No More Learning



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CHAPTER XXIII
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Seldom in the history of mankind has the spectacle been witnessed
of two civilisations, so vast and so strongly developed, yet so radically
dissimilar as the Muhammadan and Hindu meeting and mingling
together. The very contrasts which existed beween them, the wide
divergences in their culture and their religions, make the history of
their impact peculiarly instructive and lend an added interest to the
art and above all to the architecture which their united genius called
into being
How much precisely this Indo-Islamic art owed to India and
how much to Islam, has been a moot point. The majority of
writers, approaching the question from a western standpoint, have
treated Indo-Islamic art merely as a local variety of Islamic art ;
others, taking the opposite side and in sympathly with Indian rather
than with Muhammadan ideals, have seen in it nothing more than
a modified form of Hindu art. Much may be said in favour of
either point of view. On the one hand, examples might be adduced
of Muhammadan architecture so closely resembling the Hindu
as to be all but indistinguishable from it; or, on the other, of
monuments so entirely devoid of any indigenous influence that they
might almost equally well have been erected in Samarqand or
Damascus. Such examples, however, would be misleading and the
arguments based on them fallacious. Broadly speaking, Indo-
Islamic architecture derives its character from both sources, though
not always in an equal degree. In India, indeed, the history of
Muslim architecture is closely akin to what it was in other
countries. Wherever the Muhammadans established themselves,
whether in Asia or in Africa or Europe-they invariably adapted
to their own needs the indigenous architecture which they found
prevailing there. In the lands first conquered by them-in Pales-
1 Although the term 'Saracenic' as applied to the art of Islam has the advantage
of being consecrated by long usage, the term 'Islamic' seems preferable for two
reasons ; first, because it was mainly the religion of Islam which gave to the
Muhammadan world its common bonds of culture and art ; secondly, because to
the Muhammadans themselves the ‘Saracen' meant nothing more than the Arab
tribesmen who dwelt along the borders of the Syrian desert. Without, therefore,
altogether excluding the word 'Saracenic,' Islamic will be used generally in this
chapter.


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CH, XXII]
HINDU AND MUSLIM ART
569
tine, for example, or in Syria or in Egypt--this was inevitable, for
the reason, as we shall presently see, that the Arabs themselves
possessed little or no genius for the art of building, and, if their
places of worship were to be as attractive as those of rival creeds,
it was indispensable that they should impress into their service the
builders and artists of the newly conquered territories. Later on
this deficiency was made good by wholesale conversions among their
subject races, and in no long space of time the followers of the
Prophet found themselves heirs by blood as well as by the right of
conquest to the arts and learning not only of the vast Sasanian
Empire but of the greater part of the Graeco-Roman Orient as well
as of Northern Africa and Spain. Under the sway of the Muslims
the cultural development of all these countries received a powerful
stimulus and, thanks to the freer intercourse and increasingly closer
ties established between them, Islam was able to evolve for itself a
new culture, which rapidly became common to the whole Muslim
Empire, and at the same time to elaborate novel forms of architec-
ture especially adapted to its religious and social needs. But though
Islamic architecture thus acquired a fundamental character of its
own and found expression in standardised forms and concepts in
general use throughout the length and breadth of the empire, it still
remained true that almost every country within that empire-
from Spain in the West to Persia in the East--developed a local
Muslim style of its own based primarily on indigenous ideals and
stamped with a strong national individuality. Nowhere, for example,
but in Spain could the romantic gateway of Toledo, or the fairy-
like courts of the Alhambra have taken shape, and nowhere but in
India could the Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque of Old Delhi or the chaste
and stately fabric of the Tāj Mahall have been designed.
By the close of the twelfth century, then, when the Muslims
established their power permanently in India, it was no longer a
case of their having to be tutored by their new subjects in the art
of building ; they themselves were already possessed of a highly-
developed architecture of their own, as varied and magnificent as
the contemporary architecture of Christian Europe ; and the
Muslims, moreover, who conquered India-men of Afghān, Persian
and Turki blood-were endowed with remarkably good taste and
a natural talent for building. The picture that some writers have
drawn of them as wild and semi-barbarous hill-men descending
on an ancient and vastly superior civilisation, is far from the
truth. That they were brutal fighters, without any of the chivarly,


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570
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
for example, of the Rājputs, and that they were capable of acts of
savagery and gross intemperance, may be conceded. But these
were vices common in those ages to most Asiatic nations and did
not preclude them any more than they had precluded the Ghaz-
navids from participating in the prevalent culture and arts of
Islam. Qutb-ud-din Aibak was ruthless enough to enslave en masse
the population of Kālinjar, but he also had the genius and imagi-
nation to create a mosque as superb as any in Islam ; and though
;
'Alā-ud-dīn Khaljī slaughtered thousands of Mongols in cold blood
at Delhi, he was the author of buildings of unexampled grace and
nobility. Doubtless, it was due in a great measure to this inborn
artistry, coupled with a natural catholicity of taste, that the new-
comers were so quick to appreciate the talent and adaptability of
the Indian craftsmen and to turn these qualities to account on
their own buildings. Few things in the history of architecture are
more remarkable than the skill with which, from the very outset,
the Muhammadans transformed Hindu and Jaina temples into
mosques for the Faithful, or the imagination which they displayed
in employing Indian sculptors to adorn their edifices with designs
incomparably more exquisite than their own. To create a success.
ful building out of such alien materials, to reconcile two styles
so characteristically opposed, without transgressing the standard
formulas of Islamic art, might well have been deemed an impossible
task. For the contrast between the Hindu temple and the Muslim
mosque could hardly have been more striking. The shrine of the
former was relatively small and constricted ; the prayer chamber
of the latter was broad and spacious. The one was gloomy and
mysterious ; the other light and open to the winds of heaven. The
Hindu system of construction was trabeate, based on column and
architrave ; the Muslim was arcuate, based on arch and vault. The
2
temple was crowned with slender spires or pyramidal towers; the
mosque with expansive domes. Hinduism found concrete expres-
sion in the worship of images, and its monuments were enriched
with countless idols of its deities; Islam rigidly forbade idolatry or
the portrayal of any living thing. Decorative ornament in Hindu
architecture delighted in plastic modelling ; it was naturalistic as
the Gothic and far more exuberant ; Islamic ornament, on the
other hand, inclined to colour and line or flat surface carving, and
took the form of conventional arabesques or ingenious geometric
patterning. Yet, with all these conspicuous contrasts (and there are
many more that might be added), there are certain factors common
to both forms of architecture which materially assisted towards


