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Catherine B. Asher
DELHI'S QUTB COMPLEX:
THE MINAR, MOSQUE AND
MEHRAULI
Catherine B. Asher
This book presents a geographical,
chronological and cultural narrative of
the famous Qutb complex in Delhi and its
surrounding area, Mehrauli. It examines the
initial growth of this area from its founding
about 1060 by the Rajput Tomars near the
temopf Ylogmeaya , its likely takeover by
the Chauhans and then its establishment as
a Muslim headquarters under the Ghurids
of Afghanistan and their successors, the
independent sultans of Delhi. Besides the
celebrated Qutb Minar—the world's tallest
brick/stone constructed minaret—included
in the complex are Delhi's first mosque,
an early tomb and school, as well as a
magnificent arched stone screen in front of
the original mosque.
The mosque complex did not exist in
isolatfioro int ,wa s part of a larger palace
compalnde txow n in whose midst the
Sufi saint, Qutb al-Din Bakhtiyar Kaki,
established his residence and teaching
quarters, attracting followers both during
his life and after his death. Even as the
successors to Delhi's early sultans built
new headquarters at other sites, building
activity at the Qutb complex and in the
surrounding town of Mehrauli continued.
By the middle of the 19th century, Mehrauli
accommodated not only the last Mughal’s
summer palace but also the country estate
of the British Resident, who had transformed
a Mughal tomb into his home. The final days
of the Raj were played out here, when in
1948 Mahatma Gandhi undertook a fast-
unto-death at the dargah of Bakhtiyar Kaki
to end violence against Muslims. Over the
centuries, this part of Delhi has seen the
establishment of Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Christian
and Buddhist centres of worship as well.
The issues addressed in this book range
from the motivations and inspirations
behind the construction of the various
monuments, the use of spolia, the
messages of the inscriptions and graffiti
and the political aspirations of the patrons,
.:
down to the status of the monuments
today. Supported by a rich selection of
photographs, the engaging text brings alive
this significant piece of India’s heritage and
history.
a
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Cover: "The Kootub-Minar". From Delhi,
Agra, and Rajpootana by Captain E.C. Impey
(London: Cundall, Downes and Co. , 1865).
(spine) Tomb of Imam Zamin, 1537-38, with
the Alai Darwaza and Qutb Minar behind,
Qutb complex.
DELHI'S
;
QUTB COMPLEX
THE MIN AR, MOSQUE
AND MEHRAULI
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Vol. 69 No. 1 September 2017
Editors
Price: 2800.00 / USS 69.95
JroTnpra Jani
ISBN: 978-93-83243-19-8
Naman P. Anus
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2017-322022
Assistant Editors
JyoTsna Nampiar Marg is a registered trademark of The Marg Foundation
Mirnauins VASUDEVAN >» The Marg Foundation and Catherine B. Asher, 2017
Text Editor (Consultant) All rights reserved
Rives Isha No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, adapted or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
Designer otherwise or translated in any language or performed or communicated to the
Nasu Han public in any manner whatsoever, or any cinematographic film or sound recording
Senior Production Executive made therefrom without the prior written permission of the copyright holders.
Gautam V. JapHay This edition may be exported from India only by the publishers, The Marg
5 roduction Executive Foundation, and by their authorized distributors and this constitutes a condition
Cretan S. Mone of its initial sale and its subsequent sales.
Published by Radhika Sabavala for The Marg Foundation at Army & Navy Building
(3rd Floor), 148, M.G. Road, Mumbai 400 001, India.
Processed at The Marg Foundation, Mumbai.
Printed at Silverpoint Press Pvt. Ltd., Navi Mumbai.
Page 1: Qutb Minar, New Delhi. Photograph: David Davis/Age/Dinodia.
Pages 2-3: Pillared galleries in Aibak's mosque, Qutb complex. Photograph:
Bjanka Kadic/Age/Dinodia.
Pages 4-5: Detail of calligraphic carving on the Qutb Minar. Photograph:
Charles O. Cecil/Age/Dinodia.
Page 6 (above): Statue of Vishnu, found southeast of the Qutb Minar: the
image is dated 1147, during the period of Chauhan rule. National Museum,
New Delhi (L39). Courtesy Centre for Art and Archaeology, American Institute
of indian Studies, AllS A2.43, Acc. No. 006413.
