Forgotten craftsmen who built Taj Mahal

 Forgotten craftsmen who built Taj Mahal

As it's Iranian Architect

The names of more than 670 previously unknown "masons and labourers" who helped build the Taj Mahal have been discovered by a team of Indian archaeologists.

The findings by the Indian Archaeological Survey tell a forgotten story of the craftsmen who were summoned to Agra in northern India 350 years ago to build the great monument to loss and love.

The names, mostly in Arabic and Persian, were found etched into the sandstone walls and peripheral structures on the northern side of the monument.

"Most of these masons came from Iran, Central Asia and India," said D Dayalan, the superintending archaeologist. "The names have been meticulously divided into sections such as dome makers, garden development department, furnishing workers and inlay artists." [Continue]:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07 /07/wtaj07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/07/ixworld.html
 

 
 
 

I Found Architects name:

Hail to: Ostad Eisa Shirazi & his son Mohamad Shirazi

 

Good example of some Iranian friends' claim on everything being Persian.

Strange, the artical says the masons were from Iran, Central Asia and India. Then suddenly came these remarks:

As it's Iranian Architect

Architect & craftsmen were Persian.

LOL, you guys.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/Culture/Archit/TajM.htm l

The Taj Mahal in Agra is indisputably the most famous example of Mughal architecture. Described by Rabindranath Tagore as "a tear on the face of eternity", it is in popular imagination a veritable "wonder of the world".

The white-splendored tomb was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his favourite wife, Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaz Mahal ("Chosen of the Palace"). She married Shah Jahan in 1612 to become his second wife and inseparable companion, and died in childbirth at Burhanpur while on a campaign with her husband in 1629. Shah Jahan was, it is said, inconsolable to the point of contemplating abdication in favour of his sons. The court went into mourning for over two years; and Shah Jahan decided to commemorate the memory of Mumtaz with a building the like of which had never been seen before.

http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/modern/godbole_taj1.ht ml

http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/141.php

http://www.stephen-knapp.com/question_of_the_taj_mahal.htm

The legend of the Taj Mahal tells us that it was built by Shah Jahan (1628-1658 AD), the fifth generation Mogul Emperor, as a mausoleum to his wife Mumtaz Mahal. And that 20,000 men worked incessantly for 22 years to complete the magnificent marble edifice.

Mumtaz died in 1631 AD, at Barhanpur where she was buried and a mausoleum was erected. Six months later her body was shifted to Agra to be buried in what is known as the Temporary Grave--which is demarcated and can be seen even today--a few meters to the southwest of the Taj Mahal. And subsequently her body was laid to rest inside the Taj Mahal.

The main supporting pieces of the above thesis are cited from the following documents, which will be discussed in detail in the course of this paper.

i) The Badshahnama¹, an important court journal of Shah Jahan, written by Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori.

ii) The firmans (court orders) of Shah Jahan to Raja Jai Singh of Jaipur², pertaining to the acquisition of marble from the Makrana quarries in Rajasthan.

iii) Travelogue of Peter Mundy³, an employee of the East India Company, who visited Agra between 1631-1633 AD.

iiii) Travelogue of J. B. Tavernier⁴, a French merchant who visited India five times between 1638-1668 AD.

Edited by Rakhsh

Tnx Rakhsh

forget barbar, he probably believe Indian, Persian have to be turk to build it.

Originally posted by barbar   Good example of some Iranian friends' claim on everything being Persian. Strange, the artical says the masons were from Iran, Central Asia and India. Then suddenly came these remarks: As it's Iranian Architect Architect & craftsmen were Persian. LOL, you guys.

"LOL us guys"?  How about LOL, Telegraph? One of the UK's leading broadsheet quality newspapers? pff...

Ust�d/Ost�d is a Persian word that  means "expert" in an academic/arts context. And the suffix, "Shirazi" leaves little doubt as to his origin, there are not many Torki people in Shiraz and the ones there arrived in the modern period.

Edited by Zagros

Ok cyrus,

we where (maybe still) influenced by the big culture of the persian in the that period,

as you surely know Turkic people where in that time a nomadic living people,

So We did like what the romans did in the time, they picked up greek architecture and little bit costumized and called roman architecture, then they toke the greek gods and renamed them. Everything that they dont had did they toke from greeks and even from Etruscians.

We did the same as romans but religion we toke whas arabic.

 

It seems that Shah Jihan invited the best craftsman all over the Islamic world [Iran, Iraq, Syria, Diyar-� Rum (Turkey), India, Kashmir, Turkistan (Bokhara), etc, etc.). This means it is a collective work of the Islamic world. This is what makes it nice...

hehe  Ottomans called themself also ruler of rums.

Interestingly, old turks also called them rum(Or maybe they were realy converted rum,  later asimilated).

we still call our European part of turkey as Rum-eli, place of rum,  and asian part as Anatolia, an other greek word.

 

Zagros

http://www.archinform.net/arch/37285.htm?ID=JscPU34fgQjGF8Et

It say he is either a turk or persian.

