Qutb Minar

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Coordinates: 28°31′28″N 77°11′07″E / 28.524355°N 77.185248°E / 28.524355; 77.185248

Qutub Minar
قطب مینار
कुतुब मिनार
Qutb Minar tower.jpg
Qutub Minar in Delhi, India
Type Cultural
Criteria 4
Designated 1993 (17th session)
Reference no. 233
Country  India
Continent Asia
Constructed by Started construction by Qutub-ud-din Aibak & completed construction by Iltutmish

Qutub Minar is a minaret that forms part of the Qutb complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mehrauli area of Delhi, India.[1][2] Made of red sandstone and marble, Qutub Minar is a 73-metre (240 feet) tall tapering tower of five storeys, with a 14.3 metre (47 feet) base diameter, reducing to 2.7 metres (9 feet) at the peak.[3] It contains a spiral staircase of 379 steps.[4] Its design is thought to have been based on the Minaret of Jam, in western Afghanistan.

Qutb Ud-Din-Aibak, founder of the Delhi Sultanate, started construction of the Qutub Minar's first storey around 1192. In 1220, Aibak's successor and son-in-law Iltutmish completed a further three storeys. In 1369, a lightning strike destroyed the top storey. Firoz Shah Tughlaq replaced the damaged storey, and added one more.[5]

The Minar is surrounded by several historically significant monuments of the Qutb complex, including Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, which was built at the same time as the Minar, and the much older Iron Pillar of Delhi.[1] The nearby pillared Cupola known as "Smith's Folly" is a remnant of the tower's 19th century restoration, which included an ill-advised attempt to add a sixth storey.

History[edit]

Kuttull Minor, Delhi. The Qutb Minar, 1805
Qutab Minar in Mehrauli in Delhi. Clifton and Co., around 1890

Qutb Minar was established along with Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque around 1192, by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate.[6] The mosque complex is one of the earliest that survives in the Indian subcontinent.[7][8] The minaret is named after Qutb-ud-din Aibak, or Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, a Sufi saint.[9] Its ground storey was built over the ruins of the Lal Kot, the citadel of Dhillika.[10] Aibak's successor Iltutmish added three more storeys.[9] the fifth layer was built by RAZZIYA SULTAN the first female sulta of INDIA. The minar's topmost storey was damaged by lightning in 1369 and was rebuilt by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, who added another storey. In 1505, an earthquake damaged Qutb Minar; it was repaired by Sikander Lodi. On 1 September 1803, a major earthquake caused serious damage. Major Robert Smith of the British Indian Army renovated the tower in 1828 and installed a pillared cupola over the fifth story, thus creating a sixth. The cupola was taken down in 1848, under instructions from The Viscount Hardinge, then Governor General of India. It was reinstalled at ground level to the east of Qutab Minar, where it remains. It is known as "Smith's Folly".[11]

An inscription in Persian at the mosque's inner eastern gateway states that material used in its construction was salvaged from the demolition of twenty-seven of Delhi's Hindu and Jain temples.[12][13][14] Pillars from these demolished temples were used in the mosque, with their iconography intact. The nearby Iron Pillar from the Gupta empire, which predates the Islamic minar and still bears its Brahmic inscriptions, survived as part of the Qutb complex.[2]

Architecture[edit]

The tower's style is basically Iranian, though likely patterned on Afghanistan's Minaret of Jam, and adapted to local artistic conventions by the incorporation of "looped bells and garlands and lotus borders into the carving".[15] Numerous inscriptions in Parso-Arabic and Nagari characters in different sections of the Qutb Minar reveal the history of its construction, and the later restorations and repairs by Firoz Shah Tughluq (1351–89) and Sikandar Lodi[16] (1489–1517).

