The Jāmeh Mosque of Zavareh (Persian: مسجد جامع زواره, romanized: Masjed-e-Jāme-e Zavareh, lit. 'Grand Mosque of Zavareh') is a Friday mosque (jāmeh) of the city of Zavareh, in the province of Isfahan, Iran. Zavareh is situated in the Iranian desert in a hot and dry climates, approximately 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Ardestan. The mosque was added to the Iran National Heritage List on 3 March 1937, administered by the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran.
History The mosque was ordered to be constructed by Abu Tahir Husayn ibn Ghali ibn Ahmad. Two dates are associated with this mosque. First, an inscription indicating the date 1135 CE and work of Abu Tahir was found on the courtyard façade and second, an inscription on the eastern side of the south iwan dates the mihrab from 1156. Hence, it is plausible that the mosque was built some time between 1135 and 1156. The mosque is famous for its plan and for its brick and stucco work making it a site of historical and cultural significance to Iran. The Seljuk mosque plans varied, between being entirely covered by five domes like 11th-century Masjid-i Diggarun or nine domes like the 12th-century Natanz mosque, or a dome chamber with an iwan in front of it like the mosque at Ardabil. Some other plans, like Jāmeh Mosque of Zavareh utilized the four-iwan plan, which in itself can have diversity in scale. The mosque in Zavareh is more of a domestic scale, in comparison to other models with long narrow courtyards or later 16th-century examples with open areas.
Architecture The Jāmeh Mosque of Zavareh, built of brick, dates from the Seljuk period and is the earliest dated example of a four-iwan plan. This type of plan would continue to be optimized and developed throughout the Muslim world and applied not only to mosques but other types of structures as well, including madrasas, hospitals, and even caravansaries. The origin of this plan is pre-Islamic, each of its components alone: the iwan, iwan-dome combination and court with four iwans can all be traced to pre-Islamic traditions in Iran and Iraq. Hence, the innovation was not in the components of the plan but their arrangement as a court with a side entrance and combining it with four iwans each with different sizes depending on their position in the building. In this mosque and all other mosques, the largest iwan is the one in front of the qibla dome chamber. The reasons behind the quick adoption of the 4-iwan plan can fall under different hypotheses. Most notably, it was postulated that this type of plan gained popularity for being similar to eastern Iranian private house plans under the so-called madrasa theory, whereby madrasas were sponsored by Seljuq princes and already existing houses were transformed for that purpose hence the plan continued to be utilized for different purposes and this may explain why it has become widely used in congregational mosques. However, this hypothesis cannot be fully maintained.
The plan of the mosque consists of a rectangular courtyard, with nine bays perpendicular to the qibla and seven bays parallel to it. The arcades within the bays are barrel-vaulted arcades that are perpendicular to the main north-south axis of the building, while octagonal and rectangular piers support the vaults. The mosque has three entrances, one of which is the main entrance to the public and is located on the north end of the east side while the other two ends are on the west side of the building. On the northwestern side of the mosque, a minaret is situated next to the entrance to the mosque. The minaret has a few glazed elements, but it is relatively scarce, although representing a start of this happening on succeeding minarets. The square dome chamber located on the qibla side of the mosque has an octagonal zone of transition with a muqarnas squinch which is most likely a direct copy and inspiration from the 11th century dome-chambers added by Malik-Shah I and his vizier Nizam al-Mulk in the Friday Mosque of Isfahan. The dome is decorated on the inside with different colored bricks intersecting giving cross-patterns. Moreover, the transition zone of the dome is on squinches that imitate those of the Friday Mosque of Isfahan. While some mosques include dome chambers that were later additions (like the Great Mosque of Isfahan), in the Mosque of Zavareh the dome chamber is contemporary to the building and all its features were built at the same time. The dome has inscriptions in floral Qur’anic Kufic script on a wide border on a wide margin of floral and vine motifs. Although damaged, it is hypothesized from what is remaining that it read Quran 3:16-17:
ٱلَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَآ إِنَّنَآ ءَامَنَّا فَٱغۡفِرۡ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ (16) ٱلصَّٰبِرِينَ وَٱلصَّٰدِقِينَ وَٱلۡقَٰنِتِينَ وَٱلۡمُنفِقِينَ وَٱلۡمُسۡتَغۡفِرِينَ بِٱلۡأَسۡحَارِ
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