The featured image is a wide-angle (24 mm) shot of one of several such niches in Wazir Khan mosque’s prayer hall; each sits under one of its domes.
They are exquisitely and elaborately decorated, as is even more evident in the closer views, below.
The musical bonus takes us back to a time when US governments would send on tour to a predominantly Muslim nation some of the greatest American musicians…and then – upon their return to the USA – broadcast to a nationwide television audience those musicians’ admiring response to Islamic art and architecture.
(not coincidentally, the style of the decorative art that you are now looking at is, essentially, “Persian”)
Fittingly, this mosque’s most exquisitely decorated surfaces become fully visible only when one looks up, “heavenwards”…as you will see in this series’ next chapter.
Musical bonus
As it happens, a 1963 tour by the Duke Ellington Orchestra included India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon.
The orchestra performed in both Lahore and Isfahan.
Arguably, “Isfahan” is the most beautiful of all pieces co-authored by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. (or co-credited. Strayhorn was in fact its author)
Strayhorn was part of the 1963 tour, and of the 1966 recording sessions for the rather misleadingly-titled album, Far East Suite; Strayhorn died in May 1967, a month before the LP’s release.
In fact, “Isfahan” was renamed, in response to the Iranian city’s architectural/artistic treasures.
Strayhorn had composed what he originally called “Elf”, before the Ellington Orchestra’s 1963 tour.
As “Isfahan”, the piece featured Johnny Hodge’s alto saxophone.
This performance is from a 1965 TV broadcast.
I love two observant viewers’ responses to this footage:
1: What humility!!!! For the bandleader to hold the chart for his lead alto!! What friendship, camaraderie, and humility! Wow. Don’t know too many conductors who would do that for an ensemble
2: Not only is Duke the only person in the known universe who could get away with holding the music like that (on TV no less), but he’s the only one who look so hip doing it. And you just know that he and Strayhorn probably finished copying the parts about 30 seconds before they went on the air.