Du Minar Dar al-Ziyafa
Isfahan, Iran

The twin minarets of Dar al-Ziyafa (also known locally as Dar al-Battikh) are the only remaining components of a fourteenth-century structure in the Jubara (Jubareh) neighborhood of Isfahan. The minarets are spanned by an arched portal through which a small modern city street named Kucha Haji Kazimzada ran. This arched portal was built against an older, presumably original portal, which together with the twin minarets formed the facade of an imposing building, possibly a madrasa. 

The minarets take the form of tapering cylindrical shafts that rise from the ruins of the madrasa on two very large octagonal plinths. The plinths themselves are several meters tall. The cylindrical shafts are divided into an upper and lower tier by muqarnas cornices. The lower tiers of the shafts below the muqarnas balconies are decorated with tile and brick decoration. Large zig-zags in blue divide the surface of this zone of the shaft into fields in which monumental square Kufic inscriptions repeat to fill the spaces. Bands of tile faience in three colors border the zone defined by zig-zags. 

No foundation inscriptions remain on the building but the tile and brickwork suggest a date of the first half of the fourteenth century.

Sources:

Smith, M. B. "The Manārs of Iṣfahān." Athār-é Īrān 1 (1936): 311-365, p. 350.

Wilber, Donald N. The Architecture of Iran. The Il Khanid Period. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969. Cat. no.  77 (p. 171).

Location

Isfahan, Iran

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Associated Names

Events

ca. 1325-1340/725-740 AH

Variant Names

Du Minar Dar al-Ziyafah
Variant
Du Minar Dar al-Ziyafeh
Variant

Site Types

religious