Mir Abd al-Karim

The Encyclopaedia of Islam calls Mir Abd al-Karim Jahangir's leading architect. ¹ In the article on the Taj Mahal he is named, together with the Mughal official Makramat, as an overseer of the building. ¹

The article explains that the identity of the Taj Mahal's architect is not entirely settled, because contemporary sources play down the architects and stress the patron's part. ¹ The article on Agra says the work went on under the general supervision of Makramat Khan and Mir Abd al-Karim, and that the best architects and craftsmen of the empire and neighbouring countries were engaged, in a building campaign the traveller Tavernier put at about twenty-two years with twenty thousand workmen. ² Ustad Ahmad Lahori is also reported to have been connected with the building. ¹

The articles give no birth or death date, place of origin, family or other works for him, and none is invented here. The museum has found no article devoted to him in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, and the Taj article points to Begley and Desai's Taj Mahal: the Illumined Tomb for the contemporary evidence, which the museum has not read. ¹