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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
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the base. Chardin, who was in Isfahan at the time, saw these plates being made, and the following is his account as it stands in Lloyd's translation:
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"On the 9th [of October] I went to the House of the King's Goldsmith which is in the Royal Palace, to see them make some Gilt Plates in the Form of Tiles, which were to cover the dome of the mosque of Imam Reza, at Metched, which an earthquake had flung down, as I before related. A thousand men, as was said, were employ'd in repairing this Mosque; and they work'd at it with so much Diligence and application, that it was to be finish'd by the latter end of December. These plates were of brass [no-cuivre, i. e., copper] and square. Ten Inches in Breadth and Sixteen in Length, and of the Thickness of two Crown-pieces. Underneath were Two Barrs three Inches broad, solder'd on Cross-wise, to sink into the Parget, and so serve as Cramp-Irons to fasten the Tiles. The upper part was gilt so thick, that one would have taken the Tile to have been Massif Gold: Each Tile took up the weight of three Ducates and a quarter of Gilding, and came to about ten Crowns Value. They were ordered to make Three thousand at first, as I was told by the Chief Goldsmith who was Overseer of the work.61
[JULY, 1915
I think that the previous dome was probably covered with blue tiles on account of the couplet, "Samarkand is the face of the earth: Bukhara is the marrow of Islam: were there not in Meshed an azure dome, the whole world would be merely a ditch for ablution". According to Schuyler this couplet was probably written about A. D. 1500.62
I shall now attempt to show that the use of gilt-plates for the dome of Imam Riza's mausoleum was an innovation. Five other gilt-domes exist at the present day, viz:(1) The shrine of Fatima at Kûm. (2) The shrine of 'Ali at Najaf.
(3) The shrine of Husain at Kerbelâ.
(4) The shrine of Imâm Mûsâ at Kazimain.
(5) The shrine of Imam Mahdi at Samarrâ.
All the e are later than the example at Meshed.
The shrine of Fatima at Kûm was gilded by Fath 'Ali Shah, in consequence of a vow made by him to embellish the shrine, should he ever succeed to the crown. According to Morier, c3 writing in 1809, "he covered the cupola of the tomb itself with gold plates (instead of the lacquered tiles which he removed)." This must have been done about 1805 (he ascended the throne in 1797) as Johnson, writing in 1817 says, the gilt cupola was added to this structure about twelve years ago by the reigning monarch." The work, apparently, is inferior to that at Meshed as Fraser remarks, "the plates are so thinly gilt that the whole value of the precious metal employed, according to my information, does not exceed two thousand tomauns."es That, previous to this, the dome was covered with ordinary glazed tiles, there can be no doubt. Chardin gives a drawings of the shrine showing a dome covered with arabesques and he states in the text that it was overlaid 66 with large square Tiles of Cheney" in gold and azure.
61
pp. 236-7.
62 Schuyler (E.), Turkestan, Vol. I. p. 240.
63 Morier (G.), A Journey through Persia. p. 180.
64 Johnson (J.), Journey from India to England, p. 146.
65 Fraser (J. B.), Narrative of a Journey into Khordean, p. 141.
66 Travels into Persia, etc. (Trans.), Vol. I, plate 14.
