Introducing and Studying the Mihrab Decoration of Baba Fazl Kashani's Tomb for More Accurate Dating of the Mihrab

Kashan is one of the regions that, due to its historical background, has benefited from the existence of these stucco mihrabs in the course of the historic period. The tomb of Baba Afzal Kashani, located in the village of Marq in Karkhan, is one of the buildings that has been adorned with a stuccoed mihrab of the eighth century AH. The present study deals with the analysis of the structure , plant and geometric designs, inscriptions and their composition in the aforementioned stucco mihrab and intends to emphasize its assignment to the eighth century AH by explaining the characteristics of the visual features of the designs and their composition used in this mihrab and comparing it with some samples of dated plaster works. So the main question of this research are as follows: What are the significant features of the decorations of the mihrab of Baba Afzal Tomb and to what extent are these characteristics similar to the mihrabs or the plaster works of eighth century AH? The data was collected through field research, i.e. photography- linear analysis of the images, and based on written resources which analyze the data obtained from the study samples through a comparative historical approach. The results show that plant motifs, i.e. arabesque and khataie, and especially their unique decorations, i.e. using geometric, tear-like ajdekari, multi-level, dense and unstructured compositions, thuluth inscription of the mihrab border in a background of plant motifs (khate stem with lilies), the method of creating the thuluth inscription letters and the way to use geometric motifs in the tomb of Baba Afzal are similar to other mihrabs and plaster works of eighth century, especially those located in Isfahan and Tehran. It is worth noting, however, that in structural terms, the arch shape (angular form) in the second blind arcade of the mihrab of Baba Afzal is similar to stucco mihrabs or the golden tiling (seventh and eighth centuries) of Kashan.