Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque ( fa, مسجد شاه دوشمشیره, ps, شاه دوشمشېره جومات), the name translates to Mosque of the King of Two Swords, is a yellow two-story

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers (sujud) are performed, in ...

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acc ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is border ...

(District 2) on Andarabi Road, just off the Kabul River and the Shah-Do Shamshira bridge in the center of the city. It was built during the reign of

Amanullah Khan Ghazi Amanullah Khan (Pashto and Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 25 April 1960) was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1919 ...

(1919–1929). It was modelled after the

Ortaköy Mosque Ortaköy Mosque ( tr, Ortaköy Camii) or Büyük Mecidiye Camii () in Beşiktaş, Istanbul, Turkey, is a mosque situated at the waterside of the Ortaköy pier square, one of the most popular locations on the Bosphorus. It was commissioned by the ...

in Istanbul. The design of this mosque is quite unusual for Islamic religious architecture. Its Italian decorative stucco creates an interesting effect that some describe as ‘Afghan

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

’. The mosque is located next to the tomb of a Mughal general,

Chin Timur Khan Chin Timur Khan was a general of the Mughal Empire. He was the son of Babur's uncle Sultan Ahmad Alaq. He was in service of both Sultan Said Khan and Mansur Khan, but eventually fled to Babur of Mughal Empire in India. Timur was a commander u ...

, who was also the cousin of the central Asian conqueror

Babur Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through hi ...

. Chin Timur helped conquer much of India and is famous for the

Battle of Khanwa The Battle of Khanwa was fought at Khanwa on March 16, 1527. It was fought between the invading Timurid forces of Babur and the Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sanga for suprermacy of Northern India. The battle was a major event in Mediev ...

, in which he took a leading role. Not far from here are the tombs of Babur and many other prominent Muslim commanders who invaded India from Afghanistan and established Muslim rule over northern India (including modern Pakistan and Bangladesh). The shrine was the site of the killing of Farkhunda on March 19, 2015. In June 2021, the mosque was fully renovated.

References

Mosques in Kabul {{Afghanistan-mosque-stub

See also

References