The Khairul Manazil or Khair-ul-Manazil () is a historical

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

and

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

built in 1561 in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The mosque is located opposite

Purana Qila Purana Qila () is one of the oldest forts in Delhi, India. It was built by the second Mughal Emperor Humayun and Surid Sultan Sher Shah Suri. The fort forms the inner citadel of the city of Dinpanah. It is located near the expansive Pragati ...

on Mathura Road, southeast of Sher Shah Gate. The mosque's gateway is constructed of

red sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains, cemented together by another mineral. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed o ...

, following the Mughal architectural style, while the interior structure reflects the foibles of the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.

architecture. The mosque is a

Monument of National Importance A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

, administered and maintained by the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexander ...

History

This structure was built by one of the most influential and powerful women in

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

's court,

Maham Anga Maham Anga (died 25 June 1562) was the foster mother and chief wet nurse of the Mughal emperor Akbar. She was the political adviser of the teenage emperor and the de facto regent of the Mughal Empire from 1560 to 1562. Biography Maham Anga w ...

, who was the Emperor's wet nurse and foster mother. It is said that in 1564, Akbar was attacked near the mosque by an assassin while returning from the

Nizamuddin Dargah The Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah is the dargah and mosque complex of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya, located in the Nizamuddin West area of Delhi, India. The dargah, or mausoleum, is a Sufi shrine and is visited by thousands of pilgrims every we ...

. Later, the building was used as a

Epigraph

The Persian

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

carved on the marble plaque above the arch of the central gate is a

chronogram A chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which specific letters, interpreted as numerals (such as Roman numerals), stand for a particular date when rearranged. The word, meaning "time writing", derives from the Greek words ''chronos'' (� ...

written by Emperor Akbar's court historian and poet, Maulana Shihabuddin Ahmad Khan (

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

: Baazil). He is also credited with composing the eulogy on the tombstone of Amir Khusrau at the Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, some two hundred and ten years after Khusrau's death. The Arabic letters forming the words ''Khair ul Manazil'' are translated into their numerical equivalents using the rule of ٲٻڄݚ, which sums up to the numerals of .

Transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

: Translation:

Notes

References

External links

{{Mosques in India 16th-century mosques in India Archaeological monuments in Delhi Madrasas in India Monuments of National Importance in Delhi Mosque buildings with domes in India Mosques completed in the 1560s Mosques in Delhi Mughal mosques Religious buildings and structures completed in 1561 Sandstone buildings in India

History

Epigraph

See also

Notes

References

External links