TEHRAN — Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Minister Ezatollah Zarghami has ordered new restoration work to safeguard Varamin’s Jameh Mosque during his recent visit to the 14th century place of worship.

The Congregational (Jameh) Mosque of Varamin is a gem of Islamic architecture… Due to its architectural strength, the mosque has tolerated strong earthquakes over the past centuries, CHTN quoted Zarghami as saying on Wednesday.

Zarghami ordered a new round of restoration work intended to strengthen and safeguard the ancient mosque for future generations.

“A destination for domestic and foreign sightseers, this mosque has a very exceptional and special condition in terms of elaborate decorations such as tilework and plasterwork,” the minister said.

Constructed by mudbricks and special traditional mortar, the monument, which is located southwest Tehran, is renowned as the earliest surviving example of a mosque constructed by the Ilkhanids in Iran. Its decorative treatment is rich on the surface; the materials employed include plaster, glazed and unglazed terracotta, and glazed tile-mosaic work.

According to Archnet, the mosque dates back to 722 AH (1322 CE) constructed under patrons as Muhammad ibn-i Muhammad ibn-i Mansur Quhadi and his son Hasan.

It follows the four-iwan (portico) plan. On the qibla (south) side of the courtyard, a broad and shallow iwan with an arched muqarnas semidome leads onto a domed hall with a mihrab. The dome rises from a sixteen-sided drum with alternating windows, resting on an octagonal transitional area formed by four squinches. The height of the dome chamber, which rises above the height of the other iwans, accentuates this important space.

For contemporary architectural historians, Jameh Mosque of Varamin continues to epitomize the first crystallization of a four-iwan mosque by the Il Khanids.

The mosque, however, bears delicacy of ornament, the display of rich materials, and the play of light and shadow of the sculptural architectural elements.

The Ilkhanid dynasty, also called Il-Khanid, was a Mongol dynasty that ruled Iran from 1256 to 1335. Il-Khan is Persian for “subordinate khan.”Hulegu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, received orders from the supreme Mongol chieftain Mongke to conquer Iran. Hulegu set out around 1253 with a Mongol army of about 130,000 men. He founded the Il-Khanid dynasty in 1256 and conquered Baghdad and all of Iran by 1258, according to Britannica.

The Il-Khanids consolidated their position in Iran and unified the region as a political and territorial entity after several centuries of fragmented rule by small dynasties. During the reign of the Il-Khanid Maumud Ghuzun (r. 1295-1304), the Il-Khanids lost all contact with the remaining Mongol chiefs in China. Mahmud Ghuzun himself embraced Sunni Islam, and his reign was a time of Iranian cultural renaissance in Iran, with scholars such as Rashid al-Din flourishing under his patronage.

The terms Jameh Mosque, Masjed-e Jameh or Friday Mosque are widely used in Iran for a grand communal mosque where mandatory Friday prayers are performed.

AFM