EBRĀHĪM B. ESMĀʿĪL

 

EBRĀHĪM B. ESMĀʿĪL, Safavid architect mentioned on two tiles: one in the dome of the tomb of Shaikh ʿAbd-al-Ṣamad at Naṭanz and another, dated 1072/1661-62, in the south wall of the south ayvān of the congregational mosque at Isfahan (Godard, p. 261). The latter inscription does not specify what work was involved, but the only restoration known to have been carried out in the mosque during the reign of Shah ʿAbbās II (1052-77/1642-67) was the addition to the horizontal part of the facade’s rectangular inscription of the south ayvān (Godard, pp. 261-62). The tomb in nearby Naṭanz was probably repaired at the same time, for restorations were carried out at the shrine throughout the Safavid period: a wooden screen, for example, was erected around the cenotaph in 1064/1653-54. In the inscriptions on both tiles, Ebrāhīm b. Esmāʿīl is identified as “the builder from Isfahan” (al-bannāʾ al-eṣfahānī). He apparently came from a family of master craftsmen, for in the Isfahan inscription both he and his father are called ostād (master).

 

Bibliography:

S. S. Blair, The Ilkhanid Shrine Complex at Natanz, Iran, Cambridge, Mass., 1986, pp. 62-63.

A. Godard, “Historique du Masdjid-e Djumʿa d’Iṣfahan,” Āthār-é Īrān 1/2, 1936, pp. 211-82.

Honarfar, Ganjīna, pp. 94, 80.

Ḥ. Narāqī, Āṯār-e tārīḵī-e šahrestānhā-ye Kāšān o Naṭanz, Tehran, 1354 Š./1976, p. 397.

Répertoire chronologique d’épi-graphie arabe, Publications de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire, Cairo, 1931, no. 5225.

(Sheila S. Blair)

Originally Published: December 15, 1997

Last Updated: December 6, 2011

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Vol. VIII, Fasc. 1, p. 63