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History of Persian domes

Persian domes have an ancient origin and a history ex-tending to the modern era.

1 Overview

Persian domes from different historical eras can be distin-guished by their transition tiers: the squinches, spandrels,or brackets that transition from the supporting structures

to the circular base of a dome. Drums, after the Ilka-nate era, tend to be very similar and have an averageheight of 30 to 35 meters from the ground. They arewhere windows are located. Inner shells are commonlysemi-circular, semi-elliptical, pointed, or saucer shaped.The outer shell of a Persian dome reduces in thicknessevery 25 or 30 degrees from the base. Outer shells canbe semi-circular, semi-elliptical, pointed, conical, or bul-bous, and this outer shape is used to categorize them.Pointed domes can be sub-categorized as having shallow,medium, and sharp profiles, and bulbous domes as eithershallow or sharp. Double domes use internal stiffeners

with wooden struts between the shells, with the exceptionof those with conical outer shells.  [1]

2 Pre-Islamic period

Persian architecture likely inherited an architectural tra-dition of dome-building dating back to the earliestMesopotamian domes.[2] Due to the scarcity of wood inmany areas of the  Iranian plateau, domes were an im-portant part of vernacular architecture  throughout Per-

sian history.[3]

2.1 Achaemenid Empire

Although they hadpalaces of brick and stone, the kings ofAchaemenid Persia held audiences and festivals in dom-ical tents derived from the nomadic traditions of cen-tral Asia. They were likely similar to the later tentsof the   Mongol Khans. Called “Heavens”, these tentsemphasized the cosmic significance of the divine ruler.They were adopted by Alexander the Great after his con-

quest of the empire, and the domed baldachin of Romanand Byzantine practice was presumably inspired by thisassociation.[4]

2.2 Parthian Empire

The remains of a large domed circular hall measuring 17meters in diameter in the Parthian capital city of Nyssahas been dated to perhaps the first century AD. It “showsthe existence of a monumental domical tradition in Cen-tral Asia that had hitherto been unknown and whichseems to have preceded Roman Imperial monuments orat least to have grown independently from them.”[5] Itlikely had a wooden dome.[6]

The Sun Temple at Hatra appears to indicate a transitionfrom columned halls with  trabeated roofing to vaultedand domed construction in the first century AD, at leastin Mesopotamia. The domed sanctuary hall of the tem-ple was preceded by a barrel vaulted iwan, a combinationthat would be used by the subsequent Persian  SasanianEmpire.[7]

An account of a Parthian domed palace hall from around100 AD in the city of Babylon can be found in the  Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus. The hall was usedby the king for passing judgments and was decorated witha mosaic of blue stone to resemble the sky, with images

of gods in gold.[8]

A bulbous Parthian dome can be seen in the relief sculp-ture of the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome, its shapeapparently dueto theuse of a light tent-like framework.[9]

2.3 Sasanian Empire

Ruins of the Sarvestan Palace in Sarvestan, Iran.

The Persian invention of the squinch, a series of concen-tric arches forming a half-cone over the corner of a room,enabled the transition from the walls of a square chamber

1

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2   3 ISLAMIC PERIOD 

to an octagonal base for a dome. Previous transitions to adome from a square chamber existed but were makeshiftin quality and only attempted on a small scale, not be-ing reliable enough for large constructions. The squinchenabled domes to be widely used and they moved to theforefront of Persian architecture as a result.[10] The ruins

of the Palace of Ardashir and Ghal'eh Dokhtar in  FarsProvince, Iran, built by Ardashir I (224–240) of the Sasa-nian Empire, have the earliest known examples.[3]

The three domes of the Palace of Ardashir are 45 feetin diameter and vertically elliptical, each with a centralopening or oculus to admit light.[11] They were built withlocal stone and mortar and covered with plaster on theinterior.[12] The large brick dome of the Sarvestan Palace,also in Fars but later in date, shows more elaborate dec-oration and four windows between the corner squinches.Also called “the Temple of Anahita”, the building mayhave been a Fire temple.[12][3] Instead of using a central

oculus in each dome, as at the Palace of Ardashir and asshown in the bas relief found at Kuyunjik, lighting wasprovided by a number of hollow terracotta cylinders setinto the domes at regular intervals.[13] Multiple writtenaccounts from Arabic, Byzantine, and Western medievalsources describea palacedomedstructure over the throneof Chosroes decorated in blue and gold. The dome wascovered with depictions of the sun, moon, stars, planets,the zodiac, astrapai, and kings, including Chosroes him-self. According to Ado and others, the dome could pro-duce rain, and could be rotated with a sound like thun-der by means of ropes pulled by horses in a basement.[14]

Caravansaries used the domed bay from the Sasanian pe-riod to the Qajar dynasty.[3]

Ruins of a chahar-taqi in Iran.

