Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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The Blue Mosque in Tabriz is one of the masterpieces of Iranian art during QaraQoyunlu era, construction of the mosque according to cornice in entrance terrace, goes back to era of Sultan JahanshahQaraQoyunlu and 1466. Written documents and available reasons represent that the single building of the Blue Mosque was a member of great architectural complex called Mozaffariyeh,which included other parts such as apron, monastery, symmetry, library, guest house etc. With all the glory that is mentioned in historical resources, only the Blue Mosque remains in the current era from the mentioned complex. Because of continuous earthquakes of Tabriz, specially the earthquake of 1779, most parts of the complex were destructed. In restoration of the city, the total area of Tabriz reduced and the mosque was placed out of city rampart.Therefore, the importance of attending religious ceremonies in this mosque also reduced because of the distance. In spite of such events, the Blue Mosque always remained an attractive sample of Iranian architecture and charmed the visitors.This mosque is described in most of the books by Iranian and foreign visitors. In texts which contain some information about the mosque, quotations of tourists during 1700th to 1900th centuries is important to review. Since these foreigners have superficial information about the reality of Iranian society, have stated wrong opinions about the quality of maintenance and resistance of the mosque. Without understanding correctly, most of them have stated that the destruction of the mosque is related to religious beliefs of people and that is a problem between Shiite and Sunni.It appears that the foreigner visitors thought that since the founder of the mosque was Sunni, it is deserted by Shiite population of Tabriz. The validity of such opinions is doubtable for two reasons firstly, there are many mosques in Tabriz which were built by Sunnis and they are built before the establishment of Shiite and Safavid dynasty. Great Jami Mosque, UstadveShagirdMosuqe etc. are examples of these mosques which are all built by Sunni rulers and wealthy persons and they are considered as holy places even in the current era. Secondly The intentions of mosque founders for Shiites, which will be presented and discussed in this paper. According to aforementioned issues, the aim of the present paper is to study the historicity of the claim which is based on the religion of the founder. This parameter which is accepted as reason for accepting the claim must be studied with a scientific approach and without any default. The necessity of doing present research is that in spite of unique place of the Blue Mosque in art heritage of Iran, no research is carried out concerning the mentioned issue and it has always been an ambiguous subject. Present paper attempts to respond following questions: A. Whatare the origins of such different opinions about the religion of QaraQoyunlus? B. What is the relation between the religion of QaraQoyunlus and structural resistance of the Blue Mosque? C. During the history, which groups could exploit the rumor between destruction of the Blue Mosque and the religion of its founder? It is understood in the present research which is carried out with historical-interpretive method, that the time bases of these rumors goes back to military competition between Ottoman and Safavid governments for occupying Tabriz. Thus, the foreigners who attempted to discover the reason of mosque's destruction through tracing religious backgrounds, have always tried to state the problem according to Sunni beliefs of QaraQoyunlus and the Shiite people of the city and it is proved, on the basis of presented evidence of this research, that they were wrong. In other words, recognizing Shiite religion during Safavid era, have led the foreigners to have wrong analysis about the social problems of Tabriz. On the other hand, the results of the research shows that not only there is not any good reason for proving the enmity of QaraQoyunlus with Shiites, but also historical resources emphasize their Shiite intentions and spirit. Moreover, most of the researchers who have done researches during the last decades about QaraQoyunlus, have introduced the religion of them as combination of Tarikat Shiite or a kind of mysticism that is naturally different with 12 imam Shiites. Therefore, one of the most important issues about QaraQoyunlus is that they were not able to throw attention of Shiite theologians like Safavids. Failure of QaraQoyunlus in making relation with Shiite and Sunni theologians, Charles their society to remain far from intellectual and philosophical world of both Islamic religions of Shiite and Sunni. Such reasons lead to a wage view in recognizing the religion of QaraQoyunlus and creates an opportunity for the presentation of different understandings. In such conditions, there was a two sided background for foreigner tourists to present either a superficial understanding from the realities of the society,or to give wrong analysis about structural and functional quality of the Blue Mosque. However, the claims of the tourists about the building has only got foreign roots and nothing could be found in written Iranian sources.

Keywords: Architectural heritage, Historical documents, Itinerary, Foreign tourists

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