RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSIAN MOSQUES AND SASSANID ARCHITECTURE BASED ON THEORIES OF "CULTURAL CONTINUITY" AND "TEMPERAMENT OF TIME"

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1 ISSN: (Print) ISSN: (Online) RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSIAN MOSQUES AND SASSANID ARCHITECTURE BASED ON THEORIES OF "CULTURAL CONTINUITY" AND "TEMPERAMENT OF TIME" ALI AKBARI a, KARIM BAKHSH TORSHABI b1 AND TOURAJ GAHANI c a PhD student in Architecture, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran b Department of Architectural Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran c Student of Architecture, Islamic Azad University, Zahedan Branch, Zahedan, Iran ABSTRACT Since the dignity of any divine religion including Islam is not to engage in worldly affairs, and occurrence of changes in architecture, especially in architecture of fourteen centuries ago was less and slower than what is happening today, with the arrival of Islam to Persia (Iran) we should not wait for fundamental changes in the Early Islam architecture in Persia. Of course, by changing the institutions of government and religion, changes in governmental buildings and religious architecture is predictable, but based on this, questions of how to build mosques begins in Persia and its relationship to the previous architecture comes to our mind. With these assumptions, the construction of mosques in Persia based on "Persian Cultural Continuity Theory" of transition from Sassanid Persia to Islamic Persia and "Temperament of Time Theory" is being studied. According to "Persian Cultural Continuity Theory", which has been proposed by Mohammad Mohammadi Malayeri, in transition of Persia from Sassanid to Islamic one, Iranians preserved most of their cultural manifestations such as their language (Persian Language), their celebrations such as Nowruz, their political structure, even their clothes which introduced their social classes etc. and transferred them to Islamic Area. Based on this theory, arrival of Islam to Persia did not dealt with fundamental revolution and changes in Persian political, social, cultural and economic aspects and affairs. On the other hand, in studying history Persian Architecture studies, there is another theory named "Temperament Time" which is proposed by Mehrdad Qayyoomi Bihhandi, talks about time as a live entity. According to this theory which is based on concepts and definitions of time in holy texts such as holy Quran, Time is alive, becomes patient, healthy, happy or sad, and falls into weakness, interregnum and stagnation. Besides, in historical studies of Persian architecture, we encounter to expositions of Mohammad Karim Pirnia about categories of mosques in relation with Sassanid era. According to those two theories and Pirnia's expositions, as scope of research, and based on philosophical views of Post-structuralism (paradigms Research) which closes toamulti-layer aspect of a social phenomenon, research method was determined. To achieve this goal, grounded theory method and descriptive survey research design and historical interpretation were chosen as qualitative research methods in this essay.results of studies indicate that architecture of mosques in Persia located along the continuity of Sassanid architecture. For example, Brick columns and foundations, molded ornaments, arches and roofs style and central porches in Fahraj and Tarikhane mosques, great porches in Neyriz and Gonabad mosques and central courtyard in most of these mosques are samples of Sassanid elements, details or spaces which are observable is early mosques in Persia.So, we can come to this conclusion that Architecture in Persia, like other cultural manifestations such as Persian Language and Literature, Painting, Music, etc continued and arrives to Islamic era and developed normally. Mosque architecture in Persia has come from nowhere out of Persia and offers nothing new to Iranians from foreign nations. Persian Architects, with the familiar elements and techniques, could easilyanswer to space required for praying in the new ritual and offered a new accent of the same language. KEYWORDS: Persian Architecture, Islamic Architecture, Sassanid Architecture, Mosque Architecture In historical study, Iran architecture has always been ignored in primary centuries of arrival of Islam. Questioning Iran architecture in this time interval may be difficult because of numerous ambiguities in historical, political, social and cultural evolutions and lack of adequate and first hand documentary resources in these fields and also lack of numerous architecture instances. These difficulties provide a pristine ground for research in this area. As many researchers in Islam and Iran history believe, few eras can be shown for better understanding of most historical incidents of primary Islamic centuries remained unknown or badly known (Malaieri, 200:126). Maybe, it can be said that the most important evolution in this era, is evolution in Iranian traditions and customs that have led to evolution in building temple and causes raising many questions including how a new temple forms in its longtime context that has always been a monotheistic place, what is the relationship between architecture of primary mosques in Iran with the 1 Corresponding author