The tower has five superposed, tapering storeys. The lowest three comprise fluted cylindrical shafts or columns of pale red sandstone, separated by flanges and by storeyed balconies, carried on Muqarnas corbels. The fourth column is of marble, and is relatively plain. The fifth is of marble and sandstone. The flanges are a darker red sandstone throughout, and are engraved with Quranic texts and decorative elements. The whole tower contains a spiral staircase of 379 steps.[17] At the foot of the tower is the Quwwat ul Islam Mosque. The minar tilts just over 65 cm from the vertical, which is considered to be within safe limits, although experts have stated that monitoring is needed in case rainwater seepage further weakens the foundation.[18]

Accident[edit]

Before 1974, the general public was allowed access to the top of the minar, via the internal staircase. On 4 December 1981, the staircase lighting failed. Between 300 and 400 visitors stampeded towards the exit, and 45 were killed in the crush and some were injured. Most of these were children. Subsequently, public access to the inside of the tower has been stopped.[citation needed]

In popular culture[edit]

Bollywood actor and director Dev Anand wanted to shoot the song "Dil Ka Bhanwar Kare Pukar" from his film Tere Ghar Ke Samne inside the Minar. However, the cameras in that era were too big to fit inside the tower's narrow passage, and therefore the song was shot inside a replica of the tower.[19] The site served as the pit stop of the second leg of the second series of The Amazing race Australia.

A picture of the minaret is featured on the travel cards issued by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. A recently launched start-up in collaboration with the Archaeological survey of India has made a 360o walkthrough of Qutb Minar available.[20]

Gallery[edit]

  • The Minar in context: Alai Darwaza (left), Imam Zamin's tomb (right), Qutb Minar (back)

  • Entrance to Minar

  • Calligraphy on upper-base section

  • Decorative motifs on upper levels

  • Close-up of balcony

  • Smith's cupola (foreground, right), with the Tomb of Imam Zamin, Alai Darwaza, and Qutb Minar in background

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "WHC list". whc.unesco.org. 2009. Retrieved 27 October 2011. 
  2. ^ a b Singh (2010). Longman History & Civics ICSE 7. Pearson Education India. p. 42. ISBN 978-81-317-2887-1. Retrieved 27 October 2011. 
  3. ^ "Qutb Minar Height". qutubminardelhi.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015. 
  4. ^ Qutub Minar
  5. ^ "Qutub Minar". qutubminardelhi.com. Archived from the original on 22 June 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015. 
  6. ^ Qutub Minar
  7. ^ "Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque". qutubminardelhi.com. Archived from the original on 25 July 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015. 
  8. ^ Ali Javid; ʻAlī Jāvīd; Tabassum Javeed (July 1, 2008). World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India. Google Books. pp. 14, 105, 107, 130. Retrieved 26 May 2009. 
  9. ^ a b "Qutub Minar Height". qutubminardelhi.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015. 
  10. ^ Ali Javid; ʻAlī Jāvīd; Tabassum Javeed (2008). World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India. Google Books. pp. 14, 105, 10T7, 130. ISBN 9780875864822. Retrieved 26 May 2009. 
  11. ^ https://rangandatta.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/qutub-minar-and-smiths-folly-an-architectural-disaster/
  12. ^ Ali Javid; ʻAlī Jāvīd; Tabassum Javed. "World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India". Page.14,263. Google Books. Retrieved 26 May 2009. 
  13. ^ Epigraphia Indo Moslemica, 1911–12, p. 13.
  14. ^ Index_1200-1299: Qutb ud-Din Aibak and the Qubbat ul-Islam mosqueColumbia University
  15. ^ Index_1200-1299: Qutb ud-Din Aibak and the Qubbat ul-Islam mosqueColumbia University
  16. ^ File:Plaque at Qutub Minar.jpg
  17. ^ Qutub Minar
  18. ^ Verma, Richi (24 January 2009). "Qutb Minar tilting due to seepage: Experts". The Times of India. Retrieved 30 June 2012. 
  19. ^ Mehul S Thakkar, Mumbai Mirror 22 Nov 2011, IST (22 November 2011). "30 years later, Qutub ready to face the camera — Times of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 26 September 2012. 
  20. ^ "Qutub Minar in MEHRAULI, Delhi - 360-degree view on WoNoBo.com". Places.wonobo.com. Retrieved 2014-05-17. 

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Media related to Qutb Minar at Wikimedia Commons

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