Place · Tughlaq-era dargah · India
Qadam Sharif, Old Delhi
Also known as Delhi, Old Delhi, Prophet's footprint, Qadam Sharif, Qadam Sharif — Delhi
The Qadam Sharif dargah at Paharganj in central Delhi — a 14-century tomb complex built by Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq (ruled 1351-1388) for his son and chosen heir Fateh Khan, who died before his father in 1374. The tomb's distinctive feature is a stone slab bearing the footprint of the Prophet Muhammad (qadam sharif means 'noble footprint'), which Firoz Shah Tughlaq brought from Mecca and installed at the shrine as the central relic. The footprint is one of only a handful of Muhammad-footprint relics in the subcontinent (the Dewa Sharif at Barabanki holds another; the Qadam-i-Rasool at Cuttack holds a third). The current structure is 14-century Tughlaq with major 16-century Mughal additions. The annual Urs each Dhul Qadah draws Sufi devotees. The dargah is managed by the Qadam Sharif Trust. ASI protection since 1911.
- Function
- Burial and funerary
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 28.665, 77.205
Connections (2)
- Imperial administration ofFīroz Shāh Kotla & the Topra pillar
Firuz Shah Tughlaq built Qadam Sharīf around a stone said to bear the Prophet's footprint, which he had acquired and which he intended for his own grave, and then gave the tomb to his son Fath Khan, who died before him. The same sultan hauled two Ashokan pillars to Delhi and re-erected them. He was a collector of objects whose meaning had come loose from their origins, Buddhist and Islamic alike.
- Site withinDelhi
Qadam Sharif, Old Delhi sits inside Delhi and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Relics of Muhammad”. Chishti tazkira literature; Carl Ernst and Bruce Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love (2002).
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