The complex of Ali Quli Aqa was built during the first decade of the sixteenth century by a eunuch of Safavid Shahs Sulayman and Husayn who went by the same name. Located along the banks of the Nahr Fadan canal in the Bidabad neighborhood of Isfahan, the complex consists of a mosque-madrasa, a bath house, a caravanserai, a bazaar and several fountains (saqqa-khanah). The mosque-madrasa complex is located on the east side of the Nahr Fadan while the bath, bazaar and caravanserai form a group on the west. The bazaar is organized along three stretches of street linked by a domed octagonal intersection (chahar-su). One street runs west from the canal across from the mosque entrance toward the chahar su. The other two run north and south of the domed intersection into other parts of the neighborhood.
Waqf documents tell us that the original complex was supported by shops built into the facade of the mosque-madrasa. Later, the bazaar was constructed with 30 shops, a saqqa-khana and a kahve-khana. The multi-faceted complex evidently functioned as an important node for the surrounding community.
Sources:
Blake, Stephen P. Half the World: The Social Architecture of Safavid Isfahan, 1590 - 1722. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 1999.
Golombek, Lisa and Renata Holod. Preliminary Report on the Isfahan City Project (Paper delivered at the Congress for Iranian Art & Archaeology, Munich, September 1976). Isfahan Urban History Project. The Aga Khan Documentation Center at Mit. Carton 1, Folder 17, "Isfahan Papers [1975-1979]."
