Uzun Hasan Mosque

38°05′06″N 46°17′39″E / 38.08505°N 46.294094°E / 38.08505; 46.294094

Uzun Hasan Mosque
Uzun Hasan Mosque (depictions from manuscripts dating 1538 to 1620s)
ProvinceTabriz
RegionIran
Location
Interactive map of Uzun Hasan Mosque
Architecture
Established1477–1484

The Uzun Hasan Mosque, locally known as Masjid-i Hasan Padishah, was a mosque established by the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan (ruled 1452–1478) in his capital of Tabriz in Iran circa 1477-78, following his conquest of the city in 1468, and which was completed seven years later, during the reign of his son Sultan Yaʿqub.[1]

The mosque was located in the Nasriyya Complex (comprising a mausoleum, the mosque, a madrasa, and a hospital) on the Sahibabad square in northern Tabriz, next to the vast expanse of the Hasht Behesht Palace.[2][1] The Sahibabad square (Maydan-i Sahibabad) was founded during the time of the Qara Qoyunlu ruler Jahanshah (r. 1438–67), who also built his own palace, the Hasht Behesht Palace, there before 1466.[1]

The Mosque appears in several miniatures of the period, including in Nighttime in a City, describing the Safavid court and urban environment of the capital of Tabriz, painted circa 1540 by Mir Sayyid Ali for Shah Tahmasp I.[3][2]

The mosque was large and splendid, with two minarets.[4] Uzun Hasan and his son Yaqub were buried there.[5]

The Ottoman painter and mapmaker Matrakçı Nasuh (d. 1564), who followed the Ottoman sultan Süleyman in his military campaigns in Iran and Iraq between 1533 and 1536, made a famous illustrated map of Tabriz and its monuments, in which the Uzun Hasan Mosque appears prominently.[1]

The Mosque was damaged when the Ottomans besieged the Tabriz castle in 1585, as the mosque seems to have been used as a staging point during the conflict.[1]

The Mosque of Uzun Hasan was one of the only buildings to survive the near destruction of the city of Tabriz by the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV, who entered Tabriz on 12 September 1635 and ordered to "knock down Tabriz", and had all the fortifications and most buildings levelled down.[6][7]

In 1673, the French traveler Chevalier de Chardin recorded the Uzun Hasan Mosque in his illustrated panorama of Tabriz.

The earthquake of 1780 severely damaged the entire Nasriyya Complex, which was rebuilt in 1826, by Mirza Mahdi Qadi, a descendant of Uzun Hasan. But mention of the Uzun Hasan Mosque seems to vanish from that time.[1]

The location of the ancient mosque has been identified, but very little remains of the mosque today, mainly ruins and tileworks, with examples of “blue-and-white” ornaments, lusterware, and gilded cobalt tiles. Several ground-level alcoves and a few pillars from the original structure remain.[1]

  • Location in ancient Tabriz
  • The Uzun Hasan Mosque in 1673, by Chevalier de Chardin
  • Tileworks from the Uzun Hasan Mosque
  • Ground-level structure of the mosque today, with original alcoves and pillars.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Aube 2016, p. 33.
  2. ^ a b Sarabi, Mina. "Architectural and Spatial Design studies of Sahibabad, Tabriz, Iran in the Persian Miniature Painting "Nighttime in a Palace"". Jaco quarterly. doi:10.22034/JACO.2022.366374.1270.
  3. ^ Melville 2021, p. 119, note 43.
  4. ^ Melville, Charles (1981). "Historical Monuments and Earthquakes in Tabriz". Iran. 19: 171. doi:10.2307/4299714. ISSN 0578-6967. JSTOR 4299714. Both the madrasa and mosque of Uzūn Hasan (Abu 'l-Nasr) were part of a complex of buildings that seem to have been known interchangeably as the Naşriyya and the Hasan Pādshāh. The Naşriyya was founded in his father's name by Sultan Yaqub in 882/1478 and finished seven years later (Karbalā'ī, I, 91). Yaʻqūb was himself buried there. (...)The latter, founded by Uzūn Hasan, was a superb creation with two minarets (later misused for brutal ends by Tahmāsp, see Iskandar Beg, pp. 111, 160). Though its splendour had faded considerably within a century, it was apparently spared the Ottoman sack of 1635, being described at that time as of beautiful marble work and larger than the Masjid-i Jahānshah (Hajji Khalifa, Jihān-numā, p. 381).
  5. ^ Encyclopedia of Islam (Vol X) (PDF). Brill. 2000. p. 45. Uzun Hasan died in 852/1477 and was buried in the Nasriyya Madrasa which he had built and which was later to be used for the burial of his son Ya'kub.
  6. ^ Bosworth, C. Edmund (31 August 2007). Historic Cities of the Islamic World. BRILL. p. 493. ISBN 978-90-474-2383-6. Sultan Murad IV invaded Azerbaijan in 1045/1635 and entered Tabriz on 12 September 1635. The aim of this campaign was plunder rather than conquest. Murad ordered his soldiers to destroy the town. Having in this way "knocked down Tabriz" (Ewliyā, eyije örseleyip) (...) Hājjī Khalifa, who was an eye-witness of the campaign of 1045/1635, says that after the devastation wrought by Murad IV the old ramparts had completely disappeared and "only here and there could traces of old buildings be seen". Even Shām-Azān was not spared; the mosque of Uzun Hasan alone was left intact.
  7. ^ Brill, E. J. (1993). E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936. S - Ṭaiba. BRILL. p. 589. ISBN 978-90-04-09793-3.
  8. ^ Aube 2016, p. 33-40.

Sources

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