Tarikhaneh Mosque, Damghan

🕰️When was it built?

The exact date it was built is not known, as no inscription from the time survives. Archaeologists date the building to the 2nd century AH (8th century) and the early Islamic era. The minaret was added in the 5th century AH (11th century), and the building was added to the National Heritage List in 1931.

🏛️What was it built for?

Tarikhaneh was built for prayer and worship, and its prayer hall faces the qibla. The central courtyard and the porticoes around it are also main parts of the mosque. Although its use is Islamic, the shape of its columns and its large bricks show the influence of Sasanian building methods.

👀What you will see

• Large brick columns, twenty-six of which survive, eighteen of them in the main prayer hall.
• The large bricks of the columns, whose shape and size are a Sasanian feature of the building.
• The vaults of the prayer hall, some of which were rebuilt in 1931 with local people's help and use different materials.
• The Seljuk brick minaret, with brick decoration and a Kufic inscription on its shaft.
• The central courtyard and the porticoes around it, which together with the prayer hall form the mosque's rectangular plan.

💡Something interesting

Bakhtiar ibn Mohammad, governor of Qumis, founded Tarikhaneh's minaret. His name appears on the Kufic inscription, and the minaret of the Jameh Mosque of Semnan is also attributed to him, so the minaret and the prayer hall of Tarikhaneh were not built at the same time.