Journal of Researches in Islamic Architecture

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Quranic inscriptions are the inseparable elements of mosque ornaments, promoting the Islamic culture and reflecting the socio-political conditions of the given era. Due to its importance and vastness together with several structural periods and the volume of decorations, Jameh Mosque of Isfahan is one of the structures containing most of the historical religious inscriptions related to Iranian Islamic architecture. These inscriptions date back to Saljughi, Ilkhanid, Mozafari, Teymouri, Safavid, Ghajar and most recent eras and are embedded on the entrances, court-yard facades, verandas, minarets, bedchambers, domes, sanctuaries, stone troughs, candlestick, tribunes, etc. of the mosque. Most of these inscriptions are exposed through the entrances, internal facades of verandas in (southern, western, east and northern Omar Iwan), the main yard facade, minarets, sanctuaries and domes. These inscriptions may be assessed according to criteria of technique, construction date, content, position, benefactors, restoration manner, their contribution to the architectural space, etc. There exist few studies where the content analysis of these inscriptions embedded in these structures are addressed and assessed; consequently, attempt is made in this article to recognize, analyze and compare the content of Quranic inscriptions on entrances (mosque emblem) and sanctuaries (symbol of Qiblah) of Jameh Mosque of Isfahan. To extract the content of the inscribed verses and assess the thematic correlations as to their political and social terms together with the assigned locations in these structures, this article follows a descriptive-analytical method where documented sources are applied and insitu observations are made. The findings here reveal that the entrances and sanctuaries of Jameh Mosque of Isfahan contain many inscriptions with various contents. The content of these inscriptions consists of: digits (date of construction), personal names (benefactors, rulers, art masters and calligraphers) and hadiths (holy names and Quranic verses). Among 10 entrances and 17 sanctuaries of this mosque, 7 entrances and 8 sanctuaries contain Quranic inscribed Surah: Al-Baqara with three repetitions, Al-Fatiha, twice, Nesa, Al-Ikhlas, Al-Insan, Tobah, Anbia, Ahzab, Jen, Maedeh, Jamah, Al-Emran, Kahf, Noor and Sad Surah with one repetitions. Most of these Quranic inscriptions in this mosque are embedded in Safavid era followed by Ghajar, Al Mozafar, Ilkhanid and Saljoughi eras: Safavid with 9 Surah and 15 Verses is ranked the first, while Saljoughi with one Verse and one Surah is ranked the last. Since the beginning of Iran becoming an Islamic nation, during time, the city of Isfahan has been exposed to severe religious quarrels until Safavid era when Shiism religion sector gained official announcement in Iran. Back then, the city of Isfahan was the major center of Sunni sector.  It seems that the selection of verses for inscriptions was influenced by the socio-political conditions of the given era. This fact indicates that during political and social turmoil and unrests between religion sectors the selected Quranic verses are indicative of the specific events, while during relatively political and social proportional calm, the content of the selected verses reflect unity of God, faith and belief in resurrection, prophecy and conveyance of the Prophet and verses about the importance of the mosque. The content of the verses in sanctuaries indicates the events related to the Muslim community like changing Ghiblah, conveyance of the Prophet and leadership. In Saljoughi era, the disputes between Saljoughi dynasty and scholars in Isfahan lead to setting Jameh mosque to arson and it seems that inscribing the 114^th verse of Al-Baqarah Surah reveals this phenomenon. In Ilkhanid era, considering the religious disputes, it can be deduced that the benefactors of Aljayto sanctuary by inscribing Quranic and hadith texts with a content specific to Shiism had no other objective than promoting Shiism in Isfahan. The existing military conflicts in Al Mozafar era were influential on the sanctuary inscriptions of Mozafari School and stimulating believers to commit Jihad. By establishment of relative calm in Safavid and Ghajar eras and the orientations towards Shiism thereof, the benefactors selected verses indicating the praise of the prophet of Islam, the status of Amir Al Muminin (the leader of the faithful in Shiism) and manner of meeting God.

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There were the glorious examples of the architecture of mosque once in Iran.They were the places for equality between all classes, so they must have qualities for invitation, guidance, and reminder and call the believers and attract other followers of religions as the missionary of Islam. This invitation is not only in the field of vision, but also in terms of audio and other means, such as multi-functionality, centrality, and location of deployment. This architecture was considered to be the main factor in identifying the complexes of Muslims due to its comprehensiveness, importance, severalty and high status in the past times, But today it has lost its inviting role because of structural changes. In contemporary times, as well as the changes in the structure of the city, due to the changing needs and functions of the mosques, as well as the distinction with dimensions and their location in the urban structure and economic constraints, the goals and characteristics of the mosques were also forgotten; So that today all the social groups have reacted from citizens and worshipers to architects and urban designers.
Paying attention to the Invitation role of the mosques forms the central idea of the present paper. It is one of the pillars of urban design and planning in contemporary city centers and neighborhoods. All aspects of the invitation in the body, function and meaning are important in this research. The present paper addresses this question: How can we use the physical, functional and semantic components of the mosques to enhance the quality of the invitation on the urban and local scale, the entrance view, as well as the interior space of the building. This paper is looking for the optimal design process. In this regard, using the content analysis methodology, we are going to refresh the actions and theories in the field of related topics. We are presented a desirable process to promote the quality of the invitation of contemporary mosques by achieving a conceptual and applied framework. We elaborate the subject by selecting 8 examples of contemporary Tehran mosques. We analyses the elements affecting the general form of the building, the external walls, the design and the entrance and the interior space of the mosques by referring to library resources and field observations. The results of the analysis show that an ideal set of physical factors to semantic components affects mosque admission that has a significant effect on the enhancement of the presence of the individual and the community. These results categorizes and describes in terms of criteria of visibility and centrality in urban scale, admission and guidance in middle-level scale, meaningfulness and visual memory in the outer walls and the entrance perspective, convergence and spatial regulation in the interior space of the mosques.

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The period spanning middle of Qajar era to the first decade of Pahlavi is a part of Iran contemporary architecture which is influenced by inevitable alterations caused by modernity. Modern forms and figures have gradually changed spatial hierarchy of houses and their structure and consequently have led to a combinational style. A brief survey of spaces and chief elements of traditional houses of Sanandaj demonstrates these changes quite well. This paper tries to shed light on the prevalent style of spatial hierarchy of house entrances in transitional time period from tradition to modernity in Sanandaj. This research has been conducted using a theoretical approach and by a historical-interpretational method. In theoretical part, a qualitative approach is adopted and considering the literature history, effective factors on spatial quality evaluations are analyzed. The practical part of the research is carried out in two phases and by taking case studies under account. In this viewpoint, the theoretical part is firstly a brief appraisal of the architecture of the historical eras of Qajar and Pahlavi, evolution criteria and social revolutions of those periods as well. Moreover, assessment of houses based on historical periods has been done utilizing field studies, local survey, photography, house plan depicting and existing documents and plots. Secondly, based on acquired field and librarian information, all qualified houses for this research are compared and analyzed to attain a comprehensive understanding of their entrance spatial hierarchy. Findings of the research indicate that there has been a hierarchy in entrance of houses with traditional architecture pertinent to the needs of residents which is neglected to some extent by the designers in Pahlavi period. In conclusion it is admitted that by intermediate spaces, alongside the provision of confidentiality, it would be possible to achieve a proper definition of private and semi-private spaces in houses. Furthermore, disruption in functions and entities of other spaces could be avoided, which in turn leads to introducing a pattern for obtaining confidentiality; an inseparable principle of entity in Iranian architecture and culture.