Page 7: View of the Qutb Minar, lithograph by Lieutenant-Colonel John Luard
19th century. Courtesy Phillips Antiques, Mumbai. |
Uniess otherwise indicated, all illustrations in the book are by the author
Marg's quarterly publications receive support from Tata Trusts
Contents
8 Preface
10° Introduction
22 Chapter | Growth of a Complex
56 Chapter 2 In the Vicinity of the Qutb, 1236-87
72 Chapter 3 Just before the Mughals
100 Chapter 4 Just before Modern Times
126 Chapter 5 From the War of Independence to
independence Achieved
146 Notes
Bibliography
Index ib y '
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Preface
he first suggestion that | write this book, as a bridge between popular literature
available to the public and dense scholarly material that is inaccessible to most
educated readers, came from Vidya Dehejia when she was General Editor of Marg.
To her | am most grateful for the idea. During the years that | wrote largely on material
dating several centuries after the founding of the Qutb complex in the late 12th century,
the mosque (often called the Quwwat al-Islam Mosque), the towering minaret and
multiple attendant structures of this complex had always been on my mind as | taught
various Classes on South Asian and Islamic art history, With the publication of more and
more intelligent scholarship and discourse about the early years of the Delhi Sultanate,
my thinking on this complex and the politics of India’s early Muslim communities evolved.
To the many authors whose works are cited in my bibliography | give my thanks for their
insights.
In organizing this large body of material that covers a living village across a great
many centuries, | saw two ways to think about the material. One was to examine each
monument in isolation, looking at it through time, a sort of vertical presentation of
DCQEOULTMHBPI L'ES X
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the individual structures. This would be an approach better suited to a guidebook,
one that | felt would exclude the possibility of seeing the monuments in context. The
other approach, which | have adopted for this book, is to look at the evolution of the
entire site from its inception to the present day. This allowed me to think about how
the monuments relate to one another, to think about the changing relations and to
add people where possible—patrons, kings, holy figures and ordinary people—to the
buildings, recognizing that they are much more than structures in stone. They were, and
often still are, intended for human use, albeit in some cases for people recently deceased.
Many people over the years facilitated this project in significantly different ways.
Those with whom | first explored the sites of Sultanate Delhi in the 1970s—Anthony
Welch, Howard Crane and Ebba Koch—have helped shape my thinking and scholarship
over the years. Cynthia Talbot, my co-author on an earlier book, has been instrumental in
my understanding of 12th-century Delhi. Janice Leoshko has been my sounding board
for many years. The American Institute of Indian Studies has given considerable help,
especially Purnima Mehta, Pradeep Mehendiratta, Vandana Sinha, Omprakash and N.
Ravi. At my home institution, the University of Minnesota, |o we thanks to Steven Ostrow
and Jane Blocker as well as the Imagine Fund for providing funding, and to David Faust of
the Ames Library. Virginia Larson and Denne Wesolowski have scanned more images for
me than they care to remember. People at other institutions have provided help, among
them Sabyasachi Mukherjee at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya,
Mumbai, Mette Korsholm of the David Collection, Copenhagen, Andrew Topsfield at
the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Daljeet Singh of the Archaeological Survey of India,
New Delhi, Malini Roy and her staff at the British Library, London, M.B. Rajani and her
colleagues at NIAS, Bengaluru, and Joanne Bloom of the Fine Arts Library, Harvard. |
am also grateful to the remarkable staff at Marg for all they did on behalf of this book.
Others that deserve special thanks are Nadhra Khan and Talib Hussain, without whose
help | could not have learned the history of Aibak’s tomb in Lahore. The expertise and
assistance of many others includes: Naman Ahuja, Molly Aitken, Sheila Blair and Jonathan
Bloom, Rebecca Brown, Sinem Casale, Aditi Chandra, Shama Mitra Chenoy, Radha Dalal,
Holly Edwards, Alisa Eimen, Nina Ergin, Barry Flood, Atreyee Gupta, Sohail Hashmi,
Debby Hutton, Jennifer Joffee, Yuri Karev, Dipti Khera, Riyaz Latif, David Lelyveld, Venu
Maddipati, Souren Malikian, Claudio Margottini, Marsha Olson, Amita Paliwal, Alka Patel,
Margit Pernau, Sugata Ray, Jennifer Roberson, Dede Ruggles, Yuthika Sharma, Sylvia
Shorto, Sara Simons, Susan Stronge. To those | might have inadvertently omitted | offer
my apologies.
Tremendous credit goes to my family: Tom and Dana Asher, for listening to me over
the years as we explored Delhi together, and Alice Asher for helping me in recent years
with fieldwork. | especially thank my husband, Rick, without whose help in so many ways
this project never would have seen the light of day.
Aibak's screen and Gupta iron | dedicate this book to my three grandchildren, Francesca, Fergus and Imogen, who
pillar, Qutb complex, pre-1916. are becoming world travellers and citizens and who are in the process of embracing the
Courtesy Archaeological Survey PREFACE
world’s diversity.
of India.
\O
