Nakş-ı Cihan Meydanı: Mekân, Mimari ve Kronoloji

Year 2024, Volume: 88 Issue: 313, 771 - 810, 06.12.2024

Damla Gürkan Anar

Abstract

XVI. yüzyılın sonlarında Safevî Devleti’nin üçüncü payitahtı tayin edilen İsfahan, saray ve hanedan mensuplarının himaye ettiği inşa faaliyetleri sayesinde pek çok yeni kentsel mekân ve anıtsal yapı kazanmış ve yeni bir başkente dönüşmüştür. Yeni payitahtın en önemli kentsel mekânları arasında, I. Abbas’ın himayesinde başkentin yeni ticari, dinî, sosyal ve törensel merkezi olarak inşa edilen Nakş-ı Cihan Meydanı yer alır. İsfahan’ın Safevî payitahtı olmadan önceki ticari, dinî ve sosyal-törensel merkezi olan Harun-ı Velayet Meydanı’nın güneyinde yer alan Nakş-ı Cihan Meydanı, dört kenarı farklı işlevlere sahip yapılarla çevrelenmiş, geniş dikdörtgen bir mekândır. Meydanın etrafı, iki sıralı ve çift katlı dükkânlardan müteşekkil, üstü kapalı bir çarşıyla çevrilidir. Dört kenarının her birinde, hepsi Şah Abbas tarafından inşa ettirilen farklı anıtsal yapılar yer alır. Mekânın kuzey kenarında Kayseriye Pazarı, batı cephesinde Ali Kapu Sarayı, doğusunda Şeyh Lütfullah Mescidi ve güneyinde Şah Mescidi bulunur. İki aşamada inşa edilen meydanın ve etrafındaki yapıların tamamlanması yaklaşık kırk yıl sürmüştür. Bu makalede, Nakş-ı Cihan Meydanı’nın mekânsal kurgusu, mimari unsurları ve inşa kronolojisi, ikincil kaynaklar, mekânda yapılan gözlemler, Safevî kronikleri ve Batılı seyyahların anlatıları ışığında ele alınacaktır. Çalışmada, Nakş-ı Cihan Meydanı ve etrafındaki yapıların, I. Abbas’ın dinî, ticari ve siyasi ajandası etkisinde şekillendiği iddia edilmektedir. Söz konusu mekânda, anıtsal mimari, kitabeler ve duvar resimleri aracılığıyla şahın siyasi, askerî ve dinî otoritesi ile İmâmiyye mezhebini ve ticareti himayesinin temsil edildiği savunulmaktadır.

Keywords

Safevî İranı, Safevî mimarisi, İsfahan, Nakş-ı Cihan Meydanı, Şah Abbas

Ethical Statement

Bu makale, Kasım 2022’de Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsünde tamamladığım Isfahan and Istanbul in the Early Seventeenth Century: Masjed-e Shah and Sultan Ahmed Complexes [Erken On Yedinci Yüzyılda İsfahan ve İstanbul: Mescid-i Şah ve Sultan Ahmed Külliyeleri] adlı doktora tezinden üretilmiştir. Makale, ek kaynaklar ile yeni değerlendirmeler içermekte ve tez çalışmasının Nakş-ı Cihan Meydanı hakkındaki bölümünü geliştirmeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Naqsh-e Jahan Square: Space, Architecture, and Chronology

Abstract

In the late sixteenth century, Isfahan was transformed into the new capital of Safavid State, acquiring many new urban spaces and monuments with construction activities patronized by the members of the court and dynasty. Among these new urban spaces was Naqsh-e Jahan Square, designed under Shah Abbas’ patronage as the new commercial, religious, and social-ceremonial center of the capital. Located to the south of Harun Velayet Square, the commercial, religious, and social-ceremonial center of Isfahan before the seventeenth century, Naqsh-e Jahan Square is a large rectangular space surrounded by monuments with diverse functions. It is enveloped by a covered bazaar consisting of two rows of double-storeyed shops. On its four sides are different monumental buildings, all built by Shah Abbas. Qaysariyyah Bazaar is located on the northern edge, Ali Qapu Palace on the west, Sheikh Lutfullah Mosque on the east, and Shah Mosque on the south. Built in two stages, the square and the monuments around it took approximately forty years to complete. This article discusses the spatial configuration, architectural elements, and construction chronology of Naqsh-e Jahan Square in light of secondary sources, observations made at the site, Safavid chronicles, and Western travelogues. It has been argued that Naqsh-e Jahan Square was shaped under the influence of the religious, commercial, and political agenda of Shah Abbas. Its main claim is that the shah’s political, military, spiritual authority and patronage of Twelver Shi’ism and trade are represented in the square through architecture, inscriptions, and murals.