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XXI11 )
INFLUENCE OF HINDU ON MUSLIM ART
571
their amalgamation. Thus, a characteristic feature of many Hindu
temples, as well as of almost every Muslim mosque-a feature
derived from the traditional dwelling-house of the East and as
familiar in India as in other parts of Asia - was the open court
encompassed by chambers or colonnades, and such temples, as were
built on this plan naturally lent themselves, to conversion into
mosques and would be the first to be adapted for that purpose by
the conquerors. Again, a fundamental characteristic that supplied
a common link between the two styles, was the fact that both
Islamic and Hindu art were inherently decorative. Ornament was
as vital to the one as to the other ; both were dependent on it for
their very being. In the Indian architect this sense for the decora-
tive was innate ; it came to him as a legacy from the pre-Aryan
races and ran through the whole fabric of the art. The Muslim, on
the other hand, had inherited a vast wealth of rich and varied
designs particularly from the Sasanian and Byzantine empires, and
though his taste in the handling of ornament might not be so
exquisite as the Indian, the value he attached to it was in no way
less. Thus it came about that when the conquest of India opened
up new realms of art before his eyes, he at once gauged their
vast possibilities and set about taking the fullest advantage of
them.
In the fusion of the two styles which followed, Muhammadan
architecture absorbed or inherited
manifold ideas and concepts
from the Hindu-so many, indeed, that there is hardly a form or
motif of Indian architecture which in some guise or other did not
find its way into the buildings of the conquerors. But
important than these visible borrowings of outward and concrete
features is the debt which Indo-Islamic architecture owes to
the Hindu for two of its most vital qualities ; the qualities
of strength and grace. In other countries Islamic architecture
has other merits. There is nothing in India, for instance, to
match the green and gold mosaics of Jerusalem and Damascus,
or the superb colouring of Persian tilework, or the wonderful
fantasies of Spanish design ; but in no other country are strength
and grace united quite so perfectly as in India. These are the
two qualities which India may justly claim for her own, and they
are the two which in architecture count for more than all the
rest.
In a country as vast and diversified as India, it is not to be
supposed that architecture ever conformed to a
universal type.
The local styles of buildings which the Muhammadans encountered
more


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572
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
in different districts were almost as numerous and distinct une
from another, as the peoples themselves or the languages they
spoke. Some of the styles, as we have seen in the preceding
volume of this history, were determined by the ethnic character
of the population ; others were the outcome of differing religions ;
others, again, resulted from foreign inspiration ; and others were
conditioned by geographical surroundings or by the climate or
geology of the neighbourhood. Whatever the underlying causes,
each style represented a spontaneous development suited to the
religious or social needs of the inhabitants and reflecting their
specific habits and mentality. Out of these antecedent styles the
Muhammadans evolved their own particular forms of architecture,
adapting each to their requirements and modifying or transforming
it according to its character or to the facilities which they
possessed for giving expression to their own ideals. Thus, at
Delhi, they built their first mosques out of the spoils of Hindu and
Jaina temples, constructing them on Indian principles and enrich-
ing them with the handiwork of indigenous sculptors. At Delhi,
however, the Muslims were in preponderating strength and better
able, therefore, to maintain their own traditions. Hence at Delhi
they quickly began to assert their own individuality and allowed
Hindu craftsmanship only a very limited play. At Jaunpur, on the
other hand, and in the Deccan, the local styles enjoyed greater
ascendancy, while in Bengal the conquerors not only adopted the
established fashion of building in brick, but adorned their struc-
tures with chiselled and moulded enrichments frankly imitated
from Hindu prototypes. So, too, in western India they appropriated
to themselves almost en bloc the beautiful Gujarāti style, which
had yielded some of the finest buildings of mediaeval India ; and
in Kashmir they did the same with the striking wooden architec-
ture which must long have been prevalent in that part of the
Himālayas. But much as Muhammadan architecture owed to these
older schools, it owed much also to the Muhammadans themselves ;
for it was they who, in every case, endowed it with breadth and
spaciousness and enriched it with new beauties of form and colour.
Before their advent, concrete had been little used in India, and
mortar scarcely ever; by the Muhammadans these materials were
employed as freely as by the Romans and became two of the most
important factors of construction, Thanks to the strength of their
binding properties it was possible for the Muslim builders to span
wide spaces with their arches, to roof immense areas with their
domes and in other ways to achieve effects of grandeur such as the


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xxm]
INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
$73
Indians had never dreamt of. Of the arch the Indian had not been
wholly ignorant; but without a cementing agent for the masonry,
his knowledge had been of little avail. With the Muhammadans,
on the contrary, the arch and dome had been from time immemorial
the key-notes of their construction, and, though in their newly-
adopted styles they frequently perpetuated the trabeate system, it
was the arch and dome that they always regarded as peculiarly
their own and as symbolic of their Faith. Other characteristic
features which they introduced were the minar and minaret, the
pendentive and squinch arch, stalactite, honey-combing and half-
domed double portal. Elaborate decoration and brightly coloured
ornament were at all times dear to the heart of the Muslim, and
in both these spheres he introduced striking innovations. The rich
floral designs of the Indian artists he supplemented with flowing
arabesque or intricate geometric devices of his own, or sometimes
interwove with them (as only a Muslim calligraphist could do) the
graceful lettering of his sacred texts and historic inscriptions. Nor
was it enough that his buildings should be beautified merely with
a wealth of carvings executed in stone or brick or plaster; the
Muslim required colour also and colour he supplied by painting
and gilding, or by employing stones of various hues to accentuate
the architectural features. Later on, by the more laborious pro-
cesses of tesselating and pietra dura, he reproduced the designs
themselves in coloured stones and marbles. Still more brilliant
were the effects he attained by encaustic tiling, which he used
at first sparingly and in a few colours only, but later without
restraint to embellish whole buildings with a glistening surface of
enamel.
Of the many and various groups into which the Islamic monu-
ments of India are divided, that of Delhi occupies the central and
pre-eminent place ; for it was at Delhi that the Muhammadans
erected their first splendid memorials, and it was at Delhi that
there afterwards arose a succession of buildings extending over the
whole six centuries of their rule. But before approaching Delhi we
must cast back for a moment to the older Muslim kingdoms of
Sind and Afghānistān and see what contribution, if any, they made
to the development of Islamic art in India. With the Arabs, who
in the beginning of the eighth century possessed themselves of
Sind, our concern is small. Like other Semitic peoples they showed
but little natural instinct for architecture or the formative arts.
Though the Caliphs retained Sind for more than a century and a
half and though Muslim rule endured there until the close of the


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574
(CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
tenth century, the sole surviving relics of it are the foundations of
some small mosques unearthed a few years ago in the buried city
of Marsūra', which, so far as can be judged from their remains,
possessed no artistic merit. But if the Arabs were negligible factor,
it was far otherwise with the Ghaznavids of Afghānistān, who
overran Northern India in the first quarter of the eleventh century.
At that time Persia occupied an all-important place in the world
of Islamic art. Her genius was of the mimetic rather than the
creative order, but she possessed a magic gift for absorbing the
artistic creations of other countries and refining them to her own
standard of perfection. Situated as she was in the heart of the
Middle East, she became the crucible in which the arts of Turkistān
and China on the one side, of Mesopotamia, Syria and the Byzan-
tine Empire on the other, were fused together and transmuted
into new forms and from which they issued afresh with the
indelible stamp of Persian beauty set upon them. And the
channel by which this stream of art flowed southward into India
was Ghazni. Glazni, however, was more than a mere medium for
the dissemination of Islamic art. All the culture and magnificence
which in the ninth and tenth centuries had belonged to the
Sāmānid dynasty of North-Eastern Persia, had passed, as if by the
natural right of inheritance, to the Ghaznavids, and under Mahmud
the Great and his immediate successors, Ghazni became famous
among all the cities of the Caliphate for the splendour of its
architecture. Most of its buildings, unfortunately, perished during
the ruthless burning of the city by "Alā-ud-din Husain Jahānsūz,
the Ghūrid, and others fell victims to the ravages of time or of
later vandals. To-day, the only monuments of note that are known
to survive are the tomb of Mahmūd the Great and two minars or
Towers of Victory, the one erected by Mahmūd himself and the
other by one of his successors, Masʼūd. For us the minars are
especially interesting as being the prototypes of the famous Qutb
minar at Delhi and analogous to the towers of Dāmghān in Persia
and at Mujdan and Tāūq in Mesopotamia. Up to half a century
1 A. S. R. , 1903-04, pp. 132 ff.
2 These remarks apply rather to the architecture of Eastern than Western Persia.
The former is distinguished by its essentially decorative character, the latter by its
constructional forms and motifs, which link it up with the Islamic architecture of
Mesopotamia and ultimately with the Hell 'nistic monuments of the Nearer East.
3 No architectural remains of the Sāmānid dynasty are known to exist, but of the
influence which its art and culture exerted on Ghazni there can be no doubt. The
architecture of Ghazni also owed a great debt to the currents of art which flowed
thither from Turkistān and from Central Asia generally.
4 Cf. Gertrude Bell, Palace and Mosque at Ukhaidir, pp. 40-41.


