Place · Mughal congregational mosque · India
Jama Masjid, Delhi
Also known as Jama Masjid, Masjid-i Jahan-Numa, Jama Masjid Delhi
Shah Jahan's congregational mosque at Shahjahanabad, built between 1650 and 1656 as the principal Friday mosque of his new Mughal capital. The three-domed red-sandstone-and-white-marble building sits on a raised platform above the walled city with three sides of steps leading up, forty metres above the street level. Shah Jahan intended it as the Mughal state's architectural statement of Islamic piety against the Deccan sultanates and the Shi'a Safavids, and as the mosque the Delhi court would attend each Friday until 1857. The 1857 revolt and the British sack of Delhi that followed saw the mosque used first as a barracks for Sikh regiments and then returned to worship as a political gesture.
- Date
- 1650–1656
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Patron dynasty
- Mughal
- Tradition
- Padshahnama; ASI conservation records; Catherine Asher on Mughal architecture.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 28.651, 77.233
Worth knowing
The mosque holds relics said to include a hair of the Prophet, Qurans attributed to Caliph Uthman and a sandstone slab bearing the Prophet's footprint. It can hold about 25,000 worshippers in its courtyard, which made it one of the largest Islamic congregational spaces in the pre-colonial world. The Ghalib Academy and his Ballimaran haveli are five minutes' walk away; Ghalib would have known the mosque's Friday rhythms through his thirty-year residence nearby.
Connections (2)
- BuiltShah Jahan
Shah Jahan built the Jama Masjid at Delhi between 1650 and 1656 as the congregational mosque of his new capital Shahjahanabad. The three-domed red-sandstone and white-marble building sits on a raised platform above the walled city with three sides of steps leading up to its gates, forty metres above street level, and holds 25,000 worshippers in its courtyard. The mosque was the Mughal state's principal Friday space from its 1656 opening until 1857.
- Site withinDelhi
The Jama Masjid sits within Delhi, specifically within Shah Jahan's 1648-56 Shahjahanabad walled city. The 1650-56 Masjid-i-Jahan-Numa, built by Shah Jahan at a cost of ₹1 million as the chief Mughal congregational mosque, is India's largest mosque with a capacity of 25,000 worshippers. The mosque's position atop the Bho Jhala mound within Shahjahanabad and its proximity to the Red Fort make it part of the central Mughal Delhi heritage ensemble.