Photos: Qaen Jame Mosque in Iran

by Abbas Adil

 Qaen (Qayen) Jame’ Mosque is located in Qaen (Qayen) city in South Khorasan province, Iran.

This magnificent building belongs to the 8th century AH and is located in the center of the city. According to the inscription on the porch of the Grand Mosque, this building was built in 796 AH by the order of Amir Jamshid Qarani; Thus, the Qaen (Qayen) Mosque is one of the works made in the late Ilkhanid period and the beginning of the Timurid period. The Qaen (Qayen) Grand Mosque has an area of ​​2470 square meters, of which 1050 square meters is the foundation of porches, naves and rooms and 120 square meters of interior space. The courtyard of the mosque is an area 33 meters long and 28 meters wide.

There are chambers of 2 meters deep around the yard. One of the architectural masterpieces of the mosque is its porch which is magnificently built with a height of 18 meters, a width of 11 meters and a length of 22 meters. Previously, there were two minarets on both sides of the porch, 5 meters high, which made the mosque very beautiful, and the sound of the Muezzin was heard from it before its destruction.

The roof of the porch has four arches and three domes, which are beautifully painted and decorated with very elegant and beautiful mosaics. The paintings of the porch are in the Isfahani style and were done in the Safavid period and painted on them in later times. The two bedchamber on both sides of the porch, which are well used in winter, are very effective in preventing the walls around the porch from slipping. The large and valuable wooden pulpit of the mosque belongs to the year 1082 AH, which is made of sycamore wood by Master Mohammad Vaezi Kakhki in an elaborate manner and its inscription is engraved on it.

Qaen (Qayen) Jame Mosque is the first registered historical monument in South Khorasan, which after more than 1100 years is still considered as the tallest mansion in Qaen and a genuine Iranian-Islamic masterpiece. The mosque has two altars, one facing the Kaaba and the other facing Jerusalem. Although this mosque is one of the oldest mosques in Iran, its altars have nothing to do with changing the qibla from Al-Aqsa Mosque to Mecca.

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