Master Ali-Akbar Memarbashi Isfahani is the architect of the Abbasi Jame Mosque, designed by Sheikh Bahaei.
After raising the walls and columns of the mosque up to the ceiling, Master Ali-Akbar Memarbashi, who sees the hurry of Shah Abbas to finish the construction as soon as possible, stops working and goes into hiding for seven years.
After this long interruption, which had caused the Shah’s wrath – even to the point that he seeks to take the master’s life – Memarbashi shows up for work and explains his seven-year-long absence in this way:
During the construction of the mosque, I found out that the mosque’s structure requires a long time to sit, a matter which was out of the limits of the Shah’s patience. As such, I had no other choice but to go into hiding and stop the construction.
He then buys his life back by showing a chain he used as an indicator for the amount the building had sat in the ground and continued and finished the construction of the mosque.
Name Ali Akbar Isfahani
Era 11th Century Lunar
Profession Architect
Title Memar Bashi
Notable work Abbasi Jameh Mosque
