Khan-i Jahan Maqbul Tilangani

Khan-i Jahan Maqbul Tilangani was vizier to Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq and mostly stayed in the capital in charge of the government whenever the sultan went on campaign. ¹ The contemporary historian Shams Siraj Afif, as Seema Khan reports him, says that he could not read or write but was a man of great common sense, acumen and intelligence and an ornament to the court. ^{1 3} He died in AH 770/1368. ²

He is said to have built seven congregational mosques in and around Delhi, and the author thinks the Kali Masjid at Nizamuddin and the Khirki Masjid may have been planned by him and begun before his death, the Kali Masjid standing close to his own tomb at Nizamuddin, which he also began. ^{2 3} Following R. Nath, she credits him with devising the plan of four small inner courts, which shielded worshippers from sun and rain, and notes that he chose an octagonal plan for his tomb in place of the usual square. ^{1 4 3 5} She adds that the resemblance of the four-court plan to some Indian temple plans is no evidence that he borrowed from them. ^{1 3}