This article examines the construction of a continuous history of Iranian art and architecture in André Godard’s L’Art de l’Iran (The Art of Iran). Relying on the strategic use of periodization, Godard stages continuity as a narrative achievement, anchoring it in geography, displacing it during moments of foreign rule, concealing it beneath surface forms, and reactivating it under favorable conditions. Rather than treating historical periods as neutral divisions, this article shows how periodization operates as a historiographic strategy that stabilizes continuity by managing disruption, marginalizing rupture, and selectively rendering certain forms, regions, and temporalities visible while excluding others.

This article examines the influential yet contested legacy of Mohammad-Karim Pirnia (1920–97), arguably the most influential figure in the historiography of Iranian architecture over the past six decades. At a time when Western scholarship dominated the field, Pirnia proposed a novel stylistic framework as an alternative to dynastic periodization, identifying six culturally grounded architectural styles, including the Pārti and Esfahāni. He also formulated five principles, such as mardomvāri (human orientation) and darungarāi (inwardness), as the shared spirit of Iranian architecture throughout history. Rather than repeating familiar critiques of Pirnia’s nationalist and regionally selective narrative, this article examines his methodology, arguing that his principles often functioned as normative ideals shaped by modernist concerns rather than empirical historical analysis. Nonetheless, it acknowledges Pirnia’s contribution to the introduction of indigenous terminology and greater attention to craft and construction techniques in architectural historiography.

This article examines the Iranian mosque in Mumbai, known as Mughal Masjid, built in the 1860s by a Shirazi master mason for the Shirazi diaspora community, as a lens through which to reconsider the stereotype of the Iranian mosque. Conceived as a garden mosque, it combines the architectural traditions of mosques in the southern Zagros region with the spatial ambience of a Shirazi garden. With a survey of mosques across the southern Zagros, the article shows that historical mosques in this region are typically domeless, hypostyle structures, challenging the stereotype of the Iranian mosque defined by domes and monumental minarets. The article also critiques the stylistics of Mohammad-Karim Pirnia, arguing that nationalist historiography and colonial scholarship advance different narratives yet share a meta-narrative and epistemology that obscure regional diversity and marginalize Qajar architectural significance.

This article examines the discursive genealogy of meʿmāri-ye sonnati (traditional architecture), arguing that the term is not a neutral descriptive category but a modern historiographical construct. It traces the concept from nineteenth-century Orientalist surveys, which relied on stylistic classifications rather than notions of tradition, to early twentieth-century narratives of continuity advanced by scholars such as Arthur Upham Pope and André Godard. The study shows how “tradition” was later translated into sonnat in midcentury nationalist debates and consolidated as meʿmāri-ye sonnati in the 1970s. This process flattened diverse architectural histories into a single category that served traditionalist and postrevolutionary ideological agendas. By reconstructing this genealogy, the article challenges retrospective essentialism and restores the historical plurality of Iran’s architectural past.