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XXII )
DELHI
$75
ago they were standing to a height of about 140 feet, and at that
time consisted of two storeys, the lower star-shaped in plan, the
upper round, both built of brick and embellished with elaborate
designs in terra cottal. The tomb of Mahmud Yamin-ud-Daula
(999—1030 A. D. ) which was also of brick has been completely
modernised by restoration, the only feature preserved intact being
its richly carved doors which were brought from Ghazni by the
British in 1842 and are now in the Fort at Āgra. These doors are
of deodar wood, divided into panels and adorned with six pointed
stars and simple geometric figures ; the stars and figures, as well as
the vertical styles between the leaves, being carved into a variety
of interlacing designs or flowing arabesques, and the whole further
enriched with decorative hinges and bands of ironwork. Along the
lower edge of the lintel is an inscription in Kufic2 lettering invoking
the forgiveness of God and his blessings on 'Abu-l-Qāsim Mahmud,'
son of Sabuk-tigin, while round the framing of the doors is repeated
in the same script the formula, 'the sovereignty belongs to God. '
Assuming that these doors are of the same age as the tomb (and it is
prima facie improbable that a later generation would have lavished
so much care upon their carvings), they acquire a special interest
from the exceptionally developed character of their arabesques, and
interlaced designs, which resemble Cairens work of the later twelfth
rather than of the eleventh century. As more materials become
available for the study of this period of Islamic art, it may well
prove that in work of this kind, Afghānsitān, which was under the
immediate influence of Persia, was a century ahead of Egypt.
To return, however, to Delhi. The city which the armies of
Qutb-ud-din Aibak occupied in 1191 was the Qala-i-Rãi Pilhaura,
the oldest of the Seven Cities' of Delhi, within the perimeter of
which was included the strongly-fortified citadel known as the
Lāl Kot. ' Inside this citadel the conquerors erected one of the
most remarkable series of monuments of which Islam can boast.
a
1 The upper storeys have since fallen and square bases have been added to the
supports of the towers.
2 The inscription is to the following effect :
In the name of God who is most merciful and compassionate. May there be
forgiveness from God for the most exalted Amir, the dignified king, born to be.
come the chief of the state and the head of religion, Abū-l-Qāsim Mahmūd, the
son of Sabuk-tigin, upon whom be the mercy of God. . . His blessings for him.
3 E. g. the doors from the mosque of As-Sālih Telāye (circa 1160 A. D. ). Those
of the Al-Azhar mosque bearing a Kufic inscription of the Fatimite Al'Hākim
(circa 1010 A. D. ) are far more primitive in style, and so too are the doors from the
Fatimite palace at Cairo (circa 1057 A. D. ).
a


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576
(ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Its nucleus in the Jāmi' or Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque founded i
1191 A. D. by Qutb-ud-din Aibak to commemorate the capture of
Delhi and dedicated, as its name implies, 'to the Might of Islam. '
Raised on a lofty plinth and approached through gateways set in
three of its sides, its plan is typical of the majority of mosques ; it
consists, that is to say, of an open quadrangle enclosed by colon-
nades of which the western one constituted the prayer chamber,
the only unusual feature being the presence of entresol galleries
at the four corners of the colonnades instead of at the sides of the
prayer chamber. Seen from within or without, the building, as
originally designed, presented an essentially Hindu appearance.
Half of the plinth on which it stood had actually been the base-
ment of a Hindu temple and the rest of the structure-walls,
columns, capitals, architraves and ceilings-was composed of
materials stripped from the shrines of the unbelievers, twenty-seven
of which, so one of the inscriptions informs us, had gone to the
making of this one mosque. Indeed, save for the five mihrābs in
the back wall, there was scarcely a feature in the whole building
to proclaim its Muslim character. A design so alien to their own
traditions was hardly likely to satisfy the sentiments of the Muham-
madans, and within two years of its completion (i. e. in 1198 A. D. )
an arched screen of characteristically Muhammadan design was
thrown acros; the whole front of the prayer chamber. It is this
screen above all else that is the making of the Quwwat-ul-Islām
masjid. Simple as it is in form-it consists merely of a lofty
central arch (53 feet in height) flanked on either side by two lesser
arches which once supported smaller ones above-it would be hard
to imagine carvings more superbly ornate than these which enrich
its facade : band on band of sacred texts, their Tughrā characters
entwined with curling leaves, and sinuous tendrils, side by side
with floral scrolls and flowing arabesques or geometric traceries of
surpassing richness. No doubt it was a Muslim calligraphist who
set out the scheme and penned in the texts, but it was only an
Indian brain that could have devised such a wealth of ornament
and only Indian hands that could have carved it to such perfection.
In spite, however, of all its beauty it cannot be pretended that this
screen is an architectural success. It is too obviously an after.
thought, not an integral, organic part of the structure : too vast
and over-powering to harmonise with the relatively low colonnades
of the courtyard, and still more out of keeping with the slight
elegant pillars of the hall behind. The pity is that the precedent
set by this, the earliest mosque in Delhi, was destined to be


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XXII )
THE QUWWAT-UL-ISLAM
577
followed in many subsequent buildings and to exercise a baneful
influence on their style.
In 1230 A. D. the Emperor Iltutmish more than doubled the
area of the Quwwat-ul-Islām mosque by throwing out wings to the
prayer chamber and screen and by adding an outer court large
enough to embrace within its surrounding colonnades the Great
Minar begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak. Whether of set purpose or
because there were no more temples to despoil, fresh materials
were specially quarried for these extensions, and it is significant
of the extent to which the Muhammadans were now asserting their
own ideas at Delhi, that the new work was fundamentally Islamic
in character and manifestly designed, if not executed, by Muslim
craftsmen. Shafts and capitals and architraves of a Hindu pattern
were still used for the liwān and colonnades, but in the screen
extensions, which were the outstanding features of the new addi-
tions, Indian influence is visible in little except the actual construc-
tion of the arches. In Qutb-ud-din's screen the inscriptions were
the only part of the surface ornament which were Muhammadan ;
all the rest was Indian and modelled with true Indian feeling for
plastic form. In Iltutmish's work, on the other hand, the reliefs are
flat and lifeless, stencilled as it were on the surface of the stone,
and their formal patterns are identical with those found on con.
temporary Muslim monuments in other countries. It is fair, how-
ever, to add that what this latter work loses in spontaneous charm
and vitality, it more than gains in organic unity and tectonic
propriety.
The last of the Delhi kings to enlarge the Quwwat-ul-Islām
mosque was 'Alā-ud-din Khalji. In the spirit of megalomania which
so often obsessed him he started reduplicating the prayer chamber
toward the north, adding yet a third court more than twice the
size of its predecessor, and erecting in it another minar as high
again as the existing one. Had these vast structures been com.
pleted, we may well believe that they would have transcended the
other monuments of Delhi as much in beauty as in size, but,
fortunately perhaps for the welfare of his subject, the death of the
king 1315 A. D. put an end to his grandiose schemes.
Of the disposition of the mosque and other buildings composing
this group a clear and graphic idea can be obtained from the
skilful reconstruction drawn by Mr J. A. Page (Plate III). The
Qutb minar seems to have been intended as a ma’zina or tower
from which the mu’azzin could summon the Faithful to prayer,
though it soon came to be regarded as a tower of Victory, akin to
37
C. H. I. III


