Jama Masjid, Jaunpur
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Jama Masjid or Jama Mosque or Jami Masjid or Badi Masjid, one of the largest
Mosques A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, i ...
in India, is a 15th-century mosque built by Hussain Shah Sharqi of the
Jaunpur Sultanate The Jaunpur Sultanate ( fa, ) was an independent Islamic state in northern India between 1394 and 1479, ruled by the Sharqi dynasty. It was founded in 1394 by Khwajah-i-Jahan Malik Sarwar, a former wazir of Sultan Nasiruddin Muhammad Shah IV ...
in Jaunpur,
Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. It is one of the chief tourist attractions in Jaunpur. The mosque is 2.2 km north-northeast of Jaunpur, 7.3 km northwest of Zafarābād, 16.8 km north-northeast of Mariāhū, 26.3 km west-northwest of Kirākat. Special prayers are held every Friday. Regular prayers for five times are offered every day.


History

The mosque was built by the Sharqi dynasty of the
Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
Jaunpur Sultanate The Jaunpur Sultanate ( fa, ) was an independent Islamic state in northern India between 1394 and 1479, ruled by the Sharqi dynasty. It was founded in 1394 by Khwajah-i-Jahan Malik Sarwar, a former wazir of Sultan Nasiruddin Muhammad Shah IV ...
in the 15th century. The dynasty was established by the powerful eunuch Malik Sarwar (also known as Malik-as-Sharq, meaning "peer of the east") in Jaunpur after the decline in
Tughlaq dynasty The Tughlaq dynasty ( fa, ), also referred to as Tughluq or Tughluk dynasty, was a Muslim dynasty of Indo- Turkic origin which ruled over the Delhi sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the ...
power, precipitated by both internal decline due to factors such as profligate spending by Firuz Tughlaq and by the sack of
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
by
Timur Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
in 1398. Malik-as-Sharq seized control of Jaunpur, a city founded in 1360 by Firuz Shah near a
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
town whose temples he desecrated, in 1394 and declared himself an independent
Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
in 1398 after the sack of Delhi. The Jaunpur Sultanate controlled territory in the
Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
and
Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
regions of India and was a cultural center of Islam, known as Shiraz-e-Hind (the
Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...
of India), in India with its rulers being important patrons of the arts who created what is arguably distinctive style of architecture. The foundation of the mosque was laid in 1438 by Ibrahim Shah but the first steps of construction above ground level only began in 1440 with his death. The purpose for its construction is unknown but two prevalent stories are that Ibrahim Shah constructed the mosque to save a hermit from having to walk barefoot to a far off mosque or that he created it to boost employment during a famine. The complex was built in stages but was finally completed in 1473 by the final Sharqi Monarch Hussain Shah. After being at peace during the
Sayyid dynasty The Sayyid dynasty was the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, with four rulers ruling from 1414 to 1451. Founded by Khizr Khan, a former governor of Multan, they succeeded the Tughlaq dynasty and ruled the sultanate as a vassal of the Timu ...
, the rise of the
Lodi dynasty The Lodi dynasty ( ps, لودي سلسله; fa, سلسله لودی) was an Afghan dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1451 to 1526. It was the fifth and final dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, and was founded by Bahlul Khan Lodi when he ...
in Delhi caused several wars between Hussain Shah Sharqi and both
Bahlul Lodi Bahlul Khan Lodi (12 July 1489) was the chief of the Pashtun Lodi tribe. Founder of the Lodi dynasty from the Delhi Sultanate upon the abdication of the last claimant from the previous Sayyid rule. Bahlul became sultan of the dynasty on 19 A ...
and
Sikandar Lodi Sikandar Khan Lodi (died 21 November 1517), born Nizam Khan, was a Pashtun Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate between 1489 and 1517. He became ruler of the Lodi dynasty after the death of his father Bahlul Khan Lodi in July 1489. The second and most ...
, which led to the fall of the Jaunpur Sultanate to the Delhi Sultanate. In most sources, these wars cause
Sikandar Lodi Sikandar Khan Lodi (died 21 November 1517), born Nizam Khan, was a Pashtun Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate between 1489 and 1517. He became ruler of the Lodi dynasty after the death of his father Bahlul Khan Lodi in July 1489. The second and most ...
to destroy or damage most of Hussain Shah's public works including the East Gate of the Jama Mosque, almost the entirety of the Jhanjri Mosque, and the majority of non-religious Sharqi buildings. In contrast to this view,
Ram Nath Ram Nath (R. Nath, born 9 March 1933) is an Indian historian who specializes in Mughal architecture. He obtained a doctorate from the Agra University, and later taught at the University of Rajasthan. He is regarded as one of India's leading art h ...
argues that Sikandar Lodi's status as a devout Muslim precluded him from damaging mosques and that the absence of non-religious buildings is due to their not having ever existed on account of Sharqi incompetence. Under the British The Jama Mosque as well as other elements of Jaunpur's architecture were reinterpreted under
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
rule. In 1783,
William Hodges William Hodges RA (28 October 1744 – 6 March 1797) was an English painter. He was a member of James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific Ocean and is best known for the sketches and paintings of locations he visited on that voyage, inclu ...
made a sketch of the entrance of the mosque, published in his book ''Select Views in India''. Hodges was influenced by the
Picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...
school of painters that focused on the importance of ruins and numerous paintings focused on ruins surrounded by nature. Within the Indian context this focus on ruins contributed to a portrayal of India as a civilization in decline. Michael S. Dodson argues that while the Picturesque painters used this theme to speculate about the impermanence of the British Empire a latent aspect of the identification of India with ruin was the idea that the colonial government should take charge of restoration. This second idea gained in prominence as the colonial government carried out numerous surveys of India such as those of the Architectural Survey of India (ASI). The latter was carried out a detailed survey by Albert Führer on Jaunpur's architecture, including the Jama Mosque. This trend, according to Dodson, culminated in George Curzon's passing of the
Ancient Monuments Preservation Act 1904 The Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904 was passed on 18 March 1904 by British India during the times of Lord Curzon. It is expedient to provide for the preservation of ancient monuments, for the exercise of control over traffic in antiquities ...
which included the Jama Mosque under its jurisdiction in 1919 but did not include other, less monumental works.