2 architecture before it (Sassanid architecture),which elements and components changes in Iran and which of them continues, with arrival of this new religion to Iran. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY This study aims at a new review of building mosques in Iran based on theories such as "cultural maintenance" and "Temperament of Time" and categorization of mosques based on their relation with architecture before them. Our purpose in this research is discussing the architectural features of Iran in Islamic era, features that are not understood without the help of people's culture who have determined the form and foundation in creating architecture. In this article, we tried to explain the above theories after review of literature, defining method and research delimitations and based on reviewing writings of Mohammad Karim Pirnia, research questions are answered and the way of constructing mosques in Iran architecture is studied and a new categorization of mosque architecture are represented based on his trainings and regardless of architecture stylistics. The basis for this classification is the relationship between the mosque architecture with Sassanid architecture that was detectable till seventh and eighth century. REVIEW OF LITERATURE In studying history of Islamic art and architecture, various approaches of western and eastern researchers are identifiable in classification of architecture. With a little negligence, they can be classified into two main groups. The first group is people who define Islamic art and architecture in a spatial and temporal context and in the way of their creation represent different theories. Some call it the product of territory and race and some believe that presence and importance of Quran and Arabic writing is effective in its creation. Sometimes, the viewpoints and desires of employers who were rulers over Muslims were more important than nationality and beliefs of artists. Jorge Mase' believe that Islamic art is created by reselection and reapplication of the available elements in previous arts and Aleck Grabar believes that formation of Islamic art is the result of collecting shapes of all conquered territories and also few creation of new and special forms. Robert Halen Brand introduces Islamic religion as the aspiration resource for Muslims and little importance is given to the effect of factors such as geography and territory in Islamic art and architecture. The second group are people who see similarity and unity in a variety of Islamic works and this unity is derived from the manifestation of internal aspect of Islam in Islamic art and architecture and thus for trans-historical identity art and independent of time and place (Haji Ghasemi, 2011:10). These researchers explain Islamic art in relation with the concept of interpretation and intention tradition from the concept of Quran i.e. from the unchanged and fixed godly rules (Avani, 1996:335). In their viewpoints, classification of constructions to styles and schools is meaningless. In this regard, Mohammad Karim Pirnia represents a new approach in studying Iran architecture after and before arrival of Islam to Iran and classified buildings into different styles. His attention to political, cultural, social, economic fields in the study of architecture history of Iran and attempt to represent a new classification of architectural works of Iran on this basis are indicators of his study. In previous studies of these researchers, where they consider Iran architecture after the arrival of Islam, they pay less attention to the historical context and field of creating architectural works and believe that the beginning of Islamic art and architecture is The Arabian Peninsula started their studies from there. But, since changes and evolutions in architecture, in the architecture of 14 th century, was much slower that what is happening today, thus; we should not expect fundamental changes in architecture with the arrival of Islam to Iran. With this assumption, constructing mosques in Iran based on theories such as "cultural continuity" and "Temperament of Time " in the period of passing from Sassanid era to Islamic era worth studying. RESEARCH DESIGN From ontological aspect, in this research, the reality is a multi-layer historical phenomenon which is independent of researchers and based on theories given in research. They try multiple representation and reviewing of historical-social events in the temporal and spatial context. Thus, the present research is based on the philosophical post-structuralism point of view in the research (Bazargan, 2010:19). Therefore, the design of this research should be chosen from among qualitative research methods. On the other hand, by using data collection methods and library and internet studies, researchers in

3 this study try to recognize and different between categories, themes, theories and examples, and establish relationship between them and explain the complexities in the process (passing from Sassanid Iran to Islamic Iran) as an uncertain situation and give a theory to explain that process. Therefore, qualitative research design of the theory derived from data along with research design of historical interpretation is considered as research design (Garrot&Wank, 2010). LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH The present research is delimited from three aspects. On one hand, field studies is based on two theories of "cultural continuity" and "Temperament of Time " and other viewpoints in studies of art architecture history is not considered as the basis for approaching to the subject of the study. These two theories see evolutions in art and architecture in holistic view in its context and in line with other political, social, economic and cultural evolutions happened in that field. On the other hand, the basis for recognition and introduction of issues is based on writings of Mohammad Karim Pirnia. His knowledge about architecture of ancient Iran and its techniques, his relations with traditional architects, represents a broad collection of information about the historical architecture of Iran, information in form of theories and paying attention to theories in the study of architecture history and introducing historical architecture by using noble Persian terms is the most important reason that has given a certain reputation to his work (Ghaiyoomi Bidhendi, 2005: 12-13). Also, introducing and studying instances is limited to mosques in primary Islamic centuries that our knowledge about them is more and reliable. Since there are Speculation and archaeological studies about the construction time and evolutionsabout mosques that are