Rereading the Design of the Original Muqarnas of the Darb Kushk Portal in Isfahan Using Historical Visual Evidence

Between 1941 and 1949, the portal of the Darb Kushk in Isfahan was transferred to the grounds of Chehel Sotoon garden as a result of urban road development. Subsequently, a new portal, closely resembling the original, was erected near its initial site on Tayyeb Street. Although these two portals exhibit considerable similarities in their architectural form and decorative elements, minor variations are discernible in the brick Muqarnas patterns they feature. This situation gives rise to uncertainty, as it is not evident which of these two Muqarnas designs reflects the genuine Muqarnas of the Darb Kushk portal. Moreover, the few surviving historical photographs of the portal indicate that its original Muqarnas design diverges from both of the Muqarnas in question. The current study aims to clarify the distinctions between the original Muqarnas and the two reconstructed Muqarnas associated with the Darb Kushk portal by relying on historical visual records and, where feasible, reinterpret the original Muqarnas design. The research data were gathered through library-based investigations, scrutiny of historical records, and fieldwork encompassing site documentation, photographic capture, and the application of Agisoft software to generate a three-dimensional point cloud model, from which an orthomosaic image was derived. The analysis was conducted by employing a comparative approach to the arrangement of structural elements and the principles of planar geometry. The research concludes that neither of the two Muqarnas linked to the Darb Kushk portal corresponds to the historical Muqarnas of the structure. Having delineated the differences between the two Muqarnas (namely, the Muqarnas of the Darb Kushk portal at Chehel Sotoon Garden and the Muqarnas of the Darb Kushk portal on Tayyeb Street) and the historical Muqarnas of the Darb Kushk in Isfahan, the study has formulated an approximate reconstruction of the historical Muqarnas design for the portal in question, based on the configuration of components across each tier as observed in the visual evidence.