A Comparative On The Decorative Holy Scrolls Of Mosque MinaretsGohar Shad Mosque and Shah Mashhad

Recognized as the most important religious pillars and centers of urban and rural development in Muslim societies, mosques have, throughout the history of Islamic Architecture, significantly influenced the stylistic and architectural features as well as the development of urban and architectural environments. Accordingly, mosques have often reflected the most prominent and fundamental architectural characteristics of their respective eras. Therefore, careful study of Mosque Minarets Gohar Shad Mosque and Shah Mashhad is undeniably important in revealing these characteristics.
The Timurid era is a significant period in the Iranian history in terms of intellectual and religious and cultural developments. During this period, transmigration of artists and craftsmen, particularly architects, from different regions of Iran to Khorasan and Transoxiana led to the revival of artistic/architectural styles in Khorasan after a period of decline. The transmigration was initially forced upon Iranian artists and craftsmen. However, with Khorasan and Transoxiana achieving cultural and economic prosperity during the reigns of King Shahrokh and other Timurid rulers, the artists started migrating to this region voluntarily. Members of the Timurid Royal Family and their high-ranking government officials were active patrons of public works and commissioned the building of many aesthetically and architecturally prominent constructions, among, mosques in particular. The special significance of the Timurid period history is due to religious and cultural developments. so, members of senior government officials built an amazing building.
As semantic and decorative elements in the Islamic Architecture, inscriptions were important tools for extending the religious beliefs and policies of the ruling system in different periods. Due to their written form, these elements clearly expressed the prevailing ideas/thoughts of their respective eras. The holy decorations and inscriptions used in different architectural elements of mosques, including Divine Names, Quranic verses, and Islamic hadiths and narratives, have always inspired artists and been regarded as the best examples of Islamic and moral teachings, often being referred to by religious preachers in mosques to guide their congregation. Based on this idea, the holy inscriptions would be aesthetically combined with arabesques of various foliage and geometric patterns as well as central designs (called Toranj or medallion) to display in mosques the most exquisite and thought-provoking examples of Islamic art. As masterpieces of Iranian Islamic architecture and Goharshad and Shah Mosques in Mashhad have been provided with various decorations as well as religious inscriptions (including Divine Names, Quranic verses, and Islamic hadiths and narratives) that reflect the thoughts/ideas of their architects as well as Timurid rulers of the time. In view of this, this study aims to examine these two distinguished Timurid mosques with special emphasis on the adaptability of the holy decorations created on the minarets of these mosques in mashad. The qualitative analytic-comparative methodology was adopted based on the relevant library resources, historical documents, and field observations. Our results revealed that the minarets of the studied mosques had been built in the same historical/architectural period. We also found that the holy decorations on the minarets were highly adaptable in terms of content, color, calligraphy/orthography, Divine Names, and tiling.