It is a miserable story It is difficult to define the Musalla Complex in Herat. The name ‘Musalla’ can refer both to the whole complex and to the Mosque of Gawhar Shad that is part of it. Even Robert Byron is apparently confused, and use the word to describe first one and then the other. Musalla…
Author: SquareKufic
Why everything is wrong with the new interpretation of the Blue Room in Palermo
The Blue Room in Palermo has always been fascinating to me. This is why I try to be as updated as possible on everything that happens around the room, and its interpretation. The last time I wrote something about it I mentioned that three scholars (Sebastian Heine, Chiara Riminucci-Heine and Sarjoun Karam) were interested in its…
Gunbad-i Haruniyya: before and after Byron’s visit
It alone survives of the splendours of Tus The ancient city of Tus has a long and important history. Long before Robert Byron recorded his visit in his travelogue, on the 18th of November 1933, Tus had been one of the most important and flourishing cities in Iran. It was known to the Greek, who…
How the Autumn auctions in London went
As always, also this year the Islamic Art Week took place in London. The Autumn series of auctions dedicated to Islamic and Middle Eastern art is now over and it’s time to draw some conclusions. No deep analysis, only a few thoughts. The main difference between this edition of the Islamic Art week and the…
Gawhar Shad Mosque
Even from a quarter of a mile away I could see the difference in quality of its colour from that of the other courts The Mosque of Gawhar Shad is one of the monuments that will accompany Byron throughout his whole journey in Iran and Afghanistan. It is part of the Shrine of Imam Reza…
Imam Reza Shrine
A gold dome flashed, a blue dome loomed, out of the cold autumnal haze The Imam Reza Shrine is by far the most important and most articulated monument of Mashhad, and probably Iran. It is also one of the biggest religious complexes in the world, with a total area of about 598,657 m2. So big that…
Qadamgah Shrine
The sun struck the tiles, which glittered blue and pink and yellow against the dark foliage and lowering sky One of the least known monuments that Robert Byron visited during his journey is for sure the shrine in Qadamgah. Byron arrived there on the 16th of November 1933 and took a photo of the small shrine….
The Minaret of Khusrawgird
So this is the Golden Road. Eight centuries ago, the minaret of Khosrugird watched the traffic as it watches us. “What strikes the researcher, is the very scant information that one can find about the minaret.” This is what I wrote on a post-it while searching the web and the books for more information on…
Vikings and Square Kufic?
On the 3rd of October, the University of Uppsala published an article that was to generate much discussion on the social media. The title of the article was pretty sensationalistic, as it claimed that the words Allah and ‘Ali were written in Square Kufic on woven bands of silk in burial costumes found in Viking Age…
Tarik Khana Mosque
its round squat pillars recall an English village church of the Norman period The last monument Robert Byron visits in Damghan on the 13th of November 1933 is the Tarik Khana Mosque, that he compares to an English village church. Byron loves comparing Iranian buildings to more familiar architectural forms: it already happened, for instance,…
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