The place of Shiite art in explaining the concepts and values of Safavid tomb architecture (Case study: Tomb of Khajeh Rabi in Mashhad)

The tomb of Khajeh Rabi is one of the most magnificent Shiite buildings of the Safavid period in Islamic architecture, which was built in the shadow of direct support and by the order of Shah Abbas Safavid in 1017 AH. This building has been formed with the features of Safavid architecture with an octagonal view, a double-domed dome, tiling, a combination of bricks and tiles, colored bedding, paintings, inscriptions and stone carvings. The purpose of this article is to study the designs and decorations whose existence reflects Shiite ideas in the construction of the tomb of Khajeh Rabi in Mashhad and to find a reasonable relationship between the architecture and decorations of this building based on the Shiite religion. This research seeks to answer the question that what effects have Shiite ideas and beliefs had on the building of Khajeh Rabi of Mashhad and the applied arts used in it? The method of analysis of the results obtained from the data of this research is qualitative (descriptive-analytical) and data collection has been done through library studies and field research. The results of this study show that geometric and abstract motifs, animal motifs and written inscriptions all have symbolic meanings along with semantic loads derived from Shiite thought.