Stucco relief motifs and brick ended plugs in the decorations of the Ribat Sharaf

Decorating of buildings in brickwork is a dominant factor of decorating in Seljuk period. Brick buildings are of the style and privilege of the Seljuk period. Decorative bricks in between two bricks are generally made with plaster and mold, to imprinting, from around the 4th century AH it is known as the brick ended plugs, the Decorative holes or seals motifs. Ribat Sharaf is one of the major buildings of the Seljuk period in terms of brick decoration, which is referred to as the Iranian brick-making museum.  One of the Seljuk monuments which, despite the use of such a caravanserai, has a huge ornamental decoration in its heart, is the royal estate. It has two mosques and three altars, two of which are preserved, and beautiful decorating stucco in altars and mosques make it one of the rare caravansaries. The diversity of use of gypsum manuscripts in the decoration of this building can be considered and the aim of the article and can be considered as a very valuable topic for clarifying a period of history in order to use the same ornaments in the Seljuk territory that are many and sometimes different climatic distances. In this building, the use of decorating between vertical spaces of two bricks, which we are named stucco relief motifs, in the main elevations of that is quite evident, and the main spaces like the scenes and porches they are the most important parts used to decorate with the decorative motifs. The main entrance door, whereas it has a large variety in using of the stucco relief motifs, but in the comparison between the stucco decoration of the main entrance hall and the entrance to the second courtyard; the second one uses the full stucco coating technique and have many variety to make various designs on it. But decorative stucco is a part of a decorative design that. During a predetermined process, consciously focuses on the simple design of a stucco relief motif into a more complex design of combining the motifs together and then to combining that with brickwork along with could ultimately prepare a beautiful view to watching eye to accept the many decorations that are molded in special spaces such as mosques. The purpose of the research is to analyze the variety of decorative decorations called decorative or bricks in different spaces of the building. So, the questions in this research are; what are the shapes in Ribat Sharaf and how have they spread? The research method is descriptive-analytical and data collection is done by using library resources and field studies. The findings show that Ribat Sharaf's brick ended plugs have a great variety. Seventeen motifs were identified and documented in various places of Ribat, among which eleven are geometric and six of them are herbs. Geometric designs are based on geometric shapes and some of the ancient Iranian motifs such as Chilipa, which is type of the shapes that has four and rarely three branches, and plant designs are the continuity of lotus and Acanthus of the Sasanian period.