All Saints Church, Peshawar

All Saints' Church is a historic Anglican place of worship located within the Kohati Gate of the old walled city of Peshawar. Constructed in 1883, the church is architecturally known for its synthesis of Christian liturgical requirements with Islamic Saracenic aesthetics, which resulted in a structure that bears resemblance to a mosque, complete with minarets and a central dome.

Prior to the construction of the church, the local congregation worshipped at the nearby Edwardes Mission School and a small reading hall known as the Anjuman or Mission Chapel in Peepal Mandi. The impetus for a dedicated church building came from the Reverend T.P. Hughes, a missionary serving in Peshawar from 1865 to 1884. Hughes advocated for a building that possessed a "fitting external embodiment" similar to a mosque to better integrate with the local culture. Fundraising efforts included a bazaar held in Simla in July 1882 at the instigation of Lady Aitchison, wife of the Governor General of India. The construction was overseen by Reverend Worthington Jukes, a founding member, with technical assistance from General Follard of the Royal Engineers. The Church was opened on St. John's Day, 27 December 1883. The foundation stone of the church was laid by Captain Graves whose widow presented the brass desk on the Lord's Table. A local architect, under the supervision of Church Missionary Society staff including the Rev. Thomas Hughes, was responsible for the design of the building. The building is cruciform in layout with the chancel at the west end. On September 22, 2013, two suicide bombers carried out an attack outside the church at the end of a Sunday service, killing 127 people and injuring 170. 600 parishioners were on the front lawn of the church, having lunch, when two bombers detonated themselves, leaving the church scattered with body parts. Victims included an estimated 37 children. TTP Jundullah, linked to the Taliban, said it had carried out the attack on the Christian congregation, saying, "We will continue our attacks on non-Muslims on Pakistani land." This was the second attack on churches in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a year, where another chu

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).