B.093 Mihrab of Chahar Bagh Madrasa

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Creator

Denis Baly

Creation Year

January 1963

Image ID

B.093

Alternate Identifier

B02.093

Subcollection

B: Mosques of Isfahan

Abstract

A close look at the muqarnas-adorned mihrab and minbar (“lit. ‘platform’, ‘dais’; pulpit in a congregational mosque from which the sermon (khutba) is delivered during worship on Fridays”) in the interior of the Chahar Bagh Madrasa. -MA

Description

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.

References

Grabar, Oleg. Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001. Blair, Sheila S., and Jonathan M. Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam: 1250–1800. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994 ; Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture: Form, function and meaning. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

Image Notes

Photograph created 1963. Processing date unknown. Formerly cataloged as B.02.093. Notes written on the slide or index: Chaharbagh.

Image Format

35 mm slide

Geographic Reference

Isfahan, Iran