A Note on the Monumental Cemetery at Siraf

The excavated ninth-tenth century monumental cemetery at Siraf is one of the earliest necropolises in the Islamic world, yet the burials exhibit practices at stark variance to orthodox Islam. Analysis of the best preserved tomb enables a theoretical reconstruction of a two storey multi-chambered mausoleum some seven metres or more in height, making it probably the earliest tomb in Iran and one of the earliest in the Islamic world.