Jāme‛-e ‛Abbāsī, mosque (Architectural section)

Jāme‛-e ‛Abbāsī (mosque), A structure dating to the mid-17th/11th century, located on the southern side of Naqsh-e Jahān Square. This entry consists of two parts: the architectural section; and the cultural-and-social section*.

Architectural section. — According to the inscription on the entrance frieze, the structure was built during the reign of Shah ‛Abbās I* with the intention of serving as the “Masjed-e Jāme‛” (Congregational Mosque).¹ Based on its various designations, it is likely that the name was chosen in contrast to the “Masjed-e Jāme‛ ‛Atīq*” (the Old Congregational Mosque) located northwest of the ‛Atīq Square. In later inscriptions from the reign of Shah Sulaymān, the building is also referred to as “Masjed-e Jāme‛-e Shāhī-ye ‛Abbāsī”.² In Safavid sources, it appears under several names, including “Masjed-e Jadīd-e Jāme‛-e ‛Abbāsī,”³ “Masjed-e Jāme‛,”⁴ “Masjed-e Jāme‛-e Jadīd,”⁵ “Masjed-e Jadīd-e ‛Abbāsī,”⁶ and “Masjed-e Mahdi Ṣāḥeb-e Zamān.”^{7 8}Numerous Qajar-period sources, up to before 1979/1357, mention it as “Masjed-e Shāh,*” ⁹and less frequently as “Masjed-e Sulṭānī.”¹⁰ At the onset of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the names “Masjed-e Shah” and “Naqsh-e Jahān Square*” came to be known as “Masjed-e Imam” and “Imam Square”.¹¹ In 1979, the Jāme‛-e ‛Abbāsī Mosque, together with the Shah Square, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (Cultural Division) and has since been officially recognized as “Emam Mosque*,” following the renaming of the square as “Imam Square*.”¹² Two subsidiary courtyards are located on the southwest and southeast sides of the mosque, known today as the Sulaymānīyye and Nāṣerīyye schools. Written sources indicate that, before late-Qajar alterations and the construction of cells in one of them, both courtyards were known as “Masjed-e Shah Sulaymān”.¹³

In Safavid chronicles, there is disagreement regarding the date when the mosque’s construction began. Junābadī records the initiation of Naqsh-e Jahān Square’s plan — together with a “vast congregational mosque of great height” on one side of it — in 1604/1012 .¹⁴ Khātūn-ābādī and Shāmlū date Shah ‛Abbās’s royal decree to begin construction of the portal of the new ‛Abbāsī Jāme‛ Mosque to 1611/1019,¹⁵ while some sources place this order in 1612/1020.¹⁶ From its inception, the estimated cost of construction was sixty thousand tūmāns.¹⁷ According to Safavid sources, there were buildings on the mosque site that agents of Shah ‛Abbās purchased for incorporation into the mosque. However, the French traveler Chardin* reports that the designated site was a melon field owned by an elderly woman who refused to sell it until, through the mediation of several religious scholars, it was finally purchased.¹⁸ Little is known about the stages of construction. Some travelogues mention that the workers labored around the clock in the construction of the mosque.¹⁹ It is said that Shah ‛Abbās was impatient to complete the building and intended to remove the marble dados and other materials from the Old Jāmeʿ Mosque for reuse in the new structure, but several ulema dissuaded him, arguing that such an act would set a model for future generations to dismantle the ‘Abbāsī Mosque itself. According to Chardin, a large marble quarry was soon discovered in Ardestān, and Shah ‛Abbās abandoned his plan.²⁰ Contemporary written sources also report the discovery of a marble quarry near Isfahan during those years, which was then used for producing the mosque’s dado panels.²¹ Based on contemporaneous accounts and the portal inscription, Muḥebb-Ali Beyg, the royal tutor (laleh) of the court pages, was the superintendent (mushref) of the construction,²² and Badī‛ al-Zamān Tūnī and Ali-Akbar Eṣfahānī were the architects.²³ Although construction began in 1612/1020, the earliest dated inscription of the mosque appeared five years later: a mosaic-tile* inscription on the portal bearing the signature of Ali-Reza ‛Abbāsī* and dated 1617/1025. The next dated inscription is the frieze inscription of the northern vaulted hall (shabestān), dated 1626/1035, signed by ‛Abdul-Bāqī Tabrīzī*. Much of the portal, vestibule, and adjoining corridors are adorned with mosaic-tile panels, but as one moves from the portal of the main courtyard, the number of such panels decreases, while those in seven-color (haft-rang) tile increase. Consequently, along this axis there appear paired panels bearing identical designs — one executed in mosaic tile and the other in seven-color tile*.²⁴ The decoration of the remaining spaces of the mosque employs seven-color tiles, and all of the monumental thuluth inscriptions, except for the portal frieze inscription, are rendered in seven-color tile. It seems that the initial plan for the mosque’s ornamentation relied entirely on mosaic tilework, but as the work progressed and various panels of the portal and its adjoining corridors were completed, the artisans continued the decoration in seven-color tile instead. This shift occurred sometime between the execution of the mosaic-tile* inscription of the portal (dated1617/1025) and the seven-color frieze inscription of the northern vaulted hall (dated 1626/1035).

