ABSTRACT
"A Collection of Merits...": Architectural Influences in the Friday Mosque and Kazaruni Tomb Complex at Cambay in Gujarati
Elizabeth Lambourn
Although Tughluq architecture in India is becoming ever better known, large numbers of provincial structures are still poorly documented and researched. The study of these "provincial" monuments is obviously important for completing our picture of Tughluq architecture and patronage. However, in many cases these monuments also represent the foundations of the later regional styles of Islamic architecture that grew up after the collapse of the Tughluq Empire at the end of the 14th century. The Friday mosque built at the port of Cambay in Gujarat in 725/1325 and the tomb complex of cUmar al-Kazaruni (d.734/1333) adjacent to it are two such structures.
Since the Friday mosque and Kazaruni tomb complex have not been published substantially since 1896, the article begins with a more extensive description and reconstruction of the two structures, as well as providing short biographies of the two main patrons involved, Muhammad al-Butihari and cUmar al-Kazaruni. One of the principal conclusions of this reconstruction is to establish that the monumental southern gate or pishtaq to al-Kazaruni's mausoleum was originally topped by a pair of tower minarets.
The article goes on to examine the diverse architectural influences behind the two structures. The mosque is shown to adhere closely to early Sultanate mosque types (late 12th/early 13th centuries AD), and particularly the architecture of the so-called Quwwat al-Islam mosque at Delhi, most probably stimulated by cAla' al-Din Khalji's massive project for the extension of the Quwwat al-Islam mosque around 1310-11. By contrast the tomb complex gathers a variety of architectural sources, taking in well-established Central Asian and Iranian traditions of domes fronted by pishtaq gateways, local step-well architecture, and the contemporary fashion in Il-Khanid Iran for paired tower minarets.
The article concludes with an examination of the influence of these two structures on the later mosque architecture of the Sultans of Gujarat in the 15th and 16th centuries AD.