He was accompanied by a Turkish architect, Isa Muhammad Effendi, a pupil of the greatest Turkish architect Sinan.

And also say this.

 

http://www.alshindagah.com/janfeb2004/ladyoftaj.html

It is believed that Master Isa Afandi from Turkey was charged with designing the building. Muhammad Khan from Shiraz and Abdul Ghaffar from Multan were appointed as calligraphers. Qadir Zaman Khan from Arabia was made in charge of art and interiors of the building. In short, the services of the most skilled people of the age were secured for constructing this grand monument. Each of them would be paid a handsome monthly salary until the completion of their work. The laborers and workers working under them, numbered 20,000 men. It took them twenty years to complete the entire Taj Mahal.

Say this

http://www.tajmahalindia.net/taj-mahal-monument.html

Despite  several controversies that claim that the Taj Mahal was designed by an Italian Geronimo Veroneo, or a French silversmith Austin de Bordeaux, the first real evidence of the architect's identity emerged in the 1930s when a seventeenth century manuscript called the Diwan-i-Muhandis was found to mention the Taj Mahal. This manuscript contains a collection of several poems written by Luft Allah, including several verses in which he describes his father, Ustad Ahmad from Lahore, as the architect of the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort at Delhi. Ahmad was a Persian engineer-astrologer. Luft Allah also states that Shah Jehan conferred upon his father the title "Nadir al-Asr" (the Wonder of the Age); unfortunately court histories do not corroborate this claim. Other sources record that Ustad Ahmad was one of the architects of the Red Fort. Further evidence has been found of other large projects undertaken by Ustad Ahmad, strengthening the plausibility of his son's claim. It is interesting to note that Ustad Ahmad had a number of aliases : Ustad Khan Effendi, Ustad Mohammed, Isa Khan, Isa Effendi and a number of permutations of the name - fictional amalgam of Muslim sounding names, most likely the invention of latter-day British guidebook writers.

It must be emphasised that the design of the Taj Mahal cannot be ascribed to any single master-mind. The Taj is the culmination of an evolutionary process. It is the perfected stage in the development of Mughal architecture. The names of many of the builders who participated in the construction of the Taj in different capacities have come down to us through Persian sources. A project as ambitious as the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal demanded talent from many quarters. From turkey came Ismail Khan a designer of hemispheres and the a builder of domes. Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore travelled to Agra to cast the solid gold finial that crowned the Turkish master's dome. Chiranjilal, a local lapidary from Delhi was chosen as the chief sculptor and mosaicist. Amanat Khan from Shiraz was the chief calligrapher, and this fact is attested on the Taj gateway where his name has been inscribed at the end of the inscription. Muhammad Hanif was the Supervisor of masons, while Mir Abdul Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz handled finances and the management of daily production. Sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers from South India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a man who specialised in building turrets, another who carved only marble flowers - thirty seven men in all formed the creative nucleus, and to this core was added a labour force of twenty thousand workers recruited from across North India.

 

say this

http://www.taj-mahal-india-travel.com/taj-mahal-design-layou t.html

Proud Architects of Taj Mahal
The names of the chief architect who worked on the Taj have been noted. Ismail Afandi, who designed the hemispheres and built the domes was from Turkey. Qazim Khan came from Lahore to cast the gold finial that would top the dome. Chiranji Lal was called from Delhi to pattern the mosaic. From Shiraz in Persia came master calligrapher, Amanat Khan. Stone cutter Amir Ali was from Baluchistan. Ustad Isa of Tukey is however credited to have been the main architect. It is believed that his design embodied much of what the Emperor wanted to express.

Say  this.

http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/taj_mahal/tlevel_2/t3 build_design.html

Several designers and architects � thirty seven men in all � are mentioned by name in the official Mughal histories, and it is probable that they would have worked together to form the creative team that shaped the Taj Mahal:

Ismail Afandi (a.k.a. Ismail Khan) who had worked for the great Ottomans in Turkey as a designer and builder of domes;
Qazim Khan, a goldsmith from Lahore who cast the gold finial that crowns the dome;
Chiranji Lal, a lapidary from Delhi chosen as the chief mosaicist;
Amanat Khan from Shiraz, the master calligrapher whose signature is inscribed on the Taj gateway;
Mohammed Hanif, Multan and Quandhar, master masons from Delhi; and
Mukrimat Khan and Mir Abdul Karim from Shiraz, chief supervisors and administrators.

Ustad Ahmad (a.k.a. Isa Khan), an architect in the court of Shah Jahan from Lahore, is most often credited as the chief architect (or plan drawer) of the Taj Mahal, based on a seventeenth century manuscript which claims that Ustad Ahmad was the architect of both the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort at Delhi.

Say this.

So I  dont think you have enough proof to say architect of Taj Mahal was persian.

I thing kotumeyil is right, It is a combined work of severals.

 

Edited by Mortaza

I did not know of many or any great building in Iran built by Turks, can you specify please, thank you. And name of builder thanks

Ustad Qamish Qulaq who built both Chehel Sotun Palace and Shahzade Hossein Mausoleum in Qazvin in the 16th century.