TEHRAN--The restoration of the Friday Mosque of Ardabil in northwest of Iran has been realized after years of waiting, and this valuable historical mosque was placed in the hands of restorers with a credit of 300 billion rials ($333,333), said the deputy head of Ardabil Cultural Heritage Department.

Alireza Dabbagh Abdollahi also said that this historical mosque was last restored during the Ilkhanid era, ILNA reported.

Ardabil Friday Mosque is one of the oldest monuments of the province. According to cultural heritage experts, the building is considered one of the most important historical monuments in northwest Iran due to its various historical layers and its inspiration from the architecture and art of the Seljuk, Ilkhanid, and Safavid eras.

Dabbagh Abdollahi added: “Last year, with the establishment of the Ardabil Friday Mosque base, this mosque was added to the list of national bases of the country, and this year, with the signing of a contract worth 300 billion rials, we began restoration activities for this very valuable historical monument.”

This contract is separate from landscaping and is allocated for the restoration of the porch of this mosque, which is a very noble work, he pointed out. Currently, the experts are restoring the monument, he added.

“I hope that in the next one or two years we will be able to restore its porch and organize the precincts of the Ardabil Friday Mosque.”

Currently, the Ardabil Friday Mosque, known as ‘Friday Mosque of Ardabil’, is located in the northeast of the city of Ardabil, between the neighborhoods of Pir Shamsuddin and Abdullah Shah, on a high hill. This valuable historical building is one of the oldest mosques in northwestern Iran, which was last restored during the Ilkhanid era. 

The original building of the mosque was built during the Seljuk era on older remains that were destroyed as a result of the Mongol invasion in 620 AH and rebuilt in 650 AH. 

This mosque, which is also referred to as the Jame Mosque in some manuscripts and books, is the remnant of a large, extensive, and unique mosque that was built in various Islamic eras, especially the Seljuk period, and was inhabited until the early Safavid period, but there is no complete information about the construction of this mosque on the pre-Islamic works.

The main building of the mosque has beautiful prismatic compositions that are decorated with mosaic tile decorations, and the construction under the dome is also such that in each of the corners of this square, three corners are made with large clerestory windows, each of which has two rectangular openings for lighting and providing light for the mihrab area. 

The Friday Mosque of Ardabil consists of three parts. The first part of the building is related to the base of the minaret, which is visible a short distance from the mosque and has two octagonal base parts and a cylindrical body with a diameter of five meters. The second part of the building is related to the covered mosque, which is located on nine wooden columns. Finally, the third part of the building is related to the old mosque, which is a combination of four arches and a dome, decorated with a few tiles, and many of these facades have disappeared.

KD