Inscription Comparison of Kabud and Gowhar-shad Mosque

Inscriptions ornamentation is one of the impressive factors in the beauty and majesty of Iranian architecture. In addition to the beauty of the buildings, architects and designers exhibit the concepts symbolically in the context of theology and order and unity in the world in the formats such as arabesque, geometric, using of beautiful colors and holy words and verses of Quran in inscriptions on monuments using architectural decorations to the public. What is discussed in this article, will be contained introducing the art of calligraphy and inscriptions in the form of Timurid tiling industry and the second period of Azeri School. Getting this purpose, two mosques of this consequence era of Iranian art (Medieval Islamic art) is considered as case studies. Gowhar-shad and Blue (Masjid-e Kabud) mosques are the outstanding and established phenomena which can be properly surveyed and studied their present inscriptions. Gowhar-Shad Mosque is one of the architectural masterpieces of the Timurid period according which the 3rd inscription on the south side (constructed in 821 AH) finished by Gowhar-shad efforts, Shahrukh Timurid’s wife and Blue mosque (constructed in 870 AH) was built at the time of Abu al-Mozaffar Jahānšāh Ibn Qara Yusuf from Qarāqoyunlu Turkmen dynasty. Though it has been previously done the studies in the field of Stylistics and compares Timurid mosque decorations, but the comparative analysis of the inscriptions used in these two buildings is a something new and the reason for the importance of the research in this study. Here, studying of the differences and the inscriptions’ similarities, Color combinations as well as how to replace the inscription on the monument are also analyzed. The authors are pursuing to find a turning point of calligraphy in the Timurid and Qarāqoyunlu Turkmen with case-study on two Gow-harshad and blue mosques. The research has been done by the description-analytical approach and comparatively comparison between inscriptions of two monuments. The research method is based on the data compilation through the library documents and field work. In this research which is conducted comparatively, it has obtained significant results that can help the researchers in the field of Islamic art and architecture. The consequences of the research can be expressed as: finding the distinction as well as the similarity between the inscriptions of these mosques and regarding to the writing methods of inscriptions and how to use various colors in the body decoration of these two monuments (background of the inscriptions) and also the subjects and content expressed in the inscriptions which has been thoroughly analyzed in the main text. The similarity of the two building is obvious in using of azure blue background color in decorations and also the same selection of some of the verses and chapters (Sura). The scripts used in the monuments are also similar to some extent to each other however, differences can also be seen.