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In the late twelfth century, the Ghurid dynasty, whose homeland was just northwest of Kabul in Afghanistan, extended its power throughout northern India. For a time, the Ghurid state encompassed all the territory from Herat to Bengal; its rule was significant in bringing Central Asian Islamic culture to India. The Turkic slave commanders of the Ghurids established the Delhi Sultanate when the Ghurid empire disintegrated. |
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The Cathedral Mosque occupies a vast area; its walls, roof and paving are all constructed of white stones, admirably squared and firmly cemented with lead. There is no wood in it at all. It has thirteen domes of stone, its minbar is also of stone, and it has four courts. In the centre of the mosque is the awe-inspiring column of which nobody knows of what metal it is constructed...It is thirty cubits high...At the eastern gate of the mosque there are two enormous idols of brass prostrate on the ground and held by stones, and everyone entering or leaving the mosque treads on them. The site was formerly occupied by a budkhana, that is idol temple, and was converted into a mosque on the conquest of the city. In the northern court of the mosque is the minaret, which has no parallel in the lands of Islam. It is built of red stone, unlike the stone used for the rest of the mosque, for that is white, and the stones of the minaret are dressed. The minaret itself is of great height; the ball on top of it is of glistening white marble and its "apples" are of pure gold. The passage is so wide that elephants can go up by it. A person in whom I have confidence told me that when it was built he saw an elephant climbing with stones to the top....The Sultan Qutb al-Din wished to build in the western court an even larger minaret, but was cut off by death when only a third of it had been completed... [H.A.R. Gibb translation.] |
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One of the early additions to the Great Mosque was the complex of rooms known commonly as "Ala al-Din's School," even though we cannot be certain of its original function, and it undoubtedly was built well before the early 14th-century reign of Ala al-Din. The building is of particular interest for its various experiments in constructing domed ceilings. One example shown here (the dome is not extant) shows the use of radiating arched ceiling vaults simultaneously with corbelled pendentives to create the octagonal transition space from the hall to the dome. |
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The first really independent Sultan of Delhi was Qutb al-Din's son-in-law, Iltutmish (ruled 1211-1236). In the last year of his reign he commissioned his own mausoleum, located just to the northwest of the great mosque. The west wall of the structure was closed in order to place there the elaborately carved mihrab (the niche indicating the direction of Mecca). Traditional Indian construction techniques were used in the corbelled arches and dome, although the prominence of a dome (no longer extant) was very much a feature of Islamic tradition. In order to make the transition from the square of the hall to the round dome, squinches were used at the corners to create the octagonal shape on which the dome could be placed. The use of squinches for this purpose was another Islamic architectural feature, seen here for the first time in India. Although Quranic verses are used abundantly in the carving, they are interspersed with various Indian decorative motifs.
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Another of the important buildings connected with the mosque is the Ala-i Darwaza, the southern gate, built in 1311 under Ala al-Din, who is eulogized in Persian verses inscribed on the outer wall. A number of its features became common in later Indian Islamic architecture, notably the mixed light and dark masonry, the spearhead decoration of the arches, and the use of screens carved from stone. The structure of the dome and its supports suggests that the local architects had not yet mastered the more sophisticated techniques of dome construction practiced elsewhere in the Islamic world. In contrast, the high arches in each facade are amongst the earliest using Islamic world techniques. Such large arches and the adjoining modified blind arcades are common features in later Islamic buildings.
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Finally, we note two of the later buildings in the vicinity of the great mosque. One, adjoining the Ala-i Darwaza, is the tomb of Imam Zamin. The second is the tomb of a Sufi saint located near the entrance to the mosque.
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