Mofakham Mirror House

In the centre of Bojnurd, the capital of North Khorasan, stands a small, extravagant pavilion known as the Ayeneh-khaneh, the Mirror House. It is the best-known survivor of the residence of the Shadlu khans, the Kurmanji Kurdish family who governed Bojnurd and its region in the Qajar era, and it takes its name from Yar Mohammad Khan Shadlu, known by the title Sardar Mofakham.

The building was part of a larger governor’s complex of the nineteenth century, laid out within a formal garden that has since largely been lost. Its front is faced with painted Qajar tiles showing human figures, animals and floral and geometric designs, with tiled towers at the corners. Inside, the reception hall is lined with ayeneh-kari, mirror mosaic of thousands of small cut pieces set into plaster, so that every candle or lamp is caught and multiplied across ceiling and walls. It was a room for receiving guests and holding meetings, built to impress.

Accounts differ on the exact dates of building, but the decoration is typical of the late Qajar period. In 1991 the Cultural Heritage Organization took over the mansion and turned it into a museum of anthropology and archaeology.

For visitors, the Mirror House is the obvious starting point in Bojnurd: a modest building on a city street, which opens onto one of the most dazzling interiors of north-eastern Iran.