The Building Itself: Masjid-i Shah and Its Decoration
The Masjid-i Shah’s grand entrance portal (iwan) measures 27m in height and is capped by a muqarnas filled semi-dome which rises high above the roofline of the two-storey Maydan and is flanked by two minarets. Framed by turquoise, triple-cable ornament, the portal is clad in tile mosaic and contains an inscription band of white thuluth calligraphy with a dark blue background, which stretches around the three sides of the portal. In her survey of the inscriptions of the Maydan-i Shah, Sheila Blair notes that this foundation inscription above the mosque’s grand portal ‘specifies that the building [bina’] of this congregational mosque [masjid al-Jami’] was ordered through private funds of the Shah and dedicated to the rewards of his grandfather Shah Tahmasp’. Moreover the foundation inscription is signed by Ali Reza al Abbasi and dated to 1025 /1617. A noted calligrapher, Ali Reza replaced Sadiki Beg as the chief librarian of the Kitabkhane around the time the mosque was built and his workshop probably provided many of the patterns and artists for the calligraphic and decorative compositions for Shah ‘Abbas’s building projects.
After passing through the Mosque’s atrium, which is a prolongation of the grand entrance portal, there is an immediate but almost imperceptible change of direction to the right. The change of direction is due to the Maydan square being orientated according to the four cardinal points, whereas Makkah lies to the southwest of Isfahan. To accommodate the shift in direction between the cardinal points and the mosque that needed to align its qibla wall to face Makkah, the axis of the mosque diverges from that of the gate by almost 45 degrees. The purpose for this low gloomy passage leading into the dome chamber becomes evident, for it is with a sense of heightened anticipation that the mosque’s courtyard is entered. Lowness gives way to soaring height and the light streaming into the open-roofed courtyard dispels the gloom. Following the traditional Persian mosque plan, the mosque’s courtyard (50 × 67m) is surrounded by a two-story arcade on four sides. A large iwan is at the centre of each arcade and a large domed sanctuary is located beyond the southwest iwan, facing the direction of Makkah. The side iwans also lead to domed sanctuaries, which are flanked by rectangular rooms functioning as winter prayer halls. These halls are covered by eight domes and connect to two rectangular arcaded courtyards serving as madrasas, which were designed by Sheikh Baha’i and later used by him for his teaching. Both the entrance portal iwan and the main sanctuary iwan, where the qibla mihrab is situated, are flanked by a pair of cylindrical minarets. These minarets are totally clad with tile mosaics of epigraphic elements such as La illaha illa Lah (There is no God but God). On top of the minaret’s upper area runs an inscription band in white on a blue background, marking the beginning of three tiers of muqarnas units, which appear to hold the minaret’s roofed balcony.
culmination of a thousand years of mosque building in Persia. The formative traditions, the religious ideals, usage and meanings [and the] ornamentation are all fulfilled and unified in the Masjid-i-Shah, with a majesty and splendor that places it among the world’s greatest buildings.
Thus the building bears witness to a tilemaking tradition that possessed a highly sophisticated knowledge of the laws of colour from technical and aesthetic perspectives.
This architecture creates images of dazzling beauty, where reflecting surfaces catch light in brilliant colour in a way strikingly similar to Safavid textiles and silk carpets. Structures become indistinct, even visually unimportant, and the repetitive surfaces of the glistening tiles become translucent visions, disembodied and ethereal.
The tilework also accentuates the building’s shape, with separate but united colour schemes lending movement to the architectural stresses and forms in the structure. In his contemporary account of the mosque, the court chronicler Iskandar Beg Munshi describes the mosque as a ‘paradise-like place of worship’, comparing it to the ‘nine-arched vault of heaven’ and the ‘Bayt al-Ma’mur’. Indeed, emulating the Qur’an’s symbolic description of the lush, fertile abundance of paradise, this building displays a vast presentation of brightly coloured floral decoration that is both abstract and imaginative. In one beautiful passage, Pope suggested that the ornament used in the mosque is an example of the Islamic attraction to flowers, which he describes as ‘poetic’ and also reverential.
Colour in the Building: Haft Rang (Seven Colours)
This section introduces the principal tile technique used to decorate the Masjid-i Shah including technical aspects such as its makeup and application, its history in ancient Persia both in relation to its technique and the cultural and conceptual associations with the heptad (number seven) and seven colour traditions. The aim here is simply to introduce the medium of the artwork (Masjid-i Shah) that helps inform the approach employed in this research.
The term Haft rang was first recorded by Abu’l Qasim in his ceramics treatise in the fourteenth century which describes a technique known today as minai glazed ware or overglaze polychrome decoration. In 1888 the term was used by the Qajari potter, Ali Muhammad Isfahani in Tehran, who recorded Haft rang methods and materials in his treatise On the Manufacture of Modern Kashi Earthenware Tiles and Vases. In interviews with craftsmen in Isfahan, Barry has found that this designation and practice of Haft rang is still used today in Iran as well as other central Asian countries. In all of these methods for glaze application, a dark-coloured line, normally black, is used to delineate the various coloured glazes. This is the reason why Haft rang is often compared to another polychrome technique called in Spanish cuerda seca (dry cord). Cuerda seca here refers to the black line which is used in both the techniques of Haft rang and cuerda seca for separating coloured glazes.
Excerpted with permission from Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art, Idries Trevathan, Saqi Books. Read more about the book here and buy it here.