Chahar-taqi , or “four vaults”, were smaller  Zoroastrianfire temple structures with four supports arranged in asquare, connected by four arches, and covered by centralovoid domes. The Niasar Zoroastrian temple in Kashanand the  chahar-taqi   in Darreh Shahr  are examples.[15]

Such temples, square domed buildings with entrances at

the axes, inspired the forms of early mosques after  theIslamic conquest of the empire   in the 7th century.[16]

These domes are the most numerous surviving type

from the Sasanian period, with some having been con-verted into mosques. The later isolated dome cham-bers called the “kiosk mosque” type may have developedfrom this.[3] Pre-Islamic domes in Persia are commonlysemi-elliptical, with pointed domes and those with con-ical outer shells being the majority of the domes in the

Islamic periods.[17]

Although the Sasanians did not create monumentaltombs, the domed chahar-taqi may have served as memo-rials. A Soghdian painting fragment from the early eighthcentury found at Panjakent appears to depict a funerarydome (possibly a tent) and this, along with a few ossuariesof an architectural nature, indicates a possible traditionin central Asia of a funerary association with the domedform. The area of north-eastern Iran was, along withEgypt, one of two areas notable for early developmentsin Islamic domed mausoleums, which appear in the tenthcentury.[18]

3 Islamic period

3.1 Early Islamic period

Samanid Mausoleum in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

The earliest known Islamic domes in Persia, such as theGreat Mosque of Qom (878)andthetombof Muhammedb. Musa (976), seem to have continued the rounded Sasa-

nian form.[19] Domed mausoleums contributed greatly tothe development and spread of the dome in Persia earlyin the Islamic period. By the 10th century, domed tombshad been built for  Abbasid caliphs and Shiite martyrs.Pilgrimage to these sites may have helped to spread theform.[3]

The earliest surviving example, the Qubbat-al Sulaibiya,was an octagonal structure with a central dome on a drumbuilt around 892 in  Samarra.[20] Free-standing domedpavilions are known from Shiraz and Bukhara in the tenthcentury.[21] The   Samanid Mausoleum   in   Transoxianadates to no later than 943 and is the first to have squinches

create a regular octagon as a base for the dome, whichthen became the standard practice. The Arab-Ata Mau-soleum, also in Transoxiana, may be dated to 977–78

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3.3 The Ilkhanate   3

and uses muqarnas between the squinches for a more uni-fied transition to the dome. Cylindrical or polygonal plantower tombs with conical roofs over domes also exist be-ginning in the 11th century.[3] The earliest example is theGonbad-e Qabus tower tomb, 57 meters high and span-ning 9.7 meters, which was built in 1007.[22][20]

3.2 Seljuq dynasty

The Jameh Mosque in Isfahan, Iran.

The Seljuq Turks built tower tombs, called “Turkish Tri-angles”, as well as cube mausoleums covered with a va-riety of dome forms. Seljuk domes included conical,semi-circular, and pointed shapes in one or two shells.Shallow semi-circular domes are mainly found from theSeljuk era. The double-shell domes were either discontin-uous or continuous. The continuous double-shell domesseparated from one another at an angle of 22.5 degreesfrom their base, such as the dome of the Friday mosquein Ardestan, whereas the discontinuous domes remainedcompletely separate, such as those of the tower tombsof Kharrqan.[23] This pair of brick tower tombs from the11th century in Kharraqan, Iran, are the earliest knownmasonry double shell domes. The domes may have beenmodeled on earlier wooden double shell domes, such asthat of the Dome of the Rock. It is also possible, be-cause the upper portions of both of the outer shells are

missing, that some portion of the outer domes may havebeen wooden.[24] These brick mausoleum domes werebuilt without the use of centering, a technique developedin Persia.[25]