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578
(CH
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
as
those afterwards erected at Chitor and Māndū. As originally
designed it stood some 225 feet in height and comprised four
storeys divided one from another by richly decorated balconies and
further embellished by vertical Autings and horizontal bands of
inscriptions inwoven with foliate designs. Many of the inscriptions
are Quranic texts and demonstrate the essentially sacred character
of the fabric ; others contain panegyrics of the kings who built or
repaired the minar, and from these as well from architec-
tural considerations it is evident that only a portion of the
first storey
was the work of Qutb-ud-din Aibak and that the
rest was completed by his successor Iltutmish'. In an inscrip-
tion on the lowest band of the first storey Qutb-ud-din is
referred to under his usual viceregal titles of 'The Amir, The
Commander of the Army, The Glorious, The Great,' and on
the adjacent bands are eulogies of his overlord Mu'izz-ud-din
Muhammad Ghūrī and of the latter's brother Ghiyās-ud-din, which
leave no room for doubt that Qutb-ud-din was still Viceroy at
Delhi when the minar was begun. [ltutmish's own inscriptions are
engraved on the second and third storeys only, but there is another
record concerning him on the fourth storey, which dates from the
time of Firūz Shāh Tughluq. In the reign of that Emperor the
minar was struck by lightning and the fourth storey being then
apparently dismantled and replaced by two smaller ones, its height
by this means was raised to 234 feet. This rebuilding is chronicled
in an inscription on the fifth storcy and is clearly apparent in the
novel style of decoration as well as in the different materials
employed in the new work ; for, whereas the three lower storeys
are constructed of grey quartzite faced throughout with red sand.
stone, the fourth and fifth storeys are constructed of red sandstone
faced largely with white marble. Finally, in 1503 A. D. , during the
reign of Sikandar Shāh Lodī, the minar was again restored and its
upper storeys repaired, though what measures precisely were
carried out on that occasion cannot easily be determined. On the
strength of certain short Nāgari records in the interior attempts
have been made to prove that the minar was of Hindu origin and
that the Muhainmadans merely re-carved the outer surface. But
the only Nāgarī record of a date earlier than 1199 A. D, is one on
the soffit of a window lintel, in a position which leaves no doubt
that this particular stone came from some older structure.
fact, the whole conception of the minar and almost every detail of
1 Two short Någari records of 1199 A. D, carved on the lowest storey indicate that
the minar was founded in or before that year.
As a


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XXIII ]
THE QUTB MINAR
579
its construction and decoration is essentially Islamic. Towers of
this kind were unknown to the Indians, but to the Muhammadans
they had long been familiar, whether as ma'zinas attached to
mosque or as free-standing towers like those at Ghaznī. Equally
distinctive also of Muslim art are the calligraphic inscriptions and
the elaborate stalactite corbelling beneath the balconies, both of
which can be traced back to kindred features in the antecedent
architecture of Western Asia and Egypt. Fergusson, who was no
mean judge, regarded the Qutb minar as the most perfect example
of a tower known to exist anywhere, and there is much to be said
in favour of his view. Nothing certainly, could be more imposing
or more fittingly symbolic of Muslim power than this stern and
stupendous fabric; nor could anything be more exquisite than its
rich but restrained carvings. Nevertheless, with all its overwhelm-
ing strength, with all its perſection of symmetry and ornament-
nay, by reason perhaps of this very perfection-it seems to
miss the romance, the indefinable quality of mystery that clings
around some of its rivals : round the Campanile of Giotto, for
example, at Florence or round the towers of Victory and Fame at
Chitor.
The reaction against Indianisation which is so marked a feature
of the minarl is noticeable also in Iltutmish's extensions of the
Quwwat-ul-Islām screen and of the little tomb--said to be that of
Iltutmish--which stands behind the north-west corner of the
mosque. Here, however, the Muslim elements have been less
successful in dominating the Hindu, with the result that the style
is vacillating and nerveless, possessing neither the tectonic strength
and purposefulness of the former, nor the picturesque artistry of
the latter. In its form and dimensions the tomb is quite unpre-
tentious; a simple square chamber, less than 30 ft.
across, of red
sandstone within and of grey quartzite relieved by red sandstone
without. In three of its sides are arched entrances, and on the
fourth a mihrāb flanked by two smaller ones, while thrown across
the corners are squinch arches supporting a domical roof, which
like many Syrian and Egyptian domes was probably constructed
in part of wood. But if the structure was simple, its decoration
could scarcely have been more elaborate. The lofty entrance bays
without and almost the entire surface of the walls within
covered from floor to ceiling with Quranic texts in Naskh and
1 Whether Qutb-ud-din or Ilutmisli was mainly responsible for the design of
the minar as originally built, is uncertain. The style suggests that Iltutmish may
have modified Qutb-ud-din's design.
37 ---2
were


## p. 580 (#630) ############################################

580
ích.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
Tughrā and Kufic characters, or with formal arabesques and
geometric diapers as bewildering as they were varied, and the
ornate effect of the whole was further increased by picking out the
background of the white marble reliefs in colours. Predominantly
the ornamentation was Islamic. Only here and there are Indian
features observable, but we cannot doubt that the craftsmen
employed were Indian or that they were working with designs to
which they were little accustomed. That this tomb is the resting-
place of Iltutmish is the common belief to which colour is lent by
its location immediately behind Iltutmish's extension of the
mosque. On the other hand, some doubt as to its identity is cast
by a passage in the Futūhāt-i-Firuz Shāhi, where the Emperor
speaks of having restored some fallen pillars and four towers at the
Mausoleum of Iltutinish'-a description which manifestly does
not apply to this tomb. Probably the writer of the memoir is at
fault, the building to which he refers being not the tomb of
Iltutmish himself, but one about two miles distant, now known as
'Sultān Ghāri,' which the Emperor built in 1231-32 for his son and
which there is good reason, therefore, for regarding as the oldest
building of its class in India. In this earlier tomb the pillars,
capitals, architraves and most of the decorative motifs are purely
Hindu, and though arches and domes figure prominently in its
design, they are constructed, like all the arches and domes of this
period, on the Hindu corbel principle. The plan, too, of the Sultā.
Ghāri is quite unlike that of Iltutmish's tomb and, indeed, unlike
that of any other tomb in India. It stands in the middle of a
square fortress-like enclosure with round turrets at the four
corners and an arched entrance, approached by a flight of steps,
on its eastern side. Walls and turrets alike are pierced by arched
openings. At the back of the gateway is a pillared portico carried
on Hindu pillars; and opposite to it on the west is a second portico
flanked by colonnades extending from side to side of the enclosure
This second portico, which is square and covered by a dome,
served as a mosque and was provided with a mihrāb in its back
wall embellished with inscriptions in Naskh and Kufic characters.
The tomb in the centre-an octagonal chamber with flat roof sup-
ported on pillars-is sunk to about two-thirds of its height below
the ground level, a fact to which it owes its name of 'Sultan of the
Cave. Most of the enclosure, let it be added, is of grey granite,
but the mosque and entrance portico as well as the exterior facing
of the tomb are of white marble.
Among other buildings associated with the name of Iltutmish,
a
-


