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Even after more than
3000 years, certain design elements of Iranian architecture persisted.
Those elements consist of high-arched portal set within a recess, columns
with bracket capitals, columned porch or talar, a dome on four arches, a
vast ovoid arch in the entrance, a four-eyvan courtyard, early towers
reaching up toward the sky, an interior court and pool, an angled entrance
and extensive decorations.
In addition to the
influence of climate, available material, religious purpose and peripheral
cultures, patrons also played a decisive role in the development of
architecture.
The landscape
itself, huge snow-capped mountains, valleys large as provinces and wide
shining plains required constructions conceived and executed in terms of
grandeur. Mountains were both physically and symbolically sources of
inspirations in Iranian architecture.
From Zoroastrians
time, the beautiful was integrally associated with light. In Iranian art,
both lightness and clarity are sought and, conversely, the obscure and
confused are avoided.
Beauty for ancient
Iranians, like for any other ancient civilizations, was an attribute of
the divine.
The Development of Persian Architecture
Farming hamlets
dating from 8000-6000 B.C. have been disclosed as referred to as the
necessary predecessors of Persian architecture. From the fifth millennium, at
Sialk historical mounds, huts started to be made. In the next stage,
bricks and mud mortars and painted rooms appeared. Cone mosaics and
colored and glazed bricks were later used in huge ziggurats.
Elamite architecture
was generally of unfired brick, with red bricks used for revetment. Few
centuries before Medes, in the northwest, cities had double, even triple
stonewalls. Very thick and very high buildings seem to have been wooden,
square, tower-like structures, with columns which may have been tree
trunks.
Achaemenian Architecture
Achaemenian
architecture was an adoption and combination of Median, Assyrian, Elamite,
Egyptian, Ionian and Urartian archetypes.
What differentiated
Achaemenian architecture from each of its constituent styles was the
peculiar style of combing them with the local taste and meanings.
Also,
there were three major elements in Achaemenian architecture that were
purely Iranian, namely columns, rock tombs and stairways.
Although there were
columns built in various ancient civilizations, the ones constructed under
Achaemenians were the most subtly made ones formed as slender elements.
They were very high. They were built with relatively large distances from
each other. This required nothing but precise calculations.
Columns, relieves,
inscriptions, ziggurats, terraces, stone towers, stone pedestals,
staircases, pediments, etc were the archetypes of the early Achaemenian
architecture.
Many other elements could be found at this period inspired
from the outside of Iran, but newly combined elements and designs were
created in a subtler way.
Seleucid
Architecture
During Seleucids,
Hellenistic designs became dominant in the Iranian architecture, but never completely absorbed. In
areas with Greeks and Macedonians concentrations, cities were laid out
according to geometric Greek plans, Temples were built on Greek models and
characteristic elements of Greek design were used for ornament.
Parthian & Sassanian Architecture
The element called
eyvan emerged during Parthians. The evolution of vaulting technique with
mud bricks (although existed during Elamites) as well as fired bricks was
a peculiar feature of this era. Walls and ceilings were also decorated
with stucco.
The enormous Eyvan
leading visitors to a domed chamber used as audience hall was the typical
Sassanian archetype repeated in many palaces. The use of stucco as mortar,
which was rapidly hardened, helped this period?s mansions erect barrel
vaults without installing any scaffolding.
Walls were decorated
with engravings, mural painting and other ornamentations. Floors and
walls, in general, were usually treated with mosaics, large in scale and
rich in color. Plasterworks were generally molded rather than engraved.
Hence, motifs were created as repeated and lengthened ones.
The Sassanian
period?s art and architecture were widely used even long after the end of
their empire. The early centuries of the Islamic architecture formation
started when Arabs occupied Iranians? empire in 637.
Post-Islam Architecture in
Iran
It was in the post
Islam era that Sassanians? powerful forms of architecture were refined and
developed.
So, the potentials
of Iranian architecture were developed into the architecture of exceeding
beauty. The result was to be higher, more sensitive, more varied and more
expressive than its antecedents.
The priority in
post-Islam era?s architecture went to mosque building. Mosques
were intended to stand strongly for ages. That is why they have
always been the most reinforced and strengthened buildings in
Islamic architecture.
Mosques started to
be built in two major forms:
1) mosques with
prayer galleries full of pillars, and
2) smaller mosques consisting of a
domed chamber.
