Agha Bozorg Mosque

Interesting facts

The carved wooden main door is studded with nails said to match the number of verses in the Quran.

Its dome chamber rests on eight massive free-standing piers, a rare arrangement in older Iranian mosques that lets cool air circulate through the space in summer.

The earth dug out to create the sunken courtyard was reused as building material, so most of the bricks came from the construction site itself.

The complex was paid for by a Kashan benefactor, Mohammad-Taqi Khanban, and his son; work began under Mohammad Shah Qajar and ended early in Naser al-Din Shah's reign.

Its northern pillared prayer hall may predate the dome chamber, raised over the remains of the 15th-century khanqah and madrasa of Khaje Taj od-Din next door.

Unusually for its period, the building uses tilework sparingly, relying instead on carved stucco, painting, geometric woodwork and muqarnas for its decoration.

One inscription gives the Hijri year 1248, around 1832–33, although other evidence places the main construction in the 1840s.

Why it is worth it

The Agha Bozorg Mosque in Kashan is built around a courtyard that sinks into the ground: from the entrance terrace the visitor looks down over two levels, an upper gallery of deep niches and a lower court with a pool, enclosed by student rooms, while at the far end a tall iwan between two minarets rises in front of a dome. The complex is both a mosque and a madrasa, and it is often counted among the finest religious buildings of 19th-century Iran.

It was built in the Qajar period, most likely between 1844 and 1850, by the master builder Ustad Haj Sa'ban-ali, and was named in honour of the cleric Mulla Mahdi Naraqi II, known as Agha Bozorg. The plan is strictly symmetrical along a north-west to south-east axis. A domed iwan portal at the end of a shop-lined street leads into a vestibule that frames the first view of the court; ramps and stairs then lead to the upper gallery and down to the sunken floor. Under the entrance pavilion lies a broad vaulted basement, ventilated by wind catchers whose towers flank the entrance, well suited to the hot desert climate of the city.

The prayer hall at the south-east end is an octagonal domed chamber surrounded on three sides by an ambulatory, with a pillared hall of twenty columns to one side and smaller open courts beyond. The building has been on Iran's National Heritage List since 1951. Kashan, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Iran, lies on the edge of the Dasht-e Kavir desert at the foot of the Karkas Mountains and is known for its Qajar merchants' houses and the Fin Garden, part of the UNESCO-listed Persian Gardens.

Getting there

The mosque stands in the centre of Kashan, beside the 15th-century mausoleum of Khaje Taj od-Din. The nearest airport is Kashan Airport (KKS), about 15 km away in a straight line.

Plan your visit

We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.

Agha Bozorg Mosque

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

On these lists

From the encyclopaedia