Studying the Abash Khatūn (Khatūn Qīyamat) tomb in Shīrāz and its architecture by historical documents and existing evidence

The tomb of "Abash Khatūn" or "Khatūn-e Qīyamat" is part of the lesser-known architectural heritage of Shīrāz, which its attribution to Attābak Abash is a point of dispute, and due to the extensive destructions of the last century, a small part of it is left. The importance of this research is that this mansion is one of the few buildings that have remained in Shīrāz from the Safavid era or before. For this reason, the study of architecture and its decorations can clarify at least a part of the Safavid heritage. The aim of the current research is to obtain a narrative of this building and its surroundings based on the evaluation of existing hypotheses and to prepare the visual reconstruction of this building. This research tries to answer these questions: what is the background of the building and what was the role of the governors and women supporters in its formation and prosperity? What features do the available visual evidence of this building reveal? And how is the architecture, geometry of the building and its decorations? The research method is "interpretive-historical". The results show that this field found its initial form as "Mashad Umm Kolsūm" in the days of Dilmian (11th) and flourished in the Seljuk era. The greatest contribution to the prosperity of this field is in the first half of the 14th century when it became "Al-Solghor Cemetery". Attābak Abash built a rabat named after himself and later Kurduchin built a new mansion or returned Abash Khatūn's body to the same rabat. Studying the available documents, especially the photos and maps, show that from the 19th to the 21th centuries, this building has always been known as the "Khatūn Qīyamat". The building has symmetrical geometry in plan; depth of the north-west and southeast sides of the arches are more than the other two sides. This issue is evident both in the remains of the walls and in historical photos. Any comment about the tomb entrance will be wrong. However, it can only be assumed that the entrance of the building on the northwest side was one of the weakest parts of the building because its wall was the most destroyed over time. Probably, the final height of the building was about 22 meters and the interior of the dome was decorated with simple applications that have not been left. The exterior decorations of the building are limited to simple brickwork and mosaic tiles. The most important decoration of the building and its only remaining inscription is an inscription in the Thuluth without date and author's name, which includes up to the middle of the 10th verse of Surah Fath of the Qur'an. Although it is decorated with mosaic tiles, its square plan and symmetrical view are such that the "ratio of height to width" and "the height of the external dome" all reminiscent of the construction pattern of the tower tombs of the Ilkhanid period, which perhaps got their current form with successive restorations in the early Safavid era.