Shah Abbas the Great commissioned the mosque, and the chief architect was Muhammad Reza, son of Husayn, a builder from Isfahan, whose name appears on an inscription around the mihrab. Construction began in 1011 AH (1602 to 1603) and was completed in 1028 AH (1618 to 1619). It was restored in the 1920s under Reza Shah Pahlavi.
The mosque has no minaret, no courtyard and no interior iwans. It is a single domed prayer chamber, 62 feet (19 m) on each side, meant for the royal court rather than the public. An L-shaped vestibule connects the entrance to the prayer room, because the square's axis is set at 45 degrees to the qibla.
The single-shell dome is one of few of its kind in Safavid architecture. The text gives its diameter as 43 feet (13 m), while the infobox gives an outer diameter of 72 feet (22 m). The lower facade is marble, with haft-rang mosaic tiles above.
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