The dated inscriptions in the dome chamber and the eastern, western, and southern vaulted halls bear dates ranging between 1625–1631/1035–1040. After the death of Shah Abbās in December 1628/Jumādī I 1038, construction and decoration continued under his successor, Shah Ṣafī. In 1631/1039, Shah Ṣafī presented a gold and silver measuring line to Ali-Akbar Eṣfahānī, the architect of the Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī Mosque.²⁵ In 1637/1046–, by royal order, a silver door was made for the mosque. It appears that the installation of this silver door marked the formal completion of the mosque’s construction and decoration, since the next dated inscription is roughly three decades later. The additions of 1667/1077–and 1668/1078–were limited to minor spaces on the periphery: tilework in the northwestern prayer hall of the courtyard, the southeastern and southwestern courtyards, and the portal—executed with the patronage of Shah Sulaymān. These decorations bear the names of Muhammad-Reza Emāmī* as calligrapher and Shujā‛ b. Qāsem Bannā Eṣfahānī as master builder.²⁶ From these same two craftsmen, inscriptions dated 1677/ 1087 and 1678/1088–survive in the Guharshād Mosque in Mashhad, likewise commissioned under Shah Sulaymān, confirming their role in royal building projects of the time.²⁷ After 1668/1078–, additions to the mosque became increasingly minor. In the late Safavid period, a stone basin (sangāb)* was installed in 1684/1095 in the western portico of the dome chamber, along with an inscription on the prayer niche (meḥrāb) of the southeastern madrasa, both under Shah Sulaymān’s patronage. Another basin dated 1680/1091, placed under the arch of the northern vaulted hall in the Sulaymānīyye madrasa, appears—by its lettering and crude framing—to have been endowed by a non-courtly, perhaps common, patron. For roughly 160 years after this, there is no evidence of constructional activity in the mosque.

The next recorded intervention occurred after the earthquake of Rabī‛ al-Ākhar 1260/April–May 1844, when repair works were undertaken. The inscription above the southern vaulted hall, dated 1845/1261, attests to this restoration.²⁸ Other dates appearing on the mosque’s inscriptions prior to the modern period include 1825/1240 and 1852/1268 on two Qajar decrees, and 1865/1281 and 1866/1282 on the thuluth-band inscriptions of the four minarets. The scope and quality of these historical repairs remain uncertain. Earlier scholars have shown that between 1858/1274 and 1891/1308, the dome’s outer tile pattern was completely changed, and the present design dates from the Qajar period.²⁹ No inscriptions currently visible on the mosque indicate the exact timing of that intervention. Likewise, it remains unclear whether the restoration undertaken in 1845/1261 at the Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī Mosque involved only the southern vaulted hall or also other sections, and how extensive the replacements of the tile panels—inside and on the façade of the southern vaulted hall—were.

The Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī Mosque is a vast structure. It has a spacious forecourt (jelukhān), formed by recessing the entrance façade with its mosaic-tile portal and minarets from the edge of Naqsh-e Jahān Square. On both sides of the forecourt lie the entrances to the southern bazaars of the square.³⁰ The finest and most delicate mosaic tiles of the mosque are concentrated in the portal. Entrance from the square to the forecourt was once restricted by chains to prevent riders from entering on horseback.³¹ The marks of these chains are still visible on two upright stones flanking the forecourt entrance from the square.

