Gallery
Description
Property Name: Jameh Varamin Mosque
Inventory No: 98-21-2
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2009-06-10
Country (State party): Iran
Province: Tehran
Town: Varamin
Geographic coordinates: 35° 19′ 19.21″ N
51° 38′ 30.08″ E
Historic Period: Ilkhanid
Year of Construction: 1322
Style: Ilkhanid
Original Use: Mosque
Current Use: Mosque
Architect: Unknown
Significance
The monument is of significance primarily because it displays the “ideal” or “normal” four iwan plan built as a balanced unit at a single period of construction. This mosque is the only structure on this entire list of structures of the Mongol period which fits these conditions. There must have been many more of these early four iwan mosques, but they have not survived to the present day and known examples of the type come principally from the Timurid and Safavid periods.
Selection Criteria
v. to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
State of Preservation
It should be said that no actual construction was done at the time when the panels of Shah Rukh were put into place. The work of that period was confined to the panels and to some decoration in the dome chamber; probably the mihrab itself since part of its plaster covers a section of elaborate brick bond.
Detail view of the entrance portal iwan(Nandini Bagchee). It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012.
References
Bloom, Jonathan M.- Blair, Sheila S., The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture Volume 2, New York, 2009.
Dieulafoy, Jane, La Perse, la Chaldée et la Susiane, Hachette, Paris, 1887.
Hutt, Antony, Islamic architecture Iran 1, London: Scorpion Publications Limited, 1977.
Pope, Arthur Upham, Persian architecture, Soroush Press, Tehran, 1976.
Wilber, Donald N. , The Architecture of Islamic Iran, Greenwood Press, New York, 1969.