“This project will be carried out with the collaboration of the Preservation and Renovation Department of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO). The preliminary floor plan will be laid out at an appropriate distance from the Qiasieh School (the last monument built by him),” Abolfazl Mokarramifard added.
Shirazi died in 1438 and was buried on a hill near Khargerd village in Khorasan. A grave bearing the name of Saleheh, who is believed to have been Shirazi’s wife, is also located beside his tomb.
The Goharshad Mosque was built in 1418 CE on the orders of Goharshad, the wife of the Timurid dynasty monarch Shahrokh. The mosque is adjacent to the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza (AS).
The mosque underwent some renovations during the Safavid and Qajar eras. It has four iwans and a courtyard measuring 50 by 55 meters, as well as several shabestans (an underground space often found in the traditional architecture of mosques, houses, and schools in ancient Persia).
The double-layered dome of the mosque was severely damaged in 1911 in bombings by Russian troops.
The Goharshad Mosque also has two gorgeously tiled minarets rising at the two sides of the southern portico. In front of the southern portico there is a large stele bearing Shahrokh Bahador's name and dated 1418. Part of that stele has been inscribed by the Timurid prince Baisonqor Mirza. Other parts of the stele were inscribed during the Safavid era by Mohammadreza Emami. The inscription on the Maksoorah Portico of the Goharshad Mosque, inscribed by Baisonqor, says: “This inscription has been written by Baisonqor ibn Shahrokh ibn Timur Gurkani in 1417” and the name of the architect is added at the end.
There are other steles beside the gate, around the portico, and on the façade and the ceiling which indicate that the tile work was repaired and completed and the buildings were annexed to each other during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.
On the right and left steles and on the silver gate of the mosque, Goharshad's name has been engraved and the inscription in Arabic says: "This building was built by her highness Goharshad."
Goharshad is said to be the third largest mosque in Iran and the largest structure surviving from the fifteenth century. The dome and one of the minarets were severely damaged by an earthquake in 1949 but they have been carefully repaired. The sharp contrast between bright yellow and turquoise renders special magnificence to the dome.
MMS/HG
End
MNA
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