An Analysis of the Stylistic References of Zoroastrian Religious Architecture in Iran

Zoroastrian religious architecture from the Sassanid period to the late period had distinctive style references and was influenced by internal and external factors, including political, social and economic. Researchers have studied the religious architecture of the Sasanian period, but the periods after that have received less attention. Pre-Islamic Zoroastrian architecture had a distinct style that was based on a quadrilateral plan and a domed roof and was executed with stone materials. Zoroastrians had problems in building religious places and did not want to see these places in the context of cities, despite the restrictions that the Ahl Dhimma law created in Islamic cities. The religious buildings of this period are influenced by the architecture and residential context of cities like Yazd. The constitutional revolution and the social and political conditions after that, together with the material and spiritual support of the Persians of India in the constitutional period and in the period of Reza Shah, encouraged the Zoroastrians to build magnificent and visible religious buildings in the cities of Tehran and Yazd. The social and political conditions of this period had a direct impact on the construction of fire temples and created a new type of these places with a special effect of the conditions of the time and the existence of signs of archaism. The current research, which is collected by field and library methods and by descriptive-analytical method, seeks to know the characteristics of Zoroastrian religious architecture after the Sassanid period and the factors affecting it.