The Seljuq Empire   introduced the domed enclosure infront of the mosque’s mihrab, which would become pop-ular in Persian congregational mosques, although domedrooms may have also been used earlier in small neigh-borhood mosques. The domed enclosure of the JamehMosque of Isfahan, built in 1086-7 by Nizam al-Mulk,was the largest masonry dome in the Islamic world at thattime, had eight ribs, and introduced a new form of cor-

ner squinch with two quarter domes supporting a shortbarrel vault. In 1088 Tāj-al-Molk, a rival of Nizam al-Mulk, built another dome at the opposite end of the same

mosque with interlacing ribs forming five-pointed starsand pentagons. This is considered the landmark Seljukdome, and may have inspired subsequent patterning andthe domes of the Il-Khanate period. The use of tile andof plain or painted plaster to decorate dome interiors,rather than brick, increased under the Seljuks.[3] One of

the largest Seljuq domes, built over the site of a SassanianFire Temple, was that of the Jameh Mosque of Qazvinwith a span of 15.2 meters.[26] The largest Seljuq domedchamber was the Tomb of Ahmed Sanjar, which had alarge double shell, intersecting ribs over plain squinches,and an exterior elaborately decorated at the zone of tran-sition with arches and stucco work.[3] The tomb of SultanSanjar, who reigned from 1117 to 1157, was damaged inthe sack of Merv in 1221 by Tolui Khan.[19]

3.3 The Ilkhanate

The Mausoleum of Öljaitü in Soltaniyeh, Iran.

After the disruptive effects of several Mongol invasions,Persian architecture again flourished in the Ilkhanate andTimurid periods. Characteristic of these domes are theuse of high drums and several types of discontinuousdouble-shells, and the development of triple-shells andinternal stiffeners occurred at this time. Beginning inthe Ilkanate, Persian domes achieved their finalconfigura-tion of structural supports, zone of transition, drum, andshells, and subsequent evolution was restricted to varia-

tions in form and shell geometry. The construction oftomb towers decreased.[27]

The two major domes of the IlKhanate period are theno-longer-existing mausoleum of Ghazan in Tabriz andthe Mausoleum of Öljaitü in  Soltaniyeh, the latter hav-ing been built to rival the former.[3] Öljaitü was the firstsovereign of Persia to declare himself of the  Shia sectof Islam and built the mausoleum, with the largest Per-sian dome, to house the bodies of Ali and Hussein asa pilgrimage site. This did not occur and it became hisown mausoleum instead.[28] The dome measures 50 me-ters high and almost 25 meters in diameter and has the

best surviving tile and stucco work from this period. Thethin, double-shelled dome was reinforced by arches be-tween the layers.[3]

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4   3 ISLAMIC PERIOD 

Tower tombs of this period, such as the tomb of Abdas-Samad Esfahani   in Natanz, sometimes have muqarnasdomes, although they are usually plaster shells that hidethe underlying structures. The tall proportions of theJameh Mosque of Varamin resulted primarily from theincreased height of the zone of transition, with the ad-

dition of a sixteen-sided section above the main zone ofmuqarnas squinches.[3] The 7.5 meter wide double domeof Soltan Bakht Agha Mausoleum (1351-1352) is theear-liest known example in which the two shells of the domehave significantly different profiles, which spread rapidlythroughout the region. The inner and outer shells had ra-dial stiffeners and struts between them.[29] An early ex-ample of a dome chamber almost completely coveredwith decorative tilework is that of the Jame Mosque ofYazd  (1364), as well as several of the mausoleums ofShah-i-Zinda in Samarkand. The development of tallerdrums also continued into the Timurid period.[3]

3.4 Timurid dynasty

At the Timurid capital of Samarkand, nobles and rulersin the 14th and 15th centuries began building tombswith double-shelled domes containing cylindrical ma-sonry drums between the shells. In the Gur-e Amir, builtby Timur around 1404, a timber framework on the innerdome supports the outer, bulbous dome. Radial tie-barsat the base of the bulbous dome provide additional struc-tural support. Timber reinforcement rings and rings ofstone linked by iron cramps were also used to compen-

sate for the structural problems introduced by using suchdrums.[30] Radial sections of brick walls with woodenstruts were used between the shells of discontinuous dou-ble domes to provide structural stability as late at the 14thcentury.[31]

The Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi   in Turkistan, Kaza-khstan.

A miniature painted at Samarkand shows that bulbouscupolas were used to cover small wooden pavilions in Per-sia by the beginning of the fifteenth century. They grad-

ually gained in popularity.[32] The large, bulbous, fluteddomes on tall drums that are characteristic of 15th cen-tury Timurid architecture were the culmination of the

Central Asian and Iranian tradition of tall domes withglazed tile coverings in blue and other colors.[33] TheMausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, situated in south-ern Kazakhstan was never finished, but has the largest ex-isting brick dome in Central Asia, measuring 18.2 m indiameter. The dome exterior is covered with hexagonal

green glazed tiles with gold patterns.[34]

