Nasir-Al-Mulk Mosque is located in the city of Shiraz. It is located in Gawd-i Arabān quarter, near Shāh Chérāgh Mosque. It was built in Qajar era by Nasir Al-Mulk. This mosque has two eastern and western bedchambers, and the eastern one has a tiled altar accompanied with 12 columns and windows with colorful glasses. The mosque attracts most visitors early in the morning (9am to 11am is best) when the hall and its Persian carpets are illuminated with a kaleidoscope of patterned flecks of light. It makes for a magical experience – and an irresistible photograph.
The mosque is called by many different names. Mostly known as the “Pink Mosque”, it is also called the “Mosque of colors,” the “Rainbow Mosque” or the “Kaleidoscope Mosque”. This is a space where light and worship intertwine.
There are some particularly fine muqarnas in the small outer portal and in the northern iwan, but it is the stained glass, carved pillars and poly-chrome faience of the winter prayer hall that dazzle the eye when the sun streams in.
From the start of dawn the mosque is filled with color and light. Sun shines through the glass and fills the inside, the Persian rugs, the ceiling and wall tiles with patterns and colors. In fall and winter seasons when sunlight shines through the colorful glasses, it presents as exemplary beauty to the interior of the bedchamber, making this mosque outstandingly aesthetically among other mosques of Iran. The tiling and paintings of the bedchambers are of exceptional beauty as well. It even reflects on the visitors as if a colorful ball is hit by the first sun ray and explodes to thousands of butterflies all around.
The production of coloured glass in west Asia existed around the 8th century, at which time the scholar nicknamed the father of chemistry Jābir ibn Hayyān wrote his book Kitab al-Durra al-Maknuna (The Hidden Pearl). In it he gave 46 recipes for producing coloured glass and described the technique of cutting glass into artificial gemstones.
