Varāmīn

Varamin lies on a cultivated plain southeast of Rey, between the Alborz foothills and the central desert. Its Friday mosque is a striking monument of Ilkhanid architecture: four great iwans face a courtyard, and a domed sanctuary stands behind the prayer direction. Brickwork, inscriptions and coloured tile ornament the building, whose tall proportions distinguish it from older Seljuk mosques.

In the early fourteenth century Varamin prospered through connections with the Ilkhanid court. The mosque was built between 1322 and 1326 by a local family of officials serving Abu Said. By 1340 the geographer Hamdallah Mostawfi described Varamin as the capital of the surrounding province, after the Mongol devastation had diminished neighbouring Rey. The mosque's decoration was completed in the fifteenth century, preserving the work of patrons and craftsmen across more than one dynasty.