Layout and features The mosque is integrated with the design of the Naqsh-e Jahan Square. It is entered through a monumental
iwan (a vaulted space open to one side) that is topped by two
minarets. The portal is around tall and the minarets are tall. The vault inside the iwan is filled with an elaborate
muqarnas (stalactite-like) composition. Because the square is not aligned with the
qibla (the direction of
Mecca), the mosque's large vestibule makes an approximately 45-degree turn towards the southwest to allow the rest of the building to follow the correct alignment for prayers. Scholar
Donald Wilber suggests that this general design choice could have been deliberate: because the prayer hall of the mosque is placed on a different axis, its dome is thus prominently visible from the main square, whereas the dome would have been obscured by the mosque's entrance portal if it had been on the same axis as the square. Aside from this bend, the rest of the mosque's internal layout is highly symmetrical.The Shah Mosque is said to contain 18 million bricks and 475,000 tiles. The main block of the building measures around . It employs the
four-iwan plan that was common for Iranian
congregational mosques. This had been a regular feature of Iranian mosques since the
Seljuk period, when it was introduced into this type of building, notably in the older
Jameh Mosque of Isfahan. Accordingly, the mosque contains a spacious rectangular courtyard in the center that is surrounded by four monumental iwan portals. The northern iwan opens from the vestibule, the lateral iwans to the east and west lead into domed halls, and the southern iwan leads into the main prayer hall covered by the large dome. The façades that run between these iwans are occupied by two-story
arcades. In addition to this, the main prayer hall is flanked on either side by two rectangular
hypostyle halls with
vaulted ceilings, which served as prayer halls in the winter and are entered via smaller vaulted portals. Occupying the two southern corners of the building are two long rectangular courtyard structures which served as
madrasas. An annex is also attached to the east side of the vestibule, consisting of a domed hall followed by another rectangular courtyard structure. This contained
latrines and
ablutions facilities. One of the distinctive features of a mosque is the minaret, and the Shah Mosque has four. In addition to the two minarets over the entrance portal, two more minarets flank the iwan leading into the main prayer hall. In Persian mosques, tall minarets were considered unsuitable for the
call to prayer. Instead, architects added an aedicule, known in Persian as a ("bouquet") for this particular purpose, which in the Shah Mosque stands on top of the west iwan facing the courtyard. The main prayer hall is covered by a huge dome reaching to a height of and a diameter of around . File:View of Shah Mosque in Esfahan.jpg|View of the mosque from Naqsh-e Jahan Square File:ورودی مسجد شاه عباس.jpg|Entrance
iwan of the mosque File:Mezquita Shah, Isfahán, Irán, 2016-09-20, DD 64.jpg|View from below of the
muqarnas over the entrance File:Imam Mosque 3Daa.jpg|Panoramic photo of the entrance vestibule leading to the courtyard File:Shah Mosque, Isfahan 01.jpg|Main courtyard with
four-iwan layout (west iwan on the left, north iwan on the right) File:Shah Mosque Isfahan.jpg|The main domed prayer hall File:Shah Mosque, Isfahan 05.jpg|View of the
mihrab (center) and
minbar (right) in the main prayer hall File:Mezquita Shah, Isfahán, Irán, 2016-09-20, DD 65-67 HDR.jpg|Interior view of the main dome File:It's Shah Mosque from back alley view (2).jpg|Exterior view of the main dome, covered in tiles File:Mezquita Shah, Isfahán, Irán, 2016-09-20, DD 68-70 HDR.jpg|The winter prayer hall, built in
hypostyle form File:Madrasa of Shah Mosque Isfahan 2014 (1).jpg|One of the two
madrasas attached to the mosque
Decoration The mosque employed the new
haft rangi ('seven-colour') style of
tilework. Earlier mosques and monuments had made use of tile
mosaic, a slow and expensive process where tiny pieces are cut from monochrome tiles and assembled to create intricate designs. In the
haft rangi method, single tiles were painted with multiple colors simultaneously and then fired. This process was cheaper and quicker, while also allowing for a wider range of colors. According to 17th-century traveler
Jean Chardin, the low humidity of the local environment made the colors more vivid and the contrasts between the different patterns stronger than what could be achieved in Europe, where the colors of tiles turned dull and lost their appearance. Still, most contemporary and modern writers regard the tile work of the Shah Mosque as inferior in both quality and beauty to those covering the nearby
Lotfallah Mosque, the latter often referred to by contemporary Persian historians, such as
Iskandar Munshi, as "the mosque of great purity and beauty". The architects also employed a great deal of marble, which they gathered from a marble quarry in nearby
Ardestan. The highest-quality tiles are found on the entrance portal of the mosque, which employ a repertoire of seven colours:
dark blue, light blue, white, black, yellow, green and beige. Framing the iwan around its edge is a wide inscription band containing religious texts execute in white
thuluth script on a dark blue ground. In the rest of the mosque, the tiles are predominantly blue, except in the winter prayer halls, which were later redecorated with tiles of yellow-green. == See also ==