Ustad Ahmad Lahori

Ustad Ahmad Lahori
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Miniature painting of Ustad Ahmad Mimar Lahori
Born	c. 1580
Died	c. 1649(1649-00-00) (aged 68–69) Shahjahanabad, Mughal Empire
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	Red Fort
Projects	Taj Mahal Shahjahanabad Red Fort
Signature

Ustad Ahmad Lahori (lit. 'Master Ahmad of Lahore'; c.1580–1649),<ref name=d>Curl, James Stevens; Wilson, Susan (2015). The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. Oxford University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-19-967498-5.</ref> also known as Ahmad Ma'mar Lahori (lit. 'Ahmad the Architect'), was an architect and engineer of the Mughal Empire who served as the chief architect during the reign of Shah Jahan. He designed the Red Fort in Delhi and was probably also responsible for the design of the Taj Mahal in Agra, along with Mir Abd-ul Karim and Makramat Khan. He is regarded as one of the greatest architects of the 17th-century.<ref>Curl, James Stevens (2006), "Ahmad, Ustad", A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780198606789.013.5245, ISBN 978-0-19-860678-9, retrieved 27 February 2025, Master Ahmad of Lahore, also known as Ahmad Mi'mar (Ahmad the Architect), became chief architect to Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–58). He is credited with the design of the huge Red Fort at Delhi (1639–48), and may have designed the Tâj Mahal (mausoleum of Arjumand Banu Begum, known as Mumtaz Mahal (d.1631) at Agra (1631–48 and later). If these and other attributions are correct, he was one of the greatest architects of C17.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)</ref>

He was also one of the leading architects responsible for the establishment of the imperial city of Shahjahanabad. 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's deposit of "Five Qasidas" in Kitab Khana Amrao

Ahmad Lahori was from a family of Timurid architects, originally from Herat. Ustad Ahmad Lahori hailed from the city of Lahore in Pakistan, as his nisba indicates.<ref>Balasubramaniam, R. (2009). "New insights on architects of Tāj". Indian Journal of History of Science. 44 (3). National Institute of Sciences of India: 391. ISSN 2454-9991. OCLC 1398048453 – via University of California.</ref> He has been described as an Indian of Iranian heritage and also as a Punjabi.<ref name="Janin">Janin, Hunt (2006). The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World, 610-2003. McFarland. p. 124. ISBN 978-0786429042. Retrieved 17 November 2021.</ref><ref>Chopra, Ravindra Mohan (2005). Indo-Iranian Cultural Relations Through the Ages. Iran Society. p. 89. OCLC 85485369 – via University of Michigan.</ref><ref>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. Nadir-ul-Asar Ahmad Mimar Lahori Shahjehani was also a Punjabi who designed the Taj Mahal of Agra.</ref> Even after his family's migration to Delhi, his family is still referred to by the epithet "Lahori".<ref>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.</ref> He was a skilled engineer who later in life was given the title of Nadir-ul-Asar ("wonder of the age") by Shah Jahan.<ref name="s">Necipoğlu, Gülru (1 March 1996). The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture. Getty Publications. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-89236-335-3.</ref> Two of his three sons,<ref>Pingree, David, ed. (1970). Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit Series A. Vol. 1. American Philosophical Society. p. 39.</ref> Ataullah Rashidi and Lutfullah Muhandis, also became architects, as did some of his grandsons,<ref name="s" /> Shah Kalim Allah Jahanabadi one among them.<ref>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 9780691167282.</ref> 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.<ref name=s/>

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.<ref name=i>Khan (Arshi), I. N. (28 August 2015). BLACK TAJ MAHAL: The Emperor's Missing Tomb. Black Taj Project. p. 38. ISBN 978-81-927479-0-3.</ref> Afterwards, he was relocated to Delhi where the emperor commissioned him for the construction of the new imperial city, Shahjahanabad, in 1639.<ref name=i/> 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<ref name="unesco">Taj Mahal Description and Profile (Ahmad Lahori, architect of the emperor) UNESCO.org website, Retrieved 17 November 2021</ref><ref name="B65">Begley and Desai (1989), p.65</ref> and Mir Abd-ul Karim.<ref name="A212">Asher, p.212</ref> 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, for the construction of the Taj Mahal.<ref name="A212" />

<gallery heights="180" mode="packed" perrow="5" caption="Ahmad Lahori's major works"> File:Delhi fort.jpg|Red Fort's Lahori Gate in Delhi File:Covered market past the Lahore gate entrance in Red Fort.jpg|Covered bazaar in Old Delhi </gallery>

See also

• Ustad Isa, another architect of the Taj Mahal

Notes

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Further reading

• 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 0-521-26728-5.
• 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 978-0-295-96944-2.
• 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 0-500-34209-1.