The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.17.1

v3.c30.s1.17.1

But if the difficulty of compromising with Islamic ideals was felt over their tombs, still more was it felt over the designing of their mosques, where an added stumbling-block was provided by the minaret—a feature which the Gujarātī architect never managed to handle with complete success. Even at the *Jāmi‘ Masjid* of Ahmad Shāh the minarets, when they existed, were in doubtful taste, and half a century later these features had become still heavier and more cumbersome in relation to the rest of the structure. This is a blemish that we have already noticed at Mahmūd Begarha’s great *masjid* at Chāmpānīr, but it is just as conspicuous in contemporary mosques at Ahmadābād, such as those of Miyān Khān Chishtī (1465), Bībī Achut Kūkī (1472) or Bāī Harīr (1500). In all of these, as well as in most other mosques of this period, the minarets were placed on either side of the central archway, as they had been in earlier examples; but in this position they so impaired the symmetry of the façade that in some later examples they were omitted altogether, while in others they were shifted from the centre to the front corners of the building. So long, however, as their old dimensions were preserved, this last solution was no better than the first; for whether the mosque took the form of a pillared hall like that of Sayyid ‘Usmān (1460) or an arched and vaulted one like that of Shāh ‘Ālam, the towering minars at the corners were bound to overpower the rest of the structure.