The Balanced Combination of Enthusiasm and Peace in the Imam Mosque of Isfahan

The concepts of enthusiasm and peace are the key topics of environmental psychology and the spiritual architecture of the mosques are more important. Some contemporary mosques are built without the least attention to the lofty conceptual aspects. They are only designed in response to the common functions of mosques, and they do not leave any room for these emotions to be manifested and expressed. This study aimed to elucidate the psychological sensitivity in the architecture of the most important and historic Iranian mosques, and it used them as a model for contemporary mosques.For this purpose, first through interpretative and analytic methods, the concepts of enthusiasm and peace in religious and mystical texts are theoretically examined. The authors tried to use case studies and logical reasoning to study the bodily-spatial characteristics representing architectural concepts in the Imam Mosque in Isfahan. The final goal was to identify elements which epitomize these concepts.The findings of the research indicate that in the traditional mosques, the architects, creatively using the elements of lighting, color, material reduction, and lightening it, managed to create these concepts in the viewers. The peace created is beyond the worldly peace, and enthusiasm created is more than provocation. The results indicate that in the Imam Mosque of Isfahan, there occurred a course of enthusiasm and peace, in a way that the enthusiasm of entrance (the first spot) is supplemented by the spiritual peace and, so is the peace of oratory/atrium (the terminal point) by the spiritual enthusiasm.