Agha Bozorg

Kashan, Iran

Agha Bozorg was the title for the famous clergyman, Mulla Mahdi Naraqi. His father-in-law, Mohammad-Taghi Khanaban, was a wealthy man who built this mosque-madrasa in 1851 for Naraqi to hold religious meetings and classes.

This mosque-madrasa from the Qajar dynasty is very important from an architectural point of view because it doesn’t follow the dominant patterns of its era. Instead of using a four-īwān plan and including mahtabis, like Seyyed Mosque-Madrasa (p198), the architect Haj Sha’ban, employed a popular local residential element: a sunken courtyard. Houses in Kashan consisted of anything from one to three storeys and were built into the ground around a sunken central courtyard. This had many advantages: the soil excavated was used to build bricks and make mortar; the walls leaned on the surrounding ground acted as both a great insulator and a great support for arches; and finally, it protected people from the harsh desert climate.

For Agha Bozorg Mosque-Madrasa, Haj Sha’ban arranged hojrehs on three sides and a winter mosque on the fourth side of a central sunken courtyard. When one steps through the portal īwān, into the upper courtyard, one is basically standing on top of the winter mosque (see picture). To get to the summer mosque, which was originally a chartaqi open on four sides (like the pre-Islamic fire temples), one must pass around the sunken courtyard. There are steps on both sides providing access to the lower level. The shabestan (prayer hall) on the western side of the dome chamber was added later, disrupting the original pure form. Despite its lack of ornamentation and luxury, Agha Bozorg is a masterpiece in terms of design.