Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Chahar-Baghis oneof the most famousstreetsof Isfahan and perhaps,Iran.Chahar-Bagh, as agreenstreet, had a certaingeometric pattern which included the rowsof trees, roads,sidewalks and central stream.Chahar-Bagh Street was actually a lineal urban space which stretched from the north to the south, towards Naghsh Jahan square (EmamSquare) as the central urban space of Esfahan and together managed to form and organize the structure of the new Safiavidpart of Isfahan beside the oldSeljuk part of Isfahan. Chahar-BaghStreet of Isfahancould not be considered as the first special green urban street,northe last one.Because it is known that during the early Safavid period, a type of Chahar-BaghStreetwas builtin the city of Qazvin and during late Safavid period, several Chahar-BaghStreets were organized in some cities such as Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz and Tehran.Chahar-Bagh Street along with the Naghsh-Jahan urban square was also repeatedafter Safavid time,as a new,valuable and static model for the urban design,in the design ofotherimportantcities.Chahar-Bagh was not onlya particularstreet, but also ageometricpattern garden design, or in other words, it is well-known as a comprehensivemodel or patternofPersian garden design. This pattern divides the garden site or ground in four parts and shapes a cross road between these parts, placing a pavilionin the middle of the cross road. There are very different and opposites viewpoints about the geometric pattern ofChahar-Bagh, such asi) Chahar- Baghpattern is thecomprehensive design of Persian Garden.ii) Chahar- Baghpattern is just one of the kinds of Persian Garden design.iii) Chahar- Baghpattern is just the same as thequartier shape of design.iv) Chahar- Bagh pattern is not due to four partial forms and it only contains the symbolic and memorial aspects of design. This paper will try to penetrate the literal origins of Chahar-Bagh word and discover the practicalmeaning of Chahar-Bagh during the studied centuries, therefore, this paper is specialized only on thelexicaland semantic aspects of Chahar-Bagh and it begins withthe following questions: 1) How deep is the meaning of Chahar-Baghin our culture? 2) What are the background and the function ofChahar-Bagh during our historical resources? This paper studies Chahar-Bagh by gathering thedescriptive dataintwo field of the meaning and function, on the basis of historical evidences.Then, organizes them in diagrams and presents research analysis based on the mentioned findings. The meaning of Chahar-Bagh includes outer and inneraspects and also createsa meaningful complexity.The inner meanings includes words such as: Chahar (four), Char (four),Bagh (garden),Pardis (paradise). The outer meanings includes three sections: Chahar-Bagh and the dictionary meanings,Chahar-Bagh and the symbolic and idealistic meanings, and finally,Chahar-Bagh and the practical meanings. The origin of Chahar-Bagh as a street form might refer to the city of Samarkand during the Timuridperiod. This city was built between Firoozi gate and Del-Gosha royal garden. The origin of Chahar-Bagh as a garden form, on the other hand,is addressed to the city of Pasargadae during the early Achaemenid time. Pasargadae included several complexes such as the fortress, the tomb of Cyrus the great, palaces and gardens and the fire temple.The historicalsourcesindicatethat the origin ofChahar-Baghword is related to Seljuk time and used in “Jame-ol-Tavarich” by “Khaje Rashid aldinFazlollahHamadani”. There were some places as Chahar-Baghbeforethe Safavid period and themostpracticalmeaning of ChaharBaghwas “the rulergarden”and also as a “citadel garden” and ‘the officialcenter”. There was also a new meaning extended for Chahar-Bagh during the Safavid time, at the time when Isfahan was chosen as the capital city of Iran. This meaning indicted Chahar-Bagh asan especial, green, urban street. According to historicalevidences,thestructurofChahar-Bagh hadanautogamy(private) aspect at first, butover time the public aspect was grownand the urbanaspectexpanded. The resources shows that thestructure also had an earthlyand terrestrial aspect and was changed into the heavenly and idealisticaspectduring the time. ChaharBaghwas neverasimple garden or anordinary ruler place or justasimple street, and thementioned meaning of Chahar-Bagh duringthe Safavid period is a strong evidence of this statement. AlthoughChahar-Baghcontains the literal meaning of “four gardens”,yet, Chahar-Bagh term meant a special,great, public,spiritual, celestial and heavenly place or garden.It is very surprisingthatjustoneword could indicate all meanings and functions in Persian architecture and all of the mentioned meanings could be compacted in one word. Perhapsitrepresentsthemagicaland mysticalPersian architectural secret, which is known as "unity”through“diversity".

