Detail View: Archivision Digital Research Library: Partial view: Qutb Minar (minaret), base detail

Qutb Minar Complex; Qutb Minar (Qutub Minar; Qutab Minar; Quwwat al-Islam Mosque complex; Mehrauli Archaeological Park)

Partial view: Qutb Minar (minaret), base detail

Qutub Minar; Qutab Minar; Quwwat al-Islam Mosque complex; Mehrauli Archaeological Park

Partial view: Qutb Minar (minaret), base detail

creator: Qutb-ud-din Aibak, Sultan of Delhi (Turkish general and sultan, 1150-1210); creator: Shams al-Dīn Iltutmish (Turkish sultan, died 1236); creator: ʻAlāʼ al-Dīn Khaljī (Turkish sultan of the Delhi Sultanate of India, died 1316); unknown Islamic Indian (Islamic Indian cultural designation)

creation: 1192; inclusive: 1198-1398; mosque founded: 1192; Qutb Minar: ca. 1198-1215; completed 1368

Islamic Indian; Delhi Sultanate; Indo-Islamic architecture

site: Qutb complex; Mahrauli (Delhi, India, Asia)

Seth Sarai, Mehrauli, New Delhi, Delhi 110030, India

Indian (South Asian); Islamic (culture or style)

sandstone; marble (rock); masonry (building materials)

built works; complexes (buildings and sites); religious buildings

UNESCO World Heritage List: Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi. Built in the early 13th century a few kilometres south of Delhi, the red sandstone tower of Qutb Minar is 72.5 m high, tapering from 2.75 m in diameter at its peak to 14.32 m at its base, and alternating angular and rounded flutings. The surrounding archaeological area contains funerary buildings, notably the magnificent Alai-Darwaza Gate, the masterpiece of Indo-Muslim art (built in 1311), and two mosques, including the Quwwatu'l-Islam, the oldest in northern India, built of materials reused from some 20 Brahman temples. / Grove Art Online, Delhi, Quwwat al-Islam Mosque complex: Built as Delhi’s first congregational mosque (Jami‛ Masjid), the mosque now known as the Quwwat al-Islam (‘Might of Islam’) is the central structure of a large partially ruined complex, including the Qutb Minar, the tomb of Sultan Iltutmish (reg 1211–36) and the ‛Alaاi Darvaza. The mosque was founded in 1192 with the conquest of north India by Qutb al-Din Aybak, commander of the armies of the Ghurid ruler Muhammad ibn Sam. / Wikipedia [en], Qutb Minar complex: The Qutb Minar complex are monuments and buildings from the Delhi Sultanate at Mehrauli in Delhi, India. Construction of the Qutub Minar "victory tower" in the complex, named after the religious figure Sufi Saint Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, was begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who later became the first Sultan of Delhi of the Mamluk dynasty (Gulam Vansh). It was continued by his successor Iltutmish (a.k.a. Altamash), and finally completed much later by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, a Sultan of Delhi from the Tughlaq dynasty (1320-1412) in 1368 AD. The Qubbat-ul-Islam Mosque (Dome of Islam), later corrupted into Quwwat-ul Islam, stands next to the Qutb Minar. Many subsequent rulers, including the Tughlaqs, Alauddin Khalji and the British added structures to the complex. Apart from the Qutb Minar and the Quwwat ul-Islam Mosque, other structures in the complex include the Alai Darwaza gate, the Alai Minar and the Iron pillar. The Quwwat ul-Islam Mosque was originally built from the remains of 27 older Hindu and Jain temples. The pillars of the temples were reused and the original images plastered over. Inside the complex lie the tombs of Iltutmish, Alauddin Khalji and Imam Zamin. Today, the adjoining area spread over with a host of old monuments, including Balban's tomb, has been developed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, and INTACH has restored some 40 monuments in the Park. / Ar Arman Gupta: The Qutb complex was built by Qutb Ud-Din Aibak (1206 - 1211) who established the first Islamic sultanate in the Indian subcontinent in Delhi in 1192. It is located within the citadel of Qal'a-e-Rai Pithora (Qila Rai Pithora) where Qutb Ud-Din also set up his administrative quarters and residence. It is also known as Quwwat ul Islam, meaning the 'might of Islam,' the Qutub complex was created with the dismantling and reassembling of the 27 existing Hindu and Jain temples on the site. The complex consists of a mosque and two minarets enclosed within a series of cloistered precincts. It was entered via four monumental gates along the north, east and south walls, of which only the southern gate (Alai Darwaza) remains. The mosque, known as the Qutb or Quwwat ul Islam Mosque, occupies the southwest corner of the complex. A tall screen wall with pointed archways runs along the western edge of the precinct, creating a qibla wall for the prayer spaces. In addition to these elements, the complex also contains several smaller buildings: the Tomb of Iltutmish, Ala al- Din Khalji's madrassa, and the Imam Zamin Mosque. The Qutb Minar (minaret) [H: 73m] stands in the southeastern part of this enclosure. The unfinished Alai Minar (minaret) stands in the northeastern part of the complex. / Source: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/233/; https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T021997; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qutb_Minar_complex; https://www.slideshare.net/ArAmanGupta/qutb-complexnew-delhi

construction (assembling); sculpture techniques

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1A2-IN-M-QCM-A38

Archivision Module 16

The Qutb Minar stands at the south-east corner of Qutb al-Din Aybak’s original mosque. Inscriptions indicate it was begun by Qutb al-Din c. 1198 and completed by his successor Iltutmish in 1215. Rising in five storeys (probably four originally), it is 72.54 m in height and 14.73 m in diameter at the base. Most of the tower is faced in red sandstone; local grey quartzite was also used in the construction. The top part of the fourth storey and all of the fifth storey, faced in white marble, probably date to the reign of Firuz Shah Tughluq (reg 1351–88), during whose time repairs were undertaken. Four balconies supported by stalactite brackets separate the storeys. Each level takes a different form and has 23 projecting ribs; in the lowest level they are alternately pointed and round, on the second level all are round and on the third all are pointed. The fourth and fifth levels are plain. In the lower three storeys a stunning effect was achieved by contrasting the fluted masonry with broad carved bands in which calligraphy has been interwoven with graceful floral motifs. The minaret has an internal spiral stairway of 360 gradually diminishing stairs. Sculptures found in the Qutb (apparently temple spolia used to build up the fabric) have prompted the theory that the tower was a pre-Islamic structure converted to a minaret after the conquest of Delhi. Though the symbolism of the kīrti stambha (Skt ‘pillar of glory’) was similar, the Qutb Minar is clearly based on victory towers in Afghanistan, surviving, for example, at Ghazna and Jam. The builders of the Qutb Minar seem to have used as their prototype the minaret of Khwaja Siyah-Push (c. 1150) in southern Afghanistan, which also employs alternating round and pointed ribs. The Qutb celebrates the victory of Islam in northern India. Source: Grove Art Online, Dehli, III, 1. Quwwat al-Islam Mosque complex: https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T021997

complex site (estimated): 173,000 m2

partOf Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi; https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/233/