Ustad Ahmad Lahori
Ahmad Lahori | |
|---|---|
 Miniature painting of Ustad Ahmad Mimar Lahori | |
| Born | c. 1580 |
| Died | c. 1649 (aged 68–69) |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Buildings | Red Fort |
| Projects | Shahjahanabad |
| Signature | |
 | |
Ustad Ahmad Lahori (lit. 'Master Ahmad of Lahore'; c.1580–1649),[1] also known as Ahmad Mi'mar (lit. 'Ahmad the Architect'), was an architect and engineer of the Mughal Empire who served as the chief architect during the reign of Shah Jahan. He is credited with designing the Red Fort in Delhi and may have also been responsible for the design of the Taj Mahal in Agra, along with Mir Abd-ul Karim and Makramat Khan. He is regarded as one of the greatest architects of the 17th-century.[1]
He was also one of the leading architects responsible for the establishment of the imperial city of Shahjahanabad. His architecture is a combination of Indo-Islamic and Persian architectural styles, and thus, a major instance of Indo-Persian culture.
Life
Ustad Ahmad Lahori hailed from the city of Lahore, as his nisba indicates.[2] Lahori was from a family of Timurid architects, originally from Herat.[3] Even after his family's migration to Delhi, his family is still referred to by the epithet "Lahori".[3] He was a skilled engineer who later in life was given the title of Nadir-ul-Asar ("wonder of the age") by Shah Jahan.[4] Two of his three sons,[5] Ataullah Rashidi and Lutfullah Muhandis, also became architects, as did some of his grandsons,[4] Shah Kalim Allah Jahanabadi one among them.[6] Ahmad Lahori was learned also in the arts of geometry, arithmetic and astronomy, and according to his son Lutfullah was familiar with the Euclid's Elements and Ptolemy's Almagest.[4]
Career
In 1631, Shah Jahan appointed him for the 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 project took twelve years to manifest into reality.[7] Afterwards, he was relocated to Delhi where the emperor commissioned him for the construction of the new imperial city, Shahjahanabad, in 1639.[7] 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.[7]
In writings by Lahori's son, Lutfullah Muhandis, two architects are mentioned by name: Ustad Ahmad Lahori[8][9] and Mir Abd-ul Karim.[10] Ustad Ahmad Lahori laid the foundations of the Red Fort at Delhi, which was built between 1638 and 1648. Mir Abd-ul Karim counted as the favourite architect of the previous emperor, Jahangir, and is mentioned as a supervisor, together with Makramat Khan, for the construction of the Taj Mahal.[10]
- Ahmad Lahori's major works
Red Fort's Lahori Gate in Delhi
Covered bazaar in Old Delhi
See also
- Ustad Isa, another architect of the Taj Mahal
References
- 1 2 Curl, James Stevens (2006). "Ahmad, Ustad". A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780198606789.013.5245. ISBN 978-0-19-860678-9. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
Master Ahmad of Lahore, also known as Ahmad Mi'mar (Ahmad the Architect), became chief architect to Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–58). He is credited with the design of the huge Red Fort at Delhi (1639–48), and may have designed the Tâj Mahal (mausoleum of Arjumand Banu Begum, known as Mumtaz Mahal (d.1631) at Agra (1631–48 and later). If these and other attributions are correct, he was one of the greatest architects of C17.
- ↑ Balasubramaniam, R. (2009). "New insights on architects of Tāj". Indian Journal of History of Science. 44 (3). National Institute of Sciences of India: 391. ISSN 2454-9991. OCLC 1398048453 – via University of California.
- 1 2 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.
- 1 2 3 Necipoğlu, Gülru (1 March 1996). The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture. Getty Publications. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-89236-335-3.
- ↑ Pingree, David, ed. (1970). Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit Series A. Vol. 1. American Philosophical Society. p. 39.
- ↑ Dadlani, Chanchal (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.
- 1 2 3 Khan, I. N. (2015). Black Taj Mahal: The Emperor's Missing Tomb. Black Taj Project. p. 38. ISBN 978-81-927479-0-3.
- ↑ Taj Mahal Description and Profile (Ahmad Lahori, architect of the emperor) UNESCO.org website, Retrieved 17 November 2021
- ↑ Begley, Wayne E.; Desai, Z.A. (1989) [1989]. Taj Mahal - The Illumined Tomb (Hardback). University of Washington Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-295-96944-2.
- 1 2 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. 212. ISBN 0-521-26728-5.
Further reading
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