Keywords

Safavid Iran, Safavid architecture, Isfahan, Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Shah Abbas

Ethical Statement

This article is based on my PhD dissertation, Isfahan and Istanbul in the Early Seventeenth Century: Masjed-e Shah and Sultan Ahmed Complexes, completed in November 2022 at the Institute for Graduate Studies in Social Sciences, Boğaziçi University. It includes additional sources and new assessments and aims to develop my dissertation’s chapter on Naqsh-e Jahan Square.

References

• Kaynak Eserler Barbaro, Josaphat, Anadolu’ya ve İran’a Seyahat, çev. Tufan Gündüz, Yeditepe Yayınları, İstanbul 2016.
• Chardin, Jean, Voyages de Monsieur le Chevalier Chardin en Perse et Autre Lieux de l’Orient, C I-X, Amsterdam 1711.
• Cünābādī, Mīrza Beg, Ravḍat el-Ṣafevīyye, ed. Gulāmreẓa Ṭabaṭāba’ī Mecīd, Enteşārat-e ‘İlmī ve Ferhengī, Tahran 1999.
• Della Valle, Pietro, Sefernāme-ye Pietro Della Valle, çev. Şi’aūddīn Şifā, Enteşārat-e ‘İlmī ve Ferhengī, Tahran 2005.
• Esterābādī, Seyyīd Ḥasan bin Murteẓa Ḥuseinī, Tārīḫ-e Sultānī: Ez Şeyḫ Ṣāfī tā Şāh Ṣāfī, Enteşārat-e ‘İlmī, Tahran 1984.
• Figueroa, García de Silva, The Commentaries of D. García de Silva y Figueroa on his Embassy to Shāh ʿAbbās I of Persia onBbehalf of Philip III, King of Spain, çev. Jeffrey Souza, Brill Publishing, Leiden ve Boston, 2017.
• Herbert, Thomas, Travels in Persia 1627-1629, Routledge, Oxfordshire 2015. Kaempfer, Engelbert, Amoenitates Exoticae, Lemgo 1712.
• Khuzani Isfahani, Fazli Beg, A Chronicle of the Reign of Shah ‘Abbas, C I-II, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2015.
• Münşi-yi Türkmen, İskender Bey, Târîh-i Âlem-ârâ-yi Abbâsî, C I-II, çev. Ali, Genceli, yay. haz. İsmail Aka, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, Ankara 2019.
• Naṭanzī, Maḥmud bin Hedāyet, Neḳāvetu’l-Āṣār fi Ẓikru’l-Aḫyār, Enteşārat-e ‘İlmī ve Ferhengī, Tahran 1987.
• Olearius, Adam, The Voyages and Travels of the Ambassadors Sent by Frederick Duke of Holstein to the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the King of Persia, printed for John Starkey and Thomas Basset, Londra 1669.
• Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste, Tavernier Seyahatnamesi, çev. Stephanos Yerasimos, Kitap Yayınevi, Ankara 2012.
• Yezdī, Molla Celāluddīn Muneccīm, Tārīḫ-e ‘Abbāsī (Ruznāme-ye Molla Celāl), Enteşārat-e Vaḥīd, Tahran 1987.
• Araştırma ve İnceleme Eserler
• Abisaab, Rula Jurdi, Converting Persia: Religion and Power in the Safavid Empire, I. B. Tauris Press, Londra ve New York 2004.
• Alemi, Mahvash, “Urban Spaces as the Scene for the Ceremonies and Pastimes of the Safavid Court”, Environmental Design: Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre, ed. A. Petruccioli, Dell’oca Editore, Roma 1991, s. 98-107.
• Aube, Sandra-Lorain, Thomas-Bendezu Sermiento, Julio, “The Complex of Gawhar Shad in Herat: New Findings About Its Architecture and Ceramic Tile Decorations”, Iran, 58/1, 2020, s. 62-83.
