Naghshe Jahan Square, Isfahan

Naghshe Jahan Square, Isfahan

Naghsh-e Jahan Square, Also Naqshe Jahan or Meydan-e Emam

Naghshe Jahan Square or Meidan Emam was built in the Timurid era, in a smaller size than the present one. At the time of Shah Abbas I, Naghsh-e Jahan was enlarged and acquired the form it still retains. Some of the most important buildings surrounding the Meidan Emam square were built during this period. After the capital of Iran moved from Isfahan to Shiraz, Naghshe Jahan Square gradually lost its importance. At the time of Qajar dynasty, Naghshe Jahan Square and its buildings fell into ruins. At the beginning of the Pahlavi era, all the buildings around Naghshe Jahan were completely restored. The restoration work on these buildings is still being done continuesly.

Naghshe Jahan square is more than 500 meters long and 165 meters wide and its ground is about 85 thousand square meters. At the time of Shah Abbas I and his successors, Naghshe Jahan Square was used for polo matches, army parades and for various ceremonies, festivals and events. The two stone doors which still exist on the north and south sides of Naghshe Jahan, are a memory of this period. Magnificent buildings were built Along the perimeter of Naghshe Jahan Square, including the Sheykh Lotfollah Mosque, the Jame'-e Abbasi Mosque (or Emam Mosque), the Ali Qapu Palace and Gheysarie Gate, each of them is an example of perfect safavid period architecture. These works are the brainchild of creative architects and Iranian art experts, especially Sheykh Baha'i, Ali Akbar Esfahani and Mohamad Reza Esfahani.

Before the construction of the existing buildings in Meidan Emam at the time of Shah Abbas I, Naghshe Jahan Square was used as a place for conducting official ceremonies such as the holiday of Norouz. Several sources have estimated that the square in the present form was constructed at the time of the reign of Shah Abbas I, in the year 1602. Nevertheless, since the beginning of the reign of Shah Abbas, the ground of Naghshe Jahan square had been enlarged and was made bigger than the previous small square.

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Ali Akbar Esfahani and Mohamad Reza Esfahani are two of the architects who designed the square and built it in its present form. The names of these two architects are written on the portal of the Jame Abbasi Mosque and in the Mehrab of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque.

Throughout the period of construction of the square, then throughout the Safavid era, Naghshe Jahan square was live and full of activity, but under the reign of Shah Hussain, Shah Soltan Soleyman and little by little Naghsh-e Jahan was deserted. Under the reign of Shah Soltan Hosseyn, the streams gradually stagnated and the remaining trees - which Shah Abbas himself planted – dried up. In the Qajar period, no attention was paid to Naghshe jahan, as well as to the other historic buildings of Isfahan. Parts of the Nagghare-Khane Building were destroyed during the troubled period that Iran has gone through, since the Afghan attack until the establishment of the Qajar government. Under the rule of some local governors such as Prince Zell-os-Soltan and Prince Sarem-ed-Dowle, the complex of Naghsh-e Jahan Square was on the verge of destruction. At the end of the Qajar period, a large part of the sculptures were destroyed, the decoration of the domes was in ruins and all parts of Naghsh-e jahan had to be restored.

The place was named "Naghshe jahan" because before Naghsh-e Jahan was built in Safavid era, there was a garden with this name instead of the square. After the restoration of the square and the buildings that surround it in the time of Reza Shah, the official name of the square was changed to "Shah Square" and the mosque "Jame'-e-Abbasi" to "Shah Mosque ». Today, the official name of the square is "Emam square" or "Emam Khomeini square".

The buildings surrounding the Naghshe Jahan square
Professor Arthur Pope writes about the Emam Mosque or Jame 'Abbasi Mosque in his book on Iranian architecture: "The construction of Emam Mosque, despite the impatience of Shah Abbas for the completion of his work, progressed very slowly, so that the last marble cover was completed in 1638. Emam Mosque is a manifestation of the summit reached in thousand years of experience in building mosques in Iran".

The construction of the Jame Abbasi Mosque, started in 1611 by order of Shah Abbas I, and was completed in 1616, and the decoration of the Jame Abbasi Mosque continued throughout the period of the reign of the two successors of Shah Abbas. The architect of this mosque is Ali Akbar Esfahani and the portal inscriptions are done by the famous calligrapher Ali Reza Abbasi. In the madrasa (school) southwest of the mosque a simple stone plaque was placed and it precisely indicated the south of Isfahan in all the four seasons. The calculations are assumed to be done by Sheykh Baha'i . Among the peculiarities of this mosque, there is the echo that is produced under the large dome.

There is an inscription on the portal of the Jame Abbasi Mosque in Naqshe Jahan square, in calligraphy soils By Ali Reza Abbasi, the famous calligrapher of the Safavid era from 1616. He says Shah Abbas ordered the construction of Emam Mosque with his personal fortune. There is another inscription below this inscription which was placed by the calligrapher Mohamad Reza Emami, with whom the architect of the new main mosque of Isfahan, Ali Akbar Esfahani, was magnified. The height of the large dome of the mosque is 52 meters, the height of its inner minarets are 48 meters and that of the entrance minarets, which overlook the square, is 42 meters. Large slabs of solid marble and precious stones, located in the Shabestan, on the west of the Great Dome of Jame Abbasi Mosque, are among the interesting things to see in this unique mosque of the Islamic world.

Sheykh Lotfollah Mosque is located on the eastern side of Naghshe Jahan square. The construction of Sheykh Lotfollah Mosque began in 1602 by the order of Shah Abbas I, and was completed in 1619. The architect of the mosque was Mohamad Reza Esfahani and Ali Reza Abbasi. The inscriptions of the portal in Soil style indicate that they were famous Safavid calligraphers. Shah Abbas built this mosque to magnify Sheykh Lotfollah, one of the great Shiate theologians. A school also was built Beside this mosque whre Sheykh Lotfollah could hold his teaching classes, but unfortunately this school does not exist today. Sheykh Lotfollah Mosque does not have a minaret or Sahn (typical courtyard of mosque architecture), but its large dome is a unique example of mosque architecture. One of the other peculiarities of the mosque is the solution to the misalignment of the entrance vestibule of the mosque in relation to the direction of Mecca, when we find the mosque on the east side of the square.

Ali Qapu Palace, which was called "dowlat-khane palace" in the Safavid period, was built on the order of Shah Abbas I. Ali Qapu Palace has 5 floors and each of them has a special decoration. The wall paintings of Reza Abbasi, a famous Safavid era painter, adorn the palace walls, and the stucco walls of the building are very beautiful, especially the stucco of the "sound room" which also have acoustic properties. When performing musics, these stuccoes harmonize the melodies and diffuse them without the reverberation of the sound. During the reign of Shah Abbas II, in 1644, a marvelous room was added to this palace and the decoration of the building was completed. Shah Abbas and his successors welcomed ambassadors and high-ranking guests in this palace. From the top of this building you can enjoy a beautiful view of Naghshe Jahan square and the city of Isfahan.

In addition to the buildings that still exist, there were other buildings in Naghsh-e Jahan Square that gradually became obsolete and disappeared. Among them we can mention the clock palace (which was completely destroyed and the mosque of Shaykh Lotfollah was built instead), the marble capitals which had probably been brought to Isfahan of Persepolis (one of them was transferred to Chehel Sotun and another is now in the Iran Archaeological Museum in Tehran), 100 Spanish guns and etc.

Naghshe Jahan Square was inscribed on the list of Iranian national heritage in 1935. This place is one of the first attractions of Iran, which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

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