Out ward formal guest yard

The Guest Room for Men

This summer room is located in the Majlesi yard section of the house and is equipped with “shelf wind catchers” . The room is indicative of the high place of a guest in the eyes of native Kish inhabitants since in this area, a guest is considered to be “blessed by God” and showing hospitality to guests is a religious duty. A sunshade made of “Daan” (woven palm branches) is placed in front of this room where the elders from the neighborhood as well as other guests would be treated in summer afternoons. Due to the high social place of the owner of this house and the fact that he was known as a hospitable and magnanimous person in Kish, guests from near and far used to be treated in his house throughout the year.

The Winter Room

Apart from the Majlesi room where hospitality and a place to sleep was offered to guests in the summer, there is another room in the Majlesi yard which faces the sun and was used in the winter by male guests. The interesting point is that all the rooms in the house, whether they were guest rooms or rooms used by family members, had separate bathrooms built as an integral part of the room called “Ghatiah”. This indicates that cleanliness was of utmost importance to Kish natives. In the same room, the tools and utensils used by the natives of Kish some 80 years ago is on display

The Summer Room

Mossayaf is the term used by natives of Kish Island to refer to a summer room with a specific architecture. This room was built on a platform 1.5 meters higher than the ground away from sunlight. They would build windows and shelf wind catchers all around the room and would open these windows and wind towers to create a constant current of air in the room, thus cooling it. This room would be used only in the summer. During the winter, the wind catchers would be sealed off with stones, wood, and mud

The Kitchen

Natives of Kish used to build a roofed area with walls in the corner of the yard with vents for creating a current of air and sending out the smoke produced by cooking. These kitchens had no doors and were often used in the summer for cooking food, baking local breads, and milling wheat and barley. Those who could not afford to build walls, would use Daan (woven palm leaves) for erecting this type of kitchen. The kitchen of this house has been restored in the old style with the cooking utensils in place. Rice, salt, and starch of some forty years ago are still visible in this kitchen.

The Bedroom

The walls of the master bedroom in the house where the owner slept are decorated with mirrors of various sizes, and its wall shelves are decorated with china dishes and decorative objects containing wooden cases (80 years old), old radios and televisions (80 years old), and a wooden double bed (80 years old) bought in India by the master of the house on one of his trips. Like the other rooms, the master bedroom has its own bathroom. The master bedroom is one of the oldest rooms in the house, and the reason for its strength is that black ash mortar (mixed according to the native tradition) was used for building it. This room was used until about 80 years ago by the family members.

The School Room

As mentioned in the section on description of the house, the house can be regarded as a school by the Safin Village inhabitants since, until 80 years ago, they used to learn reading Quran in this very house. For this reason, they hold the house in high regard and it reminds them of their childhood memories. Beit-ol Ofroukh (the boys’ school room) was used for teaching boys how to read the Holy Quran. Since, according to the native Kish traditions, Quran reading was often taught by women (a tradition called “Molahyeh”), this room was built in the in ward formal. In addition to reading the Holy Quran, girls and boys between 6 and 9 years old were taught other practical things as well including moral principles, and life and social skills.

Room for Female Guests

This room was used to accommodate local village women as well as female guests. Women would use this room for social gatherings as well as staying for longer periods, albeit separately from men. The reason for calling this room “coffee room” is that it has a separate area for preparing coffee, tea, pastries, and making arrangements for accomodating guests

The Bridal Chamber

To demonstrate the wedding traditions practiced by Kish natives, we allocated one of the main bedrooms in the house as the Bridal Chamber. According to the local traditions in the area, the Hejleh would be prepared at the bride’s home. A room was completely covered in colorful cloths; mirrors of different sizes; and other decorative items used at the time, and the bride and groom would start their life together in this room. The Hejleh would remain in place for about a month. Tourists can wear traditional clothes in the Hejleh and other parts of the house for taking photos and thus record their memorable moments.

Storing Tools used for Fishing

The owner of the house also owned one of the biggest sail Lenjes in Kish 80 years ago. He used the boat for pearl fishing and sailing to India and Africa. Two of the large rooms in the house were allocated to storing the various tools used for fishing, sailing, underwater diving, pearl fishing and the tools used on the Lenj.