This chapter sheds light on the foundational Timurid period in Afghan history during the fifteenth century, which saw important and enduring religious institu- tions founded in the capital city of Herat and other urban centers.1 The chapter focuses on how Timurid women of the ruling class patronized religious architec- ture with their own private funds. The most audacious of these female patrons was Queen Gawhar Shad, the wife and consort of the Timurid ruler Shahrukh (r. 1405–47), who spent a decade as de-facto ruler of the Timurid Empire after ar- ranging the coronation of her young grandson upon her husband’s death in 1447. Not only did Gawhar Shad dare to break the long-standing custom that prevented women from patronizing mosques by building two mosques; she also ensured that the mosques in question became not just ordinary places of worship but pres- tigious Friday mosques, serving as influential institutions at the intersection of political and religious power. In tracing the wider context of female religious pa- tronage that surrounded Gawhar Shad’s endowment of these mosques, this chap- ter draws on original Persian records alongside contemporary European scholar- ship. In so doing, it provides an overview of the role of elite women in shaping the religious landscape of medieval Afghanistan and its surrounding regions during the Timurid renaissance of the fifteenth century.