The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s4.97

v4.c23.s4.97

With the Qilʻa-i-Kuhna mosque, however, this mode of building virtually begins, and also ends; it stands as an isolated example among the different types of structure which lie around old Delhi. Sher Shāh, as both Sasarām and the Qilʻa-i-Kuhna Masjid seem to prove, had either the gift of discovering genius and making full use of it, or he was of a nature that inspired those he employed to their highest affords. History indicates the latter, because with his death in 1545 the art also appears to have died. And with his last breath he regrets that fate had not spared him longer to put into effect other ambitious building schemes which he specifies.¹ For the following twenty years little building of any importance is recorded, the few structures that were erected reflecting the unstable political conditions that then prevailed. The only contribution of his successor Salīm Shāh consisted of a fort, named after him, on the banks of the Jumna, a group of frowning bastions of no architectural merit, now considerably dismantled, and converted into an outwork to Shāh Jahān's more famous palace-fortress. Somewhat later, about 1560, two buildings were raised at Delhi, and it is perhaps significant of the times that they were not founded by men, all of whom were engaged in less peaceful pursuits, but by women, members of the royal household. One of these is the mosque of Khair-ul-manāzil and the other a large hostel known as the Arab Sarai. Neither, in itself, is a work of much importance, but portions of them show that the mode initiated by Sher Shāh was still remembered. The mosque is unusual because it has an upper storey of classrooms enclosing the courtyard within a high screen, an arrangement for strict seclusion which suggests that the school was for girls, and the mosque for the use of women only. Its architectural interest, however, lies in the handsome gateway by which it is entered (Fig. 11). This consists of a doorway recessed within a larger arched alcove, similar in many respects to those in the buildings of Sher Shāh. But there is one notable difference. The wall containing the doorway is joined above on to the outer archway by means of a semi-dome, a stage in the development of a prominent feature common in the façades of the Mughuls. This, however, is only one instance of the influence that the able craftsmen under the Sūr dynasty exercised on the architecture that followed. Much of the character of the works carried out under Akbar and Jahāngīr may be traced to the genius of the master-builder who produced the remarkable little mosque in the citadel of Sher Shāh.