Study of Brick Decorations in the Minaretsof the Seljuk Period of Isfahan

The Seljuk period can be considered as one of the most important periods in the history of Iran after the advent of Islam, during which art and culture significantly progressed. In this period, Isfahan became the capital of the country and was passing its golden age of art and architecture. One of the most important cases found in the architecture of those ages was the minarets. The construction of minarets in Iran began as a spiritual and material guidance since the pre-Islamic era, and reached to its evolution peak during the Seljuk era. After this evolution, many minarets were constructed in the main cities of that period, especially in Isfahan, each of which has the best examples of brickwork decorations. Brickwork has always been a huge part of the Islamic architecture of Iran, especially in minarets of mosques. Bricks on the minarets have been used as one of the main elements, and in terms of technique, the diversity of motifs and sometimes the repetition of motifs, nodes and inscriptions are notable. To the best of our knowledge, little research has been done on the brickwork of the minarets belonging to the Seljuk era. Also, the different types and layouts and Rag chins, representative of the brickwork of minaret in Isfahan during the Seljuk era, and quality of similarity and continuity of its decoration have not been independently and coherently studied to this date. Therefore, in the present research, due to its importance in Iranian architecture, this topic has been addressed by classifying and analyzing the morphology of brick decorations in the minarets of Isfahan based on the existing data. To meet this purpose, library and field studies have been performed with a descriptive-analytical method in order to recognize and review the decorations used in the brick minarets of Isfahan during the Seljuk period