• Babaie, Sussan-Babayan, Kathryn-Baghdiantz MacCabe, Ina-Farhad, Massumeh, Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran, I. B. Tauris Press, Londra ve New York 2004.
• Babaie Sussan-Robert Haug, “Isfahan x. monuments (3) mosques”, Encyclopedia Iranica, C XIV, 2007, s. 6-40.
• Babaie, Sussan, Isfahan and Its Palaces: Statecraft, Shi’ism and the Architecture of Conviviality in the Early Modern Iran, Edinburg University Press, Edinburgh 2008.
• Bakhtiar, Ali, “The Royal Bazaar of Isfahan”, Iranian Studies, 7/1, İlkbahar 1974, s. 320-347.
• Blair, Sheila, “Inscribing the Square: The inscriptions on the Maidan-i Shah in Isfahan”, Calligraphy and Architecture in the Muslim World, ed. Mohammad Gharipour- Irvin Cemil Schick, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2013, s. 13-28.
• Blake, Stephan, Half the World: The Social Architecture of Safavid Isfahan 1590-1722, Mazda Publishing, Costa Mesa 1999.
• Blow, David, Shah Abbas: The Ruthless King Who Became an Iranian Legend, I. B. Tauris Publishing, Londra ve New York 2009.
• Ca’feriyān, Resūl, Devazdeh Risāle-ye Fıḳhī derbāre-ye Namāz-e Com’e, Enteşārat-e Ensār, Kum 2013.
• Coste, Pascal Xavier, Monuments Moderne de la Perse, A. Moral, Paris 1867. Degeorge, Gerard- Porter, Yves, The Art of Islamic Tile, Flammarion, Paris 2002. Ḍerrābī, ‘Abdurraḥīm Ḳalenter, Tārīḫ-e Kāşān, Enteşārat-e Emīr Kebīr, Tahran 1999.
• Emami, Farshid, “Coffeehouses, Urban Spaces, and the Formation of a Public Sphere in Safavid Iran”, Muqarnas, 33, 2016, s. 177-220.
• Emami, Farshid, “Inviolable Thresholds, Blessed Palaces, and Holy Friday Mosques: The Sacred Topography of Safavid Isfahan”, The Friday Mosque in the City: Liminality, Ritual, and Politics, ed. Hilal Uğurlu-Suzan Yalman, Intellect Books, Bristol 2021, s. 159-195.
• Galdieri, Eugenio, “Two Building Phases of the Time of Shah Abbas I in the Maidan-i Shah of Isfahan: Preliminary Note”, East and West, 20, 1970, s. 60-69.
• Galdieri, Eugenio, Ali Qapu; An Architectural Survey. Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Roma, 1979.
• Gaube, Heinz-Wirth, Eugen, Der Bazar von Isfahan, C I-II, Dr. Ludwig Reichert, Wiesbaden 1978.
• Golombek, Lisa, “Anatomy of a Mosque: Masjed-e Shah in Isfahan”, Iranian Civilization and Culture: Essays in Honour of the 2,500th Anniversary of the Persian Empire, ed. Charles Adams, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal 1973, s. 5-15.
• Golombek, Lisa. “Urban Patterns in pre-Safavid Isfahan” Iranian Studies, 7/3, Sonbahar 1974, s. 18-44.
• Gulrīz, Muḥammed ‘Alī, Minūder yā Bābu’l-Cennet: Tārīḫ ve Coġrafya-ye Tārīḫī-ye Ḳazvīn, C I-II, Enteşārāt-e Vezīr, Kazvin 1995.
• Gürkan Anar, Damla, Isfahan and Istanbul in the Early Seventeenth Century: Masjed-e Shah and Sultan Ahmed Complexes, Yayımlanmamış Doktora Tezi, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, İstanbul 2022.
• Hillenbrand, Robert, “Safavid Architecture”, Cambridge History of Iran: The Timurid and Safavid Periods, C VI, ed. Peter Jackson-Lawrence Lockhart, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986, s. 759-842.
