What is Naqsh-e Jahan Square?
Naqsh-e Jahan Square (literally, the “Image of the World”), also known as Shah Square or Maidan-e Imam, is the great central square of the city of Isfahan, Iran. Built in the early seventeenth century under the Safavid shah ʿAbbas I (r. 1587–1629), it is one of the great urban spaces of the early modern world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The architecture is considered the high point of Safavid Persian art and architecture. Sheila Canby’s Islamic Art of the Safavid Period (in The New Cambridge History of Islam, 2010) and the volume edited by Linda Komaroff and Stefano Carboni, Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts (2011), are the standard recent references, with the older work of Arthur Upham Pope still useful for the architectural detail.
The square itself
The square measures approximately 160 metres by 560 metres, an area of about 89,000 square metres, making it the second-largest square in the world after Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It is surrounded on all four sides by arcaded two-storey buildings of uniform height and design, with shops, workshops, and residences on the ground floor and arcaded galleries on the upper floor. The buildings are faced with haft-rang (seven-colour) tilework, with calligraphy, geometric patterns, and floral motifs, and the unified design of the arcades gives the square a striking visual coherence.
At the centre of the square was, until the early twentieth century, a great public fountain fed by a qanat (underground water channel). The fountain, surrounded by stone basins and trees, was a place of public gathering and refreshment. The square was also the site of public ceremonies, polo matches, executions, and the proclamation of royal decrees. The polo ground of Naqsh-e Jahan Square, with its stone goalposts at the north and south ends, is one of the oldest in the world, and the game of chowgan, a precursor of modern polo, was played here from the Safavid period onwards.
The Masjid-i Shah
On the south side of the square stands the Masjid-e Shah (Royal Mosque), also known as the Masjed-e Imam (Imam Mosque) since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The mosque was begun in 1611 and completed in 1629, the year of Shah ʿAbbas’s death. The principal architect was Ustad Ali Akbar Isfahani, and the building is the masterpiece of Safavid religious architecture.
The mosque is approached through a monumental entrance iwan on the north side, facing the square. The iwan is about thirty metres high, faced with haft-rang tilework in deep blue, turquoise, and white, and is decorated with calligraphy, floral motifs, and geometric patterns. From the entrance iwan, a long passage leads into the central courtyard, which measures about seventy metres by seventy metres and is surrounded by four iwans of varying height. The dome chamber, on the south side of the courtyard, is a vast square space crowned by a bulbous double-shell dome about fifty metres high. The interior of the dome is faced with haft-rang tilework in deep blue, with a star pattern that emphasises the cosmic symbolism of the design.
The prayer hall, below the dome, is the principal space of the mosque and one of the great religious interiors of the Islamic world. The mihrab, the niche indicating the direction of Mecca, is faced with fine moʿarraq (inlaid) tilework and is flanked by calligraphic inscriptions in the thuluth script. The acoustic and lighting design of the dome chamber is a masterly combination of geometry, structure, and decoration.
The Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque
On the east side of the square stands the Masjed-e Sheikh Lotfollah, a private mosque built for the royal household by Shah ʿAbbas between 1602 and 1619. The mosque was designed by Ustad Muhammad Reza Isfahani and is named after Sheikh Lotfollah, a Lebanese Shiʿi scholar whom Shah ʿAbbas invited to Isfahan to serve as a religious adviser.
The Sheikh Lotfollah mosque is smaller than the Royal Mosque and is distinguished by its haft-rang tilework, which gradually changes in colour from dark blue at the bottom to a luminous pale yellow at the top, evoking the rising of the sun. The dome, in particular, is a tour de force of tilework, with a peacock-feather design that radiates from a central point. The prayer hall, on the west side of the building, has a single iwan opening onto a corridor that leads to the mihrab. The absence of a courtyard and a minaret reflects the private, royal nature of the building: it was used by the shah and his court, not by the general public.
The Ali Qapu
On the west side of the square stands the Ali Qapu (the Sublime Porte), a six-storey palace that served as the official residence of the Safavid shahs and the seat of government. The building was begun by Shah Tahmasp in the early sixteenth century and completed by Shah ʿAbbas in the early seventeenth. The name Ali Qapu is a Turkish phrase meaning the High Gate, a title used in the Ottoman and Safavid empires for the gate of the royal palace.
The Ali Qapu is a tall, rectangular building with a monumental portal facing the square. The interior is decorated with frescoes by the great Safavid painter Riza-yi ʿAbbasi and his workshop, with scenes of court life, hunting, and the reception of foreign ambassadors. The famous music room, on the top floor, is decorated with stucco reliefs in the form of vases, instruments, and floral motifs, designed to provide a decorative and acoustic setting for the court musicians. The view from the upper terraces, looking out over the square and the surrounding city, is among the celebrated views in the Islamic world.
The Qeysariyya Bazaar
At the north end of the square, the Qeysariyya (Imperial) Bazaar begins. The bazaar, built in the early seventeenth century, is one of the largest and most famous covered markets in the world. It extends from the square northward for several kilometres, with branches leading to the Friday Mosque, the Jewish quarter, the Christian quarter, and the old city. The bazaar is organised by craft, with sections devoted to carpets, textiles, jewellery, metalwork, ceramics, and other trades. The principal building of the bazaar, the Qeysariyya gate at its southern end, is a monumental structure with a tall iwan and haft-rang tilework that matches the architecture of the square.
The maidan and the public life of Isfahan
The square was the centre of the public life of Safavid Isfahan. Public ceremonies, the proclamation of royal decrees, military parades, religious festivals, polo matches, and executions all took place in the square. The square was also the site of the principal public buildings: the royal mosque, the private mosque, the royal palace, the bazaar, the water fountains, the public baths, the caravanserais. The unified design of the square, with its uniform arcades and monumental public buildings, is one of the great achievements of urban planning and reflects the Safavid ideal of a centralised, ceremonial, and divinely sanctioned royal power.
The square was designed to project the glory of the Safavid state. The inscriptions on the iwans of the Royal Mosque, including the Bismillah and the Qul huwa Allahu ahad, were designed to assert the religious legitimacy of the dynasty. The size of the square, the height of the iwans, and the brilliance of the tilework were all intended to impress the visitor with the wealth, the piety, and the power of the Safavid state. The square functions, in design, as a work of political art, a piece of urban theatre on an enormous scale.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site
Naqsh-e Jahan Square was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979, as part of the Meidan Emam, Isfahan site. The inscription notes that the square, with its surrounding monuments, is a distinctive urban ensemble in the world, an exceptional reflection of the Safavid vision of a centralised, ceremonial, and divinely ordained royal power. The site is among the most visited sites in Iran and a major centre of cultural tourism.