Place · Qutb Shahi mosque · India
Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad
Also known as Hyderabad, Mecca Masjid, Mecca Masjid — Hyderabad
The 17-century Mecca Masjid at Hyderabad in Telangana — the city's main congregational mosque, begun in 1617 by Qutb Shahi Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah (ruled 1612-1626) and completed in 1694 by Aurangzeb. The mosque is one of the largest mosques in India by capacity (around 10,000 worshippers). The mosque's name derives from the central arch, which contains bricks brought from Mecca by Qutb Shahi pilgrims. The main prayer hall is covered with 15 arches on three sides, with the mihrab wall on the fourth. The mosque's distinctive feature is the Shahi Dalaan (Royal Pavilion) containing the tombs of several Nizam rulers of Hyderabad. The adjacent Charminar (1591) is 100 metres away. The 2007 Mecca Masjid bombing killed 9 and injured 50; the investigation into the Hindu-nationalist conspiracy was politically contested. ASI protection since 1951.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 17.362, 78.475
Connections (2)
- Succession in timeHyderabad
The Mecca Masjid was finished by Aurangzeb after he took Golconda in 1687, and the Asaf Jahi Nizams who governed the Mughal Deccan afterwards are buried in a chamber along its courtyard — so the mosque marks the transfer of Hyderabad from the Qutb Shahis to the Mughals and then to their viceroys. Those viceroys outlasted the empire by two centuries and the dynasty ended in September 1948, when five days of Indian army action closed the last of the Deccan's successor states.
- Site withinHyderabad
The Mecca Masjid is the sultanate congregational mosque of Hyderabad, begun by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah about 1617 and completed by Aurangzeb in 1693 after he annexed the city — bricks from Mecca are set in its central arch. The mosque sits a hundred metres southwest of the Charminar inside the old walled city and functions as Hyderabad's principal Friday mosque, with the tombs of Nizami rulers in a side pavilion.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Hyderabad”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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