Masjid-i DiggaronKhazara, Uzbekistan
The Digaron Masjid is a brick mosque with nine domes located in the city of Khazara, fifteen miles from Samarkand. The mosque was built sometime between the eighth and eleventh centuries; authorities date it to the eighth/ninth (Schroeder) and eleventh (Pugachenkova) centuries. As much as two-thirds of the building may be original construction, while the entrance façade and gallery may have been restored. The entrance façade and domes have a lower elevation in comparison to the rest of the building.
The masjid's exterior dimensions are approximately sixteen meters by sixteen meters. Although the masjid's plan is square, a lower portal structure measuring four meters by sixteen meters projects from the central dome structure. The portal façade is largely unadorned but for its screen wall, which is flanked by two lower porticoes. The portal façade is pierced by three trabeated arches centered on each aisle, the central arch distinguished by its white frame. Each of the entranceways has a blind pointed arch niche above. The base of the façade is lined by two steps with the central archway further distinguished by its two white steps projecting from it.
The interior measures fourteen meters by fourteen meters. Each of its nine domes are supported by squinch vaults. At the four corners are cupolas with two levels of muqarnas. The central dome is the largest, measuring approximately five meters and achieving a height of approximately eleven and a half meters. The central dome is supported by pointed arches that rise to the base of the dome. These arches are each decorated with ten trilobed finials projecting from the intrados.
The quibla wall has a two-tiered projecting base board into which the mihrab is centrally inset. The mihrab consists of a framed pointed arch. The quibla additionally has a minbar built into the wall.
Decorations are in carved terracotta.
Sources:
Albaum, Lazar Izrailevich. Herren der Steppe, plate 21, 53. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1976.
Pugachenkova, Galina Anatol'evna. 2001. "Transoxiana and Khurasan, the Arrival of the Arabs," in "Urban Development and Architecture." UNESCO Collection of History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Online Edition. http://www.unesco.org/culture/asia/html_eng/chapitre4218/chapitre1.htm. [Accessed June 1, 2006; inaccessible November 13, 2013]
Schroeder, Eric. "Standing Monuments of the First Period." In A Survey of Persian Art: From the Prehistoric Times to the Present III, edited by Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, 945. Tehran: Soroush Press, 1977.
The Digaron Masjid is a brick mosque with nine domes located in the city of Khazara, fifteen miles from Samarkand. The mosque was built sometime between the eighth and eleventh centuries; authorities date it to the eighth/ninth (Schroeder) and eleventh (Pugachenkova) centuries. As much as two-thirds of the building may be original construction, while the entrance façade and gallery may have been restored. The entrance façade and domes have a lower elevation in comparison to the rest of the building.
The masjid's exterior dimensions are approximately sixteen meters by sixteen meters. Although the masjid's plan is square, a lower portal structure measuring four meters by sixteen meters projects from the central dome structure. The portal façade is largely unadorned but for its screen wall, which is flanked by two lower porticoes. The portal façade is pierced by three trabeated arches centered on each aisle, the central arch distinguished by its white frame. Each of the entranceways has a blind pointed arch niche above. The base of the façade is lined by two steps with the central archway further distinguished by its two white steps projecting from it.
The interior measures fourteen meters by fourteen meters. Each of its nine domes are supported by squinch vaults. At the four corners are cupolas with two levels of muqarnas. The central dome is the largest, measuring approximately five meters and achieving a height of approximately eleven and a half meters. The central dome is supported by pointed arches that rise to the base of the dome. These arches are each decorated with ten trilobed finials projecting from the intrados.
The quibla wall has a two-tiered projecting base board into which the mihrab is centrally inset. The mihrab consists of a framed pointed arch. The quibla additionally has a minbar built into the wall.
Decorations are in carved terracotta.
Sources:
Albaum, Lazar Izrailevich. Herren der Steppe, plate 21, 53. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1976.
Pugachenkova, Galina Anatol'evna. 2001. "Transoxiana and Khurasan, the Arrival of the Arabs," in "Urban Development and Architecture." UNESCO Collection of History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Online Edition. http://www.unesco.org/culture/asia/html_eng/chapitre4218/chapitre1.htm. [Accessed June 1, 2006; inaccessible November 13, 2013]
Schroeder, Eric. "Standing Monuments of the First Period." In A Survey of Persian Art: From the Prehistoric Times to the Present III, edited by Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, 945. Tehran: Soroush Press, 1977.