Activities in the Masjed-e Jom‘e, Isfahan

Located in the historic centre of Esfahan, the Masjed-e Jom̒e (‘Friday Mosque’) can be seen as a stunning illustration of the evolution of mosque architecture over twelve centuries, starting in 841 CE, and now is one of the major Iranian sites inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List. The Italian restoration activities carried out in Esfahan during the 1970s were planned and organised in collaboration with the Service for the Restoration and Preservation of the Historical Monuments of Iran (now Iranian Cultural Handicraft and Tourism Heritage Organisation) (ICHTHO) and the Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (IsMEO, afterwards IsIAO). The restoration activities headed by Arch. Prof. Eugenio Galdieri and the excavation activities headed by Prof. Umberto Scerrato in the Friday Mosque were aimed in particular at identifying the earlier constructional phases of the building: amongst them the Abbasid, Buyid and Saljuq. Historical circumstances did not allow for long time (1979-1998) any Italian team to continue working at Esfahan. Only between 1999 and 2002 an Italian IsIAO team, under the invitation of ICHO (now ICHTHO) and with the direction of the late Prof. U. Scerrato went back to Esfahan, starting again the work in the Mosque jointly with the Iranian colleagues. Many years after the end of the actual excavations, a joint Iranian- Italian Project named ADAMJI (A.rchaeological D.igital A.rchive M.asjed-e J.om̒e I.sfahan) has been aimed at providing a gradual transformation of the whole set of original data and information (written, graphic, photographic etc.) in a digital archive. The Italian/ Iranian Project jointly coordinated and directed from the Iranian side by Dr. Faribah Saeidi Anaraki and from the Italian side by Prof. Bruno Genito, started in 2003 and ended in 2010.