A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.124

c21.124

At Gulbarga, Muhammad Shah built two mosques: the earlier and smaller one is now the Shah Bazar Masjid, austere in the simplicity of its style, imitating the Tughlak architecture of Firuz Shah’s reign at Delhi. The other, the famous Jami Masjid (1367) within the fort has stilted domes and narrow entrances typical of the Persian style, but otherwise belonging more to Delhi than to Persia. The squat arches of its cloisters, appearing here for the first time, become henceforth a familiar feature of Deccan architecture. The treatment of its courtyard is unique, for instead of being left open to the sky as usual it ‘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’. The building measures 216 feet by 176 feet overall and has four shapely domes at its four corners. A fifth and larger one dominating the whole is raised on a square clerestory above the prayer chamber. The dignified simplicity and grandeur of the structure place it in the front rank of such buildings and account for its undoubted influence on the subsequent development of the style.