In the late eighteenth century, a large urban redevelopment program was initiated by the Shii Isna ‘Ashari Muslim ruler Asaf al-Dawlah in Lucknow, a city located in the prosperous, semi-autonomous north Indian region of Awadh. The development included four monumental entrances, a congregational mosque and a monumental imambarah, a ritual centre used for the annual mourning of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Husayn by the city’s small, elite Shii Isna community. Incorporating one of the largest masonry vaults ever built in human history, the imambarah has a monumental scale that contributes to its uniqueness. Although Shii Isna ‘Ashari communities elsewhere developed smaller imambarah facilities, none ever thought to build one using monumental proportions typically reserved for congregational mosques. Asaf al-Dawlah’s Great Imambarah is unusual in the history of world architecture and in Shii Isna ‘Ashari, Islamic religious practice, but the building and complex have never been the focus of study. / Graduate