Fundamental Concepts

Glossary Icon

Persian Architecture is made up of eight traditional forms which taken together form the foundation on which it was based in the same way that music was once based on a finite number of notes. These are modulated by the use of colours and textures to leaven the surfaces and are held together in an overall construction akin to that of a sonata in which connexion leads to culmination through a transition space. To appreciate the skill of the architects and designers fully, it is necessary to have an appreciation of these fundamental concepts which are divided below, for convenience, under separate headings, although in the geometry and architecture of of the buildings they are woven together to present a seamless whole.

Items marked Not Ready are still under construction

Eight Traditional Forms

  1. Hayat - Garden
  2. Socle - Platform
  3. Eivan - Porch
  4. Dar - Gateway
  5. Taq - Room Not Ready
  6. Gonbad - Dome
  7. Chahar Taq - Four-arched Chamber
  8. Monar or Mil - Minaret

Surface

  1. Texture Not Ready
  2. Colour Not Ready
  3. Ornamentation Not Ready

Synthesis

  1. Connexion Not Ready
  2. Transition Not Ready
  3. Culmination Not Ready

Other factors

  1. Shi'ism.
  2. Sufism. New
Most of the ideas and information in this section stem from the seminal study of the Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture by Nader Ardalan and Laleh Bakhtiar entitled "The Sense of Unity" and published in 1973 by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago.

Mosque Icon Mosques and Shrines.

Minaret Icon Minarets.

Palace Icon Palaces and Bridges.

Other Icon Other Places of Interest.

Home Icon Isfahan Home Page.

04-March-95