Iran

Iran is one of the most ancient centres of Islamic civilisation and the heartland of Twelver Shia Islam, which has been the official religion of the country since Shah Ismail I established the Safavid state in 1501. Prior to Safavid Shi'ification, Iran had for eight centuries been a major centre of Sunni scholarship, it was the land of Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam al-Tirmidhi, Imam al-Nasai, Ibn Majah, al-Ghazali, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, al-Tabari, and countless other foundational figures of classical Sunni learning, and traces of this earlier intellectual heritage remain visible in the mosques, madrasas, and libraries of virtually every Iranian city. Today Iran is home to approximately 85 million Muslims, predominantly Shia with significant Sunni populations concentrated among the Kurds of the northwest, the Baluch of the southeast, the Turkmen of the northeast, and the Arabs of Khuzestan.

Mashhad, the second-largest city of Iran, centres on the vast Haram-e Razavi complex containing the shrine of Imam Ali al-Rida, peace be upon him, the eighth Shia Imam and the most venerated saint in Iran. The haram draws more than twenty-five million pilgrims each year and is one of the largest religious complexes in the world by area, its successive courtyards, iwans, porticoes, madrasas, libraries, museums, and mosques built, rebuilt, and gilded by successive dynasties from the Seljuks through to the Safavids, Qajars, and modern Islamic Republic. Qom, south of Tehran, is the principal centre of Shia religious scholarship in Iran and one of the two most important Shia seminary cities in the world (alongside Najaf in Iraq). Its Fatimah al-Ma'sumah shrine, the madrasas clustered around the Howzeh-ye Elmiyyeh, and the many husainiyas and religious institutions make it the intellectual engine of Iranian Shia Islam.

Isfahan preserves some of the most beautiful mosques and Islamic architectural ensembles on earth. The Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Imam Square, anchors the Masjid-e Shah and the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, whose cream-and-blue tiled domes are considered masterworks of Safavid architecture. The city's older Masjid-e Jameh, a Seljuk-origin congregational mosque with later Timurid and Safavid additions, encapsulates nearly every major phase of Iranian mosque design in a single building. Shiraz, further south, contains the beautiful Nasir al-Mulk Mosque (the Pink Mosque) and the tombs of the poets Hafez and Saadi, which function as secular-spiritual shrines visited by Iranians of every persuasion.

Tabriz in the northwest, Tehran the capital, and the cities of the central plateau, Yazd, Kashan, Kerman, Zanjan, Hamedan, each hold their own distinctive mosque traditions. Yazd's mud-brick desert mosques are a study in passive architectural response to extreme climate, and Kashan's Aqa Bozorg Mosque and its attached madrasa is an exceptional example of late Qajar religious architecture. Baluchestan's Sunni communities, centred on Zahedan and the Makoran coast, maintain their own mosque network under the religious guidance of Molavi Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi and the Sunni scholars of the region. Kurdish Sunni mosques in Kermanshah, Sanandaj, and Mahabad similarly preserve the Shafi'i tradition with local character.

For halal dining, Iran is straightforwardly halal throughout, and Iranian cuisine is considered among the most refined and ancient food traditions in the world. Iranian food is built around long-simmered stews (khoresht), rice prepared in the distinctive chelow and polow methods, grilled meats (kebab koobideh, joojeh, barg), herb-intensive dishes such as ghormeh sabzi and sabzi polow ba mahi, and an extensive tradition of home-style dishes that vary regionally from Gilani seafood and garlic cuisine to Khuzestani Arab-influenced rice dishes to Azeri dolmas. Persian tea culture, pastry traditions, and halva making are closely tied to religious occasions and to hospitality customs inherited from centuries of Islamic practice. Islamic scholarship in Iran is concentrated in the seminary (howzeh) system of Qom and Mashhad, along with more than a dozen other cities, and produces a steady flow of graduates in jurisprudence, theology, philosophy, and Qur'anic sciences.