Many travellers stop at Natanz to see the gorgeous Ilkhanid (early 14th century) façade. It’s one of the most spectacular sights in Iranian architecture, and it’s only an hour or so from Isfahan, on the way to Kashan. With its blend of glazed tile, stucco, and terra cotta it’s been described as a 3-D version of the best of Persian miniature paintings.
But the shrine in Natanz isn’t just about the sumptuous facade. The complex developed as a grave-tomb-shrine after a shaykh in the Suharwardi Sufi order, ‘Abd al-Samad, died in Natanz in 1299. It is now recognised as one of the best preserved shrine complexes from the Ilkhanid era (1256–1353).
As well as the tomb of ‘Abd al-Samad, there’s a four-iwan mosque, an octagonal sanctuary, a minaret, and a mosque from the 1930’s. To fit in the available space, these are squashed together, built at different floor levels, and sometimes overlapping. Because of that, and the fact that the complex was built (and rebuilt) over many centuries, it can sometimes be difficult to work out what you are seeing. This post aims to help with that.
It’s useful to start by looking at the façade west to east (left to right as you face it):
The western portal is what remains of an early fourteenth century khanqah – somewhere for Sufi travellers or students who wanted to stay at ‘Abd al-Samad’s shrine. This khanqah was destroyed and replaced by a mosque in the 1930s.
Behind the central arch of the Natanz façade there is a 37-metre minaret with an inscription dated AH725/1324-25AD. This was substantially restored in the 1970s
At the eastern end of the façade, there’s another portal, which acts as an entrance into the complex through a sunken narrow corridor. An inscription there says that the building is a mosque built by Zayn al-Din Mastari in AH704/1304-5AD.
As you walk down into and through the sunken corridor, you’ll come to a doorway into the tomb chamber. This has a glorious muqarnas ceiling – and the much less glorious remnants of a – now looted – tiled mihrab and walls. I’ve written more about this little room here.
When you go on, you will come into a square courtyard mosque with two storeys of rooms, linking four iwans. There are muqarnas in the north and south iwans. Linked to the south iwan is an octagonal sanctuary.
The restoration in the 1970s revealed that this sanctuary was originally a freestanding pavilion. It is much earlier than the courtyard mosque – as it is dated AH389/999AD. It may not look anywhere near as lovely as the facade, but it is the earliest dated example of an octagonal form in Iran. It was built open with columns, like the early tomb towers. Buyid tombs didn’t actually need to have a body buried within them – there are fascinating accounts of bodies being placed in glass coffins, suspended from the ceiling. The body of someone called Qabus was hung in a location where the early morning light struck it. In Natanz, like in other important Shia shrines, the pavilion was built to be walked around (the technical term is circumambulation). At Mecca, the qa’aba is walked around counterclockwise (seven times). At Natanz, pilgrims would have walked in the opposite direction: clockwise. The renowned art historian, Sheila Blair, has suggested that the pavilion was originally built as an imamzada or shrine for a descendant of the Prophet.
This is surely why the site is so jumbled – the early fourteenth century development followed on from an open, octagonal pavilion built three hundred years earlier.