Art and Architecture
Art and architecture were particularly patronised by the Muslim rulers and the elite. The sub-continent is studded with monuments of all types— mosques, minarets, khanqahs, forts, bridges, water-reservoirs, gardens and mausolea.
A recent study by a Japanese team has brought to light a variety of waterworks that operated in Delhi alone during the Sultanate period. The Muslim rulers of India displayed keen interest in the founding of new cities such as Firuzabad, Jaunpur, Farrukhabad, Fatehpur Sikri, Hyderabad, Shah- jahanabad, Moradabad, Daulatabad and so on. This urbanisation facilitated the proliferation of the Indo-Islamic culture. The grandeur, beauty and humming trade activity of Fatehpur Sikri, the city founded by Akbar, has been described by European travellers. Cities were generally beautified by the construction of mosques, minarets and gates. In Delhi, Iltutmish built the Qutb Minar which resembles a minaret recently discovered at Jam in Afghanistan. The Buland Darwaza constructed by Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri is one of the loftiest gates. The Attala Mosque at Jaunpur, the Fatehpur Sikri Mosque and the Jama Masjid of Delhi are noteworthy for their architectural beauty. Akbar’s palace of Fatehpur Sikri has survived intact. Akbar’s style of architecture represents a blending of Indian and Islamic traditions: arches and domes go hand in hand with flat stone beams and ornate decoration. In fact the tradition of combining Indian and Muslim motifs had become very prominent from the Tughluq period onwards when Hindu chatri or kiosks, heavy stone and balustrades were borrowed. The Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666) was a great builder. He built a new city, Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi). Its Great Mosque, the Red Fort and big bazaar—Chandni Chawk—shaded by trees and cooled by a stream, rivalled the Chahar Bagh of Isfahan. The tomb that he built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal is known as the Taj Mahal and is the finest Mogul monument, unique in symmetry, delicacy and grandeur.The Moguls were fond of laying out gardens. The Shalimar gardens in Kashmir and Lahore bear testimony to their interest in gardening. Large numbers of flowers, fruits and trees were brought from Central Asia and Iran and planted there. Their tombs are surrounded by beautiful gardens.
Barring one or two hazy specimens, no paintings of the Sultanate period have survived but there are references to mural paintings during the early medieval period. Under the Moguls, particularly Akbar and Jahangir, painting made great progress in India. Akbar’s studio had more than one hundred painters drawn from different parts. Nearly 24,000 manuscripts were illustrated for his library. These manuscripts comprised not only Persian works but also Indian classics. This provided an opportunity for the intermingling of Indian and Iranian traditions of painting. An illustrated manuscript of the Akbar namah in the Chester Beaty Collection gives a good idea of the standard achieved in the painting of landscapes, selection of colours, depiction of figures and communication of immutable feelings and emotions. Mansur was one of the most outstanding painters of the Mogul period. His paintings of the natural world, birds and flowers are superb. Jahangir, who was a leading connoisseur of art, greatly encouraged painting. During his reign some Western influences also became visible in Indian paintings.
Music was developed as an art in the courts and in the hospices of saints. Both male and female musicians performed at the courts of Kaiqubad and Jalaluddin Khalji. Amir Khusrau was an expert in music and invented certain melodies which combined the Indian and Iranian forms. Tan Sen, a famous Hindu musician, joined the circle of Saiyyid Muhammad Ghauth Gwaliyari’s disciples and attempted to unite Indian and Sufi melodies. Two classical works on music—Ghunyat al munyah, by an anonymous writer during the reign of Firuz Shah Tughluq, and Faqirullah’s Rag Darpan, compiled in 1666—give a good idea of the traditions of Indian music and the way Iranian influences moulded them into a new form.
Calligraphy was developed as an art during the Sultanate and Mogul periods. Babur invented a new style of calligraphy and had his memoirs written in it. Akbar was so fascinated by calligraphy that he did not approve of the printing-press. Calligraphy flourished unchallenged till the early nineteenth century when the printing-press increasingly started to replace it.
Further Reading
Ahmad, Aziz Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1964)
----- Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan 1857—1964 (Oxford University Press, London, 1967)
----- An Intellectual History of Islam in India (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1969)
Ashraf, K.M. The Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan 1200—1556, 2nd edn (New Delhi, 1970)
Brown, Percy Indian Painting under the Mughals ad 1550 to ad 1750 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1924)
----- Indian Architecture, 2nd edn (D.B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. Ltd, Bombay, 1942) Cantwell-Smith, Wilfred Modern Islam in India (Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1946) Chand, Tara History of the Freedom Movement in India, 4 vols. (Pubheations Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, Delhi, 1961-72) Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn (Leiden and London, 1960-78)
Habib, M. and Nizami, K.A. The Delhi Sultanat, vol. 5 (People’s Publishing House, Delhi, 1970)
Habibullah The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India, 2nd edn (Central Book Depot, Allahabad, 1961)
Hardy, Peter The Muslims of British India (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1972)
Jafar, S.M. Education in Muslim India (Idarah-i Adabiyat-i, Delhi, 1973)
Metcalf, Barbara D. Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband 1860-1900 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1982)
Mujeeb, Μ. The Indian Muslims (George Allen and Unwin Ltd, London, 1967)
Nizami, K.A. Some Aspects of Religion and Politics in India during the 13th Century, 2nd edn (Idarah-i Adabiyat-i, Delhi, 1978)
Qureshi, I.H. The Muslim Community of the Indo-Pakistan Sub-Continent (610-1942) (published for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Columbia University, by Mouton & Co., The Hague, 1962)
Sadiq, Muhammad A History of Urdu Literature, 2nd edn (Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1984)
Schimmel, Annemarie Islam in the Indian Sub-Continent, (EJ. Brill, Leiden and Cologne, 1980)
Spear, T.G.P. A History of India, vol. 2 (Pelican, Harmondsworth, 1981)
----- The Twilight of the Mughals (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1951)