The old monument of Vakil mosque in Shiraz city is one of the famous and magnificent ancient mosques in Iran with intriguing and unique architecture. This mosque is located on west side of Vakil bazaar and next to the Vakil bath which all of them was built at the behest of Karim Khan Zand the founder of Zand dynasty in 1178 AH. The area of this mosque is almost 11000 m2.
Art and architecture
Artists and architects created impressive inscriptions on the walls and elegant spiral lithography on the pillars. The inscriptions content holy Quran text with Naskh, Slos, Nastalik and Kufic calligraphy and elegant spiral lithography created on pillars. Considering the utilization, turquoise and azure color used in tiling and Moaragh, provide a spiritual atmosphere inside Vakil mosque.
The mosque is exactly located near bazaar. Because bazaar was always crowded and full of people whose jobs were salesmanship and working at the shops in there and also the people who went there for shopping. For this reason, architects established Vakil mosque near bazaar for people who wanted to say their congregational prayers in the mosque as Muslims do.
Of course, in general if you go to Iran and visit other old Iranian historic bazaars in every town, you will notice that at least one mosque has been built near there.
Parts of Vakil mosque of Shiraz
- Entrance
- Yard
- Morvarid vault
- Southern porch
Entrance
The main entrance is in bazaar and is opened to the octagon corridor in which there is a painted ceiling with flower and bush on it and a beautiful text of holy Quran tiled in Kufic calligraphy.
Yard
In the middle of the rectangle yard of Vakil mosque we have several architectural elements such as:
- Northern side: Morvarid Vault
- Western side: Western 12-column arcade
- Eastern side: Eastern 12-column arcade
- Southern side: 48-pillar-porch covered by the ceiling
- In the middle: A pool which is the symbol of many things in Iranian architecture such as brightness, the reflector of sky, a link between sky and the ground. On the other hand was used to accumulate water for Muslims who came there in order to perform their ablutions.
Morvarid vault
Another part which is decorated with splendid tiling is a vault named Morvarid on northern side of the mosque. Again, you can find flower and bush painting. There are also two 20-meter-minarets on this side.
Sothern porch
The southern porch which is the covered with ceiling is an intriguing masterpiece in architecture. There are 48 pillars with stunning spiral lithography which conveys the architects’ art and their great skills in Zandiyeh era. The area of southern porch is 5000 m2. There is a 14-stair-pulpit inside this porch which is made with marble. They brought these marble stones from Maragheh located in East Azerbaijan. Stone decoration, tiling on the ceiling, altar and lithography on the pillars are in great harmony with each other and made great view that every tourist wishes to visit such a magnificent ancient monument.
Eastern porch
Behind the eastern arcade there is a porch consists of four entrances 25 x 20 m2 dimension. The ceiling made with brick is built on 12 columns. Inside there you can see inscriptions decorated with holy Quran texts in azure color and Naskh and Sols calligraphy. This place is also known as wintery porch.