Naqsh-e Jahan
| Meidan-e Emam, Isfahan | |
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UNESCO world heritage 
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| Overview of the square in its current form (now closed to car traffic) |
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| National territory: |
 Iran
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| Type: | Culture |
| Criteria : | (i) (v) (vi) |
| Reference No .: | 115 |
| UNESCO region : | Asia and Pacific |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 1979 ( session 3 ) |
The Naqsh-e-Jahan Square ( Persian ميدان نقش جهان Meidān-e Naqsch-e Dschahān , DMG Maydān-e naqš-e ǧahān ), also "Imam's Square" (Meidān-e Emām) , in the historical center of the Iranian city of Isfahan is one of the largest squares in the world with an area of almost nine hectares . It represents an important testimony to the social and cultural life of Persia in the Safavid era and was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in1979 as an important historical site.
Abbas I had the square laid out between 1590 and 1595 under the original name Naqsch-e Dschahān ("Image of the World") southwest of the then city center. Later it was also called “ King's Square ” ( Meidān-e Schāh ) and accordingly after the Islamic Revolution in honor of the Ayatollah Khomeini “ Imam Square ” ( Meidān-e Emām ).
The square forms an elongated rectangle 560 meters long and 160 meters wide and is oriented almost exactly in a north-south direction. At the time it was built, it was the largest square in the world. It was planned as a market square, court venue, playing field and fairground and is surrounded by important buildings: the royal palace, mosques and bazaar , which in turn are connected by a two-story arcature that frames the square . In this way, the square and the surrounding buildings form a closed ensemble, which is intended to symbolize the link between secular culture and the clergy, as well as with trade and commerce.
The area and its buildings form the center of the city and are one reason why the beauty of Isfahan became proverbial in Persian (with a phonetic pun on Naqsch-e Jahān , the original name of the square): Esfahān nesf-e Jahān , "Isfahan [ is] half the world ”.
Historical background
Isfahan's exact date of foundation is in the dark, the first beginnings of settlements probably go back to the early Achaemenid period, i.e. the 6th century BC. After the conquest of the region by Muslims as part of the Islamic expansion around the year 642, Isfahan experienced its first heyday in the 12th century under the Seljuk dynasty . Wars and frequently changing rulers left the city in stagnation in the following centuries. The city experienced its heyday under the Safavid dynasty , who made Isfahan their capital and built numerous magnificent buildings and gardens in this “mirror of paradise”.
In 1598 Abbas I moved his capital from Qazvin to Isfahan and destined the oasis to become his residence and an important center of trade, culture and religion. He drew 30,000 (other sources speak of 50,000) artists, craftsmen and traders from all over the country with the task of redesigning the oasis on the edge of the Zagros Mountains in the middle of the salt desert according to the ideas of paradise of Islam . This also included the Christian Armenian residents of Julfa , located in today's Azerbaijan , who were valued as artisans and traders , who were forcibly relocated to a separate suburb of Isfahan.
Religiousness was one of the main pillars in the Safavid state, trade and commerce the other. According to Abbas I's ambitious goals, Isfahan was not only to become the most magnificent, but also the richest city in the Orient. In the middle of the city, a rationally planned urban trade center was to be created, in which every handicraft should receive its area and in which trade and commerce should be supported by ensuring security and providing a generous infrastructure.
The previous city center from the Seljuk era was around the large Friday mosque . Abbas had the square laid out as the new center about one kilometer southwest of it on a large open-air site between the old center and the Zayandeh Rud river . This avoided radical encroachment on the existing building stock. The new square is connected to the old center by a network of bazaar streets.
The spiritual (represented by the mosques) was juxtaposed with the secular (the bazaar), and everything could be comfortably overlooked by the ruler, who lived in the midst of this tension, on his viewing platform above the passage to his palace and controlled by his security forces based on the royal grounds. All buildings were connected by two-story arcades and the spacious square in the center served as a meeting point, trading and court space as well as for sporting events and festivities. The impressive size of the field was partly due to the fact that Abbas I was a passionate polo player and therefore planned a polo field on the field.
The Shah's plans came true. The Armenian trading community he relocated spanned an extensive network of trade connections and quickly played an important role in the silk and spice trade between the Orient and the Occident . Within a short time, important trade routes between China and Europe were running via Isfahan and - quite unlike in other desert cities - turquoise domes and precious shimmering tiles of mosques and madrasas , blooming gardens, elegant palaces and spacious houses shaped the image of a prosperous city, which later A journey full of privation and exhausting in caravans arriving visitors like a Fata Morgana - or "paradise on earth" - may have appeared.
Division of the space
The panorama photo above and the drawing from the early 18th century on the right show an overview of the monumental, almost 90,000 square meter square surrounded by double-storey arcades, with the west on the right, the east on the left, the south above and the north below lie.
