Clock towers – a distinctly European form introduced during the industrial age, rose unexpectedly alongside the domes and minarets of Iran and Iraq in the late Qajar and Ottoman eras. As the old Eastern Islamic dynasties were increasingly exposed to European infrastructure and engineering, they sought to bring back some of these technologies to their own dominions. Of these were clock towers, these structures combined utilitarian function with architectural monumentality and were typically situated in sites of bustling civilian usage. In Europe this was often in squares and secular spaces, in Iran and Iraq where vast public squares were not a typical part of urban design, they were placed within the grand courtyards of mosques, shrines, and even cathedrals.

Clock towers in Persia were designed to fit in with the existing ensembles of domes and minarets, always proportional to them and never rising above them. While clock towers in Ottoman Turkey often literally copied the architectural forms of European clock towers, within Iran and Iraq they emerged as curious hybrids of East and West where they combined familiar Persian ornamental tile or brick work with the new iron mechanisms of modern clock faces. While many historic clock towers in Iran and Iraq still stand today not all of them retain their original European mechanical clock mechanisms. Age and war have taken their toll on some old mechanical clock mechanisms with some having been replaced with modern electrical systems in recent years.

While clock towers today may seem redundant for time telling, they have found their place in the language of Persian architecture and new ones continue to be built.