Mehrab as a valuable element in religious buildings is always located in the spotlight of decorative arts. At every stage of Islamic the period, artists used the best decorative elements like plasterwork, brickwork, tile work, carvings to build and decorate the mehrabs with extreme of accuracy. There existed four mehrabs on the second floor of the Malek mosque in Kerman related to the second half of the fifth century AH, the remains of three mehrabs with decorative plasterwork has been preserved. These mehrabs have been made in the same size and dimensions. Since there has not been any comprehensive study regarding these mehrabs and the importance of their plasterwork art, a new line of research about these mehrabs seems essential. The present study is done as a first attempt in this field with the aim of the investigating mehrab plasterwork design and their artistic style. The results show that the style of plasterwork in these mehrabs is very similar to each other and there are only minor differences between them in type of pattern. Furthermore, plasterwork decorations include flower and leave arabesques, mouth torpedoes Arabesque, geometric patterns and inscription of Moqaad and Moshajjar Kufic writing. Unlike previous period styles, Arabesque motifs and inscriptions used in these mehrabs have outstanding innovations that make them distinctive in term, of artistic style.To achieve appropriate and consistent results, textual sources and historical research were sued in this study.
Baba Kamal Y H, Zaree M E, Dehghan M, Haj Hoseini M. Decorative Plasterwork of Seljuk Mehrabs in Malek Mosque in Kerman. مطالعات تاریخ اسلام 2015; 6 (23) :149-178 URL: http://journal.pte.ac.ir/article-1-202-en.html