Abstract:

Saveh Jameh Mosque is located in the Merkezi province of Iran, in the city of Saveh. There is a courtyard in the middle of the mosque and two iwans on the south and west sides of the courtyard. The courtyard is surrounded by porticoes in the south, east and west directions. The northern part of the building has been destroyed in the course of time and has not survived until today. Outside the walls of the mosque, there is a cylindrical minaret at its northeast corner, slightly narrowing upwards. The construction process of Save Cuma Mosque lasted from the seventh century to the twentieth century. The first mosque was built according to the Arabian type plan scheme. In the first mosque, three naves, consisting of arches placed on mudbrick feet, surrounded the central courtyard. During the Great Seljuk Period (1037-1194), a rectangular domed space was created by removing the legs in the middle of the harim section located in the south of the building. Also in this period, four plaster altars and a minaret were added to the building. The mosque, which was attacked by the Mongols and turned into a ruin, was repaired in the Ilkhanid Period (1256-1335). The western iwan added to the mosque during the Ilkhanid Period is one of the rare examples of Iranian architecture. During the Safavid Period (1501-1736), the main place of worship in the south was transformed to be a square and a double-walled dome was added to this place. The open space in front of the domed space was closed and the southern iwan was created. There are 7 plaster mihrabs in total in the mosque. Three of the Seljuk mihrabs are located in different parts of the mosque. These mihrabs bear the characteristics of the early period (11th century) plaster ornaments and the inscriptions belonging to this period. Consisting of surface niches and surrounded by only an inscription border, the mihrabs are surrounded by simple kufi or near-kufi Thuluth lines on a floral ornamented ground. The fourth altar has been moved to the museum and is supposed to belong to a later period than the other altars. İlkhanid mihrab, which is surrounded by three inscription borders on the outside, consists of a plaster ornamented kavsara and a half-decagonal kavsara. In the inscriptions on this mihrab, unlike the Seljuk mihrabs, it is seen that the decoration is as important as the writing. The maquis, leafy and knitted kufi calligraphy used in the inscriptions support this view. Today, the mihrab on the qibla wall of the domed space, and the colorful plaster decorations on the walls, made with the tohme-gozari technique, were also created in this period. With the features added to the building in different periods, the Save Cuma Mosque is almost the summary of Iranian Islamic architecture and it is important to examine it in detail. In addition, since a large part of the mosque was built during the Seljuk Period and the architecture of this period is the pioneer of Anatolian Seljuk architecture, it has special importance for researchers working in this field.

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