Investigation of Brick Ended Plugs Considering Yazd Jame Mosque

Yazd Jame Mosque can be named as the most brilliant building of this city. Ancientness of this mosque refers to before Islam time and it was witness of many changes proportional to its time.The decorations were always one of the Iran architecture principle and are in very special important in evaluating it.We encounter with various decorations during investigating Yazd Jame mosque like other buildings of Islamic era, such as brick ended plugs.Plugs are among those decorations which are considered less as independent decoration created by the researchers and it has been considered mixing plaster and brick working.While the method of work, variety and simple designs applied in it can make the plug significant as a decorative independent element with special visual specifications.The plug is actually pointing among the bricks and it is created by the brick and plaster and it has been applied in brick arrangement inside internal space of some Islamic buildings and it is also used for coating all surfaces and/or some determined part of building. This type of decoration made the wall surface various and covered the uneven hammered bricks; in addition protected the mortar between two bricks and white plaster intensified the environment light.the method of performance was such this way that the vertical lines of brick wall was selected wider and/or some section of brick was cut along vertical lines and bricks surfaces and their spaces were coated with plaster mortar or its compound such as plaster and soil and/or plaster and lime.This type of decoration became usual in Iran since Seljuk era and it reached its peak during Mongol era with more prevalent. Type of materials, shape variety and plugs operation methods are among the questions which excite every addressee’s mind and general aim of this article is to find an answer for these questions. In this thesis, after some examinations about plug array as a independent decorative element, the background of this array has been studied in Iran architectural decorations and also its formed materials. Then, the ancientness of Yazd Jame mosque was studied as a research pattern , and location of plug in the mosque, the proportion of this decoration and its location in this building and the engraved designs on the plugs also have been studied as a visual element effective on space.The engraved designs in this plaster layer include various types of simple geometric designs, floral designs, blessing sentences and holy names of Allah, Ali and Mohammad that some times they have created the designs like cruciform images in wider extent, mixing the designs. Since the engraved designs on the plugs of Jame mosque can be considered as their most distinct features, in this paper, they have been studied from both conceptual and visual aspects. Therefore, after explanation of place of designs on the plugs of Jame mosque and type of artist’s view and aim in creating them, image quality of designs by aid of presenting the picture and schematic designing were classified and studied, emphasizing on their variety.