Rauza, Rouza, Roza (, , ) is a

Perso-Arabic The Persian alphabet (), also known as the Perso-Arabic script, is the right-to-left script, right-to-left alphabet used for the Persian language. It is a variation of the Arabic script with four additional letters: (the sounds 'g', 'zh', ' ...

term used in Middle East and

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

which means shrine or tomb. It is also known as mazār, ''

maqbara The Arabic language, Arabic word ( "mausoleum"; ''plural'': ''maqâbir'') is derived from the word qabr, which means grave (burial), grave. Though refers to the graves of all Muslims, it refers especially to a Muslim cemetery. In some Islamic ...

'' or ''

dargah A Sufi shrine or dargah ( ''dargâh'' or ''dargah'', Turkish: ''dergâh'', Hindustani: ''dargāh'' दरगाह درگاہ, ''dôrgah'') is a shrine or tomb built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint or dervi ...

''. The word ''rauza'' is derived through Persian from the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

''rawdah'' ( ''rawḍah'') meaning garden, but extended to tomb surrounded by garden as at

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

and Aurangabad. Abdul Hamid Lahauri, the author of the Badshahnama, the official history of

Shah Jahan Shah Jahan I, (Shahab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram; 5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), also called Shah Jahan the Magnificent, was the Emperor of Hindustan from 1628 until his deposition in 1658. As the fifth Mughal emperor, his reign marked the ...

's reign, calls

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

''rauza-i munawwara'' (

: ''rawdah-i munawwarah''), meaning the illumined or illustrious tomb in a garden.

References

{{Authority control Burial monuments and structures Islamic architecture Arabic words and phrases Persian words and phrases Urdu-language words and phrases Bengali words and phrases