Isfahan is Iran's craft capital: seven guild trades still work by hand inside the Safavid bazaar. You will find khatam marquetry, enamelled minakari, hand-printed qalamkar tablecloths and copper beaten to a rhythm you hear before you see it. Bring cash — cards from abroad do not work.
The hammering lane off the Grand Bazaar's northern spine, where a dozen workshops still beat sheet copper into trays, samovars and dishes. Open roughly 09:00–19:00, closed Friday. A tinned copper serving tray runs 2,500,000–6,000,000 rial by size and depth of engraving.
Block-printed cotton is stamped here with pear-wood blocks in madder red, indigo and walnut black. Small 50cm squares from 800,000 rial; a 1.5m six-block tablecloth 4,000,000–9,000,000 rial. Machine-printed copies are common at the square-facing stalls.
A quieter run of workshop-shops under the western arcade where miniature painters work on camel bone and khatam inlayers glue bundles of brass wire, bone and wood. Khatam boxes from 3,000,000 rial, signed miniatures from 8,000,000 rial upward.
A working local bazaar north-west of the tourist arcades: haberdashery, dried herbs, prayer stones and household goods sold to Isfahanis at Isfahani prices. Almost no English spoken, which is precisely why the numbers are lower.
Enamel-on-copper is Isfahan's signature: cobalt ground, hand-painted arabesques, fired three or four times. Shops along the Safavid promenade sell 12cm bowls from 1,800,000 rial and metre-wide plates into the tens of millions. Most open 09:00–20:00, closed Friday morning.
The Armenian district around Vank Cathedral has become Isfahan's small-boutique pocket: silversmiths, jewellery ateliers, print shops and cafés facing the square. Shops here keep later, more relaxed hours than the bazaar and many stay open Friday.
Isfahan wool-and-silk rugs with knot counts of 500,000 per square metre and Nain and Kashan pieces are traded off the tourist strip. A small 60x90cm silk piece starts near 90,000,000 rial; wool kilims from Shahreza run far less.
One of West Asia's largest malls, roughly 20 minutes south-west of the centre: seven retail floors, Iranian labels, a hypermarket and a car museum on the top level. Open daily to 23:00 and the reliable place for a fixed-price receipt.
Behind the shrine in the old textile lanes, printers still stamp cloth on felt-topped tables and wash the runs in the river tradition. Watching costs nothing; direct-from-the-table cloth is 30–40% under square prices, from about 2,500,000 rial.
Gaz is Isfahan's pistachio nougat, made from tamarisk manna; Kermani and Sekkeh are the long-standing names on this short street linking Naqsh-e Jahan to Chaharbagh. A 450g box of 40%-pistachio gaz sits around 900,000–1,600,000 rial.
The far end of the 5.5km arcade holds firuzeh-kubi turquoise-inlay workshops, ceramic sellers and termeh weavers away from the square's foot traffic. Turquoise-inlaid dishes from 4,000,000 rial; a silk-blend termeh runner from 6,000,000 rial.
The short pedestrian run beside the cathedral sells Armenian-inflected silver crosses, hand-bound notebooks and small enamel work, priced clearly and sold without the hard bargaining of the main bazaar.