its towers like Kentish oast-houses After having spent in Mashhad the days around Christmas, on the entry dated 9th of January 1934, we find Byron further West: in Bastam. There, the first monument Byron encounters and notes down in his travelogue is the Mashhad-i Bayazid Bastami. January 1934 corresponds to the month of Ramadan. In…
Tag: Islamic architecture
The Musalla of Mashhad and inscription authorship.
a ruined arch In the entry dated 24th of December 1933 Byron mentions a number of monuments of Mashhad, that he missed during his first visit to the city: the Imamzada Khvajah Rabi’, the Masjid-i Shah, and the Musalla of the city. It is not the first time Byron mentions a musalla: roughly one month before,…
Drinking from the spring of Paradise: the inscription of the Gunbad-i ‘Alaviyyan
The Gunbad-i ‘Alaviyyan is not the most famous building of the Iranian heritage, this is for sure. Considered to have been built around 1150, in the city of Hamadan (the Ancient Greek Ectabana), not much is known about the monument: no inscription provides the date or a name whatsoever. The traditional name is Gunbad-i ‘Alaviyyan,…
The Masjid-i Shah of Mashhad: a fairly atypical mosque
“a ruined mosque in the bazaar“ When Byron is in Mashhad in December 1933, it seems that his whole days are spent at the small and peaceful shrine of Khvajah Rabi’, as he himself writes under the entry dated 24th December 1933. In fact, he also visited another monument in those days: the Masjid-i Shah….
Waiting for 2018: the books of the future
At the end of the year, I like looking back at what I missed (and should not have), but also checking what to expect next. This is why I’ve decided to devote a post to the forthcoming publications about Islamic art and architecture that will be published in 2018, or at least in the first months…
The Madrasa of Baiqara and the Stone of the Seven Pens: unveiling post-editing in the Road to Oxiana
The lyrical and less stately beauty of these minarets reflects the reign that produced it. The last monument that Byron visited when at the Musalla Complex in Herat, on the 23rd of November 1933, was the Madrasa of Baiqara, or better, its minarets. The description he provides of the four minarets is beautiful and…
What remains of the Madrasa of Gawhar Shad
The origin of this baffles me. On the 23rd of November 1933, while visiting the Musalla Complex and its monuments, we can imagine Robert Byron lingering a while in front of a solitary minaret. In his own travelogue, he records that he was quite perplexed. He then wrote: “Next, on the east of the mausoleum, stands…
Gawhar Shad Mausoleum and its missing tombstones
Few architectural devices can equal a ribbed dome for blind, monumental ostentation. During his visit to the Musalla Complex in Herat, on the 23rd of November 1933, Robert Byron carefully recorded what remained of the monuments that once were part of the magnificent project, commissioned by Gawhar Shad. The construction of her mausoleum was completed in…
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…
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