Jameh Mosque of Yazd
Interesting facts
- The portal's iwan carries the 99 names of God written in angular Kufic script, while the minarets bear the names of the Shia imams.
- The craftsman of the mihrab signed his name and the date on star-shaped tiles worked into its decoration.
- Tradition credits the first mosque on the site to the Saffarid ruler Amr ibn al-Layth in the 9th century.
- The Ilkhanid "new mosque" at the core of the building was raised in the reign of Sultan Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, between about 1324 and 1328.
- In 1457 the Qara Qoyunlu ruler Jahan Shah had the entrance iwan renovated, adding yet another dynasty to the building's long list of patrons.
- The marble of the mihrab is said to have been brought from Karbala in present-day Iraq.
- Much of the interior is lit indirectly, by daylight reflected off white plastered surfaces rather than through direct openings.
- Each of the two minarets measures about 6 metres in diameter at the base.
- The mosque was placed on Iran's national heritage list in July 1934, more than eight decades before Yazd became a World Heritage city.
Why it is worth it
The Jameh Mosque of Yazd announces itself from far across the old town: a tall entrance portal framed by two slender minarets of turquoise and blue tile, at around 52 metres the highest pair in Iran. For decades this view of the portal was printed on the Iranian 200-rial note. The gateway belongs to the Safavid era, but the mosque behind it is far older, layered over a site that local tradition associates with a Zoroastrian fire temple and rebuilt across six centuries of dynasties.
Most of what you see dates from the fourteenth century. The main structure, the great iwan and the dome were raised under the Ilkhanids in the 1320s and 1330s; the Muzaffarids then added the prayer halls, galleries and, in 1375, the decoration of the dome chamber. That chamber is the reason to come. Its inner dome is covered in a dense geometric arabesque of blue and black tile mosaic on a pale ground, and the mihrab beneath, dated 1375-1376, combines carved marble with intricate floral faience. Timurid builders contributed a northern prayer hall and a marble minbar, and the Qajars reshaped the courtyard in the nineteenth century, yet the whole still reads as one deliberate composition of brick, tile and shadow.
Step out of the sanctuary and the long courtyard, with its plain brick arcades, makes a calm counterpoint to the tilework. Yazd itself, a city of sun-baked mud brick, wind-catcher towers and narrow covered lanes on the edge of the desert, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2017 as the Historic City of Yazd, and the mosque is its spiritual centre. In the late afternoon, when the sun turns the portal gold and the alleys around it fill with shade, the building feels exactly like what it has always been: the heart of an old desert town.
Getting there
The mosque lies in the historic centre of Yazd, about half a kilometre from the city centre, and is easily reached on foot through the old town lanes. Shahid Sadooghi Airport (AZD) is about 9 km away, with domestic flights; taxis connect it to the old city.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Jāmeh Mosque of Yazd is a Friday mosque (jāmeh) located in the city of Yazd, in the province of Yazd, Iran. Built on the site of a 9th-century CE fire temple, the mosque was completed during the 14th and 15th century CE and renovated in subsequent years. Between 1982 and 2005 the mosque was depicted on the obverse of the Iranian 200 rial banknote. The mosque has served as the spiritual center of Yazd for centuries, and is renowned for its complete display of architectural motifs from Medieval Persian dynasties as well as Zoroastrian and Muslim coexistence in the city of Yazd.
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