God without demands

Architectural gem


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God without demands
by Midwesty
04-Mar-2008
 

On the chest of the central plateau of Iran since more than 3000 years before Christ has stood a defiant warrior called Yasatis. Yasatis or Yazd is an ancient Iranian city that has survived many terrible events amongst them the Mongolian aggression.

Although Genghis Khan did tremendous damage to the city and its people, he was not the toughest enemy the city had to face. It was the harsh desert climate surrounding the city that constantly attacking from every direction for thousands of years. People of Yazd are renowned among Iranians as modest and humble people.

Yazd is jeweled with many magnificent architectural landmarks but one of her most attractive familiar sights which embraces many geniuses is Masjed-e Jame-e Yazd. Friday Mosque of Yazd, as it is known in English, was built around 1324 AD by an unknown architect and has been renovated and expanded many times after.

Iranians, dissimilar to their counterparts, Greeks, have always worshipped one God.  Proof of this lays on the fact that Yazd is home to Zoroastrianism, a prehistoric Iranian religion that has been recognized and mentioned in the holy Quran because of worshiping a unity supreme being. As a result religion along a distinguished style of architecture has been perfectly preserved in the harmonious atmosphere that people of Yazd have nurtured.

Great artists have always dedicated or attached their masterpieces to something or somebody with incalculable value. That way they could ensure their legacy would live on even after they pass on. Some dedicated wrongfully their work of genius to an unworthy king, or in exchange of money or the fame of a celebrity and sometimes an artist has devoted his/her work of art to the God(s) or Goddess(s), the greatest insurer(s).

However all artists regardless of their nationalities or the eras they lived in have been facing this dilemma that the one that has the money to help their project to get off the ground is not usually God, who unlike the celebrities demands the least from the artists. However this is not the case for building the mosques, churches and other houses of worship. Usually ordinary people through a slow and sometimes frustrating process endow the architect with money and resources he/she needs.

It might seem that nothing is worth the trouble of getting through sluggish donation process but the freedom that architects receive from people is worth all the painful patience. Therefore before the age of skyscrapers that are now owned by the banks and insurance companies the tallest buildings in every rural town or metro cities belonged to God.

That is why Yazd’s Friday mosque possesses two tall minarets, the tallest in Iran, at the main entrance that well characterizes this masterwork from other Iranian landmarks. Due to their giant heights, the architect had to introduce a form of architectural element as “Paa Peeli”, that literary translates to ‘the elephant’s legs’ to the sides of the minarets in order to provide additional support to these massive structures made of mud and bricks.

The building’s layout, its architectural elements and its beautiful ornaments are far less glamorous compared to similar buildings such as Sheikh Lotfollah’s mosque, another architectural masterpiece in Isfahan. This is additional reason that the architecture of Yazd well reflects the image of people of Yazd as modest and humble.

Nevertheless, the simplicity and lack of show is never a repellent factor for the visitors who try to escape the heat of desert and take shelter within a heavenly place that protects its guests from noise, wind, heat, sunshine and most importantly stress by its tall, embracing and warm-colored walls and simple architectural forms. To get the feeling of getting surrounded by this magnificence please take a look  three dimensional photos of this architectural gem.

For some background information please refer to the following websites: yazd.com and archnet.org. Please take a advantage of the additional photos: (1) (2)


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God without demands

by Dr Pourandokht Rostamian of Sharifabad,Yazd (not verified) on

Dear all,
Discrimination is bad in all its forms. That is why Lincoln and Gandi are held in such high esteem by one and all. However when it is a state policy and advocated by the religious authorities who are supposedly educated it is the height of hypocrisy. The Koran advocates hell and misery for non muslims calling them kafars. State regulations in present day Iran actively pursue a policy that affirmatively discriminate against non shias in Iran in all fields of life. And the situation in present day Iran specially in Yazd shows the hypocritical policy of the Shia ruling clergy in Iran and the regime.
In the present 21st century in Yazd the Poor Zoroastrians living there are still treated as unclean,discriminated against by the shias in all walks of life. I should know as I was born in Sharifabad and am a Zoroastrian. Although my sister Parvin has taken an Arab man as her consort my views are different from my sister who does not believe in the teachings of Zarthust. And to top it all it was not Omar who ordered that the Iranians who were Zoroastrians at that time should be wiped out, instead it was Ali and his two sons Hossein and Hassan who created rivers of blood by slaughtering the poor Iranians who were Zoroastrians at that time. Shah Abbass slaughtered another million or so Zoroastrians during his reign when he was making Iran shia. During his reign thousands of Zoroastrians fled to Osmania that is present day Turkey where they fought against the Shia Shah Abbass regime and later became sunnis. Interestingly the sunni version of Islam is much more closer to Zoroastrianism then the Shia version.
Regards
Dr Pourandokht Rostamian of Sharifabad, Yazd
Vancouver
Canada


Midwesty

Mona,

by Midwesty on

Thanks! Believe me there are enough beautiful things out there that we don't need to get hung up on ugly things.


