Ustad Ahmad Lahori

Ustad Ahmad Lahori (c.1580–1649)^[1] also known as Ahmad Ma'mar Lahori was the chief Mughal architect and engineer during the reign of emperor Shah Jahan. He was responsible for the construction of several Mughal monuments, including the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Red fort in Delhi; both of which are World Heritage sites.^[2] He also designed the Jama Mosque in Delhi.^[3]

Ustad Ahmad Lahori
Miniature painting of Ustad Ahmad Mimar Lahori
Born	c.1580 Lahore, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire (modern day Punjab, Pakistan)
Died	c.1649(1649-00-00) (aged 68–69) Delhi, Delhi Subah, Mughal Empire (now Delhi, India)
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	Taj Mahal Red Fort Old Delhi Jama Masjid, Delhi
Signature

Considered greatest of the Mughal architects,^[1] Ahmad Lahori came from an illustrious family of architects and civil engineers. He was a skilled engineer who, owing to his architectural abilities, received the title of Nadir-ul-Asar (wonder of the age) from Shah Jahan.^[4] His architecture is a combination of Indo-Islamic and Persian architectural styles, and thus a major example of Indo-Persian culture. The architecture of Taj Mahal is widely praised around the world, enabling it to be listed among the Wonders of the World.^[5]

Life

Ustad Ahmad Lahori hailed from Lahore, Punjab, as his nisba indicates.^[6] He has been described as a Punjabi Muslim^[7][8] or an Indian of Iranian heritage.^[9] Even after his family's migration to Delhi, his family is still referred to by the epithet "Lahori".^[10] In Muslim India, Lahori was used as a synonym for Punjabi by historic writers, such as Amir Khusro who uses it to refer to the spoken language of the people of Punjab, and the Mughal Emperor Jahangir who writes, "In fact they are pure Lahauris and speak the same language."^[11][12]

Shah Jahan's court histories emphasize his personal involvement in the construction and it is true that, more than any other Mughal emperor, he showed the greatest interest in building new magnificent buildings, holding daily meetings with his architects and supervisors. The court chronicler, Abdul Hamid Lahori, writes that Shah Jahan would make "appropriate alterations to whatever the skillful architects had designed after considerable thought and would ask the architects competent questions."^[13]

Ustad Ahmad Lahori's deposit of "Five Qasidas" in Kitab Khana Amrao

In writings by Lahori's son, Lutfullah Muhandis, two architects are mentioned by name; Ustad Ahmad Lahori^[14][15] and Mir Abd-ul Karim.^[16] Ustad Ahmad Lahori had laid the foundations of the Red Fort at Delhi (built between 1638 and 1648). Mir Abd-ul Karim had been the favourite architect of the previous emperor Jahangir and is mentioned as a supervisor, together with Makramat Khan,^[16] for the construction of the Taj Mahal.^[17][18]

Lahori had three sons: Ataullah (or Ata Allah Rashidi), Lutfullah (or Lutf Allah Muhandis) and Nurullah (or Nur Allah), who were also involved in architecture besides other fields such as mathematics. Shah Kalim Allah Jahanabadi was his grandson. ^[19][20]

Career

Ahmad Lahori was learned in the arts of geometry, arithmetic and astronomy. According to his son Lutf Allah Muhandis, he was familiar with the Euclid's Elements and Ptolemy's Almagest.^[4] In 1631, Shah Jahan appointed him on the project of construction of Taj Mahal. The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by Ahmad Lahori. The complex took 12 years for completion.^[3] Afterwards, he was relocated to Delhi where emperor ordered him for construction of the new imperial city, Shahjahanabad in 1639.^[3] The building of the city, including the Red fort, was complete by 1648. In 1648, Ahmad Lahori started working on the project of the imperial mosque in Delhi, now known as Jama Masjid, Delhi. He died in 1649, before the foundations of mosque were laid.^[3] The mosque was later completed by the architect Ustad Khalil.

