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| Juma Masjid, Gulburga fort,Gulburga, Karnataka.mapio.net |
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| Gulburga (Kalaburagi) KA pinrest.com |
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| Jama Masjid, Gulburga fort, Karnataka Gettyimagesin |
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| Jama Masjid, Gulburga fort, Karnataka Gettysimages |
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| Jama Masjid, Gulburga fort, Karnataka. shuttercock in |
The following are the interesting facts of iconic Jama Masjid of Gulburga:
01. The mosque was built under under the direction of a hereditary architect named Rafi, not native of of India, but from the far-off town of Kazvin in northern Persia.
02. The mosque appears simple, sold and plain just in contrast to those of one-aisled mosques of Delhi with well ornamented entrances and open courtyards. Acceding to art historian Percy Brown the architect drew inspiration from domed and vaulted hall of the basilica type of religious structures commonly found in eastern Europe.
03. Located at the center of the fort, Juma masjid was not the original congregational mosque of the capital city of Gulburga. In reality, a large rectangular mosque in the busy Shah Bazaar area of the city was the original Jama Masjid where prayers are held every Friday. It is commonly known as the Shah Bazaar mosque which has a cupola-styled dome. .
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| Central dome, Jama masjid, Gulburga budgetindianvacations.wordpress.com |
05. It was during the reign of Mohammed Shah I, Jama Masjid came up and the work was done mostly by local masons and stone-carving artisans. With an elevated basement of 10-feet-high. the mosque measures 216 by 177 feet.
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| Jama Masjid, Gulburga fort, Gulburga, Karnataka.Mapconet |
06. The masjid that has fine stucco work, is a large one and has a capacity to hold 5,000 people for prayers at a time. As common in many mosques, there are two big black-stone-carved vessels stored with water .at the main entrance. It is for the purpose of ablution - to purify oneself before praying. Of the two black-stone inscriptions at the entrance, one bears the name of the first sultan, Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah. It covers roughly an area of 90,000 square feet, and is said to be one of the largest ones in the State.
07. The 50 foot tall main entrance to this mosque reveals Turkish influence. There are as many as 250 arches inside the structure and they are designed in such a way. one can view all the arches by standing anywhere inside the mosque; indeed an innovative design.
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| Juma Masjid, Gulbarga .indiamonuments.org |
09. Yet another interesting feature of this large mosque is it is prayer-friendly hall, in the sense, when the Namaz is being done in the area of mihrab (where the imam stands to perform namaz and mimbar (from where the imam speaks) it can be be seen by a worshiper standing anywhere inside the mosque. Every arch carries Persian scripts bearing the names of the prophet’s family member.; not so on the west side.
10. The mosque has numerous domes - 107 smaller domes on the roof, either in half-circle or pyramidal in style, four medium-sized domes on each corner and a big dome on the west from which any low can be picked up by a unique acoustics system. The sound echoes reach throughout the hall. The dome has clerestory with squelches and arches are gracefully foliated.
11. Since the place experiences hot weather in the summer, for the convenience of people indoors, the windows are set ingeniously to keep the interior cool even during the hot summer season. Further, they promote cross-ventilation.
12. The unusual feature is this place of worship has an armory and on the eastern a tomb of a Sufi saint who was close to some of the Bahmani rulers.
13.This type of Deccani architecture, that emphasizes less on ornamentation and more on innovative types, has inherent features like stilted dome raised on the clerestory and the cloister arches with wide spans and low imposts. In the later period it became unpopular Islamic style unlike the Mogul style.
14. There are three cannons on the fort premises and there is the 29 -foot long cannon - longest one in the world, atop the watchtower..
15. Jama Masjid does not have minarets, but does have a huge dome and smaller ones. Sultan Mohammed Shah I built this historical mosque to commemorate Gulbarga as the new capital of the Bahmani Sultanate. Later the capital was shifted to Bidar.
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/a-mosque-with-a-persian-touch/article24241750.ece
http://islamicarchitectureinindia.weebly.com/jami-masjid-at-gulbarga.html
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