Book Description

Muslim contribution towards evolving and perpetuating a distinctive style of architecture in the South Asian subcontinent has been epoch-making. Different and divergent from its local counterpart, the style was essentially a synthesized assimilation of foreign as well as local elements, which together created marvels both of religious and secular buildings. While foreign elements were introduced by the Arabs, Persians, Turks, and the Central Asians, local characteristics were borrowed from the Hindu-Jaina temples and Buddhist monastic establishments. The Muslims built their habitats according to the dictates of their faith, their taste and resources, and in accordance with the prevailing climatic conditions, availability of materials, and proficiency of technical know-how. During the last hundred years several art and architectural historians have described and evaluated the birth, adolescence, and maturity of these styles. However, a cumulative of the exploration and excavation of several archaeological sites and surveys of hitherto unknown or little known standing monuments, was yet to be attempted. The present book gives a resume of these efforts and researches, putting it in chronological perspective and geographical sequence. The material researched and illustrated by the architectural historians and published in the annual reports, memoirs and journals of the old Archaeological Survey of India and the Pakistan Department of Archaeology, has been generously and extensively adapted and included in the text. For the first time, after analytical treatment it has been presented in order to give a comprehensive picture of Islamic architecture in South Asia, up to the time of the decline and extinction of the grand Moghul Empire.