Jama Masjid, Delhi
Encyclopedia
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
: مسجد جھان نما, Devanagari
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
: , the 'World-reflecting Mosque'), commonly known as the Jama Masjid of Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, is the principal mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
of Old Delhi
Old Delhi
Old Delhi , walled city of Delhi, India, was founded as Shahjahanabad by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan in 1639. It remained the capital of the Mughals until the end of the Mughal dynasty....
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Commissioned by the Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
Emperor Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan, , Persian: شاه جهان) (January 5, 1592 – January 22, 1666) Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan, , Persian: شاه جهان) (January 5, 1592 – January 22, 1666) (Full title: His Imperial Majesty Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan...
, builder of the Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...
,in the year 1644 CE and completed in the year 1658 AD, it is the largest and best-known mosque in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It lies at the origin of a very busy central street of Old Delhi
Old Delhi
Old Delhi , walled city of Delhi, India, was founded as Shahjahanabad by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan in 1639. It remained the capital of the Mughals until the end of the Mughal dynasty....
, the Chawri Bazar Road
Chawri Bazaar
Chawri Bazar is a specialized wholesale market of brass, copper and paper products. Established in 1840, with a hardware market, it was the first wholesale market of Old Delhi it lies to the west of Jama Masjid in Delhi, lies....
.
The later name, Jama Masjid
Jama Masjid
Jama Masjid also Jami Masjid, refers to the Friday Mosque, where Jummah or weekly Friday noon congregation prayers of Muslims take place...
, is a reference to the weekly Friday noon congregation prayers of Muslims, Jummah, which are usually done at a mosque, the "congregational mosque" or "jāmi' masjid". The courtyard of the mosque can hold up to twenty-five thousand worshippers. The mosque also houses several relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s in a closet in the north gate, including an antique copy of the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
written on deer skin.
Construction
The foundation of the historic Jama MasjidJama Masjid
Jama Masjid also Jami Masjid, refers to the Friday Mosque, where Jummah or weekly Friday noon congregation prayers of Muslims take place...
was laid on a hillock in Shahjahanabad by fifth Mughal Emperor of India, Shahjahan, on Friday, October 19,1650 AD, (10th Shawwal 1060 AH). The mosque was the result of the efforts of over 5,000 workers, over a period of seven years. The cost incurred on the construction in those times was 10 lakh
Lakh
A lakh is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand . It is widely used both in official and other contexts in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and is often used in Indian English.-Usage:...
(1 million) Rupees, and it was the same Emperor who also built the Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...
, at Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...
and the Red Fort, which stands opposite the Jama Masjid, which was finally ready in 1656 AD (1066 AH), complete with three great gates, four towers and two 40 m-high minarets constructed of strips of red sandstone and white marble. About 25,000 people can pray here at a time. The mosque has a vast paved rectangular courtyard, which is nearly 75 m by 66 m. The whole of the western chamber is a big hall standing on 260 pillars all carved from Hindu and Jain traditions. The central courtyard is accessible from the East. The Eastern side entrance leads to another enclosure containing the mausoleum of Sultan Ahmed Shah.
Shah Jahan built several important mosques in Delhi, Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...
, Ajmer
Ajmer
Ajmer , formerly written as Ajmere, is a city in Ajmer District in Rajasthan state in India. Ajmer has a population of around 800,000 , and is located west of the Rajasthan state capital Jaipur, 200 km from Jodhpur, 274 km from Udaipur, 439 km from Jaisalmer, and 391 km from...
and Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. The Jama Masjid's floorplan is very similar to the Jama Masjid, Fatehpur Sikri
Jama Masjid, Fatehpur Sikri
The Jama Masjid in Fatehpur Sikri is a mosque in Agra, completed in 1571. Worship there is currently led by a Barelvi imam.-Architecture:The rectangular mosque comprises a central nave with a single dome, two colonnaded halls on either side, with two square chambers crowned with domes...
near Agra
Agra
Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...
, but the Jama Masjid in Delhi is the bigger and more imposing of the two. Its Badshahi Mosque
Badshahi Mosque
The Badshahi Mosque or the 'King's Mosque' in Lahore, commissioned by the sixth Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1671 and completed in 1673, is the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world...
of Lahore built by Shah Jahan's son Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
in 1673 is closely related to the Jama Masjid at Raipur.