Mona 19

Midwesty,You're absolutly right..

by Mona 19 on

about education.if we regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom...

and about being a Minority,I always share with people who we are and what we believe, and I'm not trying to change them.As in Holy Quran says:"He who finds the right path does so for himself, and he goes astraydoes so to his own loss;and no one who carries a burden another's load."(17:15)

It's always a pleasure talking to you and read your articles.Thanks again for your respectful and honest comment, and that's one the politest comment I've read :)

Respectfully,Mona


Midwesty

Mona,

by Midwesty on

Thanks, it's same here. What I said about the education was from my observation. I’ve been to a few countries and I know just a little about the history. One thing that is always common across all nationalities all the times is the ignorance. The solution to it is education. By saying education I just don’t mean the academia but a broader aspect of it which leads to understanding one another. I have been discriminated against in my own country and on daily basis here in Midwest it is not fun I tell you. But I try to shed light on people’s ignorance and my own ignorance towards others as well. For example we are all minorities here in North America. One thing I try to do always is to understand what action or image of me translates to what image in this people’s mind. Then I try to make the gap smaller. Sometimes they don’t want to move towards me so I go forward and stretch my arm. I try to get into their minds, into their lifestyle, and the way they do things. Then I try to find what I can do to make it easier for them to accept me. Let’s recognize the fact that we are all minorities here and this can make a good excuse for the majority to be discriminating. We can’t just sit back and say “they should be smart enough to understand us”. No, we should understand them also. I hope this answered your question.


Mona 19

Midwesty

by Mona 19 on

Could you please expand on this sentence of yours:"I believe discrimination is every where and the root cause of it is the lack of proper education to the both parties, the one who is discriminating and the one who is being discriminated at."

I always do appreciate your honest and respectful comments.

Respectfully,Mona


Midwesty

Dr Pourandokht Rostamian,

by Midwesty on

Sorry to hear that. I believe discrimination is every where and the root cause of it is the lack of proper education to the both parties, the one who is discriminating and the one who is being discriminated at. As you said, ""Till fifty or years ago the minority Zoroastrians …". And I can add until 1920s no woman in the US could vote. There are still official discriminatory laws in various southern US states and many more unofficial ones such as profiling middle easterners and many more… Please provide us with your solution.


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Re:Dr Pourandokht Rostamian

by Minority She (not verified) on

It is very SAD that my dear Iranians brothers and sisters,can not feel the degree of pain and suffering that people of minority religions have endured....

//iranian.com/main/singlepage/2008/zoroas...


Zion

Midwesty

by Zion on

I have seen that study already. It is clearly a deep study of the outcomes of various hypothetical scenarios, not a devised war plan.


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God without demands

by Dr Pourandokht Rostamian (not verified) on

Dear All,
Coming from Yazd I must say to all of you that the Shia muslims of Yazd are amongst the most fanatics one has seen anywhere in the world.
Till fifty or years ago the minority Zoroastrians who were unfortunate enough to live in Yazd were treated worse than a donkey, in that no Zoroastrian was allowed to read and write, that is schooling was banned for Zoroastrian kids. A Zoroastrian had to kneel down whenever a muslim shia man approached. Anything touched by a Zoroastrian turned unclean and could not be eaten by a muslim. No Zoroastrian was allowed to go near the water tanks or joobs, as the water would go unclean unfit for a muslim shia to drink. And Zoroastrian girls were a free for all to be screwed by the Shia.
I should know because I was born in Sharifabad, Ardakan of Yazd. The Shias of Ardakan are the worst Shias in the whole world.
The Arabs were saints compared to Yazdi Shias in their treatment of Zoroastrians.
Dr Pourandokht Rostaimian
Vancouver
Canada


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Nice article

by Yazdi (not verified) on

Thanks for this very interesting article.


