question. Can a state hold more than one faith?

The answer to that question in 16th and 17th century Iran was a definite yes.

But the different monotheistic faiths have always found it difficult to live

together for long and religious tolerance is usually both contested and fragile.

In this program I'll be exploring the situation in Iran through an

alam a lavishly gilded ceremonial sword. Alams were originally battle standards designed to be carried like flags into the fight.

But in 17th century Iran they were used in great religious processions and rallied not warriors but the faithful.

The alam is a beautiful object in itself.

It was what preceded the king.

It combines opulence and greatness with suffering and humility.

A history of the world in a hundred objects. Shea religious parade standard.

A steel alam made in Iran in the late 17th century.

Throughout this week we're thinking about the coexistence, peaceful or otherwise, of different faiths. And we have objects from India and Central America, Europe and Indonesia

that embody one of the key concerns of the age, the political consequences of belief. Today we're in Iran with the ruling Safavid dynasty and

with a portable declaration of faith. The Safavid dynasty came to power in

1501 and it established Shia Islam as the state religion of Iran a position

...