Two powerful and richly decorated entrance portals rise on the narrow sides of the square. In the south - on the pictures above - there is the magnificent entrance gate to the royal mosque, which is now called Masjed-e Emām , and in the north is the wide but comparatively simple entrance to the bazaar.
In the west - on the right in the pictures - is the Ali Qāpu , the high gate , it was the entrance to the garden palace of the Shah and also served as a viewing platform. Opposite it, in the east, the entrance portal of a prayer house, a smaller, more private royal mosque, the Masjed-e Sheikh Lotfollāh , fits into the arcades.
The square is 560 meters long and 160 meters wide. Nowadays the area is still the defining center of the city and its cultural and social life. At the same time, it is one of the most important sights in Iran. Today the square is dominated by formal, park-like green spaces and a huge water basin with a fountain in its center, the arcades serve as a promenade, behind which shops, craft stalls, restaurants and tea rooms invite you to visit.
building
Almost at the same time as the completion of the square in 1601, the construction of the buildings around the square began, whereby only an existing structure could be used at the high gate: a pavilion from the Timurid period , which was raised and expanded.
After the construction of the square, the first construction phase of the high gate was completed first, followed by the relatively small Lotfollāh mosque, which was built from 1603 and inaugurated in 1619. The construction of the royal mosque began in 1590, 1611 or 1612, a first phase of construction was to be completed in 1615, because the king, who wanted to see his plans implemented while he was still alive, urged on. In fact, only the entrance portal was completed in 1616, work on the mosque could not be finished until 1630 or 1638.
The entrance gate to the new bazaar was completed in 1619.
Arcades
The two-story arcades with arches , built in traditional brick construction, connect the individual buildings of the square. They are used as shady arcades and access to the shops, businesses and workshops behind them. Their total length is around 1.2 kilometers, they completely enclose the square with the exception of the four openings for the gates and portals.
Another building in Isfahan that uses the same construction technique and also has arcades with arched passages is the Pol-e Chādschu bridge over the Zayandeh Rud river , built from 1650 under Abbas II , the grandson of Abbas I, who died in 1629 . Here the two-storey arcade building was used as a dam and lock at the same time .
Royal mosque
Masjed-e Emām (مسجد امام), formerly Masjed-e Shah
The construction of the royal mosque, which, like the square itself, was renamed after the Islamic Revolution in honor of Ayatollah Khomeni and is now officially called Masjed-e Emām , Imam mosque, began as early as 1590 after Chardin, but most other sources report Shah Abbas I personally laid the foundation stone in the spring of 1611 or 1612. According to the Shah, it should crown the composition of the Meidān-e Emām . However, he did not live to see its completion in 1630 or even 1638.
The mosque is considered a masterpiece of Islamic architecture and impresses with its sky-blue onion dome and its rich mosaic work on portals, prayer halls, minarets and arcades. It is flanked by two slim, turquoise-colored minarets that are around 50 meters high and resemble the 26-meter-high turrets of the entrance portal.
The architect Ostad Abu'l-Qasim not only had to rush to plan and build the mosque, he was also faced with a problem due to the location of the allocated land. Like all mosques, the building was to be oriented towards Mecca , which was difficult to reconcile with the location of the diagonally aligned square to which the Shah wanted direct access through a portal. The architect therefore decided to build the mosque at an angle of around 45 degrees to the Meidān-e Emām . Nowadays, Friday prayer is performed on the Meidān-e Emām , right in front of the entrance to the mosque.
The calligrapher Ali Reza was responsible for the craftsmanship, which he managed with remarkable precision. Due to the impatience of the client, a new firing technique called Haft Rangi (literally: "seven colors") was used for the faience-like tiles . The new technique made it possible to work with up to seven colors on one tile at the same time without them running into one another, whereby the process is faster and cheaper than mosaic techniques . After the invention of this technique, multi-colored tiles were often used as a substitute for mosaic techniques. The cladding of the Royal Mosque is made of old and new style tiles.
Ali Reza also wrote the annual inscription from 1616 on the entrance gate of Meidān-e Emām , which only concerned the gate itself. Work on the mosque continued until at least 1630, probably even until 1638.
An estimated 18 million bricks were used for the building, and around 472,500 tiles for the cladding and lining walls .
Entrance gate to the mosque complex at Meidān-e Emām
Meidān-e Emām and Masjed-e Emām
Masjed-e Schāh , photo by Ernst Hoeltzer , 1873
High gate
Āli Qāpu (عالیقاپو)
Originally only planned as a gateway and passage to the planned royal gardens and residences, the Āli Qāpu on the west side of the square developed into a palace itself. The palace has five levels (three main and two mezzanine levels) with a total height of 68 meters and is made of the same traditional brick construction without cladding as the surrounding arcades.