The mosque’s main courtyard is rectangular, with its length oriented perpendicular to the prescribed direction (qebla) axis. At the midpoint of each side of the courtyard stands a vaulted hall faced with seven-color tilework. Behind the southern vaulted hall lies the domed sanctuary (gunbad-khāne) crowned by a lofty double-shell dome, its outer surface covered with tiles and vegetal motifs. The remarkable echo of a voice uttered at the center of this domed chamber has long been one of the mosque’s celebrated attractions for visitors. Behind the eastern and western vaulted halls are smaller domed chambers. The domes of these subsidiary chambers are plain and brick-built, showing little external ornamentation.

Apart from the domed chambers, the mosque contains several prayer halls, each with distinct decoration and spatial character. On both sides of the southern domed sanctuary are tall halls adorned with tilework and supported by stone columns; their dated inscriptions indicate that their construction and decoration coincided with that of the main dome chamber. Another prayer hall is situated at the northwest corner of the courtyard, with marble dadoes and walls and ceilings entirely covered with seven-color (haft-rang) tiles. Two inscriptions in the prayer niche indicate that at least the tilework of this prayer hall dates from interventions carried out during the reign of Shah Sulaymān. Lamps were once lit here, and until the 1950s/1330s, a layer of soot had accumulated on the tiles; hence the hall was known as the Lamp Hall (“Shabestān-e Cherāgh-khāne”).³² Opposite this, in the northeast corner of the courtyard, lies another prayer hall with a low ceiling and a floor slightly lower than that of the courtyard. The walls and ceiling of this hall are plastered in white.

The mosque also contained residential chambers (hujre) for religious students: a row of chambers on the upper level of the northern façade of the main courtyard, and others along the eastern side of the Nāṣerīyye Madrasa. The chambers of the Nāṣerīyye Madrasa were added to the mosque during the reign of Nāṣer al-Dīn Shah.³³ Although the southwestern courtyard of the mosque is today called the Sulaymānīyye Madrasa, this courtyard has no cells.

In 1931/1310, a crack appeared in one of the mosque’s vaulted halls, causing the collapse of its tiles during Friday prayers; as a result, both religious and educational use of the building came to a halt. Following this incident, by order of the Ministry of Education (Edāre-ye Ma‛āref), repair costs were assessed,³⁴ and restoration work commenced under the supervision of the French archaeologist André Godard*, who was sent to Isfahan to evaluate the damage to the Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī  Mosque.³⁵ Reports indicate that between 1932–1941/1311–1320, extensive restoration took place, including iron reinforcement and structural stabilization of the dome,³⁶ vaults, vaulted halls, and minarets, and the repair of portions of the tile decoration. These works were directed jointly by Godard and Hussein Ma‛ārefī*, a traditional architect from Isfahan. ³⁷Two workshops, those of ‛Abbās Elīyā and Hussein Mūsavī, played an active role in reproducing and reinstalling fallen tile panels.³⁸ According to reports from the Ministry of Education and later the Department of Archaeology, repair of other parts of the mosque—particularly its tile decorations—continued until 1979/1357.³⁹ It is said that in 1960/1339, during the directorship of Luṭfullāh Hunarfar* at the Archaeological Department, a royal order from Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavī instructed the tiling of the half-dome behind the portal, which previously had a plain brick cover.⁴⁰ This work was executed by Hussein Ma‛ārefī and remained in place until recently, when it was removed within the last two decades. A few years later, in 1963/1342, Muhammad Raza Shāh again ordered the entire roof of the mosque to be tiled and its wooden minaret removed, but this plan was not implemented thanks to the intervention of technical experts and his wife, Farah Dībā.⁴¹  Restoration of the Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī  Mosque in recent decades has been carried out under the supervision of figures such as Bāqer Āyatullāh-zāde Shīrāzī, ‛Abdullāh Jabal ‛Āmelī, and Hussein Āqājānī*,⁴² and the work is still ongoing.⁴³ Since 1990/1369,⁴⁴ a new project for the restoration of the dome’s tilework has been underway and, as of the time of writing (2025/1404), remains incomplete.

The Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī  Mosque was registered in 1931/1310 under number 107 on the National Heritage List of Iran.⁴⁵ Moreover, on 9 May 1979/19 Urdībehesht 1358, the Naqsh-e Jahān Square complex — together with its surrounding monuments, including the Jāme‛ ‛Abbāsī  Mosque — was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.⁴⁶

/Muhammad Sadegh Ekrami/

Bibliography

In addition to the author’s observations and the archival documents cited in the text, preserved at the Center for Documentation and the Library of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism.

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1. “Amara be-benā’ hādhā al-masjid al-jāmeʿ” appears at the beginning of the epigraphic band of the portal inscription of the mosque.[↩]
2. The epigraphic band of the portal of the Sulaymānīyya Madrasa, in its present state, begins with the phrase: “Bunīya hādhā al-jāme‛ al-kabīr al-a‛ẓam al-shāhī al-‛abbāsī al-ṣafawī.”[↩]
3. Eskandar Munshī, vol. 3, p. 711; Khātūn-ābādī, p. 507; Vāle Dāghestānī, vol. 1, p. 278; Waḥīd Qazvīnī, p. 179.[↩]
4. Khūzānī Eṣfahānī, vol. 3, part 2, p. 617.[↩]
5. Khātūn-ābādī, p. 510.[↩]
6. Ibid., p. 506.[↩]
7. Olearius, vol. 2, p. 608.[↩]
8. Given the historical names of the monument and the fact that this is the congregational mosque constructed by Shah ‛Abbās, the designation “Masjed-e Jāme‛-e ‛Abbāsī” (the ‛Abbāsid Congregational Mosque) is proposed instead of “Masjed-e Shah ‘Abbās,” since the former usage appears in Safavid texts, while no precedent has been found for the latter.[↩]
9. E‛temād al-Salṭane, vol. 2, p. 905; Meshk^wātī, p. 46.[↩]
10. Work of the Great Figures of Iran, p. 204.[↩]
11. See also: Cultural section of Jāme‛-e ‛Abbāsī*, Mosque.[↩]
12. See: “Meidan Emam, Esfahan”, 2025.[↩]
13. Arbāb Esfahānī, p. 178; Jenāb Esfahānī, pp. 61–62.[↩]
14. Junābadī, p. 759.[↩]
15. Khātūn-ābādī, p. 501; Shāmlū, p. 198.[↩]
16. Munajjem Yazdī, p. 412; Khūzānī Esfahānī, vol. 3, part 2, p. 618; McChesney, p. 64.[↩]
17. Khātūn-ābādī, p. 501.[↩]
18. Chardin, vol. 4, p. 1435.[↩]
19. Della Valle, p. 474; Silva y Figueroa, p. 209.[↩]
20. Chardin, vol. 4, p. 1436.[↩]
21. Eskandar Munshī, vol. 2, p. 831.[↩]
22. Khūzānī Esfahānī, vol. 3, part 2, p. 617. One of his titles was “sarkār-e ‛emārāt-e khāṣṣe-ye sharīfe-ye Ṣefāhān”, and he was appointed by Shah ‛Abbās as supervisor of many other construction projects, such as the construction of the Kūhrang Dam, the Armenian church behind Bāgh-e Zeresk, and works at the sanctuary of Imam ‛Ali in Najaf; Eskandar Munshī, vol. 3, p. 950; Shah ‛Abbās: majmū‛e-ye asnād va mukātebāt-e tārīkhī, pp. 288–289; Khūzānī Esfahānī, vol. 3, part 2, p. 866.[↩]
23. Munajjem Yazdī, p. 412; Qūchānī, p. 229. Other than the name mentioned in the inscription, there is very little historical evidence about Ustād Ali -Akbar Esfahānī; for further historical traces regarding his biography, see: Sulṭānī and Qāsemī, pp. 5–18.[↩]
24. For example, see: the pair of opposing vegetal-carved frames on the portal and the pair of “Nāde Ali” frames in the northern vaulted hall.[↩]
25. Munajjem Yazdī, p. 412; Qūchānī, pp. 222–230.[↩]
26. The name Shujā‛ appears on a pair of almond-shaped panels on the portal of the Sulaymānīyya Madrasa, inscribed with the text: “‛amal faqīr Shujā‛ ebn marḥūm / Ustād Qāsem Bannā-ye Esfahānī.”[↩]
27. Ṣaḥrāgard, pp. 36, 101.[↩]
28. Ambraseys and Melville, p. 188; Godard, p. 115.[↩]
29. Ekramī, p. 5.[↩]
30. This layout of the forecourt and its conjunction with two bazaar lines can also be observed in other Safavid-period monuments; for example, see: Mahyār Caravanserai, from the era of Shah Sulaymān Ṣafavī, no. 354 in the National Heritage List (Pāzūkī Ṭurūdī and Shādméhr, p. 71).[↩]
