The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.15

v3.c30.s1.15

Qutb-ud-dīn (1451–59) did not add much to the beauties or amenities of the capital. He built the Hauz-i-Qutb Tank at Kankariyā as well as the Qutb-ud-dīn mosque in Ahmadābād and he is said also to have been the author of the mosque and tomb in Rājāpur which was erected to the memory of the wife of Sayyid Buddhā bin Sayyid Yāqūt. The mosque which bears his name and which was completed in 1449 before his father’s death, is a dull soulless affair without any claim to distinction; and the Rājāpur mosque also, though one of the largest in the suburbs (it is 150 feet in length by 53½ feet in depth), is not in the best of taste, the central bay with its two heavy flanking minarets being out of all proportion to the long low wings, and the façade in other respects lacking unity and cohesion. If, however, the buildings associated with the name of the king are of little merit, there is one, erected by one of his nobles, that furnishes an important landmark in the history of the Gujarātī style. This is the tomb of Daryā Khān (1453) which, like the somewhat later mosque of Alaf Khān at Dholka, is permeated with a strong Persian spirit. It is an imposing square structure with a lofty central dome and lower domed verandahs on its four sides, and is constructed throughout on the arcuate principle, which was destined to play an increasingly prominent part in Gujarāt, the arch henceforth being employed not merely as a characteristic symbol of the Faith, but as a structural expedient more practicable than the horizontal beam in districts where stone was not easily procurable.