Shah-e-Alam's Roza

Shah e Alam's Tomb and Mosque
The tomb in c. 1860s
Religion
Affiliation	Islam
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Dargah and mosque
Status	Active[ clarification needed ]
Location
Location	Shah Alam, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Country	India
Location of the tomb and mosque in Ahmedabad
Geographic coordinates	22°59′40″N72°35′22″E / 22.9945456°N 72.5893199°E / 22.9945456; 72.5893199
Architecture
Type	Mosque architecture
Style	Islamic architecture
Funded by	Taj Khan Nariali Muhammad Salah Badakhshi
Groundbreaking	1475
Completed	1575 (dargah) 1620 (mosque)
Specifications
Dome(s)	c. 50(maybe more)
Minaret(s)	Two
Monument of National Importance
Official name	Shah-e-Alam's Roza
Reference no.	N-GJ-30

The Shah-e-Alam's Tomb and Mosque, also known as Rasulabad Dargah or Shah Alam no Rozo, is a dargah and mosque complex (roza), located in the Shah Alam area of Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat, India.

History

Main article: Shah e Alam

Shah e Alam was the son of Syed Burhanuddin Qutub-ul-Alam and the great grandson of Syed Makhdoom Jahaniyan Jahangasht. Attracted to the court of Ahmed Shah I, his father settled at Vatva and died there in 1452. Shah e Alam succeeded his father and, till his death in 1475, was the guide of Mahmud Begada's youth, and afterwards one of the most revered of Muslim religious teachers of Ahmedabad. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

In 1670, Aurangzeb assigned several villages to the Roza and its custodians, the Saiyads of Vatva. In 1724, Trimbak Rao Dabhade Gaekwad assigned several villages as well. In 1867, the British government in Bombay paid for repairs and upkeep of the roza. ^[4]

Roza

A group of buildings, a tomb, a mosque, and an assembly hall, enclosed by a lofty and bastioned wall, was erected in the sacred to the memory of Shah e Alam.

From the north the enclosure is entered through two handsome stone gateways. Within the second gate on the left is an assembly hall built by Sultan Muzaffar Shah III. (1561–1572), and partly destroyed by the British in 1779 to furnish materials for the siege of the city during the First Anglo-Maratha War. On the right are some other buildings of which the date has not been traced. In front of these buildings, to the right is a reservoir, and to the left of the reservoir in the centre of the enclosure, is Shah e Alam's tomb. This, the oldest of the buildings, is said to have been constructed soon after the saint's death in AH 880 (1475/1476) and completed in AH 888 (1483/1484) by Taj Khan Nariali, a nobleman of Mahmud Begada's court. ^[5]

Plan of Roza:
A. The Tomb of the Saint
B. The Assembly Hall
C. The Inner Gateway
D. The Outer Gateway
E. The Mosque
F. The Tank of Ablution
G. Miscellaneous Buildings

It is of very pleasing design and has much of the special character of the buildings of that time. Early in the seventeenth century Asaf Khan, the brother of Nur Jahan, ornamented the dome with gold and precious stones. The tomb of Shah e Alam is situated roughly in the center of the east end of roza. The tomb is on a square plan with 12 pillars and a high dome in the centre of the roof, surrounded by double corridors with 24 small domes on top. It has arch-shaped entrance on all sides. The main entrance on the west having a small dome projects out from the wall. On each wall of the mausoleum, there is an entrance in the center. On either side of the entrance, there are three arch-shaped windows, over which an arch-shaped part covered by perforated stone windows. The floor of the tomb is inlaid with black and white marble, the doors are of open cut brass work, and the frame in which the doors aro set, as well as what shews between the door frame and the two stone pillars to the right and left, is of pure white marble beautifully carved and pierced. The tomb itself is completely enclosed by an inner wall of pierced stone. The outer wall in the north is of stone trellis work of the most varied design. ^[6]

West of the tomb is the mosque, built by Muhammad Salah Badakhshi, with minarets at either end begun by Nizabat Khan and finished by Saif Khan in 1620. The mosque though pleasing in outline and with skilfully constructed domes has much of the ordinary Islamic architecture found in other parts of India, and scarcely belongs to the special Ahmedabad style. To the south of the mosque, a tomb on a plan similar to that of the chief mausoleum having twenty four small domes, is the burying of Shah e Alam's family including Saiyyd Makhdum Alam, the sixth grandson of Shah e Alam. Outside of the wall to the west is an argo reservoir built by the wife of Taj Khan Nariali. The minarets of the mosque were damaged by the 1819 Rann of Kutch earthquake but were restored in 1863. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Gallery

• 
  The tomb domes in 2018
• 
  The tomb, assembly hall, and entrance, 1866
• 
  Plan of the tomb
• 
  The entrance to the roza in c. 1860s
• 
  The mosque
• 
  Interior of the mosque, 1866
• 
  Tomb of Shah-e-Alam in c. 1860s
• 
  Tomb in 1866
• 
  The small tomb near the roza
• 
  Shah Alam Mosque from the south
• 
  Drawing of Gate of Shah e Alam Roza, 1856

References

1. Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Ahmedabad. Government Central Press. 1879. p.  286. dastur khan mosque.
2. "AHMEDABADS OTHER ROZAS". Times of India . 25 February 2011. Archived from the original on 7 December 2014. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
3. Yagnik, Achyut (2 February 2011). Ahmedabad: From Royal city to Megacity. Penguin Books Limited. p. 35. ISBN   978-81-8475-473-5.
4. Commissariat, M. S. (1938). A History of Gujarat: Including a Survey of its Chief Architectural Monuments and Inscriptions. Vol. I: From A.D. 1297-8 to A.D. 1573. Longmans, Green, and Co. pp. 212–214.
5. Kapilray M. Mehta (1959). Ahmedabad, 1958. Gujarat Publishers. p. 22.
6. Captain Lyon, 14. In this mausoleum is buried Shaikh Kabir, renowned for learning, who died in 1618 (1026 H.). Blochmann's Ain-i-Akbari, I. 547.

Attributions

• This article includes public domain text from Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Ahmedabad. Government Central Press. 1879. p.  286. dastur khan mosque.

External links

Media related to Shah Alam Roza at Wikimedia Commons