that included a row of shops traditionally reserved for calligraphers and bookbinders, and the town square in front of the mosque's main entrance. The mosque also rented space to other types of merchants in the mosque's northern and eastern façades, and ran the nearby Shahi Hammam. Revenues from these sources were meant to serve as a waqf, or endowment, for the mosque's maintenance. Main Construction of the mosque began under the reign of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in either 1634 or 1635, and was completed in approximately seven years. In the late 1880s, John Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard Kipling, wrote about the mosque and its decorative elements in the former Journal of Indian Art. The British scholar Fred Henry Andrews noted in 1903 that the mosque had fallen into disrepair. Architecture The mosque is built on an elevated plinth, with the main portal opening onto the Wazir Khan Chowk. The outer perimeter of the Wazir Khan Mosque measures by , with the long axis parallel to the Shahi Guzargah. It was built with bricks laid in kankar lime. Decorative elements Wazir Khan mosque is renowned for its elaborate embellishment in a style which draws from the decorative traditions from several regions. While other monuments in Lahore from the Shah Jahan period feature intricate kashi-kari tile work, none match the enormous scale of the Wazir Khan Mosque. Structure Bricks facing the mosque's exterior are richly embellished with the Persian-style title work known as kashi-kari. Façades facing the inner courtyard are richly embellished with motifs and palette which display strong influences from 17th century Persia. Persian-style colours used include (cobalt blue), (cerulean), white, green, orange, yellow and purple, while Persian-influenced motifs include star-shaped flowers and grapevines. The mosque also contains motifs of cypress trees, and is the first Mughal monument to have borrowed this motif from Persia.The façade of the entry portal facing Wazir Khan Chowk is decorated with elaborate tile work and calligraphy that includes verses of the Quran, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, prayers for the Prophet, and calligraphic insignias. Above the iwan entrance to the main prayer hall are verses from the Quran's surah Al-Baqara written by the calligraphist Haji Yousaf Kashmiri. Frescoes Unlike the contemporary Shah Jahan Mosque in Sindh, the interior walls of Wazir Khan Mosque are plastered and adorned with highly detailed buon frescoes The interior decorative style is unique for Mughal-era mosques, as