Jameh Mosque of Qazvin

About

Set at the heart of the old quarters of Qazvin, the Jameh Mosque has been the principal Friday gathering place for Muslims of the city for more than twelve centuries. Layers of construction from successive eras stand side by side here: an Abbasid core, a Seljuk dome over the south iwan, and Safavid additions on the northern and eastern sides of the great courtyard.

The oldest portion is traditionally said to have been raised by command of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in 807 CE, on the foundations of an earlier Zoroastrian fire temple. Successive additions across the centuries have left the mosque a record in stone and tile of Iranian Islamic architecture, with its double-shelled Seljuk dome holding fine relief calligraphy from the medieval period.

Despite the devastation of the Mongol invasions, which destroyed much of medieval Qazvin, the mosque endured. Portions of the complex have since served as a public library, and the mosque preserves a traditional shabestan, a covered winter prayer hall, and an ab anbar, an old underground water cistern, both protected under the national cultural heritage of Iran.

The mosque was added to the Iran National Heritage List in 1932 and is administered by the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran. A fire in January 2013 damaged part of the complex, which has since been undergoing careful restoration to preserve its many layered histories.

Significance

As one of the oldest surviving mosques in Iran and one of the principal Shia Friday mosques of Qazvin, the Jameh Mosque carries the memory of Islamic worship in this city across more than twelve hundred years. Its quiet weaving of pre-Islamic foundations and Islamic devotion offers a tangible witness to the continuity of sacred space in the Iranian plateau.