The Sacred Landscape of South Asia and Islamic Architecture

India in the Persianate Age

• ‘Indic’ religions and culture

• Persianate: based on or strongly influenced by the Persian language or culture - from the Balkans to the eastern reaches of South Asia

  • Persian culture considered very refined

• ‘Greater Iran’ = Persianate world

• Timurid: to do with the culturally Persianate Turco-Mongol Empire centred in Central Asia founded by Timur in the late 14th C

• after 7thC, political Islam arrived in India from late 10thC, beginning with Central Asian ‘Turks’ from Afghanistan, establishing various Indo-Islamic kingdoms (sultanates)

• not necessarily ‘civilisational’ clash

  • being Muslim not usually seen as the defining feature of the Turks in India

• early modern high renaissance under the Mughals of North India

The Sultanate Period

• Delhi Sultanate established by Qutbuddin Aibak

  • Slave/Mamluk Dynasty

• 1399 Delhi sacked by Timur

• 1526 Babur (descendant of Timur) founded Mughal Empire

• Sufism -> mystical Islam, rallied against orthodox Islam and adopted other ways to be ‘close’ to God

  • very important in Indian Islam, political

Qutb Complex

• Delhi, started by Qutbuddin Aibak

• minaret built to issue call for prayer

  • tallest structure in the world at time of construction

• includes pillars from Hindu and Jain temples

  • though to be ransacked, not to establish dominance

  • use of old architecture usual in Islam

  • pre-Islamic designs on India not foreign to them

  • Kirtimukha (face of glory) and pot with vines

  • faces all scratched out -> orthodox Islam has an aversion to depicting faces

• erected a screen of arches to make it more conventional to Islamic architecture

• Iron Pillar

  • built by Hindus earlier, installed in Qutb complex

• enlarged by Alauddin Khilji following his defeat of the Mongols in 1303

  • added Alai Darwaza gateway

  • those who endowed mosques had a place in paradise

Key Elements of Mosque Prayer Chamber

• Qibla: back wall oriented to Mecca

• Mihrab: prayer niche indicating direction of prayer

• Minbar: pulpit from which Imam gives sermons

Hindu Influence

• pillars with pot hanging lamp motif in prayer chamber

  • reflects Quranic verse

• similar patterns (scrolling vegetation) to Hindu temples because they employed local artisans

Tomb of Iltutmish

• Sufi saint, circa 1235

• new concept for India -> previously cremated their dead

• paradisiacal imagery very important

• some use of marble within sandstone

  • beginning of extensive use and colourisation of marble

Tomb of sultan Ghiyasuddin

• looked like a fort as he was a warrior king

Nizamuddin Dargah

• tomb-shrine of Sufi saint

• marble associate with saintliness

Tomb of sultan Hoshang Shah

• first to be entirely made of marble with julis and sarcophagi

Taj Mahal

• built mid 17th C by 5th Mughal emperor

• entirely marble, massively grand, for his wife

Jama Masjid

• mid 17th C, also by Shah Jahan

  • one of the great Mughal builders

• red sandstone and marble

Golden Temple

• centre of Sikhism in Punjab

• similar architectural forms to Muslim temples

• forms moved beyond Islam, associated with aristocracy