ABSTRACT
Al-Harith is employed to guide Adam Olearius, a member of the delegation of the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, around the city of Isfahan. Olearius finds that the tilework of the Shaykh Lutfallah mosque distracts him from a consideration of the structures holding up the dome. He asks to see buildings without so much applied decoration and al-Harith takes him to see the late eleventh-century North Dome of the Masjid-i Jamiʿ. Olearius is very taken by the geometry of this structure and offers thoughts about regional and chronological variations in architecture and urban planning.
