Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Java, Sumatra 
Further reading:
H.I.Jessup, ‘Princely pavilions: architecture as an index to
court and society’, 
Court Arts of Indonesia,
New York
1990, chap. 3.
A.H.Johns, ‘From coastal settlement to Islamic school and
city: Islamization in Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and
Java’, in 
Indonesia: Australian Perspectives. I: Indonesia:
The Making of a Culture,
ed. J.J.Fox, Canberra 1980.
N.Madjid, ‘Islam on the Indonesian soil: an ongoing
process of acculturation and adaptation’, 
Arts and the
Islamic World,
20: 67–8, 1991.
A.A.Nanji, ‘Space and spirit: the contemporary
expressions of buildings in Islam’, 
Arts and the Islamic
World
2:
63–5, 1991.
Y.Saliya, ‘Mosque architecture in Indonesia: variations on
a theme’, 
Arts and the Islamic World
21, 1992.
Iran (Islamic Republic of Iran, formerly
Persia)
Large Middle-Eastern country containing some of the
most celebrated examples of Islamic architecture.
Iran is bordered on the west by Iraq and Turkey, on
the east by Pakistan and Afghanistan and on the
north by the former Soviet Republics of Turkmeniya
and Azerbayjan. To the south the country is open to
the Persian/Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The
centre of the country comprises a high plateau
surrounded by mountains, to the south and west are
the Zagros mountains whilst to the north along the
shores of the Caspian Sea are the Elbruz mountains.
The majority of the population lives on the edges of
the central plateau as much of the interior is fairly
barren, consisting of kavir (salt marsh) and dasht
(stony desert). Most of the country is fairly arid
except for the north-west on the borders of the
Caspian Sea where there are forests.
In addition to the present state of Iran, Iranian
culture has traditionally extended into the
neighbouring regions comprising the modern states
of Afghanistan, Turkmeniya, Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan.
History
Iran has a long history as a unified state starting with
the conquests of Cyrus the Great, founder of the
Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BCE. By
525 BCE Cyrus’s successor Cambyses had captured
Egypt and was in control of most of the Middle East.
The Achaemenid Empire was eventually destroyed
by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE after which Iran
was ruled by his successors known as the Seleucids.
The Seleucids were in turn overthrown by the
Sassanians who ruled an empire which included
most of modern Iran as well as Mesopotamia. The
earliest Arab attacks on the Sassanian Empire took
place in the 630s and by 637 CE the Arabs had won a
major victory at the battle of Qadisiyya. Although
the Sassanians were deci-sively defeated at the battle
of Nihavand in 642 the Arab conquest was not
completed until 651 when the last Sassanian emperor,
Yazdigrid, was killed near Murghab in Transoxiana.
However, even after the emperor’s death, resistance
continued whilst many parts of the country
conquered by the Arabs remained under the control
of Persian princes. The Arab conquest was carried
out mostly by troops from the Iraqi garrison cities
of Basra and Kufa, a factor which subsequently had
profound influence on the politics and religion of
early Islamic Iran.
For the next hundred years Iran was ruled by a
series of governors appointed by the Umayyad
caliphs based in Syria. The rule of the Umayyads
was resented by many of the Arab troops in Iran,
many of whom were influenced by the emerging
Kharjirism (opposition to religious claims of the
caliphate) and Shi
ism (supporters of 
Ali) of Basra
and Kufa. In addition a large number of Iranian
converts to Islam were unhappy about their status
in relation to the Arab rulers. The result of the
growing opposition to the Umayyads was the
Abbasid revolution which began in eastern Iran and
eventually spread to most of the Islamic world. One
of the consequences of the Abbasid revolution was
increased Iranian influence in both the culture and
administration of the caliphate. During the ninth
century independent local dynasties began to
emerge as rulers in several parts of Iran, the most
significant of which were the Buwaihids. The
Buwaihids were a Shi
a group originating from the
Caspian region who eventually dominated even the
Abbasid caliphs. In the ninth century eastern Iran
(including the modern states of Afghanistan and
Uzbekistan) was under the control of the Samanids
based at Bukhara and Samarkand. In 1040 the Seljuk
Turks conquered the whole of Iran and established
the great Seljuk Empire. For a short period in the
eleventh century a huge area from Syria to eastern
Iran was nominally under the control of the Seljuks
Iran (Islamic Republic of Iran, formerly Persia)

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who as a Sunni group were endorsed by the
religious orthodoxy and the caliphate in Baghdad.
However, the unity of the Seljuks was short lived
and by the end of the eleventh century the empire
was divided into a number of independent
principalities. In the mid-thirteenth century Iran
was conquered by the Mongols who dominated the
country for the next hundred years. In the late
thirteenth century the Mongol leader Ghazan Khan
converted to Islam and broke away from central
Mongol control. Between 1381 and 1404 Iran was
subjected to another devastating Mongol invasion
under the legendary Timur. The Timurid state in
western Iran did not last long after Timur’s death
in 1405 and was replaced by the Turkoman
dynasties who ruled until 1501 when they were
defeated by the forces of the Saffavids under Shah
Isma
il. However, in eastern Iran Timurid rule
continued until 1510 when the last Timurid sultan
was defeated by the Saffavids.
The Saffavids ruled Iran for more than 200 years
establishing it as a unified modern state. Unlike their
predecessors, the Saffavids were Shi
a and converted
most of Iran to this form of Islam. By the 1730s the
Saffavids were no longer able to control large areas
of the country which was subjected to increasing
Afghan attacks. In the 1740s the Afghans were
repulsed by a Nadir Shah, ruler of a local north-
eastern dynasty known as the Zands. Nadir Shah’s
success against the Afghans enabled him to take
control of the whole of Iran, though the Saffavids
remained nominally in control. In 1779 the Zands
were overthrown by the leader of a Turkish dynasty
known as the Qajars who ruled the country until 1924
when they were replaced by the modernizing Pahvli
dynasty. In 1979 the last Pahvli ruler was overthrown
and Iran became an Islamic republic.