Mausoleums were rarely built as free-standing structuresafter the 14th century, being instead often attached tomadrasas in pairs. Domes of these madrasas, such asthose of the madrasa of   Goharshad  (1417-1433) andthe madrasa at Ḵargerd (1436-1443), had dramaticallyinnovative interiors. They used intersecting arches tosupport an inner dome narrower than the floor below,a change that may have originated with the 14th cen-tury use of small lantern domes over transverse vault-ing. The madrasa of Goharshad is also the first triple-shell dome. The middle dome may have been added as

reinforcement.[3] Triple-shelled domes are rare outsideof the Timurid era. The dome of the Amir Chakhmaqmosque (1437) has a semi-circular inner shell and an ad-vanced system of stiffeners and wooden struts supportinga shallow pointed outer shell. Notably, the dome has acircular drum with two tiers. Another double shell domefrom the early Seljuq period at the shrine complex ofBayazid Bastami was changed in the Timurid period bythe addition of a third conical shell over the existing twodomed shells.[35]

The Uzbek architecture of the region around Transoxianamaintained the Timurid style of dome-building. Where

dome chambers were surrounded by axial iwans and cor-ner rooms on an octagonal plan, as at the Khwaja AbuNasr Parsa shrine  (ca. 1598), they provided the modelfor Indian mausoleums such as Humayun’s Tomb in Delhior the Taj Mahal. Some of the earliest surviving domedmarkets, called   tīmcās, can be found in   Shaybanid-eraBukhara.[3]

3.5 Safavid dynasty

The domes of the Safavid dynasty (1501-1732) are char-

acterized by a distinctive bulbous profile and are consid-ered to be the last generation of Persian domes. They aregenerally thinner than earlier domes and are decoratedwith a variety of colored glazed tiles and complex vege-tal patterns.[36] The dome of the Blue Mosque in Tabriz(1465) had its interior covered with “dark-blue hexag-onal tiles with stenciled gilding”.[3] The palace of  Ālī Qāpū includes small domed rooms decorated with arti-ficial vegetation.[37]

The dome of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan (1603-1618), perhaps “the quintessential Persian dome cham-ber”, blends the square room with the zone of tran-

sition and uses plain squinches like those of the ear-lier Seljuq period. On the exterior, multiple levels ofglazed  arabesque   are blended with an unglazed brick

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5

The Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran.

background. The domes of the Shah Mosque (later re-named the Imam Mosque) and the Mādar-e Šāh madrasahave a similar exterior pattern against a background oflight blue glazed tile.[3] The bulbous dome of the ShahMosque was built from 1611 to 1638 and is a discon-tinuous double-shell 33 meters wide and 52 meters high.The oldest example of the Safavid onion dome is overthe octagonal mausoleum of Khwaja Rabi (1617-1622).Safavid domes were influential on those of other Islamicstyles, such as the Mughal architecture of India.[38]

3.6 Qajar dynasty

In the Qajar period (1779-1924), the movement to mod-ern architecture meant less innovation in dome construc-tion. Domes were built over madrasas, such as the 1848Imam madrasa, or Sultani school, of  Kashan, but theyhave relatively simple appearances and do not use tiledmosaics.[38] The covered markets or bazaars (tīmcās) atQom and  Kashan  feature a central dome with smallerdomes on either side and elaborate muqarnas. An ex-aggerated style of onion dome on a short drum, as canbe seen at the Shah Cheragh (1852-1853), first appearedin the Qajar period. Domes have remained important in

modern mausoleums, such as the tombs of Ḥāfeẓ, Saʿdī ,Reza Shah, and Ruhollah Khomeini in the twentieth cen-tury. Domed  cisterns  and  icehouses   remain common

sights in the countryside.[3]

4 References

[1]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 111-113.

[2]  Spiers 1911, p. 957.

[3]  O'Kane 1995.

[4]  Smith 1950, p. 81-82.

[5]  Grabar 1963, p. 192.

[6]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 99.

[7]  Stronach 1976, p. 623.

[8]  Lehmann 1945, p. 250-251.

[9]  Smith 1950, p. 82.[10]   Creswell 1915a, p. 148.

[11]   Creswell 1915a, p. 149.

[12]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 101.

[13]   Creswell 1915a, p. 150.

[14]  Lehmann 1945, p. 253.

[15]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 100.

[16]   Stephenson, Hammond & Davi 2005, p. 162.

[17]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 113.

[18]  Grabar 1963, p. 192-194.

[19]   Creswell 1915, p. 208.

[20]  Tappin 2003, p. 1942.

[21]  Grabar 1963, p. 197.