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In each restoration, at least two elements can be easily distinguished, “the item of restoring” (monuments and things) and “restoration human factor” (restorer). It is obvious that “restorer” as an interfering person in historical monument, which is the item of restoring, has the determinant role in restoration. On the other hand, although there are codified guidelines about interfering in historical monuments for restorers, the restorer’s personal traits and also his/her qualification in interfering is not considered specifically and independently. By referring to history of restoration and analyzing restoring theories and attitudes, it can be said that there was always more attention to “the item of restoring” than “the restoration human factor”. Therefore, most of the restoring guidelines are also codified based on theories that consider the restorer as an executive of guidelines, and there are no definition about the restorer and no evaluation of the qualification of him/her. However, in Islamic civilization scope it is completely different and the skill factor has had priority over principles and rules.

In this paper, at first, the author tries to explain these concepts and describe the relationship among them concerning the linear relationship among “civilization”, “culture”, and “thoughts”. Then he demonstrates the position of the “historical monuments” to these concepts and emphasize on the importance of restoration and protection in every civilization. The importance that not only concerns the relationship among thoughts, culture, and civilization, but also mentions this point that every civilization scope should describe its restoration method and restoration experiences have limitations which are limited to “thoughts and culture” of that scope. Therefore, for each civilization special approaches should be suggested and these approaches cannot be applied for other civilization scopes.

By this introduction it is obvious that all existing restoration advices which are mentioned in international patent, though valuable, belong to the western culture and civilization in modern era. Not only cannot they be applied to the traditional scopes (even of western traditional culture), but also they specially cannot be applied to traditional Islamic scopes. The author by giving this background would like to access the Islamic culture and civilization scope approaches, and tries to demonstrate the special approaches of this culture in this scope.

After a brief review on Islamic culture, the researcher come to this point that, similar to other cases in Islamic culture, the doer has the highest priority and tries to explain and demonstrate this aspect in the scope of restoration.

On the other hand, by concerning this point that the traits of the restorer are not mentioned in the protection and restoration history, the paper attempts to answer these questions: “What is the role of restorer from the point of view of theoreticians?” and “What are the qualifications of restorer in each approach?”, then compares this attitude with those in Islamic civilization and culture scope.

This paper, by analyzing the existing discussions in the history of restoration, tries to deduce the traits of restoration human factor (restorer) from restoration theories, then by concerning their philosophic principles categorizes their approaches. Thereby categorizing all the restoration advices in the history of protection and restoration into three approaches. Based on these approaches and referring to existing discussions in Islamic culture and civilization scope, it tries to extract the special approach in this scope, and finally put that as the fourth approach along the mentioned ones.

According to this study, existing approaches in the history of restoration are: (1) The first approach is based on restorer’s skills, experiences, and artistic and archeological studies of him/her and historically includes the first restorer to Jean Baptiste Lassus. (2) The second approach is based on scientific and positivism principles that Lassus is the representative of it. (3) The third approach is based on the creativity of the artist that Cesare Brandi created it by the influences of Martin Heidegger. (4) The fourth that belongs to the Islamic culture and civilization scope draws the qualification of the restorer based on cultural, faithful and thoughtful abilities of him/her that is called “Ahliyyat” and is based on religious faith of the restorer.

