Study of the Framework Components of the Kufic Inscriptions of Kerman Friday Mosque According to the Application of Visual Elements

Kerman Friday mosque is among Iran’s four-ayvan mosques, constructed in the period of Āl-i Muẓaffar in eighth century AH. Besides the special architecture of the building, the decorations of the mosque, especially the Kufic, decorative, and ma‘qilī inscriptions that are applied along with the surface of the building and the material have given a specific and exclusive appearance to it. These inscriptions are among the most ancient extant samples of Azari-style architecture, the result of studying which can display the condition of writing Kufic inscriptions at the beginning of the formation of this style in eighth century AH and the development course of its decorations in latter periods. Furthermore, the variety and desirable quality of the framework components and its visual elements necessitates carrying out this research. This research has initially undertaken to recognize, reappraise, and reconstruct the Kufic inscriptions of Kerman Friday Mosque with the help of graphic software and then examined the visual manifestations and the type of inscription arrangement and their separation in various construction periods of the inscription. To this end, the typology of the inscription, different types of Kufic scripts, contexts, the inscription framework, the image-theme and the structure of the samples are examined on the basis of descriptive-analytic method. With a graphic demonstration of a reconstructed collection of the Kufic inscriptions, the variety of scripts, the application of various image-theme, and the intermixture of the scripts with the brickwork and ma‘qilī tiles, this research would display the specific characteristics of the inscriptions of each period.