Part One
TRANSOXANIA AND KHURASAN
(G. A. Pugachenkova)

Part Two
SOUTHERN CENTRAL ASIA
(A. H. Dani)

Part Three
EASTERN CENTRAL ASIA
(Liu Yingsheng)

THE SLAVE KINGS AND THE KHALJIS

With the transition from Firuzkuh to Delhi, the setting is entirely different. The material changes from brick to stone. In India, the stonemasons had a long architectural tradition of working in different techniques for covering the space by means of corbelling and beautifying the surface with figural and floral motifs. The incoming commanders of the Ghurids created a new fortress city by integrating the older town with a new city. The fortification wall of stone masonry has been traced, but little is known of the living quarters. The name Delhi is traced to its original Dhillika, as mentioned in a Hindi inscription of the time of Muhammad b. Tughluq (1325–51). An iron pillar inscription of the time of the Imperial Guptas identifies the actual spot where the later Quwwat al-Islam mosque was built out of the spoils of 27 temples. The new workmanship is seen in the tomb of Iltutmish (d. 1236), in the ^cAla’i Darwaza, and in the nearby madrasa where later ^cAl’ al-Din Khalji (d. 1316) is said to have been buried, with the tombs of Sultn Ghri and Ghiyth al-Din Balban. The architectural development may be traced through religious buildings, such as mosques, tombs, madrasas and darghs (saints’ tombs) which have survived, whereas the secular buildings are in ruins or have disappeared.

This destruction was partly due to the shifting of the residential palaces and seats of government by different kings and dynasties. As noted above, the original fortified city, generally called Lalkot, was built over the fortifications of the Qal^ca-i Ra’i Pithaura. In the time of Sultan Kay Qubd (1287–90), the palaces and gardens of Dar al-Aman were built at Kilokhari on the bank of the Yamuna river. The Khalji rulers built the new fortress at Siri and also the Hazar Sutun palace. The Tughluq ruler Ghiyth al-Din (1320–5) built the fortress of Tughluqabad and other forts, including his own fortified mausoleum. His son Muhammad b. Tughluq (1325–51) built the city of Jahanpanah between Siri and Tughluqabad in order to protect the people from the raids of the Rajput Mewtis. Firz Shh Tughluq (1351–87) built Kotla Firuz Shah at Firuzabad. This shift of residence reflected a change in the course of the Yamuna.

The first Islamic building of importance in Delhi is the Quwwat al-Islam mosque, which was erected in 1191–2 by the Ghurid amir Qutb al-Din Aybak (Fig. 11). In its construction and later additions, the stages of architectural evolution at Delhi are clearly marked. Four stages of development are visible. Whether the mosque stands on an older temple platform is not recorded, although the inscription speaks of the temple spoils out of which the present mosque was rebuilt. However, the mosque follows a typical traditional design, rectangular in shape with a central open courtyard, a prayer chamber on the west and three-bay deep cloisters on three sides of the court. The prayer chamber has a series of low domes built with a corbelled technique, as is also the dome of the main entrance hall on the east. There are two other gateways on the north and south. The Indian masons, whose hand is clear in the workmanship of the mosque, showed their skill in the re-use of the carved Hindu pillars and stone slabs, some of which still bear figures of Hindu deities that must have been overlooked by the Central Asian Muslim architects who doubtless supervised the work. A mihrb is provided in the western wall, but later a five-arched maqsra (screen) was added to the eastern part of the prayer chamber in the Central Asian style. The screen, which has a central high archway flanked by two smaller archways, follows the Seljuq pattern and is made of originally quarried red sandstone slabs; they do not bear any Hindu figures but have Arabic calligraphy alternating with sinuous lines and floral motifs. In the detailed carving, again, the hand of the Hindu artisans is quite obvious, as is also the case with the ogee shape of the arches built in an overlapping stone technique. This first mosque in Delhi is a hotchpotch creation to meet immediate religious needs, hence it follows the traditional form except that the long side of the rectangular mosque lies east-west.

To Qutb al-Din Aybak is attributed another religlous building, the Arha’i-Din Ka Jhonpra mosque at Ajmer, built c. 1199, probably on the site of a two-and-a-half-day-long fair, as its Hindi name implies, and out of temple spoils. The mosque is, however, better planned and executed than its forebear at Delhi since it is square in shape, with triple colonnaded towers at the four corners; one main stepped entrance is on the east, with another smaller one on the south, leading to a central open courtyard having domed cloisters on three sides with a high pillared faade; a prayer chamber on the west is separated from the court by a seven-arched screen, the central high archway being topped by fluted columns.

This change in the plan of the mosque is also noticeable in the enlargement of the Quwwat al-Islam mosque carried out during the time of Sultan Shams al-Din Iltutmish (1211–36). In this enlargement, the rectangular plan has its longer side oriented north-south to meet the requirement of the worshippers, who are required to face towards the qibla at Mecca. In this extension again, new polygonal pillars have been used, and the addition of the screen shows a better-designed four-centred pointed archway with Arabic calligraphy and floral designs worked in finer hands.

