The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.1

v3.c30.s1.1

When, in a subsequent volume of this history, we come to deal with the sumptuous monuments of the Mughuls, we shall see what a profound influence the work of the Lodīs exerted on the shaping of their style. But before we follow up the further progress of this architecture at the Imperial capital, we must hark back for a while and consider how it had meanwhile been developing in the outlying provinces of the Empire and in the various independent kingdoms that came into being between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. Of these lesser centres of Indo-Muslim power, the first to claim attention is Multān; not because its few surviving monuments are either as ancient or as magnificent as many elsewhere, but because it was one of the earliest cities to be occupied by the Muhammadans and for this and other reasons was relatively little under the influence of Hinduism.