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This Mosque was built by Nawab Umdat-ul-Umrah in the year 1810. Before getting it redesigned as a Mosque, this place of worship has been a shrine for quite a long time. Holy quotations from Qur'an have been inscribed on the walls of the Mosque. This is located at Anna Salai.

Thousand Lights is the name of the area where this historic mosque is and Thousand Lights is what the mosque is called. The name derives from the tradition that one thousand and more oil-lamps used to be lit to light up an Assembly Hall that once occupied the triangular wedge between Mount Road and Peter's Road, that is now occupied by the Mosque.

The Hall was built around 1810 by a scion of the Wallajah family which owned much of the property in this area - for the Shia Muslims to assemble at Moharram. A Mosque was added to the hall not long afterwards and in the same 5 acre property, a still newer Mosque was added in 1981, with the two tall minarets and five inward curving domes showing modern West Asian influence.

One of the city's most important Mosques, the Thousand Lights Mosque is still a scene of the greatest religious activity during the annual Moharram festival. The old Mosque from inside the complex is quietly impressive in a way different from the new Mosque's grandeur. The mosque was renovated twice, the last time in 1936, but the outside walls are believed to date from the original hall.