Marqad-i Sultan 'Ali ibn Imam Muhammad Baqir

Mashhad-i Ardahal, Iran

Imamzadah Sultan Ali ibn Muhammad commemorates the martyred son of the fifth Shi'a Imam, Muhammad al-Baqir. The shrine is located in the village known as Mashhad-i Ardahal, some thirty miles to the west of Kashan, and is an important pilgrimage site. The shrine as it stands today is predominantly a work of the Safavid and Qajar periods, having been renovated numerous times since its initial foundation, possibly during the reign of the Seljuqs in Iran.

Date:

The shrine is of great antiquity, and its original foundation date remains unknown. The earliest documented construction at the shrine recorded in textual sources occurred in 1141/545 AH. At this time, we read that Majd al-Din 'Ubayd-Allah Kashani, the brother of the vizier of Seljuq Sultan Sanjar, commissioned the construction of a domed mausoleum with a courtyard, guest house, and caravanserai.1 The earliest recorded inscriptions at the site are Timurid and appear on doors, suggesting that renovations occurred during the late fourteenth/eighth and fifteenth/ninth centuries AH.2 A large amount of tilework and painted decoration remain from the Safavid period, and the layout of the complex took its current form in the Qajar period, pointing to sweeping renovations between the sixteenth/tenth century AH and the early twentieth/fourteenth century AH.

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