The second extension was made in the time of ^cAl’ al-Din Khalji (1296–1316), in which the rectangular plan follows the alignment of the last mosque. The new mosque has two entrances on the east and one each on the north and south. The southern entrance, known as the ^cAla’i Darwaza, is a unique addition of its type, heavily dependent for its technique of dome construction, as well as for its external panel decoration, on the tombs near Kerki in present-day Turkmenistan. The gateway is a building in itself, presenting a single-domed square structure, with its dome resting on a series of pendentives and squinches at the corners, transforming the square room into an octagon and then into 16 sides. It is, however, the outer face with its multi-cusped arched entrance within a frame that is most enchanting, as it is set within double-arched niches one above the other on either flank, the use of marble enhancing the beauty of the gateway.

Another important monument attached to the mosque is the Qutb Minar, apparently built with the same motivation as the minarets of Ghazna and Firuzkuh, but it is more elegant and is the tallest of the three, with a height of 72.50 in. In design it follows the next evolutionary stage, comparable with the minaret of Khwja Siyh Psh (c. 1150) in Afghanistan. At present, it is five storeys in height, each storey marked by a projecting balcony resting on corbelled stalactites. The minaret is tapering, like the one at jam, and is circular in plan, with its lowest storey varied by alternate circular and angular flutes, the second having only circular flutes, the third having angular flutes and the remainder with no flutes at all. Conceptually, the fluted circular plan of the minaret (minr) cannot be compared with the offset projections at the exterior of square Hindu temples. The entire outer surface pulsates with floral ornamentation and Arabic calligraphy. Inside, there is a spiral staircase right up to the top. Although the minaret was completed in the time of Iltutmish, it was later repaired and restored in the time of Firz Shh Tughluq and then of Sikandar Ldi (1459–1517), when the two upper storeys introduced marble into the building. A second minaret, larger and more ambitious, in the same mosque compound was begun by ^cAl’ al-Din Khalji, but remains unfinished.

THE TUGHLUQS

The next change in the architectural style in Delhi comes from the time of the Tughluqs, who were Qarawna Turks and hence bore a distant relationship to the Turco-Mongol Qarawna amirs of eastern and northern Afghanistan. It is at this time that architectural influences from Khwarazm are visible in the Tughluq buildings at Delhi, as well as the contemporary Multani style of architecture. The ponderous fortified structure at Tughluqabad introduces a military style with sloping walls and bastions that dominate the character of Tughluq monuments.

The ground plan of Tughluqabad is Irregular in outline, since it was built on a rocky outcrop with a massive stone wall, topped by battlemented parapets and pierced by as many as 52 gateways, further strengthened by circular bastions, sometimes in 2 storeys. The interior was subdivided into 2 parts, the city area and the palace zone containing the royal residences, the ladies’ quarters and the halls of audience. There is also a long underground corridor. But most important are the outposts; the nearest is a fortified pentagon, entered by an elaborate arched entrance which is approached by a causeway. Within is the grand mausoleum of Ghiyth al-Din Tughluq, a single-domed square tomb which has, however, sloping walls and panel decoration in white marble, as seen in the tombs at Kunya-Urgench. The difference’s only t e presence of a dome, here topped by a finial in contrast to the pyramidal cover used in Khwarazm. The same military character of architecture is seen in the massive construction of the walls of Jahanpanah, of unusual thickness. Within it the palace of Hazar Sutun was built, part of which has survived in a building now called Vijaya-Mandal.

In contrast to these buildings are the numerous constructions by Firz Shh Tughluq, the most important of which is Kotla Frz Shh, a series of mosques, tombs and madrasas at Hawz-i Khass. The Kotla, which is actually a palace-fortress with all the amenities of a royal residence, is in clear contrast to the fortress of Tughluqabad. The interior arrangements of a royal palace, audience hall, gardens, Friday mosque and other public buildings, all overlooking the Yamuna river, give a foretaste of the future fortress-palaces to be built by the Mughals. One peculiar building is a terraced pyramidal structure, on top of which stands the Ashokan pillar. In all these buildings, the Firuzi character is visible in the plastered walls and in the use of arch-and-beam for the entrances, together with multiple square or octagonal stone pillars to support the domed cover on the roof. This new feature is most apparent in the planning of the multi-domed pillared mosques, such as the Khirki Masjid or Begampura mosque, which is clearly derived from the old multi-domed mosque seen at Khiva, the later capital of Khwarazm. Similarly, the madrasa of Frz Shh at Hawz-i Khass, composed of a pillared hall flanked by a domed square structure and fronted by a similar domed structure, recalls the type of madrasa seen in the old city of Khiva. Thus the Tughluq style of architecture in Delhi is a true reflection of the troubled times caused by the Mongol invasions, as a result of which it is possible that master craftsmen from Khwarazm found refuge in India and brought about this new architectural style.

Provincial school of architecture is seen in Kashmir and the present northern areas of Pakistan, where tombs, mosques and other secular buildings use wood as the material for construction, such as wooden logs for making walls, doors and windows, and even for covering the roof. A typical example is the mosque of Shh Hamadn in Srinagar, a square building with a pyramidal roof crowned by a tall steeple – a feature of the Kashmiri style of construction. The same style was copied in Baltistan, Gilgit and Hunza. The Chakchan mosque at Khaplu, attributed to Sayyid ^cAli Hamadni, a noted local saint of the fifteenth century, is a typical example of a rectangular wooden structure, but is crowned by a similar steeple on a lantern (Fig. Thatta). The same style is seen in the case of darghs, as noted in the example of the khnaqh of Mir Yahy at Shigar in Baltistan, with its pyramidal roof and high finial. The wide distribution of this wooden style is typical of the western Himalaya regions.