Architecture of Iranian Mosques and their Sacred Arts

Mosque، the center of monotheism should enjoy spiritual beauties. Innovative arts affiliated to architecture started from the early centuries of Islam، completed fully and grew in the Islamic ages and in a broad scale and diverse branches gave rise to the creation of holy and sacred arts in mosques. Iranian mosques in the early days of Islam before the Buyids dynasty had porches. However after that age and onwards، with regard to the special attention in the side of the nobles، wise men، and in particular the architect and buildings artists، the mosques underwent main changes and the Shabestan (part of mosques covered with ceiling) designs and later on، the Chehl-Sotooni (Forty Columns) were created with ideal performance and in particular artistic noticeable faces in Safavid age. The trend of mosque construction since Safavid period up to the present has enjoyed vary beautiful designs and images in façade construction and has presented many immense and novel works in Iran to the Islamic world. In general، mosque construction should enjoy three principles of design، structure performance، divine outstanding building faces، using various materials، good taste and it should complete the mosque beautification from every aspect. In the structure of today’s mosques، in addition to the inclusion of these three principles، it is necessary to build necessary spaces in an acceptable scale and with the inclusion of architectural principles، so that the mosque could serve in addition to being a monotheism center، as a base for creating cultural، educational، research، artistic، recreational and sports motivations for the public and in particular the youth through its spaces. Relying on descriptive، historical and analytical method، this study was conducted and the necessary data was collected via library studies and field observations.