Jameh Mosque of Isfahan, Isfahan Province, Iran
Photo by Alexandre Rotenberg / Sutterstock

Masjed-e Jameh of Isfahan is a museum of architecture since it embraces twelve centuries of Iranian mosque architecture. Even though the construction of the mosque is attributed to the 9th century CE, many believe that the mosque is built upon a pre-Islamic fire temple. This postulation is because of the excavation of a decorated Sassanid (224 – 650 CE) column base. When Islam was introduced to Iran, every Islamic art style left a trace on this mosque. Its majority of architecture and decorations were carried out by two major Iranian dynasties of Seljuk and Safavid.

Leveraging the four-iwans style of Sassanid palace architecture, the Jameh mosque of Isfahan underwent the first adaptation in the religious constructions. The four iwans called Sahib on the south, Dervish on the north, Ostad on the west, and Shagerd on the east sides of the mosque are all ornamented with Muqarnas (Stalactite vaulting) and Karbandi (a geometric decoration type).

Plan of Masjed-e Jameh of Isfahan – Persia Advisor Travels
by Negar Ganji

Decorated with stunning stucco, shabestan is close to the southern iwan and involves a forest of columns dating back to Daylamites (10th and 11th centuries CE). Unique in the time of Seljuk, the Nezam al-Molk dome was the prototype of double-shell ribbed domes that further enabled architects and artists to add further decorations to the dome. The iwan in front of the dome was decorated with large Muqarnas of 12th centuries CE and artworks of the ages of Qara Qoyunlu and Safavid dynasties. In the northern iwan, there is an elegant brick dome constructed by Taj al-Molk, another courtier of Malik Shah I and the rival of Nizam al-Molk.

The complex houses various mihrabs among which the most famous is the one with exquisite geometric and floral stucco design in the western iwan built under the command of Ilkhanid Sultan Uljeito. A Timurid Winter Hall with the application of alabaster skylight is situated next to the room of Uljeito.

Masjed-e Jameh of Isfahan was registered in UNESCO World Heritage list in 2012.

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Mil-e-Karat – Taybad – Khurasan

The history of building shafts goes back to pre-Islam era and the oldest available samples belong to Partian (Mil-e-Noor Abad Mamsani in Fars province) and Sasanian (Firuzabad Tower in Khorasan Razavi Province) Empires.

Shaft found a great importance in Iranian architecture after Islam and it was quickly used as a decorative structure in a way that it became a place to show different decorative arts such as brickwork and tiling. Since 1^st -5^th A. H. centuries, the shafts (which later became a pattern for building minarets as a part of mosques) were mainly built individually (Khosrogerd Minaret and Semnan Minaret), joint to the building (Arsalan Jazeb Tomb) and sometimes there was a distance between shaft and building (minaret of the mosque in Saveh Square).

Left: Khosrogerd Minaret, 12th century AD – Sabzevar, Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran
Photo by Farnaz Ghandi via Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-4.0
Right: Sarban Minaret, 12th century A.D – Isfahan, Isfahan Province, Iran
Photo by Haaft via Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-4.0

During Ilkhante and Timurid empires the minarets were tall. Minaret of Mozafari Jame Mosque in Kerman and minaret of Goharshad Mosque are among the minarets of Ilkhante and Timurid minarets respectively.

Considering shafts and minarets of Iran as a structure, they can be divided into two categories of single and paired. The single minarets have long body with few decorations, and in term of appearance they have three categories: cylindrical (Golpayegan Minaret), conical (Tarikhaneh Minaret in Damghan and Minaret of Semnan) and polygonal or prismatic (Minaret of Jame Mosque in Nain). The most prominent paired minarets of Iran are minarets of Jame Mosque of Yazd having the longest height (8^th & 9^th A.H. centauries).

Jam-e Mosque of Yazd Minaret – Yazd Province, Iran
Photo by Leonid Andronov/ shutterstock

After Safavid Dynasty, building tall minarets was not much common e.g. minaret of Jame Mosque of Shahrud. The minarets of Pamenar, Shah Abdul Azim, Fatima Masumeh Shrine and old Sepahsalar School from Qajar dynasty are exemplary as well.

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