Historical and comparative measurements of the technical features and function of the five doors available in sheikh tomb in Torbate jam city

The Sheikh-e Jam tomb in Torbat-e Jam city is a museum that holds in itself works from the Seljuk era to the Qajar era. This architectural tomb has many decorations such as brickwork, tile, stone carving, plastering, plaster painting and etc. Part of the Sheikh-e Jami tomb are wooden doors, which can be mentioned in particular with the doors installed inside and outside of the tomb, as well as one wooden door is in the cellar. There is no scientific reference to the date or time of construction of these doors. The purpose of this article is to study the technical and artistic specifications of the above mentioned doors and to determine the date of construction of the doors (five doors). This theme was investigated by matching the design and motif, composition and structure of the door inscriptions with Works of historical index from the 8th and 9th century AH in the field of tile and woodwork. So the questions are, what is the decoration of the wooden doors and the Door of cellar in the Sheikh-e Jam tomb? and When do these doors were made(Which historical period)? The research method is descriptive-analytical and historical. The domains studied are described in the first step in terms of inscriptions, motives, and execution techniques. In the second step due to proper analysis, vector designs were done and in the final step for dating were compared with the works of Timurid index in Khurasan. According to the authors' studies, these works are supposed to have been made in the Timurid period. The method of gathering information is based on library studies and especially field studies, interviews and photography of works. The results show that decorations of the doors consist of two parts: inscriptions and simplified plant motifs. The inscriptions on the two doors of dome and cellar have the name of God (al-Molk): decorative Kufic script. The decorative motifs include the arabesque design, the arabesque frames and the Plant motifs (Khatyi) carved  on all parts of the doors. The motifs are; the flowers and the buds and the leaves. The motifs of the door were compared with the works of the Timurid Index to find out the  making history of the doors. Timurid index works selected and studied include the wooden mosque of Azqad of Torqaba On the outskirts of Mashhad, the south porch of the Goharshad Mosque of Mashhad, the wooden grave box preserved in the Shandiz Virani museum On the outskirts of Mashhad, the wooden doors of Mosalla preserved in Museum of Khurasan-e Bozorg, wooden door and tile works of Abu Bakr Tayyebi Monastery in Taybad  city and Qiasieh School of Khawaf city. The structure and the style of inscriptions of these doors, the structure and composition of plant motifs and arabesque decorations and the style of embossing were compared with the Khurasan index in terms of technique, type of construction, design, design features and structure. In  the article this issue was compared in a comparative table. Comparative studies of the technical and artistic principles of the above-mentioned works and the wooden doors of Sheikh Jami's tomb in Torbat-e Jam showed that these works can be attributed to the first Timurid period (first half of the 9th century AH).