Midwesty

Zion,

by Midwesty on

Check this out:

//www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3486011,00.html

Sorry I can't help you with this: "Not taking credit for what you create because one is religious is something I don`t understand either". 


Zion

Paranoid

by Zion on

Yes, I would say you are paranoid. It is good that you at least acknowledge it. I don`t know what `master plan` you are talking about. I have never heard of it and I doubt if there were any that you would have known of it anyway. So relax and come back to earth.

I have read your article. When you say, Yazd is home to `zoroastrianism` immediately after a comparison with pagan Greeks, what I understand is that Yazd is where Zoroastrianism started (which is incorrect) or that it used to be the central zoroastrian authority. I was asking about the situation today.

Not taking credit for what you create because one is religious is something I don`t understand either. How is that relevant? You do some good, what is wrong with taking credit for it? I would say this kind of execisve `modesty` is more a sign of opressive despotic cultural trait that diminishes people to nothing except for those in authority. To confuse such negative cultural trait with love of God is quite problematic. That is not devout religious mentality, it is a slave mentality pure and simple.


Midwesty

All,

by Midwesty on

Please don't hesitate to raise your questions regarding this subject. I try to answer as much as I can. This reminds me of an old joke. They said a Mullah was preaching in a mosque. All mosques used to have and still have an elevated platform with many steps to climb on in order to give the preacher good visibility and transmission strength. This platform was called Menbar. In the old days it was accustomed that the young preachers used to sit on the lower steps of Menbar where the older ones used to climb higher. Maybe because the younger ones would take longer time to develop enough skills to gather more fans. Anyways, one day a young Mullah was invited to preach a large crowd of people. To benefit from the higher steps he didn’t hesitate to sit on the top step. Also it was customary that crowds used to ask the preacher all kinds of question after he was done with his speech. So people start asking the young man questions and it happens that sometimes he couldn’t offer any answers. Till one older man got up in the crowd and asked, “If you don’t know these answers why are you up there”? He replied, “I am sitting here based on what I know, if I was going to be seated based on what I don’t know then I had to sit way up there between the clouds”.       


Midwesty

yetanotherxmuslim,

by Midwesty on

Thanks! That's true that we should emphesize on the word 'Iranian architecture'.  Also, in order to avoid any confusion let’s not talk about dust and pearl. If we do then we need to trust someone to tell us which is dust and which is pearl and that’s where the whole thing starts to rot. What I tried to say was that we have independently, intelligently, bravely, willingly, and modestly have contributed a lot to humanity including Islam and we should just keep reminding ourselves all these and teach our kids about how great Iran has been and how great it will be.


Midwesty

Puzzled

by Midwesty on

Thanks for your comment. I am sorry I think I was a bit unclear. Being a Muslim is our true identity, I believe that and you can disagree. But the fact is being Muslim has given the western scholars enough excuses to cover our achievements for the humanity. We, the Iranians, are mainly responsible for these shortcomings because as I said before we are inherently humble and modest where western culture that has benefited from strong materialistic perception towards life has always demanded a credit for its achievements. This is not a big deal because in average, modesty in conjunction with purposefulness are the real winners.


Midwesty

Zion,

by Midwesty on

I don’t want to be rude but you didn’t even read my whole article how come you comment about it. If you could go on reading beyond the first paragraph you would see that I had mentioned the fact, there are many Zoroastrians in Yazd. I am not angry but very paranoid and I tell you why. In Israeli’s “master plan of attacking Iran” that has being unfolded since 2006, Yazd has always come up as one of their main targets. How on earth you not want me to be paranoid when someone with the name of Zion comes up and wants to leave a good comment on Yazd?!

However, I don’t think it is a shame that the architect is unknown. In many cases Iranian architects, who were mainly religious people, wanted to be unknown because they wanted their character be projected in their work not their name overshadow it. They simply didn’t want name recognition but to have an intimate relationship with their lover. Also the building was built about 700 years ago but after that it has been renovated many times. This makes the task of identify the artists much difficult. I hope I answered your question.


Midwesty

Shaer,

by Midwesty on

Thank you very much for your comments! I have to say I got to get to know the people of Yazd through one of my relatives who is related to us by marriage. He's been such a wonderful character in our family and has given us many good memories. I've been in Yazd once and I loved the city's layout. I've seen this mosque and I've sat in the middle of its court yard. It felt so good. These feelings that are common among all visitors are good indicators to distinguish a piece of art from a cosmetic lump.


yetanotherexmuslim

Iranian Architecture rather than Islamic Architecture

by yetanotherexmuslim on

This is wonderful, I like your title by the way "God without demand". 

