Historical Developments of Damavand Jame Mosque Based on Archaeological Evidence

Damavand Jame Mosque is one of the oldest and courtyard hypostyle mosques (Shabestani mosques) in Iran, which was located in the center of city and at the current location of Jame Mosque. The outline of the main map is a rectangular courtyard (Ravagh) with porticoes around it. The most important part of the mosque is its nave, which has five naves with six rows of columns. The importance of Damavand Jame Mosque is in terms of its plan and design, but it had not been paid attention to. The view of the nave from inside the courtyard (Ravagh) has three opening with pointed arches, the middle opening is slightly wider and higher than the adjacent openings, which is one of the characteristics of the early mosques of Iran. This same mosque with the characteristics of the Seljuq period brings its history to this period. Therefore, there is an inconsistency between the plan, map and characteristics of Shabestani with the characteristics of the Seljuq period of this mosque. This research tries to review the construction date of this building. The research method of this descriptive-historical writing is analytical based on the library and it is necessary to collect historical information, which was analyzed with the data obtained from the field investigation. The main questions are: First, how can one prove the existence of the original mosque and the existence of pre-Islamic constructions in the place of the Jame Mosque? Second, according to the available data, what date does Damavand Jame Mosque go back to? The investigation shows that the original mosque was built on the foundation of pre-Islamic and it is also possible to suggest three periods of consumption for the Jame Mosque. The first period: the early mosque with the plan of the nave, which was destroyed by the earthquake. The second period: the Seljuq Mosque was built on the remains of the original mosque with the same hypostyle (shabestani) plan with the features of the Seljuq period which was also destroyed by an earthquake. The third period: the current mosque was built on the foundations of the Seljuq Mosque in the second Pahlavi period.