Iranian Influence on Medieval Indian Architecture

"Iranian Influence on Medieval Indian Architecture" is a chapter by Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi in A Shared Heritage: The Growth of Civilizations in India and Iran, edited by Irfan Habib and published by the Aligarh Historians Society and Tulika in 2002. ¹ The author holds that Indo-Muslim architecture borrowed heavily from Iranian, Transoxanian and regional Indian traditions, and that the borrowing grew much heavier after the Mughal dynasty was founded. ¹

Rezavi sorts the influence into idiomatic forms (architectonic and decorative), axiomorphic plans suited to a building's purpose, and aesthetics. ¹ Under the Delhi Sultanate the Quwwat al-Islam mosque (c. 1197) followed the Seljuq four-iwan plan with modifications, and the tomb of Iltutmish (1236) the tradition of the square domed tomb. ^{1 3 4} Under the Mughals, Babur brought Iranian architects, among them Ustad Mir Mirak Ghiyas of Herat, and introduced the chaharbagh; the chahartaq and Khurasanian vault, the arch-and-panel system, the high portal and the nine-part plan spread, the last culminating in Humayun's tomb and the Taj Mahal. ^{4 5 6 7}

Rezavi concludes that Indian, and especially Mughal, architects borrowed heavily from Iran, but that the beauty of Mughal architecture came from synthesising these borrowings intelligently with indigenous elements, best seen in the Taj Mahal; this is his view. ²