History

The Order of Homayoun was originally instituted as the Order of the Lion and Sun under the Qajar dynasty in 1808. The Order was re-established as the Order of Homayoun, or Order of August or of Light, by Reza the Great, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, by firman on February 15, 1939. The Order was presented in 5 Classes to senior government officers and foreigners as Iran's third highest honour. The Emporer of Iran was entitled to award the Order in any class on New Years Day in recognition of service made to the advancement of culture, literature, or fine arts, service which promotes the development of the nation, selfless and altruistic aid or financial assistance during times of natural disasters or emergency, substantial innovations, or service provided to the community through charitable organizations.

The Order also has 3 associated medals to reward junior civil servants and other personnel who provided honourable meritorious service to the state, but whose status disqualified them for the award of the Order. The Order was discontinued following the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Unlike the original Order of the Lion and Sun, which depicts an image of either a couchant (sitting) or guardant (standing) lion and human-faced sun on the obverse medallion, the Order of Homayoun features a depiction of a guardant lion and sun without a human face. There may be variants of the Order's insignia with a full sun that has a human face.

There is high variation in the depictions of the lion and sun, as the medallion images are hand painted.