Architecture

The Jama Mosque is one of the three most famous mosques in Jaunpur, the others being the Atala Mosque and the Lal Darwaza Mosque. Of these it is both the largest and most recent. The Jama Mosque and the Lal Darwaza Mosque are heavily based upon the model of the Atala Mosque. According to Michael S. Dodson the focus of this style is the enormous and visually dominating pishtaq (portal) which obscures the dome behind it. All mosques in this style are arranged around a courtyard with four large gateways facing North, South, East, and West. The most significant of these faces West (towards
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
) and contains the pishtaq and dome. The mosque is built on a base that is nearly 20 feet high and is accessible by a flight of steps. This fact distinguishes it from the Atala Mosque which has no base and is similar to many mosques in Delhi with such a base. Although the general style is influenced by Delhi, some of the arches flanking the pishtaq are believed to be derived from
Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
. The courtyard is surrounded on all sides by cloisters that A. A. Führer claims were two stories high before the second story was destroyed by Sikandar Lodi when he conquered Jaunpur. In the west wall are several
mihrabs Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla ...
, each of which are flanked by ornately carved plates. The pishtaq is over 200 feet tall and the dome behind it is 38 feet in diameter. On each side of the portal are two dominating propylons 70 feet long decorated with several arches. The mosque is made of brick, some of which was gathered from pre-existing Hindu temples. Although the general style of the Sharqis contains minimal ornamentation some of these fragments of Hindu temples were heavily ornamented. A. A. Führer's survey of the mosque notes several Greek elements such as Greek crosses. This may tie into the project of Orientalist
James Prinsep James Prinsep FRS (20 August 1799 – 22 April 1840) was an English scholar, orientalist and antiquary. He was the founding editor of the ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' and is best remembered for deciphering the Kharosthi and B ...
, creator of the AIS (Führer's patron organization), to argue that Indian artistic traditions were derivative of Greek art. The entire Sharqi royal family is unostentatiously buried near the mosque. This lack of sepulchral architecture, as opposed to the
Lodi dynasty The Lodi dynasty ( ps, لودي سلسله; fa, سلسله لودی) was an Afghan dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1451 to 1526. It was the fifth and final dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, and was founded by Bahlul Khan Lodi when he ...
is interpreted by Abha Narain Lambah as symbolizing the military simplicity of the Sharqi monarchs. It is interpreted by Ram Nath as evidence of the lack of concern by the Sharqis with non-religious or military architecture, evidencing what he sees to be the lack of a distinct Jaunpuri style of architecture.


