I was asked last week about the tomb of Khajeh Rabeh in Mashhad – and had to confess that I’ve never visited it. But my curiosity was piqued – so I did an internet search . . and found that the internal decoration of the octagonal building is simply stunning.
Dont miss out on a series of photos by Alfred Molon here.
And look here for more great images of the mausoleum interior by Behnam
Press TV have a little film: look here – from 3.07 for the mausoleum (or maybe I should say mass-0h-leum): the rest of the film is about the Friday mosque in Sabsavar). The film doesn’t have great images – though it does give the most detailed information I can find about Khajeh Rabee: suggesting that he was a companion of Ali, no less. Other sources say that he was a companion to the Holy Prophet himself, or someone who accompanied Imam Reza to Khorasan.
Whatever the truth is (and I’m really open to offers of info!), his shrine was obviously important enough to be decorated during the reign of Shah Abbas the Great, with inscriptions by the pre-eminent calligrapher Ali Reza Abbasi (look here , here and here for images of this) in AH 1026 / CE 1617 and AH 1621 / CE 1621.
This week, I’ve just had to show you some absolutely scrumptious Safavid tiles. I had intended to start catching up on some topics that have been queuing to get on the blog for a little while. But someone asked me about a shrine in Mashhad that I’ve never visited – and when I looked it up on the internet, I was blown away (as they say) by the tiles. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!
Please do click on the links in the post to enjoy a few minutes of pure beauty!
Wow! What great tiles and photos. Truly gorgeous.
A bit late for Savavid?
I love these amazing images, tiles… especially eight pointed star, it will have an influence on some other work of mine that I have been thinking about for some time now.