Architecture
The courtyard of the mosque can be reached from the east, north and south by three flights of steps, all built of red sandstone. The northern gate of the mosque has 389 steps. The southern side of the mosque has steps. The eastern gate of the mosque was the rural entrance and it has 774 steps. These steps used to house food stalls, shops and street entertainers. In the morning, the eastern side of the mosque used to be converted into a bazaar
Bazaar
A bazaar , Cypriot Greek: pantopoula) is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The term is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen" who work that area...
for poultry and birds in general. Prior to the 1857 War of Indian Independence
Indian Rebellion of 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
, there was a madrassah near the southern side of the mosque, which was pulled down after the mutiny.
The mosque faces south. Its free sides are covered with open farchiet chrophyll, each having a mhofty tower-like gateway in the centre. The mosque is about 22561 feet (8058m) long and 258258 inch feet (549 m) wide, and its roof is covered with eight domes with repeated stripes of purple and white marble, with its lowermost parts covered with loasd. Two lofty minarets
Minarets
Minarets may refer to:*Minarets, an architectural feature of Islamic mosques*Minarets, California, a former town in California*Minarets , mountain peaks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California*Minarets , a song by Dave Matthews...
, 130 feet (41 m) high, and containing 130 steps, longitudinally striped with white marble and red sandstone, flank the domes on either side. The minarets are divided by three projecting galleries and are surmounted by open twelve-sided domed pavilions. On the back of the mosque, there are four small minarets crowned like those in the front.
Under the domes of the mosque, is a hall with seven arched entrances facing the west and the walls of the mosque, up to the height of the waist, are covered with marble. Beyond this is a prayer hall, which is about 61 meters X 27.5 meters, with eleven arched entrances, of which the centre arch is wide and lofty, and in the form of a massive gateway, with slim minarets in each corner, with the usual octagonal pavilion surmounting it. Over these arched entrances there are tablets of white marble, four feet (1.2 m) long and 2.5 feet (760 mm) wide, inlaid with inscriptions in black marble. These inscriptions give the history of the building of the mosque, and glorify the reign and virtues of Shah Jahan. The slab over the centre arch contains simply the words "The Guide!"
The mosque stands on a platform of about five feet (1.5 m) from the pavement of the terrace, and three flight of steps lead to the interior of the mosque from the east, north, and the south. The floor of the mosque is covered with white and black marble ornamented to imitate the Muslim prayer mat; a thin black marble border is marked for the worshippers, which is three feet long and 1 ½ feet wide. In total there are 899 such spaces marked in the floor of the mosque. The back of the mosque is cased over to the height of the rock on which the mosque stands with large hewn stones.
2006 Explosions
On April 14, 2006, two explosions occurred within the Jama Masjid. The first explosion came at around 17:26 and the second some seven minutes later at around 17:33 (ISTIndian Standard Time
Indian Standard Time is the time observed throughout India and Sri Lanka, with a time offset of UTC+05:30. India does not observe daylight saving time or other seasonal adjustments, although DST was used briefly during the Sino–Indian War of 1962 and the Indo–Pakistani Wars of 1965 and 1971...
) . At least thirteen people were injured in the blasts. There were about 1000 people in the mosque at the time of the blasts as the day happened to be Friday, a Muslim holy day. According to official spokesmen, there was no damage to the mosque itself.
2010 Shooting
On September 15, 2010, two Taiwanese tourists were injured after gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a bus2010 Jama Masjid attack
The 2010 Jama Masjid attack occurred on September 19, 2010 when two gunmen on a motorcycle fired at a tourist bus near Gate 3 of the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, India and injured two Taiwanese tourists. The incident provoked fears about security for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi...
parked near gate number three of the mosque.
Imams of Jama Masjid
- 1) Syed Abdul Ghafoor Shah Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 2) Syed Abdul Shakoor Shah Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 3) Syed Abdul Raheem Shah Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 4) Syed Abdul Ghafoor Shah Bukhari Thani Shahi Imam
- 5) Syed Abdul Rehman Shah Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 6) Syed Abdul Kareem Shah Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 7) Syed Mir Jeewan Shah Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 8) Syed Mir Ahmed Ali Shah Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 9) Syed Mohammed Shah Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 10) Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 11) Maulana Syed Hameed Bukhari Shahi Imam
- 12) Syed Abdullah Bukhari
- 13) Syed Ahmed Bukari