Tag Archives: mosques

Baked earth and building Islamic places of worship

Posted on by
Reply

THE COUNTRYSIDE AROUND Murshidabad is dotted with brick factories. Their tall, often smoking, chimneys are surrounded by vast expanses of new bricks, usually stacked neatly. The clay that can be found in the area is particularly good for brick making.  So, it is unsurprising that many local buildings make substantial use of brickwork.

 

One of the towers of the Katra mosque

Near Murshidabad,  there are two famous mosques constructed not with stone or concrete, but with bricks. One of these, the Katra mosque, was constructed entirely with bricks between 1723 and 1724. This huge edifice was built not only as a mosque but also as a caravanserai. It is one of the largest caravanserais in the Indian Subcontinent.  The rooms of the caravanserai are arranged in a square that surrounds the mosque rather like cloisters in a monastery. These small rooms also served as workplaces and bedrooms for students studying the Koran and other Islamic texts. Thus, the Katra was a complex consisting of a mosque, a caravanserai, and a madrasa. At each of its four corners,  there were tall brick towers. Only two of these remain.   The tomb of Nawab Murshid Quli Khan(1660-1727) is located under the staircase leading to the main entrance of the building. Protected by the Archaeological Survey of India, the remains of the Katra complex are well conserved. This is not the case for another brick mosque nearby: the Fauti Masjid.

 

The Fauti was constructed in 1740 by Nawab Safaraz Khan (c1700 – 1740). However,  it was never completed. It is a large mosque, 137 feet long and 38 feet wide. If you manage to chamber within it, which I did with great difficulty despite helping hands, the remains of its five huge incomplete domes can be seen.

 

The Fauti is a protected building, but in a bad condition. It is possibly perilously unstable. However, because of the vegetation around it and within it, it is a picturesque ruin of the sort that eighteenth and nineteenth century European Romantic artists enjoyed portraying.

 

In addition to these mosques, which were built using baked clay (I.e., bricks), we have also seen some Hindu temples near Murshidabad that include terracotta in their construction.  But more about these at a later date.

TWO MOSQUES AND A BAZAAR IN ISTANBUL

Posted on by
Reply

WHILE WANDERING THROUGH the older part of Istanbul on our way to the Yeni Camii (‘New Mosque’), we came across the Mahmut Paşa Camii. This mosque stands in a remarkably peaceful, large compound, considering how close it is to a route used by crowds of tourists. Despite being in the heart of the most visited part of the city, this mosque seems to be ignored by most tourists.

The Mahmut Paşa was built in about 1463, making it one of Istanbul’s oldest mosques. It was built only 10 years after Istanbul was captured by the Ottomans. The spacious mosque was built in a style typical of some mosques found in Bursa. It has a large central hall flanked on each side by smaller rooms – rather like side chapels. It was the work of Grand Vizier, Mahmut Paşa, who was put to death by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1474. During his life, he was involved with the Siege of Belgrade, chasing Albania’s Skanderbeg, and the conquest of Bosnia. In addition to his military exploits, he was a noted writer, both in Turkish and Persian. It is worth noting that Mahmut Paşa was converted to Islam after he was captured in Serbia by the Ottomans when he was a young boy.

After seeing the mosque, we walked past the crowded Grand Bazaar, and after passing numerous shops selling lingerie and hosiery, we arrived at the Misir Çarşisi (Egyptian Market aka Spice Market). We walked through this covered, fragrantly scented spice market, which was constructed gradually from 1597 to 1664. Where two passageways lined with shops intersect, there is an open space overlooked by a wooden pavilion reached by a spiral staircase. This was used to say prayers to the merchants who gathered to listen to them at the start of each day.

The Yeni Camii is next to the Misr Çarşisi. It is an enormous structure with numerous domes. It was completed in 1603, and overlooks the Golden Horn and the Galata Bridge, which crosses it. Both the interior and the facade facing the courtyard are rich in tiles covered with blue and white motifs and calligraphy. This eye-catching tiling greatly adds to the mosque’s attractiveness. The huge, spacious interior is an oasis of tranquillity compared with the busy roadway and waterfront only a few yards away.