The building is the only one on Meidān-e Emām that is based on an existing structure: Abbas I had a pavilion from the Timurid period increased from two to five levels and an entrance gate built in front of it.
The name Āli Qāpu , high gate, refers to the passage in its center in the form of an arched corridor, which leads to the extensive area directly behind the Meidān-e Emām , on which the “Garden Palace of 40 Columns” later built in 1647 "( Tschehel Sotun (چهل ستون)) was established. On the front, a viewing platform was built above the second level, framed by 18 cedar wood pillars to form an open columned hall encompassing the third and fourth floors under an imposing flat roof. This spacious veranda ( tālār ) was the ideal place for the king and the court to follow the happenings at the Meidān-e Emām , such as polo games, the hustle and bustle of the market or extraordinary events.
Palace guards and administration resided in the basement, the ruler's private apartments were on the upper floors. Here he had a music room built according to the latest findings in acoustics . This famous room contains ornate breakthrough plastering, which uses a special two-walled stucco ornamentation in shadow style to represent different types of vases and other vessels (although it remains doubtful whether these niches actually actually contained vessels, as is often claimed, or the niches themselves the jewelry represented).
With the palatial high gate, its airy upper floor resting on wooden columns and its magnificent interior, a graceful pavilion typical of Safavid palace construction has been preserved.
Behind Āli Qāpu are the royal gardens, in which there are further pavilions, the throne hall and the famous forty-column palace . However, this area cannot be viewed from the Meidān-e Emām .
Āli Qāpu
Āli Qāpu
Music room, Āli Qāpu
Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque
Masjed-e Sheikh Lotfollāh (مسجد شيخ لطف الّله)
Opposite the High Gate and the royal palace area is the colorful, blue-ground entrance portal of the Sheikh Lotfollāh Mosque in the east of the square. The architect was Muhammad Reza ibn Ustad Hosein Banna Isfahani.
The mosque with its monochrome, light dome and turquoise dress is decorated inside and outside with precious tiles and was built between 1603 and 1616. Depending on the incidence of light, the dome tiles change from pink to beige to caramel. It was used by the Shah and his family until the royal mosque was built. It is connected to the opposite high gate by an underground passage under the Meidān-e Emām , in order to protect the female members of the royal family from prying eyes.
Abbas I named it after his father-in-law Sheikh Lotfollāh, who died in 1622.
The building and its purpose still hold secrets today. The inscription in the portal shows it as a mosque ("Masjid"), but the complex has neither a minaret nor an inner courtyard with washing facilities ( wudu ' ), which is also common for mosques . The main room with a footprint of 19 by 19 meters contains a mihrab , i.e. H. a prayer niche that is aligned with the qibla so that the system is about 45 degrees offset from the square. Next to the main room is an almost equally large room with a deep vault, which rests on four octagonal pillars.
Overall, the design of the complex is more like a mausoleum , but it can be assumed that no one was buried there. The building is often referred to as the private prayer house of the royal family, but this is unknown in Iranian architecture .
Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque
Inner wall and dome
The dome
Royal bazaar
Bazār Qeisarieh
The entrance to the Royal Bazaar, called Qeisarieh , looks rather inconspicuous in contrast to the other portals of the Meidān-e Emām . But it was based on modern considerations when it was completed.
When Abbas I redesigned Isfahan as his residence, he not only set great store by an adequate palace and magnificent mosques, but also dealt with issues of trade and security. The city's previous bazaar, relatively far away from the palace district, was confused, narrow and uncomfortable around the Friday mosque. Abbas wanted to know the future center of trade and handicrafts in the heart of the city, near his own residence and security forces. A modern, spacious area should be created that should offer all traders, craftsmen and service providers sufficient space and protection and a modern infrastructure.
The Royal Bazaar stretches from the entrance at the north end of Meidān-e Emām and winds north to the Friday Mosque, where it used to end and was limited, but is now divided into other smaller bazaars. To this day - now only symbolically and no longer for security reasons - the entrance gate to the bazaar is locked in the evening.
The entrance is decorated with astrological signs. The spandex grooves show tiles with centaur-like figures who turn backwards and shoot with a bow and arrow. These representations may come from the Parthian habit of turning in the saddle when attacking a horse and covering the enemy behind with arrows. The figures are also reminiscent of Sagittarius, the city's zodiac sign.
Entrance to the royal bazaar
A richly decorated side gate
Frescoes in the entrance area
Internally
reception
From August to December 1637 Adam Olearius stayed as secretary to the Hamburg merchant and envoy Otto Brüggemann (1600–1640) in Isfahan and reported about it in his notes: Muscovite and Persian journey: the Holstein embassy 1633–1639 .
