The Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque

The Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque was built from 1603 to 1618 and designed by Shaykh Bahai in the city of Isfahan, one of the oldest cities in Iran, at around 2,500 years old. It was built in the Naghsh-e-Jahan Square surrounded by other buildings from the Safavid dynasty. This mosque was commissioned by Shah Abbas, a military commander, who made the mosque in dedication to his father in law, Shaykh Lutfallah Maysi al-’Amili, a religious scholar and teacher. The mosque has a total of three levels and sixteen arched panels, and nearly every surface of the walls is covered in mosaics. During the 16-1700’s this mosque was often called the Women’s Mosque because it had a tunnel, called Iwan, between the house of prayer (the mosque) and the nearby Ali Qapu palace, allowing the women to attend prayer without being seen. The mosque has also been used for royal purposes and as a theological school. It took nearly 15 years to build due to the level of precision in its details, including the beautifully intricate mosaics and the large detailed peacock painted in the center of the floor. Even though the mosque itself is beautiful the peacock effect used on the ceiling, or the dome, on the mosque is the best took the most patience to create because it captures the peacock’s feathers moving, changing shape, and changing color. When it is sunny outside the peacocks feathers almost light up and the features on the bird’s tail feathers are enhanced. If you are there at the right time of the day when the sun hits the mosque at a certain angle you can see the reflection of the peacock, which was done with small exceptionally detailed mosaics, on the ceiling reflecting its shadowing onto the floor of the mosque. The peacock’s feathers are beautifully aligned and symmetrical and the detail is incredible. The colors on the peacock on the dome are mainly blue and yellow but if you allow your eyes to go out of focus then sometimes other colors are visible within the “feathers”. Sometimes the