Publication:
Masǧid-i Ǧāmiʿ-i Qurwa (ustān-i Zanǧān) : bar-rasī wa pažūhiš-i mūridī barā-i muṭāliʿa-i tārīḫ-i miʿmārī-i Īrān wa siyāsat-i maḏhabī-i ahl-i sunnat dar qarn-i šišum-i hiǧrī-i qamarī/qarn-i dawāzdahum-i mīlādī

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Date
2018
Authors
Korn, Lorenz
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Publisher
opus
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Abstract
The old mosque of Qerve (province of Zanjan), well-known as a pre-Saljuq and Saljuq period monument, has been the object of a campaign of documentation in winter 2013, in a joint project of the ICHHTO and the University of Bamberg (Germany). The mosque was examined and mapped in a 3D laser scan. This documentation forms the basis for some conclusions on the structural history of the mosque, which comprises at least three phases. Inscriptions mention the dates of 413/1022 und 575/1179. From this evidence and from the extant remains, it can be concluded that the present dome was constructed in 575/1179 over the remnants of an older building. In the style of its architecture and decoration, the dome with its zone of transition shows close relations with other buildings of the Saljuq period in the regions of Qazvin and Maragha, such as the Gonbad-e Pir in Takestan, the Gonbad-e Sorkh of Maraghe, and the Emamzade ʿAqil of Hasanabad (Kordestan). Another aspect of interpretation of the mosque is raised by the other inscriptions, partly quotations from the Qurʾan, partly single words, which lead to considerations on the religious politics pursued by the Saljuq rulers. Modern literature has commonly connected the Saljuqs with a strictly pro-Sunni policy that fostered the activities of the four Sunni madhahib. However, a closer reading of the sources, as already proposed by Erika Glassen, modifies this picture. The more moderate politics of integration towards Twelver Shiism, which some Saljuqs applied, can be adduced as a background for inscriptions that mention not only the four rightly guided caliphs (Rashidun) according to the Sunni tradition, but also Hasan and Husayn. This way, the inscriptions in the mosque of Qerve pre-empt the Ottoman practice of inscribing these names on calligraphic medallions in the mosque. At least in the case of Qerve, the construction of a domed mosque can therefore not be interpreted simply as a pro-Sunni statement.
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Sprache der Publikation ist Persisch. Erscheinungsjahr nach iranischer Zählung 1396.
Keywords
Iran, Architecture, Saljuq, Mosque
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