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Persian domes have an ancient origin and a history ex- 2.2 Parthian Empire
tending to the modern era.
The remains of a large domed circular hall measuring 17
meters in diameter in the Parthian capital city of Nyssa
has been dated to perhaps the rst century AD. It shows
the existence of a monumental domical tradition in Cen1 Overview
tral Asia that had hitherto been unknown and which
seems to have preceded Roman Imperial monuments or
Persian domes from dierent historical eras can be distinat least to have grown independently from them.[5] It
guished by their transition tiers: the squinches, spandrels,
likely had a wooden dome.[6]
or brackets that transition from the supporting structures
to the circular base of a dome. Drums, after the Ilka- The Sun Temple at Hatra appears to indicate a transition
nate era, tend to be very similar and have an average from columned halls with trabeated roong to vaulted
height of 30 to 35 meters from the ground. They are and domed construction in the rst century AD, at least
where windows are located. Inner shells are commonly in Mesopotamia. The domed sanctuary hall of the temsemi-circular, semi-elliptical, pointed, or saucer shaped. ple was preceded by a barrel vaulted iwan, a combination
The outer shell of a Persian dome reduces in thickness that would be used by the subsequent Persian Sasanian
every 25 or 30 degrees from the base. Outer shells can Empire.[7]
be semi-circular, semi-elliptical, pointed, conical, or bul- An account of a Parthian domed palace hall from around
bous, and this outer shape is used to categorize them. 100 AD in the city of Babylon can be found in the Life of
Pointed domes can be sub-categorized as having shallow, Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus. The hall was used
medium, and sharp proles, and bulbous domes as either by the king for passing judgments and was decorated with
shallow or sharp. Double domes use internal stieners a mosaic of blue stone to resemble the sky, with images
with wooden struts between the shells, with the exception of gods in gold.[8]
of those with conical outer shells. [1]
A bulbous Parthian dome can be seen in the relief sculpture of the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome, its shape
apparently due to the use of a light tent-like framework.[9]
Pre-Islamic period
2.3 Sasanian Empire
Persian architecture likely inherited an architectural tradition of dome-building dating back to the earliest
Mesopotamian domes.[2] Due to the scarcity of wood in
many areas of the Iranian plateau, domes were an important part of vernacular architecture throughout Persian history.[3]
2.1
Achaemenid Empire
The Persian invention of the squinch, a series of concentric arches forming a half-cone over the corner of a room,
enabled the transition from the walls of a square chamber
1
2
to an octagonal base for a dome. Previous transitions to a
dome from a square chamber existed but were makeshift
in quality and only attempted on a small scale, not being reliable enough for large constructions. The squinch
enabled domes to be widely used and they moved to the
forefront of Persian architecture as a result.[10] The ruins
of the Palace of Ardashir and Ghal'eh Dokhtar in Fars
Province, Iran, built by Ardashir I (224240) of the Sasanian Empire, have the earliest known examples.[3]
3 ISLAMIC PERIOD
from the Sasanian period, with some having been converted into mosques. The later isolated dome chambers called the kiosk mosque type may have developed
from this.[3] Pre-Islamic domes in Persia are commonly
semi-elliptical, with pointed domes and those with conical outer shells being the majority of the domes in the
Islamic periods.[17]
Although the Sasanians did not create monumental
tombs, the domed chahar-taqi may have served as memorials. A Soghdian painting fragment from the early eighth
century found at Panjakent appears to depict a funerary
dome (possibly a tent) and this, along with a few ossuaries
of an architectural nature, indicates a possible tradition
in central Asia of a funerary association with the domed
form. The area of north-eastern Iran was, along with
Egypt, one of two areas notable for early developments
in Islamic domed mausoleums, which appear in the tenth
century.[18]
Islamic period
Early Islamic period
3.3
The Ilkhanate
and uses muqarnas between the squinches for a more unied transition to the dome. Cylindrical or polygonal plan
tower tombs with conical roofs over domes also exist beginning in the 11th century.[3] The earliest example is the
Gonbad-e Qabus tower tomb, 57 meters high and spanning 9.7 meters, which was built in 1007.[22][20]
3.2
Seljuq dynasty
3
mosque with interlacing ribs forming ve-pointed stars
and pentagons. This is considered the landmark Seljuk
dome, and may have inspired subsequent patterning and
the domes of the Il-Khanate period. The use of tile and
of plain or painted plaster to decorate dome interiors,
rather than brick, increased under the Seljuks.[3] One of
the largest Seljuq domes, built over the site of a Sassanian
Fire Temple, was that of the Jameh Mosque of Qazvin
with a span of 15.2 meters.[26] The largest Seljuq domed
chamber was the Tomb of Ahmed Sanjar, which had a
large double shell, intersecting ribs over plain squinches,
and an exterior elaborately decorated at the zone of transition with arches and stucco work.[3] The tomb of Sultan
Sanjar, who reigned from 1117 to 1157, was damaged in
the sack of Merv in 1221 by Tolui Khan.[19]
The Seljuq Turks built tower tombs, called Turkish Triangles, as well as cube mausoleums covered with a variety of dome forms. Seljuk domes included conical,
semi-circular, and pointed shapes in one or two shells.