Inscriptions

The Jama Mosque contains several inscriptions. Around the central mihrab are two
Quranic The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...
verses, one from the
Surah A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...
Al-Fath Al-Fath ( ar, الفتح, ; "Victory" , "Triumph") is the 48th chapter (surah) of the Qur'an with 29 verses ( ayat). The surah was revealed in Madinah in the sixth year of the Hijrah, on the occasion of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah between the M ...
in
Tughra A tughra ( ota, طغرا, ṭuġrā) is a calligraphic monogram, seal or signature of a sultan that was affixed to all official documents and correspondence. Inspired by the tamgha, it was also carved on his seal and stamped on the coins minted du ...
characters describing conversion and one from the Surah
Al-Baqara Al-Baqara, alternatively transliterated Al-Baqarah ( ar, الْبَقَرَة, ; "The Heifer" or "The Cow"), is the second and longest chapter (''surah'') of the Quran. It consists of 286 verses ('' āyāt'') which begin with the " mysterio ...
in
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
characters praising the omnipotence of
Allah Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
. Another inscription is a 6th-century
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
text from
Maukhari dynasty The Maukhari dynasty ( Gupta script: , ''Mau-kha-ri'') was a post-Gupta dynasty who controlled the vast plains of Ganga-Yamuna for over six generations from their capital at Kannauj. They earlier served as vassals of the Guptas and later of Hars ...
. It was originally attributed to Iśvaravarman but Hans Bakker argues that it actually comes from the reign of his son Iśanavarman. The inscription describes and praises the first four Maukhari rulers. The presence of this inscription speaks to the reuse of local Hindu materials in the construction of mosques. Analysis Abha Narain Lambah argues that the Jama Mosque functioned as a continuation and fulfillment of the
Tughlaq The Tughlaq dynasty ( fa, ), also referred to as Tughluq or Tughluk dynasty, was a Muslim dynasty of Indo- Turkic origin which ruled over the Delhi sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the ...
style of architecture. He cites the general layout of Tughlaq mosques, the general sparseness of decoration, and the prominent pashtaq. He remarks on the unadorned militaristic style of the architecture, something he sees as speaking to the militaristic character of the Tughlaqs and Sharqis. This interpretation is part of a broader project of seeing the architecture of pre- Mughal sultanates as being a period of architectural diversity of style. Ram Nath also remarks on militaristic style, comparing the cloisters to barracks. However, he considers it out of place in the mosque. He also considers the monumentality of the pishtaq obscuring the dome to be a mistake. Generally he considers the Jama Mosque to be a series of failed experiments with a pre-existing style, rather than a new distinct style. He considers the value of the mosque to be in the individual stonework, which he attributes to local craftsmen or previous Hindu temples that stones for the mosques were taken from.


Miscellany

Bernard O'Kane, Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the
American University in Cairo The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...
, included the Jama Mosque in his book ''Mosques: the 100 Most Iconic Islamic Houses of Worship.''O'Kane, Bernard. Mosques: The 100 Most Iconic Islamic Houses of Worship. New York, NY: Assouline, 2018.


See also

*
Shahi Bridge, Jaunpur Shahi may refer to: Dynasties *Adil Shahi dynasty *Barid Shahi dynasty, which ruled the Bidar Sultanate *Hussain Shahi dynasty *Ilyas Shahi dynasty *Imad Shahi dynasty, which ruled the Berar Sultanate *Kabul Shahi (disambiguation) dynasty **Tur ...
*
Atala Masjid, Jaunpur Atala Masjid or Atala Mosque is a -14th century mosque in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is 300 meter away from Shahi Qila, Jaunpur.It is 2.2 km north-northeast of Jaunpur, 7.3 km northwest of Zafarābād, 16.8 km north-nor ...


References


External links


ATALA MASJID/JAUNPUR

Legacy of the Sharqi Kingdom of Jaunpur



Notes

* Nath, R. 1978. History of Sultanate Architecture. New Delhi, Abhinav Publications, 102-104. * Williams, John A. and Caroline. 1980. Architecture of Muslim India. Set 4: The Sultanate of Jaunpur, about 1360-1480. Santa Barbara, California: Visual Education, Inc. {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh Religious buildings and structures completed in 1470 1470 establishments in Asia 15th-century establishments in India Sharqi architecture Mosques in Uttar Pradesh Tourist attractions in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh 15th-century mosques Jaunpur