Chap. III.

DELHI.

201

its colonnades would be about 370 ft. from north to south and
230 ft. from east to west, and so enclosing the Qutb Minar.
The tomb of Altamsh was built just to the west of the north end
of the enlarged mosque.

Again ’Alau-d-Din Khalji (1296-1316) projected further
extensions: he removed the east wall of Altamsh’s court about
155 ft., extending the south wall and its colonnade so as to
make the new court 385 ft. from east to west, and constructing
the beautiful ’Alai-Darwaza on that side. Close to this gateway
is the small tomb of Imam Muhammad ’Ali Zamin, about 24 ft.
square, erected about 1535, of sandstone and marble. On the
north the Sultan projected doubling the previous court—making
it altogether over 700 ft. from north to south, and in this north
half he began the ’Alai Minar which was intended to be of
double the dimensions of the other ; but besides this and the
piers for the facade of the extended mosque nothing more seems
to have been done in this north extension. ’Alau-d-Din’s tomb
now in ruins is to the south-west of the enclosure.

To understand the architecture, it is necessary to bear in
mind that all the pillars are of Hindu, and all the walls of
Muhammadan, architecture.

It may possibly be questioned to what extent the pillars now
stand as originally arranged by the Hindus. But it seems
certain that they have all been re-arranged by the conquerors.
And it is quite evident that the enclosing walls were erected
by the Moslims, since all the stringcourses are covered with
ornaments in their style, and all the openings possess pointed
arches, which the Hindus never used. On the whole, it thus
seems that the entire structure was re-arranged in the form we
now see it by the Muhammadans. The celebrated mosque
at Kanauj was originally a Hindu or Jaina temple, and is re-
arranged on a plan precisely similar to that of the mosque of
’Amru at Old Cairo.1 The roof and domes are all of Jaina archi-
tecture, so that no trace of the Moorish style is to be seen
internally; but the exterior is as purely of Muhammadan
architecture. There is another mosque at Dhar, near Mandu, of
more modern date, and, doubtless, a re-arrangement of a Hindu
or Jaina temple. Another, in the fort at Jaunpur, as well as other
mosques at Ahmadabad and elsewhere, all show the same system
of taking down and re-arranging the materials on a different plan.
If, therefore, the pillars at the Qutb were in situ, the case would
be exceptional;2 but I cannot, nevertheless, help suspecting that

1 ‘ History of Ancient and Medieval
Architecture,’ vol. ii. Woodcut No. 077
(P-o 526).

2 Gen. Cuuningham found an inscrip-

tion on the wall recording that twenty-
seven temples of the Hindus had been
pulled down to provide materials for this
mosque (‘Archaeological Reports,’ vol. i.