The Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque (;) is a

Shi'ite Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood to ...

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, located on the eastern side of

Naqsh-e Jahan Square The Naqsh-e Jahan Square (), also known as the Shah Square () prior to 1979, and sometimes known as the Imam Square, is a maidan, square situated at the center of Isfahan (city), Isfahan, Iran. Constructed between 1598 and 1629, it is now an impo ...

Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...

, Isfahan province,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. Construction of the mosque started in and was finished in and it is one of the masterpieces of

Iranian architecture Iranian architecture or Persian architecture (, ''Me'māri e Irāni'') is the architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Its history dates back to at least 5,000 BC with characteristic examples distr ...

that was built during the Safavid era. It was designed by the chief architect Mohammad Reza Isfahani, during the reign of Shah Abbas the Great. On the advice of Arthur Upham Pope,

Reza Shah Pahlavi Reza Shah Pahlavi born Reza Khan (15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941 and founder of the roughly 53 years old Pahlavi dynasty. Originally a military officer, he became a politician, serving as minister of war an ...

had the mosque rebuilt and repaired in the 1920s. The Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, completed in the Safavid style, is one of the most important architectural projects built on Isfahan's maidan, prominent for its location, scale, design, and ornamentation. The mosque is registered, along with the Naghsh-e Jahan Square and other surrounding structures, as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

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; and was added to the

Iran National Heritage List Iran National Heritage List is a register of nationally significant monuments, places, buildings, events, etc., officially registered under the National Heritage Preservation Act of 1930. According to Article 1 of this law, "All the industrial mon ...

on 6 January 1932, administered by the

Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran The Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Iran () is an educational and research institution overseeing numerous associated museum complexes throughout Iran. It is administered and funded by the Government of Iran. It was f ...

History

The purpose of this mosque was for it to be private to the royal court (unlike the Shah Mosque, which was meant for the public). For this reason, the mosque does not have any

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

s and is smaller. Indeed, few Westerners at the time of the Safavids even paid any attention to this mosque, and they certainly did not have access to it. To avoid having to walk across the Naqsh-e Jahan Square to the mosque, Shah Abbas had the architect build a tunnel spanning the piazza from the Ali Qapu Palace to the mosque. On reaching the entrance of the mosque, one would have to walk through a passage that winds round and round, until one finally reached the main building. Along this passage there were standing guards, and the obvious purpose of this design was to shield the women of the

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

as much as possible from anyone's entering the building. These doors are open to worshippers and visitors, and the passage underneath the piazza is no longer in use.

Sheikh Lotfollah

The mosque was named in 1622 after Shaykh Lutfallah Maysi al-'Amili (d.1622), a prominent religious scholar and teacher (and father-in-law to Shah 'Abbas) who came to Isfahan at the orders of Shah 'Abbas, and resided on the site, but was never involved in the mosque's construction. Throughout its history, this mosque has been referred to by different names. For Junabadi it was ''the mosque with the great dome'' (Masjed-e qubbat-e ’azim) and ''the domed mosque'' (qubbat masjed), while contemporary historian Iskandar Munshi referred to it as the ''mosque of great purity and beauty''. On the other hand, European travellers, such as Jean Chardin, referred to the mosque using the current name, and

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

ic inscriptions within the mosque, done by Iranian calligrapher Baqir Banai, also include the name of Sheikh Lutfallah. In addition, the reckonings of Muhibb Ali Beg, the Imperial Treasurer, show that the Imam's salary came directly from the imperial household's resources. All this suggests that not only was the building indeed named after Sheikh Lutfallah, but also, that this famous imam was among the first prayer-leaders for the royal court in this very mosque.

Architecture

The mosque is more similar in type to a mausoleum than a four-

iwan An iwan (, , also as ''ivan'' or ''ivān''/''īvān'', , ) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. The formal gateway to the iwan is called , a Persian term for a portal projecting ...

mosque. Architectural historians ascribe this either to the fact that members of the Shah's family had used it for private worship or that it had functioned as a women's

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

. The building was completed in . Architects of the complex were Sheikh Baha'i (chief architect) and Ustad Mohammad Reza Isfahani.

Entrance iwan

The entrance gateway, like those of the Grand Bazaar and the Masjed-e Shah, was a recessed half-moon. Also, as in the Masjed-e Shah, the lower

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

of the mosque and the gateway are constructed of marble, while the ''haft-rangi'' tiles ( "polychrome mosaics") decorate the upper parts of the structure. The monument's architect was Mohammad-Reza Isfahani, who solved the problem of the difference between the direction of

qibla The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...

and the portal iwan by devising an L-shaped connecting vestibule between the entrance and the enclosure. The north-south orientation of the maydan does not agree with south-west direction of qibla; it is set at 45 degrees to it. This feature, called ''pāshnah'' () in Persian architecture, has caused the dome to stand not exactly behind the entrance iwan. The recessed small court flows from the maydan and is linked, on its north and south sides, to the continuous corridor that envelopes the maydan's mercantile facilities. As a result, when viewed from the maydan, the mosque's main portal iwan and dome do not fall on the same axis, as is always the case in other mosques, but instead the dome appears behind the main portal iwan as if having slid to the right from its axis. This asymmetrical layout was initially introduced to reconcile the (southwest) direction of

