Mosque Name: Masjid Tarik Khana
Country: Iran
City: Damghan
Year of construction (AH): 89 AH
Year of construction (AD): 708 AD
GPS: 36.164323 54.354392
ArchNet: http://archnet.org/sites/1605
Gibson Classification:: Petra 245
Rebuilt facing Mecca: never
For a Link to the Qibla Tool Click Here
Description:
The oldest extant mosque in Iran, the Tarik Khana, or ‘House of God’ incorporates a simple Arab plan with Sassanian construction techniques. An arcade lines the central courtyard, a single bay deep on all but the qibla side where it increases to 3 bays. The central aisle on the qibla arcade is wider and taller than the others, a form that presciently indicates the later ubiquitous monumental axis of Persian architecture. The arcades, recalling Sassanian precedents, are formed of fired brick arches, elliptical and sometimes slightly pointed, and massive circular brick piers.
The original Qibla has now been destroyed, as it did not face the correct direction, and has been replaced with an angled arch. See: (http://rch.ac.ir/article/Details/7204)
Qibla of the old Tarik Khana mosque
Tarik Khaneh mosque in Damghan, the probably oldest mosque in Iran. © Mehrdad Jahanbakhsh
Plan of Tarik Khane Mosque, Damghan - A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture by K.A.C. Creswell, 1989
References:
Schmidt, Erich F., 1937. Excavations at Tepe Hissar Damghan, Publications of the Iranian Section of the University Museum, Philadelphia: the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Schmidt, Erich F., 1933. “Tepe Hissar Excavations, 1931”, The Museum Journal 23(4): 323-487. https://www.penn.museum/sites/journal/9417/
Labisi, Giuseppe, 2020. “The Tārī Ḫāna Mosque of Damghan: A Diachronic Analysis”, in: Valentina Laviola and Martina Massullo (eds.), Maḥabbatnāma: Scritti Offerti a Maria Vittoria Fontana dai suoi allievi per il suo settantesimo compleanno, Pubblicazioni dell’Istituto per l’Oriente C.A. Nallino 125, Roma: dell’Istituto per l’Oriente C.A. Nallino, 195-230.
