Friday Mosque

Known also as the Masjid-e Jam'e, this 14th century AD Friday Mosque, appropriately the greatest structure of the city, is just off the main square (Shohada). It is designed on the classical Iranian model of four ivans. with wonderful blue faience, if "blue" is not too vague a term for the several shades from turquoise to ultramarine that create a vertical sea of smooth, shimmering glittering mosaic-tile. The wall of the mihrab and the central dome are also decorated with admirable geometric compositions, which Robert Byron believed to be Yazd work of the 14th century (although much of the present structure dates from the Safavid period). It is no problem for the non- Muslim to go inside. In addition to the mihrab, its magnificent portal and the Kuffic inscription bearing the date 1349 AD, are worth seeing. On the western side of the mosque there is an ivan which originally dates from the times of Al-e Muzaffar. However, the mosque has been repaired in later periods, including repairs of the main part of its mihrab, carried out in the reign of Shah Abbas II.