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In Islamic standpoints, many issues are expressed about the beauty. When it comes to talk about beauty in Islam and the Holy Quran context, the first step towards creating perception and defining the criteria for beauty is perhaps attaining a logical and specific system of definition from the beauty concept in the so called context. By referring to the written texts in this field by philosophers, theoreticians, and Aestheticians, various definitions of beauty are attained that confuses the reader. Since sometimes the beauty is dignified in a way that it stands next to the God name and elsewhere is defined as the coordination of components in an object or it is considered to depend on the human perception whether is understood sensible or rational. This discrepancy in the levels of beauty definitions is such that finally the reader does not know where to find beauty. As a result, no specific criterion is achieved for the evaluation of beauty.
By studying the verses including the word “Hosn” and its derivatives, it is concluded that beauty and “Hosn” are explained at different levels in Quran verses. So the main issue of this article is the discrepancy in beauty definition levels in the Islamic context and the lack of a specific definition system in this field along with the ambiguity of the relationship between beauty and admiration with art in this standpoint.
The purpose of this article is to attain a specific definition system to organize the definitions of beauty upon which a criterion for beauty evaluation and suitable relationship between beauty and its admiration can be gained.
Methodology: For this purpose, the method of gathering the verses containing “Hosn” and its derivatives was implemented by considering verse-oriented meaning of the word derived by full inductive reasoning. Then the analysis method and classification of the verses based on the derived subjects were used to find the different levels of beauty. Finally, using the accordance of these levels with existing definitions in the field of beauty, the classification of the levels and then deriving the levels of “Tasdiq” or confirmation and beauty admiration were done.
Defining firm levels for the beauty and proving this hypothesis with full inductive reasoning from the Quranic verses and the correspondence of these levels with the definitions of beauty is presented for the first time as a novelty.  These levels are defined by gathering all the verses containing the word “Hosn” and its derivatives in the Holy Quran in a way that one can claim that no verse about “Hosn” exists unless it can be classified in these levels, and furthermore, all the levels also include some verses.
Results: By contemplation on the verses of the Holy Quran, it seems that five levels of “Hosn” exist. Based on these levels the concept of beauty also has levels. These levels enable us to classify the presented definitions of beauty by the experts in these five levels. In other words, wherever beauty is mentioned, the desired level could be specified and evaluated. Looking at “Hosn” at different levels, creates more accurate and more detailed insight which makes possible any theoretical and applied addressing of “Hosn” more functional and scientific. About the definition of “Hosn” and beauty in the Holy Quran according to the expressed levels, perhaps it can be mentioned that:
1st level: Existential emanation of “Hosn” at “Asma-ol-Hosna”.
2nd level: Emanation of “Hosn” and beauty in creatures and creations.
3rd level: Comprehension, recognition, and perception of “Hosn” and beauty with human Fitrah or premordial human nature.
4th level: Freewill human expressions from “Hosn” and beauty in behavior, actions, and speech.
5th level: The effects of “Hosn” and beauty in the destiny and the consequences of the human deeds.
Also some levels of “Tasdiq” or confirmation and beauty admiration could be expressed based on the beauty levels:
“Tasdiq” or confirmation of the existentiality of “Hosn” and Admiration of the entity.
“Tasdiq” or confirmation of the manifested “Hosn” in the existent and the well admiration of “Hosn” manifestation.
“Tasdiq” or confirmation of the wellness of “Hosn” and admiration of “Hosn” perception.
“Tasdiq” or confirmation of the wellness of good deeds and admiration of “Hosn” expression in the humankind.
“Tasdiq” or confirmation of the wellness of the good destiny and Admiration of the effectiveness and fruitfulness of “Hosn”
The levels of “Hosn” and admiration of the beauty in the art can have practical aspects; such that the artist can reflect the desired level of beauty in his artwork according to the audience needs. Also the critics of artworks can have more accurate evaluation by implementing the levels of “Hosn” as one of the fundamentals of evaluation. Besides, the cultural directors of a society by acquiring the knowledge of “Hosn” and beauty levels along with considering the needs and the growth of specific audiences can take more accurate actions towards choosing artworks for displaying to the audience based on the guidance and nurturing capability of art with Quranic fundamentals.

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There are close relationships between hidden structures of mosques and unseen concepts embodied in Persian language and literature of Iran that show that construction of famous mosques in Iran, especially in Isfahan Style are immortal and timeless.  A question arises in this context as to what factors have led to the manifestation of unseen concepts in the architecture of Isfahan mosques objectively? In this regard, this research aims to answer the questions raised, especially in the mosque of Isfahan and tries to address the factors that led to the manifestation of the unseen in this building. The research method is the qualitative and describes the case study by introspection and grounded theory. The method refers to the unseen sources of Persian literature of Iran Hafez's and Mulavi's lyrics to extract unseen concepts then introspective descriptions of case study are presented as internal perceptions of the manifestation of concepts in the architecture of the mosque of Isfahan.The emergence of The Unseen Nature of existence is Divine Hidden Manifestation in the mirror of architecture of the place-time of worship can be a container of intuition of unseen realms of existence. The paradigmatic allegorical immortal language of unseen architecture in Jamé Mosque of Isfahan is full of glimpses of witnesses in different periods, in desire to intuit unseen realities. In this mosque, concepts derived from the Hafiz's and Mulavi's poems as persons who have indwelled in unseen realm and speak about the realities allegorically that can be employed as esoteric meanings of architecture with their manifestation in place and time. This research is done with hope to use the unseen meanings in mosque architecture to upgrade them as reminder of unseen realities and in a higher level as unseen places.