In between the three edifices I have described, the steeply sloping streets connecting them are lined with buildings of all ages – some of them attractive, others less so. Many of these buildings house shops.

Yet again, a stroll in Istanbul has proved to be fascinating. It is not only the historic monuments that I enjoy seeing, but also glimpses of everyday life in the city.

A MOSQUE IN ISTANBUL REMEMBERED, BUT ITS NAME FORGOTTEN

Posted on by
Reply

ON OUR LAST visit to Istanbul at least 15 years ago, we visited a small but attractive mosque in Üsküdar (the Asian part of Istanbul). During our present holiday in the city (in April 2024), we hoped to see this mosque again, but we had forgotten its name.

After having waited for the midday Friday prayers to be over at the Atik Valide Mosque, we looked around this edifice that was designed by the famous architect Mimar Sinan in 1583-1584. Incidentally, to reach this building, we climbed a steep staircase with 114 steps – a so-called short cut. Apart from its fine architectural form, the mosque is adorned with several lovely tiled plaques covered with Arabic calligraphy intertwined with the occasional flower.

As we were leaving the mosque’s enclosed compound, a man stopped us, and told us in broken English that we should visit another mosque in the neighbourhood. He said it had beautiful tiling, and it’s name is Çinili. When we heard the name, we remembered that was the mosque, whose name we had forgotten.

Çinili mosque

After climbing another hill, we reached the Çinili mosque. Completed in 1640, it is not as fine architecturally as buildings by Sinan. However, it’s interior is lined with intricately decorated tiling. Unfortunately, the mosque was locked up, but by peering through the windows we got a good impression of the magnificent tiling. The wall of the covered porch in which the main entrance can be found is also covered with beautiful tiling. What we saw was what we remembered from our first visit there at least 15 years ago. We were very grateful that a complete stranger reminded us of the name of the place that we remembered, but whose name we could not recall.

PS both mosques mentioned above were connected with a Valide Sultan – that is with the mother of a reigning Sultan.

A ruined mosque with only one standing minaret

Posted on by
Reply

AFTER THE CITY of Ahmedabad was established in about 1420, Mahmud Begada, a Sultan of Gujarat, captured the city of Champaner (near Pavagadh) in 1482. He spent more than 20 years developing it and creating glorious buildings – some fabulous mosques, fortifications, city wall and gates, etc. He renamed the city Muhammabad.

The name ‘Champaner’ was given to the place in the 8th century AD to honour a general serving the Chavda dynasty that founded the city. I have not yet found out how long it was called Muhammabad, but it is no longer known by that name. Now, it is known as Champaner.

In 1535, the then Sultan of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, fled the city just before it was defeated by the Mughals led by their emperor Humayun. Today, the city is in ruins, and has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We had visited the site twice before, and revisited it a third time in November 2023. Prior to making this trip, we had been advised by a friend to see a ruined mosque located a short distance away from the rest of the ruins. To reach this, the Kamani Masjid, we hired an autorickshaw.

Ek Minar ki Masjid

The Kamani mosque is situated in a jungle away from the main road. We left the latter and drove along a dirt track through the dense vegetation. The sound of our vehicle’s engine disturbed a flock of grazing peacocks, who rushed away from us.

The Kamani Masjid stands in a clearing. It has lost its roof but the rows of pillars and arches that once supported it remain standing and are a beautiful sight. The decorative base of a minaret stands at one corner of this magnificent array of arches. This relatively unvisited ruined mosque is well worth visiting not only because of its beauty but also its peaceful location.

Our autorickshaw driver, realising our interest in historical buildings, suggested that we visit another mosque, which we had not seen before. Called the Ek Minar ki Masjid (ie ‘One Minaret Mosque’), it lives up to its name. Built in the 16th century, at the same time as other mediaeval mosque in Champaner, all that remains today is the large plinth on which it stood, a small fragment of wall, and a single intact minaret. The base of the minaret, like that at Kamani and other mosques built in that era, is decorated with geometric patterns. Standing alone, it is a splendid example of a 16th century minaret.