We don't have to use the same wrong label as others. Perhaps it is time we start calling Iranian art and Architecture Iranian rather than Islamic.

When the dust of Islam invaded the mother Pearl of Iran, this mother wrapped the dust with Pearl.

We should not confuse the dust with the Pearl, they are not one, the dust is still an irritant on the side of our culture and should not be credited for this magnificance.

I don't like the way the culture of large part of the world is summed up in one pot of Islam it makes Iranian achievement invisible in history books, and Iranian, Turkish Yemenese Architecture have their own distinct form.

This is important as IRI is rewriting history and some Mullahs claim Iran did not have culture before Islam!


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We must have been severely frightened

by Puzzled (not verified) on

It seems we Iranians have been hypnotized for so long. I can understand our survival through atrocities. Blaming aside, the big question is what factor caused us the most to become so alienated and anesthetized to our true identity?

The only rational answer I offer to myself is “fear’.

We must have been terrorized and unfathomable fear has been instigated into us Iranians. This fear is real and we must have been severely frightened.

To this day, this fear is perpetuating.


Zion

I mean it

by Zion on

I meant what I said. It is a shame that these artists are unknown. They should be considered some of the greatest in history of this art. I am not being sarcastic, and I don`t see why anyone should find that sarcastic? I really don`t see why my comment made you angry and I`m really curious now. Would you please explain why you found my comment offensive? How should I have written it to sound authentic to you?

Abarmard,

Yes. I knew that. There are also many Zoroastrians in Yazd, isn`t that so?


Shaer

Dear Midwesty

by Shaer on

Thank You Very Much For This Wonderful Article ..

I Want You to Know That My "Ancestors" All came From Yazd ..

Although I Was Born and raised In Tehran, I Grew Up In A "Completely" Yazdi Culture ..

By That I Mean, That If You Talked With A "Yazdi" Accent, I Could Pick Up Where You Left Off ..

Again, Many Thanks .. :)


Midwesty

Zion,

by Midwesty on

If you are being sarcastic I tell you , you have a very bad taste for it. Ask your question in a direct way then get an answer in the same way.


Abarmard

You are right Zion

by Abarmard on

Yes it's a shame.  Also I am not sure if you knew that Yazd has (or had) a large Iranian Jewish population. interestingly President khatami of Iran and President Moshe Katzav of Israel are both from the city of Yazd.


Zion

Unknown Genius

by Zion on

As I said before, Persian Architecture is like a Jewel.

`Friday Mosque of Yazd, as it is known in English, was built around 1324 AD by an unknown architect `

This is something I don`t understand. Why is such genius and teh likes of him unknown? They would have been among the greatest in the history of this art around the world. Such a shame. I really don`t understand it.


Midwesty

Abarmard, Thanks for adding more points.

by Midwesty on

"Very little is publicized in regard to Yazd", it is by no means an accident that westerners do not publicize it. Go to any public library in the US and search their catalogues with these keywords: "Greatest ancient civilizations", "Greatest wars", "The history of art", and "The history of world". You’ll see a lot of books with regards to Roman and Greek entries and if you find something at the bottom of their freaking catalogues you’ll see that in those books there are no independent sections on Iran or Persia. They freaking lump sum us under Islamic Art or civilizations and that’s it. By no means don’t I want to disrespect Islam but we it bothers me when I see we are intentionally overshadowed by a religion that we contributed to it so much. It seems the westerners were just waiting to find an excuse to dip our art and culture into mud and hide it from the rest of the world. Good for them! We’ve shouldn’t let them!


Abarmard

Amazing City

by Abarmard on

I always speak to my American and non Iranian colleagues about the city of Yazd. I am amazed about its architecture and history. Very little is publicized in regard to Yazd.

I have heard that the city is one of the largest agricultures such as pomegranate producer of the country. The Qanat (under ground water system) has made the city a livable and advanced in the middle of nowhere. The city shows the human ingenuity and will to reform an unlivable desert into a place of prosperous civilization. It's natural air conditioning system cools the city and the homes through out the town.

The possible development of the planet Mars can be easily modeled after Yazd. If you have not yet visited this amazing city, do so next time you visit Iran.