#fridaymosque

Clockwise from top: Fig. no 60 of Friday Mosque demonstrating aesthetic role (upper left) and structural role (upper right, lower left) to the rib structure [Jabal Ameli 1995], General view of the shabistan of the Isafahan Friday mosque [photograph by Khosrow Bozorgi], Plan of Friday mosque of Isafahan showing the reflective ceiling plan, courtesy of Parsa Behesfti Shirazi and example image of vault patterns, courtesy of Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. All images sourced from Koliji H ‘Revisiting the Squinch: From Sqauring the Circle to Circling the Square’, Nexus Netw J, Vol. 14, No.2 2012 

“The square, the most externalised form of creation, represents, as earth, the polar condition of quantity, whereas the circle, as heaven, represents quality; the integration of the two is through the triangle, which embodies both aspects. The square of earth is the base upon which the Intellect acts in order to reintegrate the earthly into the circle of heaven. Reversing the analogy, the square, as the symbol of the manifestation of the last of the created worlds, reverts to the first; thus the heavenly Jerusalem is seen as a square in its qualities of permanence and immutability, and the circle is seen as earthly Paradise. The end of the world is seen symbolically as the “squaring of the circle” - the time when heaven manifests itself as a square, and the cosmic rhythm, integrating itself into this square, ceases to move”