no idea that abstract pattern was capable of so profound a splendour “The Shaykh Luftallah mosque is viewed by historians and visitors as one of the most important architectural projects built on Isfahan’s maidan, prominent for its location, scale, design, and ornament”. This is how the long entry Archnet devotes to the Luftallah mosque ends….
Tag: Isfahan
Masjid-i Imam and its seven-color technique
pretty, if you like, even magnificent, but not important In mid-March 1934 Byron is back in Isfahan. This time he has certainly more time to go around and carefully visit the most important monuments of the city. It is now, for instance, that he visits properly the Friday Mosque. On the 18th of March 1934,…
The monuments of Isfahan from Byron’s car
So much it meant to have escaped from Teheran After having described the Friday Mosque of Isfahan, it seems that Byron wants to continue with his hopping-on-an-off and sightseeing the most important monuments of Isfahan. It is always the evening of the 11th of February 1934, and as he did for the Maidan-i Imam, he drives…
Sexual conduct and the inscription of a mosque: the case of the South Dome of the Friday Mosque of Isfahan.
Much of it is clumsy, some ugly. When Byron sees for the first time the beautiful Friday Mosque of Isfahan, he is in the car of the Hovlands, on the 11th of February 1934. After they passed by the Maidan-i Imam, they drive to the Friday Mosque, and Byron does not seem at all impressed…
The Maidan-i Imam from Byron’s window
There was time to drive round Isfahan before dark A couple of days after Byron is in Qom and describes hurriedly the Shrine of Fatima, he arrives in Isfahan. It is, according to the travelogue, the 11th of February 1934. He and the two people that were traveling with him, or better, that gave him…
Friday Mosque of Isfahan: interpreting the function of the North Dome according to its inscriptions
The North Dome of the Friday Mosque of Isfahan is an architectural masterpiece. Built under the patronage the Saljuq courtier Taj al-Mulk, antagonist of the wazir Nizam al-Mulk, in 481/1088-1089, during the reign of Malik Shah. The dome includes a variety of inscriptions, but here I want to concentrate on the choice of some names of God…