The walls of the prayer halls appear to have been coated in plaster without carved or painted decoration. Carved stucco decoration covered the bases of the pillars, their capitals, as well as the soffits and spandrels of the arches that sprung from them. The short screen-walls on the courtyard façade and the lower half of the mosque’s second mihrab (later rebuilt) also featured carved stucco decoration. In general, the decoration consists of vine scrolls and other vegetal elements. On the spandrels, these are encapsulated within interlacing geometric frames. The decoration, with five-lobed leaves tightly wound in repeating vine scrolls and framed within a geometric grid, is reminiscent of Mesopotamian ornament of the ninth century. Comparisons are frequently made to the deeply-cut styles of carved stucco ornament at Samarra.5 There is also a relationship to the ornament found in the earliest levels at the Mosque of Isfahan.

The mosque’s remains as they stand today represent the result of at least three building phases. The mihrab was reconstructed twice, for example. The north wall of the prayer hall was also enclosed and the tomb of Haji Piyadah constructed into it at a later date. As mentioned above, the dating of the original construction, which includes the exuberant stucco decoration of the pillars and arches, is a matter of debate. The dating of the building to the mid ninth-century or later rests on the assumption that the ornament and possibly the nine-bay plan are derivatives from styles that had become popular in the central Islamic lands during the Abbasid period and later diffused to the provinces. Adle's suggestion that the mosque dates to the end of the eighth/second century AH is based on several observations. First, he points out that the ornament only reflects part of the repertoire of imperial Samarra and relates to ornament used on other Iranian monuments tentatively dated earlier. Second, he suggests that the likely site of the mosque in the enclosure of Naw Bahar and the high quality of its architecture points to the Barmakids as possible patrons. The Barmakids were a powerful dynasty of Abbasid viziers whose ancestors were stewards of the Buddhist temples there and thus had both a connection to the landscape and the wealth and resources to construct a magnificent monument. Fadhl ibn Barmak was made governor of the eastern provinces, including Balkh, under Harun al-Rashid, and arrived in the city in 794/178 AH, providing a terminus post quem for the possibility of his founding a mosque.6

Notes:

Sources:

Adle, Chaharyar. “La mosquée Hāji-Piyādah/Noh-Gonbadān à Balkh (Afghanistan). Un chef d’oeuvre de Fazl le Barmacide construit en 178-179/794-795?” Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions 155:1 (2011): 565-625. Reprinted in Nine Domes of the Universe, 200-261.

Golombek, Lisa. "Abbasid Mosque at Balkh." Oriental Art 15 (1969): 173-189.

Knobloch, Edgar. The Architecture and Archaeology of Afghanistan, 58, 65, 104, 107. UK: Tempus Publishing, 2002.

Melikian-Chirvani, A. S. "La Plus Ancienne Mosquée de Balkh." Arts Asiatiques 20 (1969): 3-20.