Oxfrod Studies in Islamic Art, vol. 11, A Monumental Manifestation of the Shiite Faith in Late Twelfth-Century Iran: The Case of the Gunbad-I Alawiyan Hamadan.

• Author: Pfeiffer, Judith
• Position: Reviews of Books

A Monumental Manifestation of the [Shi.sup.[subset]]ite Faith in Late Twelfth-Century Iran: The Case of the Gunbad-I [Alawiyan.sup.[subset]], Hamadan. By RAYA SHANI. Oxford Studies in Islamic Art,-vol. 11. Oxford: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996. Pp. 172.

The Gunbad-i [Alaviyan.sup.[subset]], a crypt overbuilt by a prayer hall in the northwestern Iranian town of Hamadan, does not allow for identification by historical inscription. Hence, it has become the object of speculation among art historians since 1922, when Ernst Herzfeld first described and tentatively dated the building. (1) Scholarly opinions have since been divided, one group (including A. U. Pope, M. [Tabataba.sup.[contains]]i, and V. Minorsky) arguing for the late twelfth/early thirteenth-century Seljuq, the other (including E. Herzfeld and D. Wilber) for the early fourteenth-century Ilkhanid origin of the building. With this monograph, the former theory has found one more proponent.

In this revised English version of her dissertation on "Architecture and Decoration of the Gunbad-i [Alawiyan.sup.[subset]], Hamadan, Tradition and Innovation," submitted to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1986, Raya Shani sets out to reassess earlier attempts to date the structure, and to evaluate "the architectural and decorative elements in purely aesthetic terms; placing ... the monument in its proper chronological context by comparative stylistic analysis; and unraveling the mystery of the monument's identity through socio-historic analysis and a probing iconographical study" (p. 8).

In chapter one ("The Building," pp. 11-39) Shani compares the outer structure of the building to a series of burial towers in northwestern Iran, and its inner structure to square dome-chambers from Seljuq mosques in Central Iran. She also discerns Central Asian influences on western Iranian architecture of that time, while admitting distinctive local traditions. A comparative view on contemporary Seljuq structures from Anatolia has not been attempted; a reason for this geographical restriction is not given. In order to support her observations, Shani provides a large number of black-and-white photographs of the Gunbad-i [Alaviyan.sup.[subset]] and other pre-seventh/thirteenth-century buildings to which she compares it. This comparative framework excludes to a large extent Ilkhanid, i.e., late seventh/thirteenth and early eighth/fourteenth-century architecture in Iran, which is the context where Herzfeld and Wilber had situated the building. Since Shani begins her study without discussing previous scholarship or exp laining how her approach relates to it, a direct dialogue with alternative voices does not take place--a feature that detracts from the otherwise often convincing arguments.

Chapter two ("The Architectural Design," pp. 41-58) is dedicated to an exact geometrical description of the extant building, and the reconstruction of a possible shape of the original dome through metrological calculation, which serves Shani as an argument for the Seljuq dating of the structure. For unknown reasons, the crypt--the very raison d'etre of the building--has been excluded from the vertical calculations of the structure (fig. 29).

In Chapter three ("The External Decoration," pp. 59-79) Shani describes the brickwork design on the building's outer walls. The choice of stucco for the decoration of the entrance facade, which "contrasts with the naked-brick style which dominates Saljuq exteriors" (p. 65), Shani explains by a tendency to conservatism, common among craftsmen from central and southern Iran in the late twelfth century. The author identifies some features of the brickwork as part of a local tradition, an argument that is...