Sidi Saiyyed Mosque (Ahmedabad)
The Sidi Saiyyed Mosque in the city of Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat is a rather inconspicuous mosque of Indo-Islamic architecture , but it has two of the most beautiful and famous Jali windows in Islamic art .
location
The Sidi Saiyyed Mosque was the mosque in a district not far from the Sabarmati River in the center of the old town of Ahmedabad, which has largely lost its original character due to several high-rise buildings. The main or Friday Mosque ( Jama Masjid ) is about 1 km southeast.
history
The mosque was built in 1572/3 by Siddi Saeed or Sidi Saiyyed , an Abyssinian in the retinue of Bilal Jhajar Khan, a general in the army of the last Sultan of Gujarat , Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah III. The client is described as an educated man. He died in 1576, his grave is on the north side of the mosque property.
mosque
architecture
The mosque is a small, rectangular building with a side length of approx. 22 × 12 m made of yellowish sandstone without the domes and minarets that are otherwise so dominant in Indian mosques . The front is opened by five arcades , while the back wall ( qibla ) facing Mecca and the side walls are closed; only the crescent-shaped windows in the upper wall areas let subdued light into the room. The approx. 6.50 m high interior of the mosque consists of three transverse rows of arches, each with five bays ; all segments are covered with flat cantilever domes . In the middle of the back wall there is the mihrab niche, which appears as a kind of pillar as an exception ; which is accompanied by two further niches in the two outer segments. The roof of the mosque consists essentially of the slightly arched ceiling of the 15 flat coupling the inside and is of a castellated designed parapet surrounded from which numerous small Gargoyle protrude.
Jali window
While the two outer Jali windows on the back wall are designed with repeating geometric motifs (rhombuses, braided bands, etc.) within numerous square fields, the two inner crescent windows show vegetable motifs: One shows a flowering tree with its twisting and intertwining branches hangs down to the ground, the branches becoming thinner and more delicate; behind it a branchless palm rises. The other presents a similar motif, which however develops from seven trees standing next to each other, three of which are clearly marked as palm trees and therefore have no branches. The trees can be interpreted as symbols of paradise (janna) , which according to the Koran is to be understood as a garden (riadh) (sura 55, 46ff). Abū Huraira (7th century), Sahl ibn Sa'd (7th / 8th century) and al-Buchari (9th century) mention a saying by Muhammad ( Hadith ) that there is a tree in paradise, " in whose shadow a rider can ride for a hundred years without ever reaching the outer edge of the shadow. "
Others
It is still unclear whether the mosque and / or the Jali windows were built or manufactured by Hindu craftsmen or by Muslims . The console stones of the portal pillars and the flat cantilever domes inside the mosque hall suggest Hindus, whereas the precisely hewn portal and window arches indicate Muslims.
literature
- KV Soundara Rajan: Ahmadabad. New Delhi, Archeological Survey of India 1992, pp. 64f.
Web links
- Sidi Saiyyed Mosque - Photos and information (English)
- Sidi Saiyyed Mosque - Video (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Micklem: Sidis in Gujarat. Center of African Studies, University of Edinburgh 2001
- ↑ Hadith of Muhammad in three roughly identical versions
Coordinates: 23 ° 1 ′ 37 ″ N , 72 ° 34 ′ 52 ″ E