STUDY OF THE PROCESS AND REASONS FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF QOBBEH SABZ IN KERMAN BASED ON THE RESULTS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOUNDINGS

The Qobbeh Sabz building in the historical context of Kerman was one of the relics of the Qutlugh-Khanids period in southeastern Iran and part of an extensive architectural complex including educational, religious, and mausoleum buildings in the city. Today, the only main porch of the Qutlugh-Khanids complex survives, and it is called the Qobbeh Sabz porch. During the Qajar period, a building was built in the southeastern corner of this porch as a Tekiyeh Qobbeh Sabz and still stands. One of the serious ambiguities about this Qutlugh-Khanids multipurpose complex is the process of its formation and historical course, as well as the reasons for its destruction. Accordingly, the present article studies the evidence from archaeological soundings in this complex. It analyzes the content of historical sources in order to answer these questions: What was the formation process, historical developments, and reasons for the destruction of the Qobbeh Sabz complex? What are the factors that caused its widespread destruction? However, some scholars have suggested the role of the 1896 earthquake in the widespread destruction of the complex. They believe that Qobbeh Sabz survived before this earthquake. The results of the second author's archeological soundings in 2020 and the analysis of historical texts by the method of "content analysis" showed that the process of extensive destruction of Qobbeh Sabz began some time ago, and probably some of these destructions consciously took place during the reign of Vakil al-Molk Nouri, ruler of Kerman from 1261 to 1284 AH. Based on these results, after the destruction of many parts of this multipurpose complex, part of its debris was scattered and leveled in the surrounding area. Another part of its debris was moved to another place - probably Qal’eh Dokhtar in Kerman - and then constructions took place in the Qobbeh Sabz area in the late Qajar period. Finally, the earthquake of 1896 caused damage to the last remnants of the Qutlugh-Khanids’s complex, the main dome.