Lecturer, Faculty of Architecture, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz
Abstract
The Mosque has played a central role in sociopolitical and cultural life of Islamic communities through the ages, but in Modern times, new domed mosques are built with no spatial integrity nor cultural identity. After the Islamic Revolution, reviving the mosque identity was considered as key to revival of Islamic social identity. This paper considers sacredness as the main source of social veneration. It is hypothesized that lack of social acceptance of newly built mosques is due to neglect of this aspect in architectural design of mosques. The evolution of the sacredness concept is thus discussed. Three contemporary mosques are then analyzed on this basis.