Shallow semi-circular domes are mainly found from the
Seljuk era. The double-shell domes were either discontinuous or continuous. The continuous double-shell domes
separated from one another at an angle of 22.5 degrees
from their base, such as the dome of the Friday mosque
in Ardestan, whereas the discontinuous domes remained
completely separate, such as those of the tower tombs
of Kharrqan.[23] This pair of brick tower tombs from the
11th century in Kharraqan, Iran, are the earliest known
masonry double shell domes. The domes may have been
modeled on earlier wooden double shell domes, such as
that of the Dome of the Rock. It is also possible, because the upper portions of both of the outer shells are
missing, that some portion of the outer domes may have
been wooden.[24] These brick mausoleum domes were
built without the use of centering, a technique developed
in Persia.[25]
The Seljuq Empire introduced the domed enclosure in
front of the mosques mihrab, which would become popular in Persian congregational mosques, although domed
rooms may have also been used earlier in small neighborhood mosques. The domed enclosure of the Jameh
Mosque of Isfahan, built in 1086-7 by Nizam al-Mulk,
was the largest masonry dome in the Islamic world at that
time, had eight ribs, and introduced a new form of corner squinch with two quarter domes supporting a short
barrel vault. In 1088 Tj-al-Molk, a rival of Nizam alMulk, built another dome at the opposite end of the same
3 ISLAMIC PERIOD
Tower tombs of this period, such as the tomb of AbdasSamad Esfahani in Natanz, sometimes have muqarnas
domes, although they are usually plaster shells that hide
the underlying structures. The tall proportions of the
Jameh Mosque of Varamin resulted primarily from the
increased height of the zone of transition, with the addition of a sixteen-sided section above the main zone of
muqarnas squinches.[3] The 7.5 meter wide double dome
of Soltan Bakht Agha Mausoleum (1351-1352) is the earliest known example in which the two shells of the dome
have signicantly dierent proles, which spread rapidly
throughout the region. The inner and outer shells had radial stieners and struts between them.[29] An early example of a dome chamber almost completely covered
with decorative tilework is that of the Jame Mosque of
Yazd (1364), as well as several of the mausoleums of
Shah-i-Zinda in Samarkand. The development of taller
drums also continued into the Timurid period.[3]
3.4
Timurid dynasty
The dome of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan (16031618), perhaps the quintessential Persian dome chamber, blends the square room with the zone of transition and uses plain squinches like those of the earlier Seljuq period. On the exterior, multiple levels of
glazed arabesque are blended with an unglazed brick
5
sights in the countryside.[3]
4 References
[1] Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 111-113.
[2] Spiers 1911, p. 957.
[3] O'Kane 1995.
[4] Smith 1950, p. 81-82.
[5] Grabar 1963, p. 192.
[6] Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 99.
[7] Stronach 1976, p. 623.
[8] Lehmann 1945, p. 250-251.
[9] Smith 1950, p. 82.
[10] Creswell 1915a, p. 148.
[11] Creswell 1915a, p. 149.
[12] Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 101.
[13] Creswell 1915a, p. 150.
[14] Lehmann 1945, p. 253.
The Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran.
background. The domes of the Shah Mosque (later renamed the Imam Mosque) and the Mdar-e h madrasa
have a similar exterior pattern against a background of
light blue glazed tile.[3] The bulbous dome of the Shah
Mosque was built from 1611 to 1638 and is a discontinuous double-shell 33 meters wide and 52 meters high.
The oldest example of the Safavid onion dome is over
the octagonal mausoleum of Khwaja Rabi (1617-1622).
Safavid domes were inuential on those of other Islamic
styles, such as the Mughal architecture of India.[38]
3.6
Qajar dynasty
In the Qajar period (1779-1924), the movement to modern architecture meant less innovation in dome construction. Domes were built over madrasas, such as the 1848
Imam madrasa, or Sultani school, of Kashan, but they
have relatively simple appearances and do not use tiled
mosaics.[38] The covered markets or bazaars (tmcs) at
Qom and Kashan feature a central dome with smaller
domes on either side and elaborate muqarnas. An exaggerated style of onion dome on a short drum, as can
be seen at the Shah Cheragh (1852-1853), rst appeared
in the Qajar period. Domes have remained important in
modern mausoleums, such as the tombs of fe, Sad,
Reza Shah, and Ruhollah Khomeini in the twentieth century. Domed cisterns and icehouses remain common
5 BIBLIOGRAPHY
O'Kane, Bernard (1995), Domes, Encyclopdia
Iranica, retrieved November 28, 2010
Bibliography
Ashkan, Maryam; Ahmad, Yahaya (November
2009). Persian Domes: History, Morphology, and
Typologies. Archnet-IJAR (International Journal
of Architectural Research) 3 (3): 98115.
IntroducArchitecSpeculum
208221.
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