Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

2001 , Muscat , Oman

Persian

Mihrab of Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque- Muscat- Oman

The design of the Grand mosque of Sultan Qaboos has been ordered by the Sultanate of Oman in 1993. This mosque features a blend of Modern, Islamic, Middle Eastern and Omani architectural styles, completed with Ottoman art, Safavid Iranian art, Indian art, Moroccan as well as Mongol art and culture.
This Grand Mosque which is embellished in beautiful, colorful mosaic patterns is the largest mosque in Oman and can accommodate up to 20,000 worshippers. It has four main sections, the main prayer hall, women prayer hall, library and the lecture theater.

This firm had the honour of designing the Middle Eastern section and created the main focal point of the prayer hall, the Mihrab, which marks the direction that Muslims face during prayer (towards Mecca). The Mihrab is 14.6 meters tall, designed with Moqarnas decoration covered by Moaraq ceramics.

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque – Muscat – Kingdom of Oman

The mosque was designed by the Oman Ministry of Education in 1993 with the invitation of nine groups to present the initial idea and was eventually selected by Dr Mackie and the British consultant Kouda Dizan.
One of the highlights of the design was access to a mosque with a simple architectural layout with a capacity of 5,000 people in the dormitory and 2000 people in the peripheral and courtyard spaces using the latest technical achievements of the day.
In 1994, the implementation of the project began. The project suite includes the main prayer room with a capacity of 5,000 worshipers, a women’s nightclub with a capacity of 750 worshipers, a meeting room, a library and reading hall, a set of sanitary services and sanctuaries, an administrative area, a ceremonial section, a mosque’s internal training area for holding Quran classes. And the additional training area (seminary school) for the students and researchers next to the complex is the facility’s service spaces, a parking lot with a capacity of 1,000 cars and gardens and landscaping with an indoor garden. In designing the above mentioned cases, the beauty and quality have been carefully considered.

Following are some of the unique features of this design:

• Creating a large porch around the courtyard and dormitory and separating the main collection of the mosque from other spaces consisting of twelve separate sections and decorating each section in a manner devoted to the art and architecture of the Islamic world that can ultimately be passed through the porch. It gave a general impression of today’s and past art of the Islamic world.
Omani art, Ottoman art, Safavid Iranian art, Middle Eastern art, Mongolian and Hindu art, Moroccan art, Damascus art, Central Asian art and so on and today’s art and modern art of the Islamic world. One of the honors of Arg Bam Kerman Consulting Engineers is the design of Central Asian art and culture department and the design and implementation of Iranian section art.

• The largest rug in the history of the largest integrated woven carpet is 4263 square meters. The weight of the carpet is 21 tons and its texture and installation took 4 years. Carpet weaver is Iran-Khorasan-Neyshabur Carpet Company. The design of the central carpet section is exactly the reverse of the tile of the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque dome. The peripheral sections were designed by the designers of the Iranian Carpet Company and the lower part of the altar by Bam Kerman Consulting Engineers. This carpet is now one of the main tourist and art attractions of the complex.

• The mosque altar executed with a height of 14.6 meters and decorated with mosaic tiles with mosaic tile cover is also an artistic element of the collection. The design of the altar was followed by an architectural competition, and finally the design presented by Arg Bam Consulting Engineers succeeded in finalizing and executing it. Due to its high altitude and its eighth ridge Mogharnas, the altar is visited daily by a large number of art lovers and fans of the architecture of the Islamic world. To visualize the dimensions and proportions of the altar, it is enough to consider the backyard of the Imam Mosque in the Isfahan Jahan Square. In the implementation of the altar can be mentioned two embedded in the entrance with tile cover whose role is the continuation of the altar designs and provide access to the Imam’s community as well as the special ceremonial section to the altar.