Ustad ahmad lahauri biography of michael

Ustad Ahmad Lahori

17th century Mughal chief architect (1580-1649)

Ustad Ahmad Lahori (c.1580–1649),[1] also known as Ahmad Ma'mar Lahori, was a Mughal architect and engineer during the reign of Shah Jahan. He was responsible for the construction of several Mughal monuments, including the Red fort in Delhi, a World Heritage site.

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 Lahore, Lahore Subah, as his nisba indicates.[2] He has been described as a Punjabi[3] and an Indian of Iranian heritage.[4][5] Even after his family's migration to Delhi, his family is still referred to by the epithet "Lahori".[6]

Ahmad Lahori hailed from a family of Timurid architects, originally from Herat. He was a skilled engineer who later in life was given the title of Nadir-ul-Asar ("wonder of the age") by Shah Jahan.[7] Two of his three sons,[8]Ataullah Rashidi and Lutfullah Muhandis, also became architects, as did some of his grandsons,[7]Shah Kalim Allah Jahanabadi one among them.[9] 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.[7]

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.[10] Afterwards, he was relocated to Delhi where the emperor commissioned him for the construction of the new imperial city, Shahjahanabad, in 1639.[10] The building of the city, including the Red Fort, was complete by 1648.

In writings by Lahori's son, Lutfullah Muhandis, two architects are mentioned by name: Ustad Ahmad Lahori[11][12] and Mir Abd-ul Karim.[13] 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,[13] for the construction of the Taj Mahal.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^Curl, James Stevens; Wilson, Susan (2015). The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. Oxford University Press. p. 11. ISBN .
  2. ^Balasubramaniam, R. (2009). "New insights on architects of Tāj". Indian Journal of History of Science, SpringerLink. 44 (3). National Institute of Sciences of India: 391. ISSN 2454-9991. OCLC 1398048453 – via University of California.
  3. ^Srivastava, Prof. R. P. (1981). "Patiala: Its Artistic and Cultural Significance". The Sikh Courier. 10 (4). London: Sikh Cultural Society of Great Britain: 16. ISSN 0037-511X. OCLC 265579842 – via University of Virginia.
  4. ^Janin, Hunt (2006). The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World, 610-2003. McFarland. p. 124. ISBN . Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  5. ^Chopra, Ravindra Mohan (2005). Indo-Iranian Cultural Relations Through the Ages. Iran Society. p. 89. OCLC 85485369 – via University of Michigan.
  6. ^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.
  7. ^ abcNecipoğlu, Gülru (1 March 1996). The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture. Getty Publications. p. 155. ISBN .
  8. ^Pingree, David, ed. (1970). Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit Series A. Vol. 1. American Philosophical Society. p. 39.
  9. ^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 .
  10. ^ abKhan (Arshi), I. N. (28 August 2015). BLACK TAJ MAHAL: The Emperor's Missing Tomb. Black Taj Project. p. 38. ISBN .
  11. ^Taj Mahal Description and Profile (Ahmad Lahori, architect of the emperor) UNESCO.org website, Retrieved 17 November 2021
  12. ^Begley and Desai (1989), p.65
  13. ^ abAsher, p.212

Notes

  • 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. 368. ISBN .
  • Begley, Wayne (March 1979). "The myth of the Taj-Mahal and a new theory of its symbolic meaning". Art Bulletin. 61 (1). The Art Bulletin, Vol. 61, No. 1: 7–37. doi:10.2307/3049862. JSTOR 3049862.
  • Begley, Wayne E.; Desai, Z.A. (1989) [1989]. Taj Mahal - The Illumined Tomb (Hardback). University of Washington Press. p. 392. ISBN .
  • Begley, Wayne E. (1983). Grabar, Oleg (ed.). "Four Mughal Caravanserais Built during the Reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan". Muqarnas Volume I: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture. Yale University Press (Newhaven). pp. 167–180. Archived from the original(pdf) on 12 June 2006. Retrieved 24 July 2007.
  • Koch, Ebba (2006) [Aug 2006]. The Complete Taj Mahal: And the Riverfront Gardens of Agra (Hardback) (First ed.). Thames & Hudson Ltd. pp. 288 pages. ISBN .