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An Ancient Landmark
Barring the pre-Sultanate monuments of Kutch District, this is the
earliest extant mosque in India and consists of a rectangular court, 43.2m
by 33m, enclosed by cloisters, erected with the carved columns and other
architectural members of twenty-seven Hindu and Jain temples
demolished by Qutub-ud-Din Aibak, as recorded by him in his own
inscription on the main eastern entrance.
Qutub-ud-Din
calls the mosque as Jama Masjid and states that on the original erection
of each of the demolished temples a sum of twenty lakhs of coins had been
spent. Later it came to be called the Quwwatu'l-Islam, meaning the 'might
of Islam' mosque.
The Exquisite Architecture
The western portion of its courtyard occupies the original site of one of
the demolished temples. At the two ends of its
eastern cloisters, an intermediate storey was raised to provide
compartments for the ladies. An iron pillar from a Vishnu temple of the
fourth century which had been earlier set up here probably by Anangpal,
stands in front of the prayer-hall.
The mosque was begun in 1192, immediately after the capture of
Delhi by Qutub-ud-Din, and completed in 1198. Later, a
massive stone screen was erected in front of the prayer-hall, consisting
of a central arch, 6.7m wide and 16m high, with two similar but smaller
arches on either side, all ogee-shaped. Except for the apex, where the few
stones are laid in the manner of voussoirs, the construction of the arches
is corbelled.
The screen is beautifully carved with borders of inscriptions and
geometrical and arabesque designs, but the hand of craftsmen used to Hindu
motifs is clearly perceptible in the naturalistic representation of
serpentine tendrils and undulating leaves of its scroll work and even in
the fine characters of the Koranic inscriptions.
Rejuvenation Of A Monument
The mosque was enlarged by two later rulers. Shamsu'd-Din Iltutmish
(1211-36), son-in-law and successor of Qutub-ud-Din, doubled the size of
the mosque in 1230 by extending its colonnades and prayer hall outside the
original enclosure, as a result the
Qutub Minar now fell
within the mosque-enclosure.
The arches of Iltutmish's screen are still principally corbelled,
although their arabesque ornamentation with the inscriptions standing out
prominently is Saracenic in feeling, as distinct from the mixed decoration
of Qutub-ud-Din Aibak's screen.
Ala-ud-Din Khalji (1296-1316) again extended the mosque substantially by
enlarging the enclosure. He provided two gateways on the longer eastern
side and one each on the north and south, the last one known as
Ala-i-Darwaza and still extant in entirety. In fact, he doubled the area
of the mosque, and also commenced the construction of another minar,
intended to be twice the size of Qutub-ud-Din's minar, although it
remained incomplete.
It is the first example of a building employing wholly Islamic principles
of construction, including the true arch. In the mosque compound is the
small but pretty tomb of Imam Zamim, who was the Imam (head priest) of the
mosque during Sikander Lodi's (1488-1517) reign.