attributed to primary Islamic centuries, future research is planned to address them. The period of transference from Sassanid Iran to Islamic Iran and the theory of "cultural continuity" In this theory, that is introduced in Iran cultural history by Later Mohammad Mohammadi Malaieri, from the arrival of Islam into Iran and the replacement of political and military power from Sassanid government to Islamic Iran, can be called transference era (Malaieri, 2000:6). His intention, by using this term, is not to cut the civilization and culture of Iranian nation from an era but to transfer its special feature to another era. As a result, gradual historical evolution attributed other features and according to the situation, it is mentioned in another shape and language. Besides, the new Islamic ruling that developed day by day needed Iranian experience in ruling conquered territories. Iranian ministers admitted in to Islamic government and Islamic rulers used their experience. Therefore, Sassanid financial and court system without any pitfalls within it transferred into Islamic government (Maliari,2000:9). Survival of tax court in caliph's government caused most of Iranian culture and civilization manifestations that were dependent on it like Persian language got admitted into ruling system unchanged and continued their historical excursion. The application of Persian language till eighty century Hegira that Iraqi divan was translated from Persian to Arabic continued in Divan (ibid). Since the criterion for action in tax court is Iranian calendar and had no replacement, the Iranian calendar remained unchanged and was preserved. With preservation of Iranian calendar, most of Iranian traditions that was related to it entered into Islamic world, the most important of them was Newroz Ceremony that is known as the beginning of financial year (ibid). Therefore, most of the aspects of Iranian culture that paying attention to all of them is out of the scope of this study, is transferred to Islamic era. This subject is true about architecture. Because as it was already mentioned, evolution in architecture with regard to design, construction material, construction techniques, etc cannot be close to reality. The theory of "Temperament of Time" in Periodization of Iran architecture history According to this theory that was presented by Mehrdad Qayomi Bidhendi and its concepts is derived from his periodization in first hand holly and historical texts, the era is alive and is still like live creatures, it gets healthy, joyful or falls into Interregnum and stagnation. This status of era has signs and we can understand it by those signs. According to main Propositions of this theory, the history (era) has status like human; it has spirit, breathes, it gets ill and improves; it is sometimes cheerful and sometimes tired; sometimes Productive and sometimes sterilized. History like this humanistic status

4 has periods. For example, may be several times, history is cheerful and happy. These historical periods is identifiable both in micro and macro levels (Qayomi, 2011:67). The aim and useof presenting this theory is introduced as creating a system by which dark points of Iran architecture can be cleared and explained to some extent. Relationship between Iranian primary mosques architecture with Sassanid architecture and analysis of some of instances In line with the "cultural continuity" theory and "Temperament of Time", we should analyze evolutions in architecture with the arrival of Islam to Iran. The most important evolution in this era is constructing new temples according to new religion. Mohammad Karim Pirnia based on the construction method and its relation with Sassanid architecture, the primary mosques in Iran are classified as follows: 1. Mosques that at first were constructed by new elements and components like Fahraj and Tarykhaneh Mosque of Damghan 2. Mosques that imitates the design of the Sassanid monuments but were built with new elements like the Grand Mosque of Abarghou, Neyrizmosque and Mosque of Gonabad 3. Mosques that by conversion of Chahartaqy temple Sassanid fire temples are converted into mosque like Yazakhast mosque 4. Mosques that by destruction of palace Sassanid fire temples and on them were built with those materials like Brojerd grand mosque, Ardebil Grand mosque 5. Mosques that were built with Abomoslam order and by his design like Esfahan grand mosque, Naien grand mosque, Ardestan grand mosque, Saveh grand mosque, Neyshabor grand mosque, and Abatgho mosque" Here it is necessary to analyze in more details each of these categories that responds properly to the research question. Mosques that were built by Sassanid elements and components but with new designs: Fahraj mosque: Fahraj mosque was built in the first century Hegira and it is said that design of this old mosque has not been changed and remained as before. "it s background, the position of Myansara, yards and Sofhe, explicitly introduces it as a work of Islamic era which was made for mosque from the beginning and like the mosques of early Islam is a simple design" (Pirnia, 2001:139). Thus, what in this mosque belongs to Sassanid era, are the elements and components not design of mosque. Of Sassanid elements in Fahraj mosque, we can refer to Arrays bed contortion and vines which are like arrays of Kasra palace in Tisfun (Pirnia, 2001:139). Large molds anarsh in anarsh, Simgol Façade, semi-domical platforms with simple corners and turnbeh on which Garivar and above it a semi-domical is built, latches above doorways have a soldering iron and a bit of cleaning walls sits on both sides of the doorway, all the elements are of the Sassanid mosque (Pirnia, 2001:140). Damqan History There are a lot of discussions about Tarikhane Mosque of Damqan. There are many speculations about design and the construction method of this mosque that reduces the care given to putting it in categorization of mosques based on construction and make it difficult to put it in first or second