Sepahsalar Mosque and School

🕰️When was it built?

The complex was begun under Naser al-Din Shah, commissioned by Mirza Hossein Khan Sepahsalar. After his death his brother, Yahya Khan Moshir al-Dowleh, carried on the work. The core was built in about five years, but parts and decoration were still being finished in later periods.

🏛️What was it built for?

From the start the building was both a mosque and a religious school. That is why, alongside the prayer halls, there are rooms where students lived. Today the complex still combines a religious and an educational space and is not just a historic showpiece.

👀What you will see

• Eight tiled brick minarets surround the complex; the tallest is about 37 metres high.
• The square courtyard has four iwans, flower beds and a central pool, with two storeys of student rooms around it.
• The winter prayer hall has 44 single-piece stone columns and, despite the number, is known as Chehel Sotun, forty columns.
• Above the north iwan, between two minarets, is a two-faced clock: one face looks onto the courtyard, the other towards Baharestan.
• The marble mihrab and the stucco and muqarnas of the prayer hall were completed in later restorations.

💡Something interesting

The mosque's design does not draw only on Iranian buildings: the shape of the dome and the arrangement of the minarets show the influence of Istanbul's mosques. The four-iwan courtyard and the student rooms, on the other hand, follow the pattern of traditional Iranian schools.