Jama Masjid, Delhi

Mosques of Shah Jahan

With the establishment of Shah Jahan's rule a new style of building-art of exceptional elegance and splendor came into being. In the year 1638, Shah Jahan decided to move his capital to Delhi, and once again a new fortified royal city was designed. This time the ruler selected a site further north to the Purana Qila on the west bank of the River Yamuna, and called it Shahjahanabad. It was quite clearly going to be his city. The huge fortified city had a perimeter of 2.41 kilometers and had a moat around it that was once connected to the city. Like his forefathers, Shah Jahan constructed scores of elegant palatial buildings in different parts of North India. Being religious minded and the same time gifted with an aesthetic taste and love for building, Shah Jahan built several important mosques in Delhi, Agra, Ajmer and Lahore. The Jamia Masjid in Delhi built by Shah Jahan is different from all the other mosques that he had built elsewhere in North India. Although, its plan is not far different from his mosque in Agra, it is decidedly bigger and more imposing. Its majesty is further enhanced because of the high ground that he selected for building this mosque.

THE JAMIA MASJID OF DELHI

The Jamia Masjid of Delhi is one of the largest, finest and is among the renowned mosques of India, built by Shah Jahan, the Mughal Emperor in the year 1648 CE. It's also known as 'Masjid-i-Jahan Numa', 'Jahan' means 'World' and Numa means 'Visible'. Its foundations were laid on the 10th of Shawwal 1060 AH of the Islamic calendar and completed in the year 1650 CE. It stands on a high rocky ground at a distance of about thousand yards (500 m) west from the Lal Qilah (Red Fort). The mosque is built on a red sandstone terrace, about 30 feet (10 m) from the level of the ground and is about 1400 square yards (1200 m²) in extent; and was finished under the supervision of Saadullah Khan, the Prime Minister of Shah Jahan, and he in turn, was assisted in this task by Fazal Khan. Historical records state that six thousand men worked daily for six years in building this mosque and ornamenting it with marble. The total expenditure incurred on the construction in those times was ten lakh rupees.

The courtyard of the mosque can be reached from three sides-east, north and south-by three flights of steps, all built up of red sandstone. Its courtyard has a capacity to hold nearly 25,000 worshippers at a time. The northern gate of the mosque has 39 steps. The southern side of the mosque has 33 steps. The eastern gate of the mosque was the royal entrance and it has 35 steps. In the days of old, these steps had stalls that were kept by cooks and bakers. There were also the jugglers who kept the worshippers coming out of the mosque after prayers spellbound trying to make some money by showing off their skills and some of the steps would be filled by attentive groups listening to professional storytellers relating popular tales. On the southern side, the cloth merchants hawked their wares selling Persian carpets and cloth from distant lands. In the evening, the eastern side of the mosque would be converted into a bazaar for poultry and birds in general. Before the 1857 War for Indian Independence, there was a madrassah near the southern side of the mosque, which was pulled down after the Mutiny.

Facing the west stands the mosque. Its three sides are covered with open arched colonnades, having in the center a lofty tower-like gateway, through which the mosque can be accessed by worshippers from different parts of the city. The mosque is about 261 feet (80 m) long and 90 feet (27 m) wide, and its roof is covered with three domes with alternate stripes of black and white marble, with its topmost parts covered with gold. Two lofty minarets, 130 feet (40 m) high, and containing 130 steps, longitudinally striped with white marble and red sandstone, flank the domes on either side. The minarets are divided by three projecting galleries and are surmounted by open twelve-sided domed pavilions. On the back of the mosque, there are four small minarets crowned like those in the front.

Under the domes of the mosque, is a hall with seven arched entrances facing the west and the walls of the mosque, up to the height of the waist, are covered with marble. Beyond this is a prayer hall, which is about 61 meters X 27.5 meters, with eleven arched entrances, of which the center arch is wide and lofty, and in the form of a massive gateway, with slim minarets in each corner, with the usual octagonal pavilion surmounting it. Over these arched entrances there are tablets of white marble, four feet (1.2 m) long and 2.5 feet (760 mm) wide, inlaid with inscriptions in black marble. These inscriptions give the history of the building of the mosque, and glorify the reign and virtues of Shah Jahan. The slab over the center arch contains simply the words "The Guide!"

The mosque stands on a platform of about five feet (1.5 m) from the pavement of the terrace, and three flight of steps lead to the interior of the mosque from the east, north, and the south. The floor of the mosque is covered with white and black marble ornamented in the imitation of the Muslim's carpet of prayers; a thin black marble border is marked for the worshippers, which is three feet long and 1 ½ feet wide. In total there are 899 such spaces marked in the floor of the mosque.

The back of the mosque is cased over to the height of the rock on which the mosque stands with large hewn stones to hide inequalities and tend to give a noble appearance to the building. From the outside, the mosque appears to be built entirely by red sandstone and it looks as if the marble has been used mainly for ornamenting the domes, the floor, and the arches of the