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

with the placement of the mihrab on the qibla wall, and adds visual complexity to the structure. The portal iwan is elaborately ornamented in colorful

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

s that contrast with the maydan's sand-colored bricks. Built as a recessed area on the eastern wall of the court, the portal iwan is an elevated platform raised by four steps from the court level. An inscription band in white on a dark blue background runs horizontally on the three sides of the portal niche, above which begins the iwan's vault, comprising four clusters of

muqarnas Muqarnas (), also known in Iberian architecture as Mocárabe (from ), is a form of three-dimensional decoration in Islamic architecture in which rows or tiers of niche-like elements are projected over others below. It is an archetypal form of I ...

es made of small glazed-tiles units. One of the inscriptions on this portal gives the date of the start of construction. A pointed-arch doorway is located below the inscription band and is flanked by two panels of mosaics of floral

arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foliate ...

s with motifs in yellow, white, and blue on a dark blue background. These panels rest on top of a continuous marble dado. The offset entry does not allow the visitor to enter the prayer chamber directly from the maydan by passing through the main portal iwan, which is aligned on the east-west axis. Due to the mosque's alignment on the northeast-southwest axis, upon entering the mosque one walks along two corridors, oriented respectively to the northeast and southeast, which are placed adjacent to the northwest and northeast walls of the prayer chamber. Turning southwest to face the qibla wall, one enters the domed chamber to see the mihrab on the opposite wall. This journey into gradual deepening into darkness and reemergence into a room bathed with light reflected on the glazed revetment is one of the most rewarding experiences of the building. In ''

The Road to Oxiana ''The Road to Oxiana'' is a travelogue by the explorer Robert Byron, first published in 1937. It documents Byron's travels around Persia and Afghanistan, and is considered one of the most influential travel books of the 1930s. The word " Oxian ...

'', Robert Byron wrote about this sight:

Size and area

In contrast to the grand size of the maydan's space, the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque is very small and consists of a single domed chamber ( on a side), surrounded by roomsthat possibly functioned as service areason its sides, and preceded by a portal iwan overlooking the maydan. The two rooms accessed from the corridor which envelopes the sanctuary dome measure ; one is found on the western side of the corridor, and the other along the far end of the eastern wall. A third roomis located on the exterior of the southern wall of the sanctuary, and is accessed via the corridor running along the maydan wall and then turning right after the vestibule area. Although the Sheikh Lotfollah is not a rectangular structure, its masses can be measured as one rectangular area of and an additional rectangular service area comprising approximately . Compared with the Shah Mosque, the design of the Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque is quite simple: there is no ''

sahn A ''sahn'' (, '), is a courtyard in Islamic architecture, especially the formal courtyard of a mosque. Most traditional mosques have a large central ''sahn'', which is surrounded by a ''Riwaq (arcade), riwaq'' or arcade (architecture), arcade on ...

'', and there are no interior

s. The building itself consists of a flattened dome resting on a square dome chamber. However, in contrast to the simple structure of the mosque, the decoration of both interior and exterior is exceedingly complex, and in its construction the finest materials were used and the most talented craftsmen employed.

Dome

Isfahan Lotfollah mosque ceiling symmetric

The dome is one of the few single-shell domes of the

Safavid architecture The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

in diameter with a structure consisting of three levels. Four squinches of pointed-arched panels, framed by an inscription band in white and blue demarcated by light blue cable moldings, ascend from the floor and support a sixteen kite-shaped shields that, in turn, support the drum, which comprises sixteen arched panels. The drum is ornamented with alternating double-grilles windows with an arabesque pattern. The interior dome has a sunburst from which descend medallions inscribing floral motifs, which become larger as they descend away from the center. The exterior of the dome is ornamented with an arabesque of a floral motif in white, blue, and black against a yellow background. The "peacock" at the centre of the interior side of the dome is one of the unique characteristics of the mosque. If you stand at the entrance gate of the inner hall and look at the center of the dome, a peacock, whose tail is the sunrays coming in from the hole in the ceiling, can be seen. On the interior side of the dome the aethetic purpose of the long, low, gloomy passage leading to the dome chamber becomes evident, for it is with a sense of heightened anticipation that one enters the sanctuary. Lowness gives way to soaring height and gloom is dispelled by the steady illumination of nearly a score of windows. Barbara Brend described as follows: "the turquoise cable moulding of an arch is seen below the dome, in which concentric rings of thirty-two lozenges diminish in size as they approach a centre which gives an impression of luminosity. The design, which suggests both movement and stillness, is a powerful though not an explicit vehicle of religious symbolism, speaking of the harmony of the universe. ... The support system of dome is illustrated by eight great arches of turquoise tilework in cable form which rise from a low dado to the full height of the wall, four in the position of

squinch In architecture, a squinch is a structural element used to support the base of a circular or octagonal dome that surmounts a square-plan chamber. Squinches are placed to diagonally span each of the upper internal corners ( vertices) where the w ...

es and four against the side walls; between them are kite-shaped squinches-pendentives. Within the dome, ranks of units of tilework of ogee-mandorla form are set in a lattice of plain brick and diminish in size until they meet a central sunbrust patterned with a tracery of arabesque". The structure of the dome of Lotfollah Mosque and that of Blue Mosque of Tabriz is believed to be derived from that of the Shah Vali Mosque in Taft, Yazd. The tiling design of this mosque, as well as that of Shah Mosque and other Persian mosques of even before Safavid period, seems to be not completely symmetrical – particularly, in colours of patterns. They have been described as intentional, "symmetrical" asymmetries.

