An investigation of the Statically Presence of an Arch in the So-called Structure of Ali-Shah Ark in Tabriz

Subject Areas : Analysis of Structure and Earthquake

Amin Moradi ¹ , behruz omrani ² , Mahdi Zakeri ³

1 - research center for cultural heritage organization
2 - head of the research center for cultural heritage organization
3 - cultural heritage organization

Received: 2019-02-15 Accepted : 2019-05-21 Published : 2019-06-09

Keywords: Ark of Ali-Shah, Ali-Shah Mosque, Ali-Shah’s Arch, Ali-Shah’s Complex,

Abstract :

      Considering the architectural remnants of the so-called structure of Ali-Shah in Tabriz as the last sequence of large-scale buildings during the Ilkhanid era in which it’s approximate 29-meter span had held the largest and the highest ever made arch in the Islamic World, proposing controversial technical bugs parallel to the violation of theoretical possibilities towards erecting such an arch would be the opposite point of more than half a century’s studies of historic architecture, archaeological investigation as well as historic documents in relation to the location of the Great Ali-Shah Mosque. With this pre-assumption that the U-shape structure including roughly 11 meter thickness for its walls had been considered to create a brick arch of a huge architectural project; clarifying the statically limitations of the mentioned building in terms of stability, durability, vulnerability and the impossibility of creating any kind of arch and vault in mentioned span would shed new lights towards the  interpretation of historical contexts and its connections with the Ilkhanid structure appeared in the sources. After responding to question of statically feasibility of any kind of arch made by traditional masonry in so-called Ali-Shah Ark, besides statically analyses with no attention to historic reports and events, this project is aimed to play a vital role in reviewing the historic chronologies of Ali-Shah Mosque. According to the results, tensions result of loading due to any kind of arch would exceed the mechanical potentials of structure and will cause grossly deformation of vertical units under any condition. From this point of view, there has been no covering of arch either of vaults in this building anytime. In other words, there has been no relation between what is marked as Ali-Shah Mosque including the world’s largest brick arch, and what is known as today’s remnants of the so-called Ali-Shah Ark.