B02.089 Chaharbagh Madrasa

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Creator

Denis Baly

Image ID

B02.089

Abstract

An axial view of the courtyard of the Chahar Bagh Madrasa showing the west iwan (including its wooden canopy) and the "central waterway (Farshadi canal), one of the several canals channeled from the Zayandeh river and incorporated into the madrasah." (Archnet). -MA

Description

View of the western iwan across the Farshadi canal at the Chahar Bagh Madrasa, also called the Madar-i-Shah ("Mother of the Shah") madrasa. The Chahar Bagh ("Four[-fold] Garden") is "a long avenue ... This elegant boulevard, some four kilometers long, was flanked by the palaces of the nobles, who were encouraged by the shah to add fine buildings in the new capital, and divided into two lanes by a central canal punctuated by fountains and cascades and planted with flowers and trees. It is a realization on an enormous scale and in three dimensions of the typical garden carpet" (Blair and Bloom, 185). "The Madrasa-yi Madar-i Shah [i.e. the Chahar Bagh madrasa], sited in an originally idyllic environment fronting the Chahar Bagh, injects a new dynamism into the traditional four-iwan layout by means of a large extra dome chamber in each of the diagonals (possibly to serve as lecture rooms in winter) in addition to those behind the iwans on the major axes. The cells, too, are unusual in their tripartite division: a vestibule and a terminal recess bracket the cell itself. The main prayer chamber here is not easily distinguishable from that of the Masjid-i-Shah (B.50-75), and the continued intermingling of the two forms in Iran is attested by several joint foundations in Qajar times" (Hillenbrand, 234-5). -MA.

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