The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.53

v3.c30.s1.53

Muhammad Shāh Bahmanī, whose tomb has been noticed above, was the author also of two mosques at Gulbarga, the earlier and smaller of which is now known as the Shāh Bazār *Masjid*. Its gateway is an almost exact replica of the Sultan’s tomb and in other respects also, notably in the tall stilted archways of its prayer chamber and in the austere simplicity of its style, imitates the Tughluq architecture of Fīrūz Shāh’s reign at Delhi. The other mosque is the famous *Jāmi‘ Masjid* within the fort, which was built by one Rafī‘, ‘the son of Shams, the son of Manṣūr of Qazwīn,’ whose Persian sympathies find expression in the stilted domes and narrow entrances, though in other respects the style of this building appertains rather to Delhi than to Persia. Two features of this mosque call for particular remark. One is the design of the broad squat arches of the cloisters (Fig. 95) which now make their appearance for the first time, but are destined henceforth to become familiar adjuncts of the architecture of the Deccan; the other is the unique treatment of the courtyard, which instead of being left open to the sky, as usual, is covered in by 63 small domes carried on arched bays, the cloisters at the sides being roofed with corresponding vaults, and light and air being admitted to the interior through open archways in their outer walls. At the four corners of the building, which measures 216 by 176 feet over all, are four shapely domes, while a fifth and larger one dominating the whole is raised on a square clerestory above the prayer chamber. To single out for praise any particular feature of this mosque would be difficult; yet there is about the whole a dignified simplicity and grandeur that place it in the first rank of such buildings and sufficiently account for the influence it exerted on the subsequent development of the Deccan style. The date of its erection, as stated in an inscription, was 1367—a few years, that is to say, before Jauna Shāh built the Kālī and Khirkī mosques at Delhi, and it is not unlikely therefore that Jauna Shāh's architect may have been acquainted with the design of this Gulbarga prototype and sought to improve upon it by introducing open aisles across the closed court and thus obviating the need for the admission of light and air through the surrounding cloisters. The main drawback, however, to both the Gulbarga and the Delhi plans must have been that on important ceremonial occasions, most of the worshippers were obstructed from seeing the central *liwān* and *mimbar*—a drawback which was quite enough to account for their plans not being copied in later buildings.