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The Great Jame Mosque of Yazd is one of top ranked sites of Yazd where everyone gets fascinated of its decoration. The mosque’s architecture makes a lot of thrill and silence in our minds, that is source of faith. mosques were not only place for praying also complex of arts from different nations.
In Islamic urbanism, mosques were the hearts of cities and around them so many buildings were constructed such as schools, bazaar, library, etc. The highlight of historical monuments of Yazd is the great Jame mosque that is very well known for its decorations such as tiles work, stuccos, mosaics, etc.
What makes visiting this mosque very especial is its main entrance that is the largest Iwan in the country which is not symmetric with the domed hall.
Original building of mosque dates back to 13th century and has been built by the governor of city for back then who was Garshasb kalanjar and what we see today is mostly from one of the Ayatollahs of the city who was Seyed Roknodin who lived back in 724 A.H.
the grand son of 4th Emam. approximately 8years later means 732 while the mosque was incomplete, he died. he willed that the man ” sharaf din ali tayeb” should complete it. it means the dome and the iwan. after him in the next periods somebody came, and added something to mosque. in 809 ” jalalo din mahmood kharazmi” added the tiles but not all of them. in 819 during timurid period means the first era after mogolian came to iran” shah nezamo din kermani” completed that. so he added the right hall for praying to this mosque. 20 years later the wife of govenor decorated the floor by marble stone, infront of the mosque they build two samll pillars so, each of them has a small hole which they put a candle on it
Entrance Gate:
Between all of the mosques in Islamic countries this gate is magnificent and the tallest one. the gate and corridor have been added in year 777 by ” Yahya Mozafar”. The inscriptions above the gate are from 3 surahs of Qoran including Fat’h( victory), Jame (Friday), Nour (light). By going through the gate, you will reach the Lobby of the mosque which is translated into Hashty and is a place where it is turned to be a museum of calligraphies, in different sizes such as “Naskh” Calligraphy that dates back to 891 AH and either of them consists a poem.
On the top of the wall another inscript has been written by “Shah Nezam Kermani” who decorated here by unique tiles. He was also a Timurid king). The other inscripts have written by “molana mohamd hakim” in “sols” calligrapy.
Minerates
the height of each minerate is about 52 m one of them has two seperate stairways, these minerates have built by order of “Agha jamale din mohamad” who known as “mehtar jamal” so this man after Short time means in safavid era became the minister of yazd. th original minerates in the year 1313 fell down and they renovated again. on these minerates there are some verses of Qoran have written . in the name of Allah- Allaho akbar- …
Also the names of Ali and mohamad repeated so many times.
treasury of the mosque
it is located behind the gate. this part of the mosque is treasury of all inscriptions from different periods which have written by kings and governors.law of the city or report of restoring and the other parts of mosque that added in next times or deed of endowments. some of these tablets are saying about the documents or the original sheets that after along time are finished. the ceilling here is too impressive that has decorated by colors ad geometrical shapes or bricks. Around the ceilling it’s tablet by blue color and “naskh” caligraphy on stucco that mentions about the date of this mosque 777A.H. which has alot of damage today it’s the old date that u can c in mosque.
other things of this mosque on iwan from external view to internal above the gate on the pillars in square box has written in “kufic” caligraphy ” al molko lellah”, means that ” The mosque in owned of the God” . the inscripts on the tiles above the pillars in right is written about “sharokh mirza” and in the left about ” seti fatima’ the wife of Amirchakhmagh” in the 836.
under the pillars that are made by marble stone has written ” ajelo be salat ghable mout” means that ” hurry up to pray befor death” in “sols” caligraphy. under the arch from the right has written some verses of Qoran from 3 sorah in “sols”. and it continues around the courtyard. under the iwan all the names of Allah have written in square shape in ” kufic ” caligraphy.
above the mehrab and in 2 sides there are 2 flowers which decorated by tiles, repeated 4 times the name of Imam ali and the name of Allah so more. on the head of Altar another verses of Qoran have written so u can c the name 12 imams. the writer of this tablet was” molana kamalo din shahabo din” also the date of inscript reffers to 863-875.
above two pillars nearby mehrab on flowers with 8 parts has written the name of builder and the date of this area. look at the ceilling, it’s combination of tiles and bricks. also besides the mehran there are 2 small corridors which connected to the sections of women. they had built these for the ladies that has religious question to ask from priest of this mosque, instead of coming from the men’s hall.
winter hall
in the year 1240 in the west of the courtyard another hall added to this mosque by ” prince mohamad vali mirza” the governor of yazd so this area has 48 pillars.
courtyard:
the length of courtyard is about 53m and the width is about 20. and in the north and south there are 2 places that are called “payab”. so one of them because full of water of that had come to this city by qanat from the mountain ( water reservior) so the name of the Qanat was ” zarch” and the other one called ” mahmood abad” Qanat. the other headline of this mosque is behind the iwan there is no decoration? they wanted to say to moslems u r coming to the nice and best zone ( means in the next world) so it is the moslem’s beliefe
As travel consultants, we would highly recommend taking guided tour of Yazd in order to get acquainted with local culture and history of the mosque despite visiting all spots in this property