Other design influences

Design of the

Ardabil Carpet The Ardabil Carpet (or Ardebil Carpet) is the name of two different famous Persian carpets, the larger and better-known now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Originally there were two presumably identical carpets, and the London carp ...

was from the same concept as that of the interior side of the dome. Also design of the "Carpet of Wonders", which will be the biggest carpet of the world, is based on the interior design of the dome. It has been suggested that concepts of the mystic philosopher Suhrawardi about the unity of existence were possibly related to the pattern on the interior side of the dome. Ali Reza Abbasi, the leading calligrapher at the court of Shah Abbas, has decorated the entrance, above the door, with majestic inscriptions with the names and titles of Shah Abbas, the Husayni and the Musavi, that is, the descendants of Imams Husayn and Musa. The running inscription in white tile on blue ground on the exterior drum of the dome, visible to the public, consists of three

surah A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into ayah, verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' (al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while ...

(chapters) from the Quran; al- Shams (91, The Sun), al-Insan (76, Man) and al-Kauthar (108, Abundance). The surah emphasize the rightness of a pure soul and the fate in hell of those who reject God's way, most likely referring to the Ottoman Turks. Turning right at the entrance to the domed prayer chamber, one first encounters the full text of Surah 98, al- Bayyina, the Clear Proof. The message of this chapter is that clear evidence of the true scripture was not available to the People of the Book (i.e. Christians or Jews) until God sent his messenger Muhammad. The horizontal band of script at the bottom of the arch is not Quranic, but states that God's blessings are on the (Shi’i) martyrs. Thus, Shi’i invocation echoes the Quranic verses in its stress on the truthfulness of God's message. The fact that two poems by Shaykh Bahai, a devoted

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

, grace the walls of Shah Abbas' private mosque, proves that, although some Sufi elements in the empire were suppressed, Sufism as a general phenomenon continued to play an important role in the Safavid society. The design of the interior of the dome also inspired the design of the Azadi Square, Tehran.

Gallery

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, Isfahan 01.jpg, Front view - as seen from the balcony of the Ali Qapu Palace Dome wall and windows of the Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque.jpg, Interior design detail Sheikh-Lotf-Allah mosque wall and ceiling.jpg, Interior wall and ceiling Sheikh Lotf Allah mosque - side of dome and windows.jpg, Interior of the dome Mithrab of the Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque.jpg, Mihrab Iranian Tiles 1.JPG, Tiles in the

rinceau In architecture and the decorative arts, a rinceau (plural ''rinceaux''; from the French language, French, derived from old French ''rain'' 'branch with foliage') is a decorative form consisting of a continuous wavy stemlike motif from which smal ...

style Sheikh Lotf Allah mosque entry gateway.jpeg,

Iwan An iwan (, , also as ''ivan'' or ''ivān''/''īvān'', , ) is a rectangular hall or space, usually vaulted, walled on three sides, with one end entirely open. The formal gateway to the iwan is called , a Persian term for a portal projecting ...

interior Interior of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque - Isfahan - Iran - 04 (7433211628).jpg, Interior detail Sheikh lotfollah mosque.jpg, Dome interior Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque -2.jpg, Interior detail Dome of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque - Isfahan - Iran (7433088760).jpg, Dome interior Sheikh Lotf Allah mosque - harem wall detail.jpg, alt=Calligraphy of verses in thuluth style, on blue background., The inscriptions on the dome, written by Ali Reza Abbasi, in ''

thuluth ''Thuluth'' (, ' or , '; , ''Sols''; Turkish: ''Sülüs'', from ' "one-third") is an Arabic script variety of Islamic calligraphy. The straight angular forms of Kufic were replaced in the new script by curved and oblique lines. In ''Thuluth'', ...

'' and '' nasta'liq'' styles. Naqsh-e Jahan Square at Night.JPG, Naqsh-e Jahan Square at night

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

* * * * * {{Authority control 1610s establishments in Iran 1619 establishments in Asia 17th-century mosques in the Safavid Empire Mosques on the Iran National Heritage List Mosque buildings with domes in Iran Mosques completed in the 1610s Mosques in Isfahan Religious buildings and structures completed in 1619 Safavid mosques in Iran Shia mosques in Iran Tourist attractions in Iran World Heritage Sites in Iran de:Meidān-e Emām#Scheich-Lotfollāh-Moschee