• Ahmad Lahori's major works
• 
  Taj Mahal in Agra
• 
  A view of the Red Fort's Lahori Gate in Delhi
• 
  Jama Masjid, Delhi
• 
  Marble domes of Taj Mahal
• 
  Covered Bazaar in Old Delhi

Legacy

• 

  Photograph of the potential tomb or grave site of Ustad Ahmad Lahori located in the Ambar complex of Khuldabad, circa 1860^[21]

  Ahmad Lahori was mentioned in the Indu Sundaresan's Washington State Book Award winning novel The Twentieth Wife.^[22]

See also

• Ustad Isa

References

1. Curl, James Stevens; Wilson, Susan (2015). The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. Oxford University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-19-967498-5.
2. Yasin, Mohammad; Yasin, Madhvi (1988). Reading in Indian History. Atlantic Publishers & Distri. p. 89.
3. Khan (Arshi), I. N. (28 August 2015). BLACK TAJ MAHAL: The Emperor's Missing Tomb. Black Taj Project. p. 38. ISBN 978-81-927479-0-3.
4. Necipoğlu, Gülru (1 March 1996). The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture. Getty Publications. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-89236-335-3.
5. "Taj Mahal". New7Wonders of the World. 13 July 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
6. Balasubramaniam, R. (2009). "New insights on architects of Tāj". Indian Journal of History of Science, SpringerLink. 44 (3). National Institute of Sciences of India: 391. ISSN 2454-9991. OCLC 1398048453 – via University of California.
7. Srivastava, Prof. R. P. (1981). "Patiala: Its Artistic and Cultural Significance". The Sikh Courier. 10 (4). London: Sikh Cultural Society of Great Britain: 16. ISSN 0037-511X. OCLC 265579842 – via University of Virginia. Nadir-ul-Asar Ahmad Mimar Lahori Shahjehani was also a Punjabi who designed the Taj Mahal of Agra.
8. Chopra, Ravindra Mohan (2005). Indo-Iranian Cultural Relations Through the Ages. Iran Society. p. 89. OCLC 85485369 – via University of Michigan.
9. Janin, Hunt (2006). The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World, 610-2003. McFarland. p. 124. ISBN 978-0786429042. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
10. Kanwar, H. I. S (1974). Pickthall, Marmaduke William; Asad, Muhammad (eds.). "Ustad Ahmed Lahori". Islamic Culture. 48. Islamic Culture Board: 11–32. ISSN 0021-1834.
11. Khan, Ahsan Raza (1977). Chieftains in the Mughal Empire During the Reign of AkbarAhsan Raza Khan. Indian Institute of Advanced Study. ISBN 9780896843769.
12. Bharati Ray (2009). Different Types of History. Centre for Studies in Civilizations (Delhi, India). p. 204. ISBN 9788131718186.
13. Koch, p.89
14. Taj Mahal Description and Profile (Ahmad Lahori, architect of the emperor) UNESCO.org website, Retrieved 17 November 2021
15. Begley and Desai (1989), p.65
16. Asher, p.212
17. Dunkeld, Malcolm, ed. (August 2006). "Construction history society newsletter" (PDF). Chartered Institute of Building website. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
18. "Mystery of Italian 'designer' hanged in Lahore". DAWN.COM. 10 April 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
19. Chanchal Dadlani (2016). "Innovation, Appropriation, and Representation: Mughal Architectural Ornament in the Eighteenth Century". In Gülru Necipoglu; Alina Payne (eds.). Histories of Ornament: From Global to Local. Princeton University Press. p. 183. ISBN 9780691167282.
20. David Pingree, ed. (1970). Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit Series A. Vol. 1. American Philosophical Society. p. 39.
21. Lahori, Arif Rahman Chughtai (2023). In Search of the Grave of Ustad Ahmad Mimar Lahori in the Cemetery of Khuldabad, Aurangabad (PDF). Chughtai Museum.
22. Sundaresan, Indu (1 October 2013). The Indu Sundaresan Collection: The Twentieth Wife, Feast of Roses, and Shadow Princess. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4767-6418-4.

Notes

Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard (1992) [2003]. The New Cambridge History of India, Vol I:4 - Architecture of Mughal India (Hardback) (First published 1992, reprinted 2001, 2003 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 368. ISBN 0-521-26728-5. Begley, Wayne (March 1979). "The myth of the Taj-Mahal and a new theory of its symbolic meaning". Art Bulletin. 61 (1). The Art Bulletin, Vol. 61, No. 1: 7–37. doi:10.2307/3049862. JSTOR 3049862. Begley, Wayne E.; Desai, Z.A. (1989) [1989]. Taj Mahal - The Illumined Tomb (Hardback). University of Washington Press. p. 392. ISBN 978-0-295-96944-2. Begley, Wayne E. (1983). Grabar, Oleg (ed.). "Four Mughal Caravanserais Built during the Reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan". Muqarnas Volume I: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. Yale University Press (Newhaven). pp. 167–180. Archived from the original (pdf) on 12 June 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2007. Koch, Ebba (2006) [Aug 2006]. The Complete Taj Mahal: And the Riverfront Gardens of Agra (Hardback) (First ed.). Thames & Hudson Ltd. pp. 288 pages. ISBN 0-500-34209-1.