The Shia Mosque, Tbilisi, Mosque in Old Tbilisi, Georgia

The Shia Mosque stood at the head of the old Avlabari bridge, opposite the Metekhi church, on the right bank of the Mtkvari. It was the largest of Tbilisi's mosques, built on the site of a church Ismail I had destroyed. Shah Abbas expanded it in 1606 and crowned it with a minaret so fine that locals called it the Shah's Mosque. It was demolished in autumn 1951.

The mosque was built by Shah Ismail I between 1522 and 1524 on the site of a church he had destroyed, and stood by the old Avlabari bridge opposite Metekhi church. Shah Abbas's invasion of 1606 brought an enlargement and a fine minaret, which earned it the name Shah's Mosque. It survived until autumn 1951, when it was demolished during the city's reconstruction; an unofficial account blames the deaths of Shia worshippers during the Shahsey-Vahsey festival.

The mosque was the setting for Nowruz Bayram, the spring new-year festival: crowds gathered at the Metekhi bridge at 11 a.m., then paraded with guild banners and zurna music toward the Persian consulate in Sololaki. During Qurban Bayram, which lasted four days, sacrificial meat was distributed to poor families across the city.

The mosque no longer exists: it stood at the head of the old Avlabari bridge, opposite Metekhi church, and was demolished in autumn 1951 during the city's reconstruction. Nothing of the building remains on the site, so there are no visiting conditions to observe. Ornaments and inscribed slabs from the mosque are kept in the Georgian State Museum.

When the mosque was demolished in 1951 for the Metekhi bridge works, a hoard was found in 1953 while clearing the rubble on the right bank of the Kura: 411 coins went to the State Museum of Georgia, two each to the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum, three to Moscow's Historical Museum. Twelve coins of the emir Ali ibn Jafar, the only material relic of his rule, were later added. Carved ornaments and inscribed slabs from the mosque are kept in the State Museum of Georgia.