Tomb of Nader Shah
آرامگاه نادرشاه
Map
General information
Architectural styleIranian architecture
Town or cityMashhad
Country Iran
Completed1963
Design and construction
Architect(s)Hooshang Seyhoun

Tomb of Nader Shah (Persian: آرامگاه نادرشاه) is a building in Mashhad designed by Hooshang Seyhoun.[1][2][3][4]

About the person

Nader Shah Afshar was born into an ordinary family from the Kirkhli branch of the Afshars, a Turkic tribe living in Khorasan. When the Safavid Empire was invaded by the Afghans, he entered the service of Safavid Shah Tahmasp II and was named Tahmaspgulu Khan. As a result of his skillful activity, he defeated the Afghans, the Ottomans, and the Russians in a short period of time and expelled all the Safavids from the land. During this process, he strengthened his position, dethroned Tahmasp II in 1732, and proclaimed his young son Abbas III as king. In 1736, calling a congress in Mughan, dethroning Abbas III, and declaring himself king, he ended the 235-year rule of the Safavid dynasty.[5]

History

After Nader's successful campaign against the Mughal Empire, he returned to his homeland with immense wealth: the peacock throne, the Koh-i-Noor diamond, and “700 elephants, 4,000 camels and 12,000 horses carrying wagons all laden with gold, silver and precious stones”. After the precious jewels brought from India were hidden near Kalat, Nadir ordered the Mughal architects he had brought with him to build a magnificent mausoleum for him. This mausoleum must have been in the Mughal style.[6]

As a result of Nader Shah's assassination in 1747, the mausoleum was not completed during his lifetime. In this period, another example of architecture built in the Mughal style by Nadir Shah in the city of Mashhad was called "Sun Palace" or Kakh-e Khurshid. This mausoleum was converted into a residence palace by various tribal leaders and Nader Shah’s body remained un-commemorated until the 1960s when a concrete monument was constructed for him in the vicinity of a heavily polluted traffic intersection in Mashhad.[7]

Interior

Despite its incomplete exterior, the interior of the Khorshid is fully refined: each doorway is decorated by miniature paintings and Mughal frescoes.[8]

Gallery

Sources

  1. ^ "Tomb of Nader Shah". Visit Nader Shah’s mausoleum in Mashhad. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Tomb of Nader Shah". www.itto.org. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  3. ^ "Tomb of Nader Shah in Mashhad". www.alaedin.travel/en. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  4. ^ "Encyclopaedia of the Iranian Architectural History". Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran. 19 May 2011. Archived from the original on 6 April 2015.
  5. ^ Mehman Süleymanov 2010
  6. ^ "كاخ خورشيد، نگين درخشان معماري خطه كلات". ایرنا (in Persian). 2016-03-02. Archived from the original on 2021-11-26. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  7. ^ Dalrymple, Sam. "Here lay Nader Shah". Conde Nast Traveller.
  8. ^ Dalrymple, Sam. "Here lay Nader Shah". Conde Nast Traveller.
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