The color Persian blue is named from the blue color of some Persian pottery and the color of tiles used in and on mosques and palaces in Iran and in other places in the Middle East. Persian blue is a representation of the color of the mineral lapis lazuli which comes from Persia and Afghanistan. (The color azure is also named after the mineral lapis lazuli.)

The first recorded use of Persian blue as a color name in English was in 1669.^[1]

The interior of the Shah Mosque in the city of Isfahan in Iran is lavishly decorated with Persian blue colored tiles.

• Many beautiful mosques in Iran, such as the enormous Shah Mosque in Isfahan, have interiors that are faced with tiles that are Persian blue or close variations of it.
• The Persian blue color of Persian blue tiles is a representation of the color of lapis lazuli which has been mined in Iran and Afghanistan since ancient times.
• The color Persian blue, like azure, is suggestive of the sky or the celestial sphere.
• When the color Persian blue is used in a religious context as to surface the interior of a mosque, it represents heaven.

1. ↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 201; color sample of Persian blue: Page 95 Plate 36 Color Sample L4