• Honerfer, Luṭfullāh, Gencīne-ye Āṣār-e Tārīḫī-ye İṣfahān, Merkez-e Furūş ve Enteşār, İṣfahān 1967.
• Keyani, Muhammed Yusuf, İslam Dönemi İran Mimarisi, çev. Kaan Dilek, İraniyat Yayınları, Ankara 2018.
• McChesney, Robert, “Four Sources on Shah Abbas’s Building of Isfahan”, Muqarnas, 5, 1988, s. 103-134.
• Mehrefzā, Muḥammed Reḍā, “Berresī-ye Āṣār-e Mi’mārī-ye Şeyḫ Bahāī”, Soḫen-e Tārīḫ, 9, 2010, s. 59-75.
• Melville, Charles, “New Light on Shah ‘Abbas and the Construction of Isfahan”, Muqarnas, 33, 2016, s. 155-176.
• O’Kane, Bernard, Timurid Architecture in Khurasan, Mazda Publishers, Costa Mesa 1987. Pirnia, Muḥammed Kerīm, Mi’mārī-ye İrānī, Neşr-e Surūş-e Dāneş, Tahran 2008.
• Pope, Arthur Upham, A survey of Persian Art, C III, Oxford University Press, Londra ve New York 1938-1939.
• Rahimi, Babak, Theater State and the Formation of Early Modern Public Sphere in Iran: Studies on Safavid Muharram Rituals, Brill Publishing, Leiden; Boston 2012.
• Ritter, Markus, “Monumental Epigraphy in Iran: Paired Panels with Square Kufic Script and Sa’di Verses in Safavid and Earlier Islamic Architecture”, Eurasian Studies, 6, 2006-2007, s. 20-38.
• Ritter, Markus, “Das Königliche Portal und die Nordseite des Maidans von Schah ʿAbbas I im Safawidischen Isfahan”, Iran und iranisch geprägte Kulturen, ed. Markus Ritter-Ralph Kauz-Birgitt Hoffmann, Reichert, L., Wiesbaden 2008, s. 357-376.
• Ritter, Markus, “Zum ‘Siegesmonument’ in islamischer Kunst: Schlachtenbild und Trophäen an einem Portal im safawidischen Isfahan, Iran 17. Jahrhundert”, Inszenierung des Sieges-Sieg der Inszenierung, ed. Michaela Fahlenbock-Lukas Madersbacher-Ingo Schneider, Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2011, s. 181-198.
• Ruggles, D. Fairchild, İslami Bahçeler ve Peyzajlar, çev. Nurcan Boşdurmaz, Koç Üniversitesi Yayınları, İstanbul 2017.
• Sipanta, Abdulḥusein, Tārīḫçe-ye Evḳāf-e İṣfahān. Enteşārat-e İdāre-ye Koll-e Evḳāf-e İṣfahān, İsfahan 1963.
• Soucek, Priscilla, “‘Ālī Qāpū” Encyclopædia Iranica, 1/8, 2020, s. 871-872.
• Szuppe, Maria, “Palais et Jardins: Le Complexe Royal des Premiers Safavides à Qazvin, Milieu XVIe–Début XVIIe Siècles”, Res Orientales, 8, 1996, s. 152-171.
• Yıldız, Leyla, Safevî Döneminde Tebriz: Kentsel Mekânda Dönüşüm Süreçleri, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, Ankara 2021.
• İnternet Kaynakları
• Chardin, Jean, Voyages de Monsieur le Chevalier Chardin en Perse et Autre Lieux de l’Orient C VIII, fig. 8. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Naqshi_Jahan_ Square_in_art#/media/File:36_Chardin_Masjed_Shah_1705.jpg , son erişim tarihi: 05.04.2024).
• Kaempfer, Engelbert, Amoenitates Exoticae, Lemgo 1712, s. 170. (https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Naqshi_Jahan_Square_in_art#/media/ File:Great_Square_of_Isfahan_-_Engelbert_Kaempfer’s_Amoenitates_Exoticae. jpg , son erişim tarihi: 05.04.2024).