Fatimaal Massooma Shrine

A Splendid and famous shrine, that it was at first as a shed of straw mat erected according to the order of Musa bin Khazraj al Ash’ari, which is called Fatimaal Massooma Shrine. Now it has a high gold dome, around which high minarets rising towards the Heaven. The first dome, after that straw mat shed, was built after half a century by the order of Zaynab, the daughter of Imam al-Jawad in the middle of the third century of hijra. It was built by the vizier of Tugril the Great after encouragement by Sheikh at-Toossi. This dome was decorated with colored figures, bricks and tiles (kashi).

Description

When a visitor arrives at the outskirts of the city, he will see two minarets shining in the distance. The dome leans over a silver tomb crowned with gold. The tomb is four meters high, five meters and twenty-five centimeters long and four meters and seventy-three centimeters wide.

The visitors feel a state of spirituality and happiness under the shadows of Fatimaal Massooma Shrine and in the new yard where several minarets extend high towards the Heaven and lights reflect in the hall, which is decorated with hundreds of mirrors besides the flying flocks of doves, which have taken this holy shrine as warm nests while the fountains dance in a glittering pool.

 

Architecture

The dome of shrine was rebuilt with adobe, stone and plaster. Two other domes were built after some Alawite were buried in the same shrine. The three domes remained until the middle of the fifth century of hijra when the first high dome was built to replace those three domes. In 925 A.H. the roof of the dome was decorated with mosaic according to the order of Lady Beigam, the daughter of Shah Issmaeel the Safavid. Also a hall and two minarets have been built in the old yard. Finally, Fathali Shah al Qajari ordered the decoration of the roof of the dome with gold plates which have remained shining for two centuries.

After some damage to some of the gold plates, the office of the custodian of the shrine decided to rebuild the dome. The old gold plates were collected and replaced with others in a great project, whose cost might be twenty-five milliard Iranian rials. In general the shrine is a structure with wonderful signs of Islamic architecture. It has been adorned with marvelous figures. The total area of the shrine is about fourteen thousand square meters including the haram, the porches, the halls, the three yards, the tombs of the kings and the two mosques; at-Tabataba’iy and Balasar. Lately the Great Mosque has been added to the shrine. The area of the Great Mosque alone is about twenty-five thousand square meters.