🕕 2 minute read
Esfahan Friday Mosque (Locally called Jameh Mosque) is one of the world heritage sites of Esfahan which dates back to 771 AH and hs been a place where it was completed continually, reconstructed, additions, renovated and etc. This mosque has been built in Omavid dynasty as a congregational mosque and according to history of this mosque, it’s been a worshiping place for Zoroastrians. It’s well noted that this mosque was mostly completed in Seljuk era and mostly by Sultan Malik Shah because of their tiles work and bricks work are still available, however, some of the details are gone or replaced with new methods from different dynasty.
This Mosque is known as four Iwani (4 porticos) that either of these are from different periods and got picked up a particular name. The southern one which is from Seljuk era is called Saheb and the rest of them are Dervish, Student, Master.
Decoration of this mosque is not only remarkable from courtyard but also has been fabulous from inside the halls too. It’s been a competition between two ministers of Seljuk in order to build their own extraordinary domed hall and from architectural point of view, both are brilliantly done with local artists and materials.
Unfortunately, this mosque was damaged several times in the history and got renovated by different people. But the two horrible ones are in 17th century when Esfahan was surrounded by invaders, locals came through the mosque and burnt all gates, books, windows of the mosque in order to warm themselves up as it was In the winter.
Another damage refers to 20th century during Iran-Iraq war that the oldest hall of the mosque was bombed. However, it was renovated a decade after that but still visible from inside. As it’s been completed in this history especially in Ilkhanid period, in sunny hall a magnificent Mihrab was pasted on wall and was named Uljaitu Mihrab. He was Ilkhanid ruler back in 14th century and was converting from Sunit to Shiite and kept changing back & forth the decoration of this hall to plaster or tiles.
As travel consultants, we would highly recommend visiting Esfahan Friday mosque in the morning in order to have a sufficient time for visiting all details of this mosque.