[22]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 103.

[23]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 102, 104, 105, 113.

[24]  Mainstone 2001, p. 124.

[25]   Gentry & Lesniewski 2011.

[26]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 102.

[27]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 105, 110.

[28]   Creswell 1915, p. 208, 211.

[29]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 106.

[30]  Tappin 2003, p. 1942-1943.

[31]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 112.

[32]  Born 1944, p. 208.

[33]  Peterson 1996, p. 68.

[34]   natcom.

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6   5 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

[35]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 107-108, 114.

[36]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 102, 108-109.

[37]  Grabar 1990, p. 19.

[38]  Ashkan & Ahmad 2009, p. 109.

5 Bibliography

•   Ashkan, Maryam; Ahmad, Yahaya (November2009). “Persian Domes: History, Morphology, andTypologies”.   Archnet-IJAR (International Journal of Architectural Research) 3 (3): 98–115.

•   Born, Wolfgang (April 1944).   “The Introduc-tion of the Bulbous Dome into Gothic Architec-ture and its Subsequent Development”.   Speculum

(Medieval Academy of America) 19 (2): 208–221.doi:10.2307/2849071.

•   Creswell, K. A. C. (January 1915). “Persian Domesbefore 1400 A.D.”.   The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs  (The Burlington Magazine Publica-tions, Ltd.)  26  (142): 146–155.

•   Creswell, K. A. C. (February 1915).   “PersianDomes before 1400 A.D. (conclusion)".   TheBurlington Magazine for Connoisseurs (The Burling-ton Magazine Publications, Ltd.)   26   (143): 208–213.

•   Gentry, T. Russell; Lesniewski, Anatoliusz “Tolek”(2011). “Structural Design and Construction ofBrunelleschi’s Duomo di Santa Maria del Fiore”.Eleventh North American Masonry Conference(NAMC). Minneapolis, Minnesota. June 5–8, 2011(PDF).

•   Grabar, Oleg (December 1963).   “The IslamicDome, Some Considerations”.   Journal of the So-ciety of Architectural Historians   22   (4): 191–198.doi:10.2307/988190.

•   Grabar, Oleg (March 1990).   “From Dome of

Heaven to Pleasure Dome”.   Journal of the So-ciety of Architectural Historians   (Berkeley, CA:University of California Press)   49   (1): 15–21.doi:10.2307/990496.

•   Lehmann, Karl (1945), “The Dome of Heaven”,in Kleinbauer, W. Eugène,  Modern Perspectives inWestern Art History: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Writings on the Visual Arts (Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching)   25, University ofToronto Press (published 1989), pp. 227–270,ISBN 0-8020-6708-5

•  Mainstone, Rowland J. (2001).   Developments inStructural Form (2 ed.). Abingdon, England: Rout-ledge. ISBN 978-0-7506-5451-7.

•   O'Kane, Bernard (1995),   Domes,   EncyclopædiaIranica, retrieved November 28, 2010

•  Peterson, Andrew (1996). The Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. Abingdon, England: Routledge. ISBN0-203-20387-9.

•  Architectural Complex of Khodja Akhmed Yasawi ,Republic of Kazakhstan National Commission forUNESCO, retrieved September 16, 2009

•   Smith, Earl Baldwin (1950).  The Dome: A Study inthe History of Ideas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni-versity Press. ISBN 0-691-03875-9.

•   Spiers, R. Phené (1911),   “Vault”, in Chisholm,Hugh,  The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionaryof Arts, Sciences, Literature, and General Informa-tion. Eleventh Edition.   27, Cambridge, England:University Press, pp. 956–961

•   Stephenson, Davis; Hammond, Victoria; Davi,KeithF. (2005). Visions of Heaven: the Dome in Eu-ropean Architecture (illustrated ed.). Princeton, NJ:Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 978-1-56898-549-7.

•   Stronach, David (1976). “On the Evolution ofthe Early Iranian Fire Temple”. In Loicq, Jean;Duchesne-Guillemin, J. Acta Iranica, EncyclopédiePermanente des Études Iraniennes, Deuxième Serié,Volume XI . Belgium: Centre International d'ÉtudesIndo-iraniennes. pp. 605–628.   ISBN 978-9-068-

31002-3.

•   Tappin, Stuart (2003). “The Structural Develop-ment of Masonry Domes in India”. In Huerta,S.  Proceedings of the First International Congresson Construction History, Madrid, 20th-24th January2003 (PDF). Madrid: I. Juan de Herrera. pp. 1941–1952. ISBN 84-9728-070-9.

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6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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