Naţanz

Natanz lies on the slopes of central Iran's mountains, between Kashan and Isfahan. Its celebrated religious complex brings together a Friday mosque, a Sufi lodge and the shrine of Shaykh Abd al-Samad, a teacher of the Suhrawardi order who died in 1299. The mosque's courtyard, brick minaret and decorated portal stand beside the domed shrine, whose ornament included fine lustre tiles and carved stucco.

In the early fourteenth century the Ilkhanid official Zayn al-Din al-Mastari sponsored work on the shrine and its surroundings. The surviving buildings bear witness to several stages of construction and decoration, including the mosque erected in the years after the shaykh's death. Natanz retained importance under the Safavids: Shah Abbas I often passed through on journeys to his estates around Kashan, bringing the court's movements into this mountain town.