From 1673 to 1677 Jean Chardin , known as Sir John Chardin, traveled to Persia, also with a focus on Isfahan, and published his Voyages en Perse et aux Indes orientales , which were so enthusiastically received that they were translated into English that same year ( Travels in Persia ) and only a year later in a German translation.
The city in the 19th century was brought closer to western readers by the French ambassador Pierre Loti , who had to undertake an adventurous trip to the rose blossom in Isfahan in April 1900 and then presented his travel report To Isfahan .
In the 1970s Sybilla Schuster-Walser collected various contemporary travelogues in the book Das Safawidische Persien im Spiegelischer Europäische Reiseberichte (1502–1722) and examined in particular the economic and trade policy of the time between Orient and Occident.
Names and spellings
Not only has the square itself changed its name several times in the course of its history - from “Image of the World” to “Königsplatz” to today's “Imamplatz” - its current spelling in western countries is also very different: Meidan-i Imam , Maidan -e Imam , Meidān-e Emam or Meydān-e Emām .
In Persian , Meidān (also Meydān or Mejdān ) means "place" and Imam (or Emām ) means "leader (of the community)".
The spelling for mosque is similarly different: Masdsched (also Masdshed , Masdjed or Masjed ).
literature
- Henri Stierlin: Islamic Art and Architecture. From Isfahan to Taj Mahal . Thames & Hudson, 2002, ISBN 0-500-51100-4 (English).
- Heinz Gaube, Eugen Wirth: The bazaar of Isfahan (= supplements to the Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East Series B. . No. 22 ). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1978.
- Sybilla Schuster-Walser: The Safavid Persia in the mirror of European travel reports (1502–1722) . 1970, ISBN 3-87118-048-3 .
- Adam Olearius : Muscovite and Persian journey: the Holstein legation 1633–1639 . Thienemann, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-522-60650-7 (reprint of the edition from 1656: detailed description of the noticeable Reyse to Muscow and Persia, so by the opportunity of a Holstein embassy ).
- Jean Chardin : Travels in Persia, 1673–1677 . Dover Publications, 1988, ISBN 0-486-25636-7 (English).
- Pierre Loti : To Isfahan . Dtv, 2000, ISBN 3-423-12763-5 .
Web links
- Picture gallery of Naqsch-e Dschahan on Nirupars.com
- Satellite image of the Meidan-e Emam. Google earth
- Isfahan web server (English)
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
Remarks
- ↑ Isfahan. Treasures of the world - legacies of humanity . A film by Faranak Djalali and Rüdiger Lorenz (2000).
- ↑ The vast majority of sources speak of this number, including Ina Baghdiantz: The Eurasian Trade of the Julfa Armenians in Safavid Iran and India (1530–1750) . McCabe, 2001, ISBN 0-7885-0571-8 . And on the Internet, for example, here or here
- ↑ Christian or Armenian sources such as these speak of higher numbers . In isolated cases, 100,000 people are also mentioned.
- ^ Urban Planning of Isfahan in the Seventeenth Century ( Memento of March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ A b Sir John Chardin: Travels in Persia, 1673–1677 . Dover Publications, Mineola New York. (Reprint of the 1927 edition)
- ^ Lonely Planet Publications (Firm): Middle East . Lonely Planet Publications, 2006, ISBN 978-1-74059-928-3 , pp. 213 (English, Google Books ).
- ↑ Royal Mosque. In: arch INFORM .
- ↑ Imām is an honorary title for high-ranking religious scholars, in Shiism also the title of religious leader of the Umma ("Islamic nation"). Khomeini received the honorary title (pers.) Emām-e ommat ("[religious] leader of the Islamic nation") after the Islamic Revolution, so that this name replaced the traditional middle name Shah .
Cultural heritage: Chogha Zanbil (1979) | Persepolis (1979) | Meidan-e Emam, Isfahan (1979) | Tacht-i Suleiman (2003) | Pasargadae (2004) | Bam and its cultural landscape (2004) | Soltaniye (2005) | Bisotun (2006) | Armenian monasteries in Iran : St. Thaddeus Monastery , Monastery St. Stephanos and Chapel of Dzordzor (2008) | Historical hydraulic system from Shushar (2009) | Ensemble Sheikh Safi al-din Khānegāh and shrine in Ardabil (2010) | Historical bazaar complex of Tabriz (2010) | The Persian Garden (2011) | Isfahan Friday Mosque (2012) | Gonbad-e Qaboos (2012) | Golestan Palace (2013) | Shahr-I Sokhta (2014) | Maymand Cultural Landscape (2015) | Susa (2015) | The Persian Qanats (2016) | Historic city of Yazd (2017) | Archaeological Landscape of the Sassanids in the Fars Region (2018)
Natural heritage: Lut Desert (2016) | Hyrcanic Forests (2019)
Coordinates: 32 ° 39 ′ 28 " N , 51 ° 40 ′ 39" E