After seeing the two isolated Masjid, we visited the famous helical stepwell, which we had seen before. On previous visits, the water level had been low and we could see the full extent of the long staircase that spirals down the sides of the circular well. This latest visit we saw only the first few steps because the well was almost full.

Champaner and its archaeological ruins are one of many good reasons to visit Gujarat – a state in India, which does not attract its fair share of foreign visitors, unlike, for example Rajasthan, Goa, and Kerala.

Islands of worship

Posted on by
Reply

IN HYDERABAD, BOMBAY, and Calcutta I have seen mosques or large dargahs (mausoleums) located on islands in the middle of roads. Traffic flows on both sides of the places of worship like river water flowing around a rock.

I mentioned this to my wife, who reminded me that London has at least two churches that stand on islands around which traffic flows. Two of them are on the busy Strand: St Clement Danes and St Mary le Strand. This got me thinking about other places where a place of worship stands in a position that forces traffic to move around it. Only one place springs to mind as I write this. There is a small church in a street leading off Syntagma Square in Athens (Greece) that stands on an island in the middle of a street ( or, at least it did when I last visited the city in 1980).

Why are these places of worship on traffic islands? Maybe, the shrines were built before roads were laid out or perhaps a road was widened leaving the holy places stranded in the middle of the enlarged thoroughfare.

Seduced by style

Posted on by
Reply

DURING VARIOUS VISITS TO AHMEDABAD, we have often driven past the Ahmed Shah Masjid, but never visited this venerable mosque. Close to the great Bhadra Fort and built in about 1414 AD by Ahmed Shah, the founder of Ahmedabad, this is the oldest extant mosque in the city. Today, we entered this exquisite mosque and its garden and discovered a perfect example of Indo-Islamic architecture.

When this mosque, and many others built in western India up to at least a century later, was constructed its creators incorporated many design features that can be seen in Hindu and Jain temples that were constructed centuries before believers of Islam entered/invaded India.

The grounds of the Ahmed Shah Masjid are entered through a small stone pavilion. The step inside it is just like the entrance steps to Hindu and Jain temples in that it includes a centrally located semicircular projection.

The patterning on the exterior stonework of the mosque and the many pillars within it would not look out of place on pre Islamic places of worship in India. However, the presence of figurative carving found in Hindu and Jain temples is completely absent in mosques. One small exception, which I saw at the Ahmed Shah Masjid and others in Ahmedabad, are carvings of trees, the Tree of Life.

The Ahmed Shah mosque and many other medieval mosques in Gujarat are topped with numerous domes. Seen from the outside of the mosques, they do not look exceptional, but viewed from within, the influence of Hindu/Jain temple architecture is obvious.

The domes are usually supported by 8 pillars arranged as a regular octagon. Neighbouring pillars support horizontal lintels, which together form an octagon. The dome rests on these lintels. The internal surfaces of the domes, when seen from below, consist of a series of concentric rings that decrease in circumference as they approach the top of the dome. The stonework of the rings can be either plain or elaborately ornamented. The design of these domes and their supporting supporting pillar systems are identical to what can be seen in Indian temples built long before Islam arrived in India.

Unlike the non-Muslim temples that inspired their design, medieval mosques contain features that are unique to mosques, such as elaborately decorated mihrabs, niches in the wall of the that worshippers face when they pray.

The Ahmed Shah mosque has an elevated internal chamber, where the king could pray separated from the rest of the congregation.

Having at last visited this fascinating mosque, I would reccomend all visitors to Ahmedabad to visit it first before exploring the other wonderful 15th and 16th century mosques that enrich the city.

The Ahmed Shah Masjid is a fine example of how conquerors can be conquered by the culture of those whom they have invaded. Just as the Muslims were bewitched by the wonders of Indian culture, so were the British many years later, as well exemplified by the Brighton Pavilion.