the influence of the so-called ‘iraqi’ or ‘arab’ plan model on the first ʿabbasid mosque at eṣfahān

Following an in-depth study and comparison of the archaeological data collected by the italian archaeological mission at the friday mosque of eṣfahān in 1970s and islamic historical sources dealing with eṣfahān, this paper aims to suggest a reconstruction of the layout of the first ʿabbasid mosque at eṣfahān – dated by the author at 767 – and of its first enlargement carried out a few years later. in particular, though two different models can be hypothesized for the 767 mosque, i.e. the so-called ‘syrian plan’ and the so-called ‘arab-iraqi plan’, some observations can be made that seem to pin down the latter as the actual prototype for the first ʿabbasid construction at eṣfahān, thus enlightening an influence of the arab-iraqi model in the early islamic iranian architecture.