Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
stucco
Further reading:
K.A.C.Creswell, A 
Short Account of Early Muslim
Architecture,
revised a nd enlarged edn . J.W.Allan,
Aldershot 1989, 392–406.
D.Berhens-Abouseif, 
Islamic Architecture in Cairo: An
Introduction,
Supplements to Muqarnas vol. 3,Leiden
1989, 51–7.
idgah
Indian term for an open-air prayer area, particularly
used during festivals.
See also:
musalla, namazgah
Ilkhanids
Mongol dynasty which ruled much of the eastern Islamic
world from the mid-thirteenth to the mid-four-teenth
century.
In 1258 Hulagau ibn Kublai Khan sacked Baghdad
and killed the last Abbasid caliph al-Mu’tassim
making Iraq part of the great Mongol Empire. This
empire was divided into four parts of which Hulagau
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ruled one. Hulagau’s dominions included Iran,
Khurassan, Azerbayjan, Georgia, Armenia and Iraq.
Although the Ilkhanids rebuilt much of Baghdad,
most imperial building was confined to Iran.
There are few Ilkhanid monuments which
survive from before the fourteenth century.
Characteristic features of Ilkhanid architecture are
the massive size of monuments (which anticipates
those of the Timurids), the extensive use of stucco
work and the development of the transverse arch.
The transverse arch was a method of covering large
open areas without the use of piers or columns. The
principle of the technique was to have a series of
wide arches spanning the short axis of a room, these
arches would then form the base for transverse
vaults. Although the technique had been used before,
this was the first time it was used in baked-brick
architecture. One of the best examples is Khan Mirjan
Plan of Ibn Tulun Mospue, Cairo (after Creswell)
Ilkhanids

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(1359) in Baghdad where a two-storey rectangular
courtyard is covered with seven huge transverse
arches.
The extant examples of imperial Ilkhanid
architecture are few, although the ruins of the
Mongol capital at Sultaniya give some idea of the
scale of their buildings. The city was founded in 1306
and contained a huge citadel surrounded by a stone
wall. Little survives of the city with the exception of
the massive tomb complex of Oljetu. This is a huge
octagonal building with a diameter of more than 30
m, surmounted by a massive dome covered with
blue tiles. Other imperial projects were the Great
Mosques of Tabriz and Varamin. The Tabriz Mosque
was based around a prayer hall consisting of a single
massive iwan 40 m wide and more than 80 m deep.
In front of the iwan there was a courtyard which
contained a madrassa and a khanqa. The Varamin
Mosque is equally huge and is dominated by the
strict symmetry of its axial iwans.