Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Tabriz Blue Mosque is a valuable historical monument from the 9th century AH, which has been built during the Kara - Koyunlu of Turkomans rule on northwestern Iran and about 35 years before the beginning of the Safavid Iranian government. This building has some features that make it to be distinguished from other monuments of the Azerbaijan region and even Iran. These features have attracted the attention of many researchers in the field of ‘historic studies’ and ‘art studies’ and as well as have led to the publication of various sources about it; the approach of which are mainly to introduce the historical and artistic aspects of the mosque. But, little research has established about its architectural design and discovering its environmental relations. Therefore, there is a gap of knowledge in the understanding of architectural norms of this building that need to be addressed by some systematic and targeted researches. Understanding this fact, the present paper examines some of the ambiguities about this building; such as the way of its interaction with the natural environment. Accordingly, this paper aims at investigating the quality of interaction between the nature and architecture in the process of planning and architectural design of the Tabriz Blue Mosque. The mentioned aim is based on this hypothesis: the interaction of “natural environment” and “artificial environment” in the architecture of Tabriz Blue Mosque is based on a systematic approach that in its regulative foundations, the component of politics is dominated other components, especially the component of nature. The necessity underlying this research is to point out this fact that the architect of Tabriz Blue Mosque along with the exciting beauty that created in this building, did he/she also pay attention to natural and climatic aspects? Drawing on what has been said, this research has been done by descriptive - analytical method and data collection was via field study, direct observation, corpus analysis in order to answer the following questions: 1. What are the requirements and necessities of naturalistic architecture in Tabriz's environmental and climatic conditions? 2. To what extent did architect of the Tabriz Blue Mosque, in the architecture of this building, adhere the principles of convergence and harmony with the nature and climate of the region? 3. What is the reason for the existence of some incompatibility between the architectural design of the mosque and the system of nature and environment? The result of this paper shows that the architectural design of Tabriz Blue Mosque was based on the ambitious desires and motives of a social climber king. The desires required some specific necessities, some of whom was contradicted the natural and climatic requirements of region. These contradictions create some incompatibilities between the architectural design of the building and natural environment. Accordingly, in the architecture system of Tabriz Blue Mosque, political considerations and government accreditation were prior to other components of design, especially the component of nature.

Keywords: Nature, Culture, Politics-Oriented Architecture, Climatic Design, Tabriz Blue Mosque.

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