Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

Mosque, as one of the most prominent buildings of Islamic architecture has been influenced by constant subsystems and temporal as well as spatial variables and has passed its trend of formation and evolution or decline. As the architecture of Shiraz’s mosques finds their way at the very preliminary sanctuary pattern, different from many Iranian mosques, the paper tries to investigate the order and organization of it in the interaction with different and influential subsystems by focusing on the main body of this architecture, i.e. the sanctuary. Accordingly, the major question is how the sanctuary in historical mosques of Shiraz is organized and ordered. For this purpose, through studying the number, location, and proportion of the sanctuaries.  In every mosque, their order and organization can be analyzed. The results of this research contribute to recognizing the architecture of Shiraz’s historical mosques and the strategies of architects’ designs in the face of various issues. It can also be proposed to make some of these fixed principles applicable and perpetuate it in the architecture of contemporary mosques especially Shiraz’s mosques. The research method used in this study has been of descriptive-analytical as well as field study type. Data collection method has been of library and field observation type and use of sketches and maps. To this end, twenty-four historical mosques of Shiraz have been investigated. Considering Shiraz’s mosques, through studying three main parameters which have remained constant over time, the system of sanctuary organization has been examined. The most important parameter in the architecture of mosques is the direction of Qibla. It is followed by the site plan, based on which and through investigation of the policy of the designer in face of the two mentioned variables, the way it affects the variable of geometrical system and the proportions used in the sanctuary  locating in the architecture of mosques has been investigated. Therefore, first the literature review is presented. Then, having analyzed and investigated the mosques, eventually two types of sanctuaries organization within the architecture of mosques are recognized, for which Vakil and Nasir Almolk mosques are introduced as the examples of these two types.

However, in the investigation of the organization of sanctuary in Shiraz’s mosques, it is found that the organization is heavily influenced by two subsystems including cultural (the Qibla direction and no use of dome) and environmental (the ground shape and the neighborhoods) subsystems. At the end, with the centrality of the architect in the design policy, two distinctive organizations have been developed.

A key point evident in the studied issues imply precedence of following a certain system of proportions in the design and location of the sanctuaries of mosques, where the yard enjoys suitable proportions. Indeed, the sanctuary organization is highly related to the proportions of the yard, where in both types, there exists a dependence of the sanctuary organization on the proportions of yard suggesting the specific influence of the skeletal subsystem, i.e. the significance of proportions in the design.

Design, in the first step is initiated by determining the direction of Qibla and plotting the largest rectangle along with the Qibla direction. The other side of the yard is determined in proportion with the allocation of space to the sanctuary. In the next step, given the elongation of the plotted rectangle and its proportion with the Qibla direction, two states are developed. If the mosque elongation is along with the Qibla direction, the sanctuary is organized in the southern side, and in 65% of cases, with approximate proportions of one to two (the sanctuary depth to the yard ratio). 

However, of the yard elongation is vertical in relation with the Qiblah direction, then according the fact that the entire width of the plotted rectangle would be allocated to the yard, the mosque would lack southern sanctuary and the sanctuaries would be located at the east or west or both.

However, in similar cases (such as the Imam Mosque in Isfahan or Naein Mosque or even mosques such as Damascus Mosque) the priority is to locate the sanctuary at the south side, but this is different in the organization of sanctuaries in Shiraz’s mosques in the light of priorities including the yard proportions or existence of a number of limitations (access, the ground dimensions, etc.).