## p. 581 (#631) ############################################

XXII ]
APPEARANCE OF THE TRUE ARCH
581
the most celebrated is the Arhāi-din-ka-Jhompra at Ajmer, which
Qutb-ud-din Aibak had built in 1200 A. D. and which Iltutmish sub-
sequently beautified with a screen. The story goes that Qutb-ud-
din finished the original building in two-and-a-half days, whence
its singular name of 'Two-and-a-half days hut, but a more
plausible explanation is that the name dates from Marāthā times,
when an annual melā or fair was held there, lasting two-and-a-half
days. Whatever the origin of the name, the mosque of Qutb-ud-din
is more likely to have taken two-and-a-half years than two-and-a-
half days to erect. In style and construction it closely resembles
its older rival at Delhi, but its area is more than double as large
and the several parts of the edifice are correspondingly more
spacious and dignified. At Delhi, the planning of the prayer
chamber had been done on makeshift lines, the colonnades being
too constricted and the pillars in them too low and crowded. At
Ajmer, these defects were remedied. A single broad aisle on three
sides of the open court took the place of the two or three narrow
ones at Delhi and the arrangement of domes and pillars in the
prayer chamber was made strictly uniform and symmetrical. Both
mosques were built out of the spoils of Hindu temples, but at
Ajmer the architect went to work more boldly and, despite the
multiplicity of his materials and their strange fantastic forms, he
succeeded nevertheless in creating out of them a hall of really
solemn beauty-fit setting for the exquisitely carved mihrāb of
white marble set in its western wall (Pl. VI). A further note of
distinction was given to this mosque by the addition of circular
bastions, fluted and banded like the Qutb minar, at the two corners
of its eastern facade. But if Qutb-ud-din's mosque at Ajmer was
an improvement on its predecessor at Delhi, the same cannot be
said of the screen, magnificent as it undoubtedly was, which
Iltutmish threw across the front of the prayer chamber. It had the
advantage of being a third again as broad as Qutb-ud-din's screen
and vastly more massive ; its engrailed arches were a pleasing
;
novelty, its decorative reliefs admirable of their kind, and its
workmanship beyond reproach. Yet, with all its grandeur and
perfection of technique, it missed the delicate and subtle beauty
of its rival. Mathematically it was correct to the minutest detail,
but mathematical precision is not architecture and no amount of
accuracy with compass and ruler can make up for lack of natural
artistry. The two minarets set meaninglessly on the top of the
central archway, the inappropriate niches and tiny medallions in
the spandrels, and the abrupt determination of the base mouldings


## p. 582 (#632) ############################################

582
[CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
sufficiently betray the limitations of the designer, who produced
in this screen rather a tour de force of technical excellence than
an artistic triumph.
Between the death of Iltutmish in 1236 and the accession of
'Alā-ud-din Khaljī the story of architecture at Delhi is all but a
blank. The only monument of note that throws light on its
progress in the interval is the tomb of Balban' (1266-86) which
stands in the south-east quarter of the Qal'a-i-Rāi Pilhaura. It is
a simple structure comprising a square domed chamber, 38 inches
across, with an arched entrance in each of its sides and a smaller
chamber to the east and west, in one of which was the grave of
Khān Shahīd, the son of the Emperor, who fell in battle against
the Mongols (1285-86). Unfortunately, every trace of decoration
has perished from the tomb and what is left of it is a mere shell,
but the presence of arches built on true scientific principles is an
innovation that deserves notice. In every building of Qutb-ud-din
and Iltutmish that has been described, the arches were constructed
not with youssoirs, as they ordinarily are, but in corbelled horizontal
courses, the fact being that, in their ignorance of arch construc-
tion, the Hindu craftsmen engaged on these structures had to
resort to their own traditional methods of dome building. The
appearance, then of the true arch in the tomb of Balban marks a
definite advance in construction and at the same time is sympto-
matic of a general reaction against Hindu influences. This reaction
had already made itself felt during the reign of Iltutmish and,
though we have no means of following it stage by stage, it is
evident that it must have gathered considerable strength in the
half century succeeding his death. For by the time the Khaljīs
came upon the scene Muslim building traditions had already
become firmly established on Indian soil, with the result that not
only had methods of construction been revolutionised but ornament
had come to be treated more as an integral factor and less as
quasi-independent accessory of architecture.
The effect of these developments upon the style of the Khalji
period is clearly evidenced in the two principal monuments of
'Alā-ud-din's reign : the Jama'at Khāna Masjid at the Dargah of
Nizām-ud-din Auliyā and the 'Alāi Darwāza at the Qutb. The
former is the earliest example in India of a mosque built wholly in
accordance with Muhammadan ideas and with materials specially
quarried for the purpose. It is of red sandstone and consists of
1 For a minar built at Koil in the ‘Aligarh District by Balban which was
demolished in 1862, see Aligarh Gazetteer, vol. v, p. 218.
a


## p. 583 (#633) ############################################

XXIII ]
APPEARANCE OF THE TRUE ARCH
583
three chambers : a square one in the centre and an oblong one on
either side, each entered through a broad archway in the facade.
All three entrances, as well as two smaller ones between them, are
framed in bands of Quranic inscriptions and embellished with lotus
cuspings The central chamber is covered by a single dome (38
inches diameter) supported at the corners on fourfold squinch
arches. Around the base of the dome, internally, are eight arched
niches, four closed and four pierced through the thickness of the
masonry. The side chambers, which are divided at their middle by
a double arch and roofed by two small domes, differ from the central
one in that their walls are of plastered rubble instead of sandstone,
while their domes are supported on triangular pendentives instead
of squinches. Originally, it is said, the building was intended by
its author, Khizr Khān, son of 'Alā-ud-din, not as a mosque but
as a tomb for Shaikh Nizām-ud-din and consisted of the central
chamber only, the side wings being added in the early Tugluq
period when it was converted into a mosque, while further altera-
tions and repairs are mentioned in the Thamarātu-l-Quds as having
been executed during the reign of Akbar. These last are patent at a
glance and include, besides other items, the screens in the side
portals (visible in Pl. VII) and the painted decorations in the interior
of the prayer chamber, all of which are typical of the Mughul period.
But that the side wings were a later addition is more than question-
able ; the design of the whole facade is so homogeneous and so nobly
planned, that it is well nigh incredible that it could have been the
creation of two different epochs or that the new work could have
been so cleverly dove-tailed into the old and the new carvings
imitated so skilfully as to defy detection.
The 'Alāſ Darwāza, built in 1311, was the southern gateway
leading into 'Alā-ud-dīn's extension of the Quwwat-ul-Islām
mosque. Though the only one of his buildings at Qütb which has
not fallen to ruin, its state of preservation is far from perfect, a
pillared portico which once veiled its northern entrance having
completely vanished and its walls being sadly damaged and
incorrectly restored. In spite, however, of its mutilations the
'Alāi Darwāza is one of the most treasured gems of Islamic archi-
tecture. Like the tomb of Iltutmish, it consists of a square hall
roofed by a single dome, with arched entrances piercing each of its
four walls; and like that tomb, also, it is of red sandstone relieved
by white marble and freely adorned with bands of Quranic texts
or formal arabesques. But there the likeness ends.
feature whether structural or decorative, the 'Alāi Darwāza is
In every