31. Chardin, vol. 4, p. 1431; see also: Photograph no. 10 from Album 199, Gulestān Palace, and Holster photograph no. 734, held at the Center for Documentation and the Library of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism.[↩]
32. Cleaning of the surface of the tiles of the shabestān began in the 1950s/1330s.; Nīkzād Amīr-Ḥusaynī, p. 104; Jāberī Anṣārī, p. 126.[↩]
33. Jāberī Anṣārī, p. 126; Jenāb Esfahānī, pp. 61–62; Nūr-Ṣādeqī, p. 117. In photograph no. 34 from Album 894, Gulestān Palace, individuals and theology students can be seen in the second-floor Īvānche on the north side of the courtyard, next to the open doors of their chambers; see also: cultural and social section of the article.[↩]
34. “Eyvān-e of Masjed-e Shah shekast,” Akhgar, year 4, no. 717, 28 Bahman 1310.[↩]
35. Regarding this matter, see: “Monsieur Godard va shekast-e eyvān of Masjed-e Shah,” Akhgar, year 4, no. 725, 19 Esfand 1309; for the beginning of restoration works and funding, see: “ta‛mīr-e Masjed-e Shah bā hazīne-ye baladīyye,” Akhgar, year 5, no. 792, 1 Ābān 1311.[↩]
36. Muṣṭafavī, vol. 1, p. 595, vol. 2, p. 655; see also: Sayyed Bunakdār, p. 134, citing Sālnāme-ye Ma‛āref, 1313–1314; also Merritt Hawkes in his travelogue (p. 52) refers to tile-replacement and restoration of the dome of Jāme‛-e ‛Abbāsī Mosque and the use of old tiles alongside new tiles.[↩]
37. Nīkzād Amīr-Ḥusaynī, p. 110; Hunarfar, p. 453; Sayyed Bunakdār, pp. 112, 134–135; Muṣṭafavī, vol. 2, p. 666.[↩]
38. Beshārat, p. 94.[↩]
39. The titles of some of these reports—such as “Report of the Institute of the Middle and Far East under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy concerning the preservation, maintenance, repair, and valuation of several historic monuments of Iran,” no. RE1055, and “Restoration Program no. 1764,” no. RE1246—are accessible on the website of the Center for Documentation and the Library of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage; for the text of the reports “Restoration of Masjed-e Emām, 1356–1388” and “Activities of the Technical Office of the National Organization for the Protection of Ancient Monuments of Iran, 2536/1356 Sh.,” refer to the same Center. Some portions of these restorations were recorded as direct observations by employees and directors of the Archaeology Department; for example, see: Nīkzād Amīr-Ḥusaynī, pp. 106–114; Rafī‛ī Mehrābādī, pp. 474–476; Afsar and Mūsavī, p. 161; Varjāvand, pp. 2–16.[↩]
40. Beshārat, pp. 137–138.[↩]
41. Ibid., p. 138.[↩]
42. Based on the restoration reports of the Isfahan Provincial Cultural Heritage Office; for example, see: Jabal ‛Āmelī and Āqājānī Esfahānī, “Restoration plan of the historic building of Masjed-e Emām situated in Meydān-e Naqsh-e Jahān,” no. RE1247; Jabal ‛Āmelī, “Masjed-e Emām (Isfahan),” no. RE1116-4; and Āyatullāh-zāde Shīrāzī, “Restoration program no. 1764 of Masjed-e Emām-e Isfahan,” no. RE1246, accessible via the archive of the Center for Documentation and the Library of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage.[↩]
43. For this subject, see: “List of completed and ongoing activities by the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Base of the Historic City of Isfahan from its establishment (Urdībehesht 1386) until Winter 1390,” accessible at the Center for Documentation and the Library of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Isfahan.[↩]
44. Aḥmadī, p. 123[↩]
45. Pāzūkī Ṭurūdī and Shādméhr, p. 69.[↩]
46. “Meidan Emam, Esfahan”, 2025.[↩]