ایوان

What it is

ایوان (eyvan) is a rectangular hall with one side fully open, usually framed by a tall arch and facing a courtyard. It functions as a covered porch, a vestibule, and an honored seating area all at once. In residential architecture the eyvan is where the family sits in the evening, where guests are received in mild weather, and where the household opens itself to the air.

Two scales

The eyvan exists at two very different scales in Persian architecture. In the house it is a modest covered terrace, often two columns wide, raised one or two steps above the courtyard floor. In monumental architecture it becomes the central organizing element of the building. A four-eyvan mosque (مسجد چهار ایوانی) places four soaring vaulted halls around a central courtyard, one on each axis. The mosques of Iran from the eleventh century onward almost all follow this plan.

Where to see one

The grandest eyvans in the world face the Naghsh-e Jahan square in Isfahan. The Masjed-e Shah (now Masjed-e Imam), the Masjed-e Sheikh Lotfollah, and the Ali Qapu palace all display monumental eyvans facing the square. The eyvan of Taq-e Kasra at Ctesiphon, dating from the Sasanian period, is the largest unsupported brick vault from antiquity and the prototype for the entire Islamic eyvan tradition.

For domestic eyvans, the historic houses of Kashan, Yazd, and Shiraz preserve them at intimate scale.

How to use the word

shab-ha rouy-e eyvan cha mikhordim.

In the evenings we drank tea on the eyvan.

شب‌ها روی ایوان چای می‌خوردیم.

References

• Dehkhoda, ایوان
• Vajehyab, ایوان