place. Pirnia introduces the plan of this mosque as an imitation of the plan of Sassanid Hill fence palace and somewhere in their educational discussions, the plan of the mosque is known as the same columned yard plan (Pirnia, 2005:141). It seems that the Tarikhane of Damqan like Dahraj great mosque is a mosque made with a new design but with Sassanid elements. But, perhaps the most striking element of the building is thick brick columns of the mosque Tarikhaneh, that is ironically a totally Sassanid element. Before that, in Sassanid architecture as Arture Poo (2008: 78-81) said brick columns are used. In addition to thick brick columns of the mosque, more elements and components of Sassanid era can be seen in the architecture of this mosque (Mitra Azad, 2005:433). In a detailed research, a comparative analysis of elements of the mosque of Damqan Tarikhane mosque with the Sassanid Hill fence palace and Karkhe palace was studied. Mosques that were built as an imitation of design of Sassanid monuments but with new elements: Neyriz great mosque: The main porch of this mosque and its primary sanctuary is the most important element of the building and causes different viewpoints. If this porch was built in fourth Hegira century, it is a rare

5 sample of porch in the mosques of this era, but it is not uncommon if it was built in the sixth Hegira century, and then in the following periods, with the help of support foundations, the ground movement was prevented. The oldest of these foundations are placed in two sides of porch façade; and other bases were built in the current century. Pirnia (2001:154) believes that the porch belongs to the first period of construction of mosque (the fourth Hegira century) and says that the mosque was originally only a porch this porch maybe was a temple or fire temple". Andre Godar (1992:321) also says about this porch: '' the benefit of studying the Neyrizgreat building is the point that this mosque is one of the good samples that shows the use of Sassanid architecture style in the primary centuries of Islam". Gonabad great mosque: Abbas Zamani (1976: 6) says about the design of mosque quoting Arthur Pop: "Gonabad great mosque as two mosques of Zozan and Friemod regarding plan is totally similar to the Proprietary part of Firuz Abad palace related to Sassanid era". Undoubtedly, what caused Pirnia and Pop consider the plan of mosque as belonging to Sassanid, the large south porch. This mosque was built in the seventh century but it is interesting that there is no dome or columned yard in its design. The sanctuary is under the south porch that is the place for saying prayer. Design of the mosque is much similar to the design of Kasra porch. As if, where dignity and beauty is in order, an ancient history comes into mind. Mosques that were converted into Chartaghy temples - Sassanid fire-temples were converted into mosques: Yazdkhast mosque: Yadakhast mosque is maybe the only apparent sample of converting Chartaghi into mosque. The reason for Muslims using fire temple buildings for prayer and gathering place is questionable. Some people believe that Muslims do not have the allowance to act ignorant and biased actions (Noghrehkar, 2009: 521), which is also the site of reflection. What is clear is that this action did not develop and mosque continued its way differently. Chaartaghi, due to some reasons, could not recreate what a mosque plays in the Muslim community. Even if we consider a mosque as the only place for worship, collective worship in Islam is greatly different from the individual worship in Zoroastrian religion. Muslims for saying prayer needed a broad place and for a more enjoyment of believers in the first raw, mosques were expanded in width. An incident which is visible in yard mosques, mean while most of single Chartaghis were located in cities, villages and heights with characteristics of the mosque that from both sides was not suitable as a place of collective worship, a place for gathering Muslims and becoming aware of the latest news every day. CONCLUSION At the end, it should be said that, as Azizadin Nasafi believes (1980:12), in order to become familiar with aspects of thought, we can see Iranian culture of Islamic period, where it the factor of place and distance, places and distances in spiritual world is discussed, where human being cannot be understood without his God; and traveling in Transcendental ideas is known as life, travel to God do not need a special space to worship and any place can be suitable and proper unless the traditions and costumes of collective worship calls for replacing people in a special place. Regarding these issues, mosque is the most known of this kind of place for the public (Falamaki, 2000:280). From another side, since the dignity of any Godly religion including Islam is not to consider worldly and material affairs, with its appearance, one should not expect special orders and rules in constructing the building and its components. Thus, the person who is searching is reliable for the beginning of construction of mosques in religious texts and also in context of Islamic religion i.e. Arabian Peninsula and for the intention of finding reasons for those buildings in the conquered territories including Iran. Also, people who could preserve language, costumes, ceremonies and even their clothes, as it can be seen based on the theory of cultural continuity, one should not accept several changes in the taste of art and architecture of their time. Elements in the Islamic era are composed of main elements of mosque architecture, which could not be created all at once. These elements are rooted in previous eras and went through evolution. Most of the present elements in the primary mosque architecture in Iran are the elements of Sassanid architecture that, after arrival of Islam and with keeping the generality of time taste were applied in the mosque's architecture. Though, the new religion changed

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