Preview

Creation Year
January 1967
Image ID
B.075
Alternate Identifier
B02.075
Subcollection
B: Mosques of Isfahan
Abstract
Exterior view of the dome of the Shah Mosque from within the madrasa courtyard.
Description
"The exterior of the sanctuary dome is covered with spiraling beige arabesque on a light blue ground. The enormous dome (external diameter 25 meters; height 52 meters) is raised on a sixteen-sided zone of transition and a tall drum. It has a double shell, for the bulbous exterior dome rises some fourteen meters above the interior hemisphere, an arrangement also derived from Timurid prototypes. Despite its large size, it seems to float above the other domed roofs of the mosque, which are left plain" (189). -MA
References
Blair, Sheila S., and Jonathan M. Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam: 1250–1800. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994.
Image Notes
Photograph created 1967. Photograph processed September 1967. Formerly cataloged as B.02.075. Notes written on the slide or index: Masjid-i-Shah.
Image Format
35 mm slide
Geographic Reference
Isfahan, Iran
Keywords
Dome, Bulbous Dome, Arches, Pointed Arches, Lattice Windows, Inscription, Quranic Inscription, Arabic Inscription, Thuluth Script, Tiles, Seventeenth Century, Safavid, Shah Mosque of Isfahan