Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Imamzadeh complex in Nakhchivan

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Location
  
Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan

Completion date
  
1732

Type
  
Mausoleum

Beginning date
  
1722

Imamzadeh (Azerbaijani: Naxçıvanın İmamzadə kompleksi) - is a complex in Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan), located nearer to other monuments of the city, on the coast of the Aras River.

Architecture

Like many other monuments of Azerbaijan, Imamzadeh complex also was built in a manner of the 17th-18th centuries, peculiar to the period of the Safavids. The earliest burial vaults and mosques constructed near them are the main features of such complexes. The square-shaped mausoleum reminding of a vault with a cupola and a tower-mausoleum is a kernel of Imamzadeh complex of Nakhchivan. A decorative solution of a cylindrical body is analogical to Barda Mausoleum (1322) built by Ahmad ibn Eyyub, an architect from Nakhchivan. According to an inscription fixed on the entrance of the mausoleum, its construction began in 1722 and finished in 1732.

Horizontally laid red bricks and vertically laid glazed bricks (dark purple colored) make a whole carpet of a repeatedly continuing epigraphic motif. Constructions attached to the mausoleum were built later and apparently, had been reconstructed for several times. A mausoleum located not far from the complex can also be ascribed to cupola-tower shaped mausoleums, even though the main element of the composition - an octahedral tower volume covered with a cupola is similar to the onion-shaped domes. Approximately, the mausoleum can be dated to the 17th century. Apparently, the territory of Imamzadeh complex was a center of several funeral constructions. There was a cemetery belonged to the Middle Ages around the complex, but it has not saved until our days. In the Middle Ages, this place was a settlement and a worship place of local dervishs.

The architectural complex was reconstructed in 2004.

References

Imamzadeh complex in Nakhchivan Wikipedia