## p. 584 (#634) ############################################

584
( CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
incomparably the finer of the two monuments. Seen at a distance
its well-proportioned lineaments are accentuated by the alternating
red and white colour of its walls; and an added dignity is given
by the high plinth on which it stands. At closer range, the harmony
of form and colour is enhanced by the wealth of lace-like decorations
graven on every square foot of its exterior walls. Then, as one
passes into the hall, this effect of warm sumptuous beauty gives
place to one of quiet solemnity, to which every feature of the interior
seems to contribute : the subdued red of the sandstone, the staleli-
ness of the portals, the plain expanse of dome, the shapely horse-
shoe arches that support it, and the bold geometric patterning of
walls and window screens. The key-notes of this building are its
perfect symmetry and the structural propriety of all its parts.
Whoever the architect may have been, he was a man of irreproach-
able taste, who was not satisfied merely with repeating traditional
ideas, but who set himself to think out and perfect every detail of
his creation.
Among other monuments of ‘Alā-ud-din at Delhi two that merit
notice are the City of Siri-the second of the seven cities of Delhi
-and the Hauz-i-Alāi or Hauz-i-Khās tank on the banks of which
the army of Tīmūr encamped after his defeat of Mahmud Tughluq.
To the latter there will be occasion to allude again in connexion
with the buildings of Firūz Shāh Tughluq'. The former was built
by 'Alā-ud-din about 1303 in order to protect the ever-growing
population of the suburbs. Nothing is now left of this city except
some fragments of the encircling walls, but even these few remnants,
with their round and tapering bastions, their lines of loopholes,
their flame-shaped battlements inscribed with the Kalima, and their
inner berm supported on an arched gallery, are of value and interest
for the light they throw on the military architecture of the period.
With the transfer of the throne of Delhi from the Khalji to the
Tughluq dynasty, the architecture of the Imperial capital entered
on a new and more austere phase. The days of its first youthful
splendour and prodigal luxuriance were over, Lavish display of
ornament and richness of detail now began to give place to a
chaste sobriety which, as time went on, developed into a severe
and puritanical simplicity. At first the change was due to the
urgent need for economy and to the general revulsion of feeling
against the excesses of the Khalji régime. Public opinion had
been outraged by the reckless follies of 'Alā-ud-din and still more
1 See p. 590 infra.


## p. 585 (#635) ############################################

XXII ]
TUGHLUQĀBĀD
585
by the revolting vices of Qutb-ud-din Mubārak and his outcast
minion Khusrav Khān. It was not, therefore, to be wondered at if
Ghiyās-ud-din Tughluq sought to break away from the past and,
even in the matter of architecture, to avoid anything which might
savour of the wanton extravagance of his predecessors. Later on,
however, other causes contributed to intensify the plainness and
severity of Tughluq architecture. One of these was the extreme
religious bigotry of Muhammad bin Tughluq and his cousin Firūz
Shāh, which led them to discountenance any but the most scrupu-
lously orthodox and austere forms of religious architecture.
Another was the loss of State revenues consequent on the defec-
tion of the outlying provinces which made it increasingly difficult
to finance vast building schemes such as those projected by Firūz
Shāh. Yet a third cause which severely handicapped the architects
was the decay of skilled craftsmanship during the reign of
Muhammad bin Tughluq, when the whole population of Delhi was
forcibly transferred to Daulatābād and the city itself given over to
desolation. Writing some years after the event Ibn Batūta tells us
that the capital was ‘emply and abandoned with but a small
population, and from all we know of its condition after Firūz
Shāh's succession to the throne, it is clear that Delhi was still
suffering from the consequences of this disastrous migration which
resulted in the dispersal of her skilled craftsmen and artisans, in
the effectual loss of their traditions, and in the general neglect and
ruin of her monuments. Thus the architects of the Tughluq period
were beset on every hand by restrictions and difficulties which
made it impossible for them to emulate the works of their pre-
decessors under the Slave and Khalji kings. All this is clearly
demonstrated in the buildings they have left us. Ghiyās-ud-din
reigned only four years (1321-25), and there are but two monu-
ments of his of any consequence, namely, the city of Tughluqābād -
the third of the Seven Cities-and the sepulchre which he built for
himself beneath its walls. But both of these monuments
eloquent of the rapidly changing spirit of Imperial architecture.
Few strongholds of antiquity are more imposing in their ruin than
Tughluqābād. Its cyclopean walls, towering grey and sombre above
the smiling landscape ; colossal, splayed-out bastions; frowning
battlements; tiers on tiers of narrow loopholes ; steep entrance-
ways; and lofty narrow portals : all these contribute to produce
an impression of unassailable strength and melancholy grandeur.
Within the walls all is now desolation, but, amid the labyrinth of
rụined streets and buildings, the precincts of the Royal Palace
are


## p. 586 (#636) ############################################

586
( ch.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
once roofed with tiles of glittering gilt are still discernible ; and
so too is the citadel rising high above the rest of the town and
protected by its own double or triple lines of defence. But, with
all their seeming impregnability, the fortifications of Tughluqābād
were in reality but very poorly built, consisting of nothing but a
core of loose rubble with a facing of ashlar granite, and it is only
too evident that they must have been put together in great haste,
owing perhaps to some imminent peril from the Mongols.
Though almost equally simple and massive, the tomb of the
Emperor is of less forbidding aspect. Let the reader picture to
himself an island castle set (as it used to be) in the midst of a lake
a
and forming an outwork, as it were, to the overshadowing city,
with which it was connected by a narrow causeway. Above its
embattled ramparts and in sharp contrast with their monotonous
grey, rises the red and white fabric of the mausoleum. The marble
and sandstone of which it is built are treated in a strikingly novel
fashion. Up to the springing of the arches the structure is wholly
of red sandstone, but above that point the red walls are relieved
by bands and panels of marble ; and the crowning dome is
entirely of marble. The effect of the treatment and particularly
of the glistening expanse of white dome is to impart a certain
lightness and diversity to the structure ; but the impression
nevertheless conveyed by its battering walls and sturdy pro-
portions is essentially one of simplicity and strength. Assuredly
no resting-place could have been devised more befitting the stern
warrior who founded the Tughluq dynasty! That there are defects
in its design, need hardly be said. The sloping pilasters, for example;
the unduly small merlons; the crudely disposed panels and bands
of marble : all these are features that might easily have been im-
proved on. These, however, are but minor blemishes and, clearly
as they show the incipient tendencies of the new style, they do not
seriously impair the solemn grandeur of the Tomb? .
Muhammad bin Tughluq, the son of Ghiyās-ud-din, was the
author of few monuments at Delhi. In the first two years of his
reign he founded the small fortress of 'Adilābād and the city of
Jahānpanāh, and on the transfer of the capital to Daulatābād he
must have thrown himself wholeheartedly into the lay-out and
1 By the side of Ghiyās-ud-din there also rests in this sepulchre his son
Muhammad bin Tughluq. It was at the grave of the latter that Firūz Shāh perform-
ed an act of almost quixotic piety. Having brought together all the
victims he could find of his cousin's misdeeds or their descendants, he compensated
them for what they had suffered, and taking their duly attested receipts deposited
them in the grave of the dead Emperor,
:


## p. 587 (#637) ############################################

XXII ]
THE PUBLIC WORKS OF FIRUZ SHĀH
587
construction of his new city, of which more will be said when we
come to deal whith the monuments of the Deccan. After the failure
of his plans in the south, however, he seems to have lost all interest
in Delhi, nay, even to have conceived a positive aversion to it, and
he did nothing further to beautify or improve it. 'Ādilābād, which
was merely an outwork of the larger city of Tughluqābād and
almost identical with it in style, calls for no comment. Jahānpanāh
(the 'World Refuge') he made by linking up the walls of Old Delhi
on the one side and Siri on the other and so enclosing the suburbs
that had grown up between them. The fortifications themselves of
this new city (they are some 12 yards in thickness and constructed
of rough rubble in lime) are now all but level with the ground and
in some places barely traceable; but an interesting object connected
with them is a double-storeyed bridge of seven spans, with sub-
sidiary arches and a tower at each end, which served as a regulator
for drawing off the waters of a lake inside the walls. Then, at a
little distance within the walls, there is the Bijai Mandal, a terraced
tower-like structure which evidently formed part of a small palace
and which is noteworthy for the presence of horse-shoe arches
copied somewhat indifferently from Khalji prototypes, as well
as of intersecting vaulting which was afterwards to become a
characteristic feature of Tughluq architecture. Lastly, there is,
immediately below the Bijai Mandal and probably of about the
same age, a square nameless tomb of rough rubble and plaster,
crowned by a low Byzantine-looking dome and fenestrated drum,
which for beauty of proportions, both inside and out, is unsurpassed
by any other example of Tughluq architecture.
Fīruz Shāh, the third of the Tughluq kings, was an indefatigable
builder. Shams-i-Sirāj enumerates a long list, and Firishta a still
longer, of the cities, forts, palaces, embankments, mosques, tombs and
other edifices of which he was the author; and the former supplies
us with the names of the two chief architects, Malik Ghāzi Shahna
and ‘Abdu-l-Haqq, who assisted him in carrying out his schemes.
One of the best known of his palace-cities, which he founded on his
way to Bengal, was Jaunpur; others, hardly less famous, were
Fathābād and Hisār Firūza. At Delhi he built the palace-fort of
Firūzābād, which henceforth became his official residence at the
capital, and for the convenience of Muslim travellers he provided
no less than 120 rest-houses. But most valuable of all his public
works were the canals (one of which, the ‘Old Jumna Canal,' is
still in use) by which he brought water to his new settlements and
at the same time irrigated the intervening tracts. Nor did these


## p. 588 (#638) ############################################

588
(CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
undertakings, numerous as they were, exhaust the sum of his
activities. With a piety all too rare among Oriental potentates, he
renovated or rebuilt many of the monuments of former times which
had fallen into disrepair, and even went so far, as he tells us in his
autobiography? , as to give these works precedence over his own
building schemes.
Operations on such a vast scale necessarily demanded an
organised system of financial control, and we learn from the
Ta'rīkh-i-Fīrūz Shāhi that a plan of every proposed edifice had
to be made by the architect and scrutinised by the financial officer
(Dīwān-i-Wizārat) responsible for the provision of funds. Whether
the Finance Department was at liberty to modify the designs sub-
mitted to it is not stated, but it is quite clear that the strictest
economy was enforced, and the effect of this economy coupled with
the other restrictions under which the architects of Firuz Shāh
had to struggle is only too apparent in their buildings. Like the
monuments of the first Tughluq, these are virile and strong, wholly
sincere in purpose and free from sham; but, with few exceptions,
their construction is cheaper and their appearance incomparably
colder and more vacuous. Red sandstone and marble, which had
previously been used with telling effect, are now rarely seen; even
in the most important edifices their place is taken by rubble and
plaster. Local granite, to be sure, is employed for short heavy
pillars and a few other members, but it too is generally plastered
over or whitewashed and little attempt is made to turn its colour
or texture to account. When first erected, these buildings of Fīrūz
Shāh, like any Indian edifices of to-day, were dazzling white and,
needless to say, had nothing in their aspect of the dark and sombre
melancholy which age has imparted to them. Yet even their pristine
whiteness could not atone for the monotonous bareness of their
walls. What little surface ornament there was generally took the
form of inscribed borders, medallions in the arch spandrels and
such-like simple and conventional devices. Of the rich imaginative
designs in which the Indian fancy rejoices, there were none ; nor,
on the other hand, was there, save in rare cases, that sense of
aerial spaciousness which is able on occasion to compensate for
the absence of decorative beauty. The virtues of this architecture
reside in its vigour and straightforwardness ; in its simple broad
effects; and in the purposefulness with which it evolved new
1 The description of these archaeological repairs in the Futiīhāt-i-Fīruz Shāhi
contains interesting information concerning the ancient monuments of Old Delhi,
1
1


## p. 589 (#639) ############################################

XXIII )
THE PUBLIC WORKS OF FIROZ SHẢH
589
structural features or adapted old ones to its needs—the multi-
domed roofing, for example, or the tapering minaret-like buttresses
at the quoins. Its faults are seen in the monotonous reiteration
of these self-same features, in the prosaic nakedness of its ideas,
and in the dearth of everything that might make for picturesque
charm or elegance. How much this architecture suffered from the
Jack of Hindu craftsmanship can best be gauged by comparing it
with the work of the Lodi or early Mughul periods, when the magic
touch of Hindu genius had again endowed it with life and warmth
The fact, however, that under the Tughluq dynasty Hindu influence
was from one cause or another reduced to its lowest ebb, must not
be taken to imply that it was altogether a negligible factor. The
architects who designed these Tughluq buildings and the workmen
who constructed them, though possessed, perhaps, of no exceptional
skill, and though hampered by many restrictions, had nevertheless
been born and bred amid Indian surroundings, and could not help
expressing themselves in terms of Indian thought. Try as they
might to adhere to the established formulas of Muslim art, they
inevitably fell back on the forms and motifs with which they were
familiar. Thus it came about that the flat lintel frequently usurped
the place of the pointed arch, and that pillars, brackets, balconied
windows, caves and railings, besides a score of other features of
Hindu origin, took their place naturally in an otherwise Muham-
madan setting; and thus, too, it happened that much of the mentality
underlying and controlling the design was fundamentally Hindu. It
cannot be strongly emphasised that the longer the Muham-
madans remained in India, the more deeply imbued did their art
become with Indian feeling. Even though every individual detail
of a building might be derived from an external source (a con-
tingency that rarely happened), it still remained true that the brain
which conceived the whole was working in obedience to Indian
precept. Had Indian imagination been allowed freer play at this
period in the development of Indo-Islamic architecture, a much
higher level of aesthetic beauty would undoubtedly have resulted.
As it is, we must be grateful that this imagination was not wholly
absent.
Of the many monuments of Firüz Shāh which have survived at
Delhi, the most considerable is the Kotla Firüz Shāh : the palace-
fort or citadel which the Emperor built whithin his new city of
Firūzābād'. If credence can be given to the description of Shams-
1 The tendency at Delhi, as in many ancient cities of the east, was to extend
the city always in the direction of the prevailing cool win is, that is, towards the
north.
:


