Some beautiful examples of Islamic architecture

[Koobideh]

Welcome to the forums.
Many people don't realize just how "westernized" Iran became in the last century. I put that in quotes because it includes both the bad and the good.

Thanks
Yeah Iran has changed a lot. I think the Islamic Revolution also happened really at the wrong time, right bang on the moment of transition in Iranian society. The government suddenly starts promoting Islam when the people are becoming more secular. This bad timing has also made a lot of Iranians become really anti-religion, and often even anti-Islam. It's quite unfortunate, because I also find that sometimes among Iranians they can be a bit 'extreme', and deliberately not associate themselves with fellow Iranians just because they decide to not eat pork or maybe wear a headscarf.

 

[skyking]

My former brother in law called himself a Persian, he was from Iran and was hunted out of there for his political views under the rule of the Shah. He was radical left, he and his family made it out alive.....mostly.

 

[Koobideh]

My former brother in law called himself a Persian, he was from Iran and was hunted out of there for his political views under the rule of the Shah. He was radical left, he and his family made it out alive.....mostly.

Yep a lot of people were persecuted under the Shah

 

[Koobideh]

I'll take this on, since we may have similar likes. I like ornate carving, but I prefer the appearance less busy, and the colors muted. I'd rather see natural stone and wood instead of bright mosaics, and gold. I also like a more minimalist approach in Asian design, favoring Japanese design over Indian for instance. There's always exceptions of course, but those are the general guidelines.

I agree a bit with you
.. I don't know about other Asian designs, but in countries like Iran, the architecture is usually only really busy and loud when it is like one of the main places of worship (mosque or fire temple), or if it's like a palace. Also the architecture is not so loud in the past 150 years or so. These designs like in the pics which this thread is about are from the very old buildings from at least 500 years ago, with some of them being nearly even 1000 years old.

But some of the more recent architecture in Iran is more like this:

When I mean recent I mean like architecture in past 150 years though lol.. It's just historically in Iran the grander buildings are more colourful, etc (but the simple buildings are not like that).

 

[Koobideh]

anyone that can't appreciate that the buildings were simply built by people under the rule of islamic ideology and it means nothing beyond that is blinkered. In such societies being an atheist isn't really an option, meaning you don't know what the f*ck anyone really believes in such societies, and so to claim that you really know this designer believed this or that is mostly nonsense. anyways the oppression and backwards thinking that stilted many other aspects of science and society were not worth the price of a few geometric buildings.

Those buildings are historical buildings. Since when did anyone 500 years ago or 1000 years ago not believe in God?

By the way, during those times, Iran was practically the centre of the world in terms of science. You know over there they even had batteries or air conditioning being made more than 1000 years ago?

You should also read a bit about the Islamic Golden Age to see that actually science was respected and really advanced by the Muslims and the Iranians.

Religion today is in a way limiting progress, but in those days it was not at all. You cannot look back into their society with a 21st century perspective of things.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Well that just looks time consuming.

 

[waggy]

i find it amazing that they were able to build such beautiful buildings at that time.

they are really a pleasure to see. i would love to see them in person if ever possible heh.

 

[BW86]

wow, some of these pictures are beautiful

 

[CKent]

Too bad these days they build nothing, only destroy.

 

[zanejohnson]

ah i love having a decent connection... that would have sucked in the old dial up days..

my 10mbps cable did it quick enough..

 

[Koobideh]

Too bad these days they build nothing, only destroy.

If you've got nothing intelligent or constructive to say, then don't say anything at all.

You don't even know the country you're talking about. What do Iranians destroy?

And yes, there is still many nice things they build in Iran. It is not so backwards like ignorant racists like you think.