An Analysis of the Typological Parameters of the Historical Mosques in Tabriz

In addition to their ritual function and sublime terres trial status, Mosques play an important role in sys temizing the various aspects of human life and activi ties.  Mosques need an appropriate space to meet the needs of the users. Although the spiritual benefit of mankind from mosques is highly realized, minimum architectural requirements are necessary to facilitate his/her spiritual excellence. So a set of architectural requirements of a mosque such as a right layout, a true function, an appropriate form and decoration, as well as its natural structure seems necessary to be defined. Tabriz is one of the oldest cities in Iran and has many historical mosques within its urban struc ture, most of which are located at Tabriz Bazar and, due to a great number of people attending these mosques for praying and other spiritual activities, they are considered as the most successful examples. The reason for this, it seems, lies at their structures, along with other conceptual parameters. Therefore, a comprehensive study of the architectural aspects of these historical mosques can be of utmost im portance. One of the advantages of the typological study of buildings is the identification of the architec tural strengths and weaknesses of the samples in order to arrive at a deeper understanding and evalua tion of their structure. So, based on a field study, the present research attempts to extract the typological parameters of more than 40 historical mosques in Tabriz by implementing Delphi tools. In so doing, first the samples are analyzed based on the users’ behav iors and then, according to features like internal space and configuration, architectural structure, decora tions, materials, light, entry manner and relation with the environment, the typological parameters are in vestigated. The findings of this study can provide a comprehensive understanding of the historical mosques in Tabriz and build a basis for their topologi cal as well as paleontological categorization.