## p. 590 (#640) ############################################

590
(CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
i Sirāj, the city was more than double the size of Shāhjahānābād,
,
extending from the ridge on the north almost as far as the Hauz.
i Khās on the south and embracing a large part of modern Delhi.
Among other edifices it is said to have boasted eight public mosques
and one private mosque, besides three palaces and serveral royal
hunting boxes. It is not unlikely, however, that the size and
magnificence of the city were much overstated by conte nporary
historians ; for their accounts find little confirmation in the few
monuments that chance has preserved, while, on the other hand
they are discounted by the fact that Old Delhi and its extensions
were still the centre of civic life in the time of Timur. Of the
Kotla and its various buildings, as they once appeared, a graphic
picture is afforded by Mr Page's bird's-eye view (Pl. IX). Note-
worthy features of its fortifications are the machicoulis which now
for the first time make their appearance in India, and the absence
of any raised berm or gallery to give access to the double lines of
loopholes -a phenomenon that can only be accounted for on the
assumption that the berms were constructed, or intended to be
constructed, of wood. Within the walls the best preserved monu-
ments are the Jāmi' Masjid and a pyramidal structure crowned by
a pillar of Asoka. The former was an imposing building of two
storeys, with arcades and chambers on three sides of the ground
floor and with deep triple aisles (now fallen) around the open
court of the mosque above. Its other features-rubble and plaster
masonry, high bare walls, multiplicity of sma'l domes, squinch
arches, battlemented neckings and crestings-all these are typical
of the prevailing style and call for no particular remark. The pillar
of Asoka which stood in front of the mosque came from the village
of Tobrā in the Ambāla district and was one of two such pillars
which Firūz Shāh erected at Delhi ; the other, which was brought
from the neighbourhood of Meerut, being set up in the Kushk-i
Shikār palace on the ridge. The methods adopted for lowering,
transporting and re-erecting this famous monolith are described at
length by Shams-i-Sirāj, who relates how it was lowered on to beds
of silk cotton, encased in reeds and raw skins, and hauled to the
banks of the Jumna on a carriage with 42 wheels ; how the Sultan
came to meet it in person and how it was then transferred to boats
and so taken to Firūzābād. He tells, too, of how it was lifted, stage
by stage, on to the top of the pyramid, and there with the help of
windlasses and stout ropes raised to the perpendicular. Evidently
the shifting and setting up of this pillar was regarded as a remark-
able feat of engineering, and considering the indifferent mechanical


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xxII)
TOMB OF TILANGĀNİ
591
و
appliances then available, the engineers had every reason to be
proud of their achievement. It may be remarked, however, that
the weight of the pillar was less than 40 tons-a very insignificant
bulk compared with the 700 or 800 ton blocks handled with no
better contrivances by the Romans at Baalbek, or the still heavier
blocks used by the ancient Egyptians,
A smaller, but architecturally more striking, group of monuments
is that forming the Collegel and Tomb which Firūz Shāh built for
hinıself at the Hauz-i-Khās on the remains of an older structure of
'Alā-ud-din Khalji. Much of the College is now in ruins and its
interior planning is too intricate to admit of detailed description
here ; it must suffice, therefore, to observe that the tomb is at the
south-east corner of the lake and that the College buildings extend
some 250 feet on its western and over 400 feet on its northern side ;
that the latter are double storeyed on the lake front, single storeyed
behind; and that for the most part they consist of arcades or colon-
nades, two or three bays deep, interrupted at intervals by square
domed halls. The happy grouping of these buildings as seen from the
lake (Fig. 19), the effective combination in their facades of Hindu
column and Muslim arch, and their exceptionally decorative appear-
ance, all combine to place them on a higher plane than the other
monuments of Firuz Shāh's reign and to make of them, indeed, one
of the most attractive groups at Delhi. The tomb of the Emperor,
which is the central and dominating feature of the whole, is a square
structure (44 ft. 6 in. externally) with slightly battering walls and is
surmounted by a single dome raised on an octagonal drum. Its
marble and sandstone cornice, battlements adorned with floral
reliefs, and coloured plaster decorations of the interior, are part
of the repairs executed by Sultān Sikandar Lodi at the beginning
of the sixteenth century, but even without these later embellish-
ments its simple dignity and unpretentiousness must always have
commanded admiration.
Another mausoleum of exceptional interest both on historic
and on architectural grounds is that of Khān-i-Jahān Tilangāni, the
Prime Minister of Fjūz Shāh, who died in 1368-69. It is situate a
little south of the Dargah of Nizām-ud-din, alongside the Kālī (or
Sanjar) Masjid, which Khān-i-Jahān Jauna Shāh built two years
after his father's death. The enclosure in which it stands is of the
1 The theory that this College was originally intended as a palace is supported
neither by the plan of the building, which is unsuited to a palace, nor by the
presence of the tomb, which would be out of place in a palace but to which the
College is a natural adjunct.


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$92
( CH.
THE MONUMENTS OF MUSLIM INDIA
usual fortress-like character. But the tomb itself marks an entirely
new departure. Instead of being square, like all its predecessors at
Delhi, the tomb chamber is octagonal surmounted by a single dome
and encompassed ay a low arched verandah. Thus its form generally
resembles that of the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat-us-Sakhra) at
Jerusalem, from which it may, indeed, have been ultimately derived.
But the very dissimilar materials of which it is built - grey granite
and red sandstone, white marble and plaster-and the essentially
Indian character of its component parts produce an effect widely
different from that of its tile-enamelled prototype. Being the first
attempt of its kind, it need hardly be said that its architecture is
far from being faultless. The domes, for example, both central and
subsidiary, are too squat, the verandah arches too low, and in other
respects the elevation Jacks symmetry and finish. These defects,
however, are not without interest, since they show us more clearly
than anything else could have done the difficulties which the archi-
tect had to face in essaying this novel type of funeral monument.
In the century following, the Tilangāni tomb became the standard
pattern for the royal tombs of the Sayyid and Afghān dynasties,
and one by one we shall trace the steps by which the initial defects
were removed and the design gradually improved upon and elabo-
rated until it reached its final consummation in the magnificent
mausoleum of Sher Shāh. The mosques of Firūz Shāh's reign are
for the most part remarkably uniform in style. Constructed of
rubble and plaster, with pillars, caves and brackets of local grey
granite, they are characterised by boldly projecting gateways,
multi-domed roofs, tapering turrets engaged at the quoins and
Hindu caves and brackets. But while these are factors common
to almost all buildings of this class, here and there may be found
an example distinguished by features of an exceptional kind. Thus
the Kāli Masjid which Jauna Shāh built in connexion with his
father's tomb is planned on quite unusual lines. Instead of the
area in front of the prayer chamber being an open court, it is
divided into four by arcades crossing it at right angles, one arcade
linking the eastern entrance with the middle bay of the prayer
chamber, the other linking the northern and southern entrances.