Iranians focused
their efforts on reviving their own heritage of architecture like barrel
vaulting, crenellated roofs, conical squinches, big bricks, oval arches,
etc. Brickworks in the form of different motifs and sometimes plasterworks
over bricks were characteristics of the Persian architecture of the early
post-Islam period. Various kinds of mausoleums, tomb towers and specially
minarets started to be built.
Seljuk Architecture
Later, tomb towers
and minarets outnumbered mosques in Seljuk period. However, constructing
mosques was still the main focus of architecture. Domed chamber type of
mosques became the dominant model. Later, four-eyvan plan gained official
and constant dominance in mosque building.
Implementing
different tastes in various forms of vaulting was the distinguishing
feature of Seljuk period architecture. Double shell domes began to be
constructed. Windows were made within the structure of bearing walls.
Brickwork designs and brick-bonds were commonly used on the fa?de of
buildings, even for embossed calligraphies.
Glazed brick and clay in
bright and dark blue started to make architectural elements more clear or
brick inscriptions more legible. Mosaic works with monochrome tiles became
commonly used toward the end of this era. The Seljuk era has been known as
the period of the revival of Islamic art and civilization in Iran.
Ilkhanid Architecture
About 90% of the
monuments remained from the Ilkhanid era are of religious nature and half
of them are burial places.
Perhaps the most
outstanding feature of the Ilkhanid architecture was its readiness to
follow the common examples of the Seljuk era.
The Iranian architecture
under the Ilkhanids had the widespread use of mosaic
works with new bright-colored tiles and luster tiles for covering dadoes.
Timurid Architecture
During the Timurids,
Iranian architecture had these peculiar characteristics: a combination of bright
and dark monochrome glazed tiles used for fa?des, embossed ogives in
mosaic compositions, different kinds of vaulting and a precise calculation
of huge size and dimension chosen as an integral part of national
structures.
Dome building
implied the Timurid architects? interest in vaulting. The drum of domes
started to be unprecedentedly heightened and domes changed into glyph
forms. The exteriors of domes were decorated with tile works bearing
various designs and calligraphy. Designs were also enriched under Chinese
influence.
Safavid Architecture
During the Safavids,
networks of caravansaries were constructed throughout the country to
facilitate transportation and promote trade. The Safavid architecture
effectively influenced other countries? constructional activities. The
emphasis on the greatness of buildings, started during the Timurids,
continued to be a principle in many works. Radial symmetry was implemented
in an official and splendid way.
There was a
prevalent tendency among architects to build recessed structures like
niches or even entrances. The unexpected contradiction in scale or
lighting created the mutual reactions between small and large or open and
closed spaces. Undoubtedly, color had a central role in the Safavid
architecture.
Tiles, in comparison
to the previous eras, covered vaster surfaces. Colors and decorations were
the main concern of architects, not the structure.
Safavid architecture
was actually the climax of skill and experience of Iranian
architects where traditional forms were easily used in awesome
scales. Plenty of functional structures were also built like
bridges, bazaars, bathhouses, water reservoirs, dams, pigeon
towers and caravansaries.
Zand Architecture
The Zand dynasty was
promoting an architecture that basically had a look at the sources of the
Safavid, Seljuk and pre-Islam architecture and adapted Indian and European
architecture. What looked more innovative were glazed tiles in a new
color, almost pink and famous as Zand tile. Stone-made half vases were
installed at dadoes and under designed tiles as well as cornucopias were
implemented.
Qajar Architecture
Many mosques were
built during Qajar dynasty occupying a vast area with four-eyvan plan and
having a network of cupolas and window for getting light into the
building. A lot of Safavid works have been covered under the Qajars
renovations. Some new forms were introduced in Iranian architecture by the
period?s architects like a completely deep courtyard, some exaggeratedly
onion formed domes and decorated entrance gates at major cities.
Qajar buildings were
different palaces, mansions, pavilions, summer resorts, hunting resorts as
well as functional structures. During Qajar period, military architecture
received plenty of attention.
Decorations remained
harmonious and infallible. They were influenced by the western world and
tried to imitate the Sassanians? art. Magnificently decorated ceilings and
hall walls with mirror works were flourished and promoted during this
period.
Written by: Rahman Mehraby
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