The Jama Mosque (''Masjid'') is a disputed 17th-century

congregational mosque A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''Friday prayer, jumu'ah' ...

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the states and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located south-east of Delhi; and about from the town of Vrindavan. In ancient ti ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

, India. It was built by Abd-al-Nabi Khan, governor of Mathura during the reign of

Mughal Emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Aurangzeb Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becomi ...

History

The Jama Masjid was commissioned in the period 1660-1661 by Abd-al-Nabi Khan, ''

faujdar Faujdar under the Mughals was an office that combined the functions of a military commander along with judicial and land revenue functions. The term faujdar contained pre-Mughal origins. During those times, the term referred to a military offic ...

'' of Mathura under Aurangzeb. It was one of the earliest non-imperial structures erected during Aurangzeb's reign. The ground which Abd-al-Nabi Khan selected as the site of his mosque was purchased from some butchas and the remainder, he obtained from a family of Kazis, whose descendants still occupy what is called Kusk Mahalla, one of the very few quarters of the city that are known by a Persian name. They continued to be regarded as zamindars of the township till the time of Jats. When Saijid Bakir, their head quarreled with the local governor and made over all his rights to Chaubes, and others.

Architecture

The Jama Masjid is located at the centre and highest point of Mathura, raised from the ground by a plinth. It was constructed using red sandstone. The mosque has four

minarets A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

that are each 40 m (132 ft) high. A gateway stands in front of the mosque, featuring tile-work. Within the courtyard is a large ablution pool, as well as several rectangular pavilions. These pavilions feature ''bangla'' roofs and

ogival An ogive ( ) is the roundly tapered end of a two- or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture, woodworking, and ballistics. Etymology The French Orientalist Georges Séraphin Colin gives as ...

archways. The main prayer hall is smaller in scale than the gateway and minarets. Atop the prayer hall are three bulbous domes, of which the central one is the largest. The hall's facade historically had the ninety-nine names of Allah with Persian inscriptions on either side.

References

{{Mosques in India Mosques in Uttar Pradesh Mathura Mughal mosques Religious buildings and structures completed in 1662

17th-century mosques in India Mosque buildings with domes in India Mosque buildings with minarets in India Mosques completed in the 1660s