On the east side of the square stands the smallest and, for many, the most beautiful of Isfahan’s mosques. Built between 1603 and 1619 and named after Sheikh Lotfollah, a revered Lebanese scholar invited to the Safavid court, it has neither minarets nor a courtyard: it was a private mosque for the royal household rather than a place of public worship.
The cream-coloured dome looks almost plain from the square, yet it shifts from beige to pink to gold as the sun moves. Inside, a long dim corridor leads you into a single chamber where the dome opens above you in a spiral of tiles that shrink towards a radiant centre — often compared to a peacock’s tail.
Look for the shaft of light that enters through the high window opposite the mihrab: at the right moment it completes the peacock’s tail on the inner dome. The calligraphy bands around the base of the dome and the delicate mihrab are among the finest of the Safavid age.
Highlights
- The “peacock” at the centre of the inner dome
- Colour changes of the outer dome through the day
- The dim entrance corridor that heightens the reveal
- Calligraphy bands and the tiled mihrab
Gallery
