Ustad Ahmad Lahori

Ustad Ahmad Lahori (lit. 'Master Ahmad of Lahore'; c.1580–1649), 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.

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

Ahmad Lahori was from a family of Timurid architects, originally from Herat. Ustad Ahmad Lahori hailed from the city of Lahore, as his nisba indicates. He has been described as an Indian of Iranian heritage and also as a Punjabi. Even after his family's migration to Delhi, his family is still referred to by the epithet "Lahori". He was a skilled engineer who later in life was given the title of Nadir-ul-Asar ("wonder of the age") by Shah Jahan. Two of his three sons, Ataullah Rashidi and Lutfullah Muhandis, also became architects, as did some of his grandsons, Shah Kalim Allah Jahanabadi one among them. 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.

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. Afterwards, he was relocated to Delhi where the emperor commissioned him for the construction of the new imperial city, Shahjahanabad, in 1639. 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 and Mir Abd-ul Karim. 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.

Ahmad Lahori's major works
Red Fort's Lahori Gate in Delhi
Covered bazaar in Old Delhi

Notes

References

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.

Ustad Ahmad Lahori

Life

Career

See also

Notes

References

Further reading