Some of the most beautiful monuments in India come from Islamic origin, and some of Islam’s best monuments are located in India.

The early Islamic monuments were constructed after cannibalizing Hindu and Jain temples. However, many of the later monuments are constructed entirely new. The Sufis brought in non-Islamic decorative aspects of flowers and elaborate arches. Whatever went into their creation, the Islamic monuments in India are things of sheer beauty and grace.

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In 1191, the first of many dynasties ruled by Islamic sultans captured Delhi and made it a power base for governing northern India. To celebrate the triumph of Islam, these sultans created an impressive complex of buildings outside Delhi, including the Qutab Minar.

Unlike the Hindus, the Muslims were city dwellers and city builders. Their most outstanding contribution, dominating the architecture of many Indian cities, are the mosques and tomb complexes (dargah). In Ajmer an important tomb was built for the Sufi saint Mu’inuddin Chishti who was instrumental in spreading Islam throughout northern India in the 12th century.

The Muslims brought with them from Persia the principle of constructing the true arch. Muslim architects succeeded in producing a variety of domed structures, often incorporating distinctively Hindu features. In the 15th century, impressive Islamic palaces and mosques were built in Mandu in Madhya Pradesh, which became known as `the city of joy'.

During the 15th to 17th century Bijapur was the capital of the Bahmanis, the Muslim dynasty that oversaw the eventual downfall of Vijayanagar. The Bhamanis built south India’s finest collection of Islamic architecture, including the world’s second-largest free-standing dome, the Golgumbaz. The earlier Bahmani capitals of Gulbarga and Bidar also have some interesting Islamic architectural remains.

Babar, a descendant of two powerful conquerors, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, founded the Mughal Empire in 1526. He was so skilful a general that within a few years he had conquered most of northern India, including the hill fort at Gwalior. After he died in 1530, he was succeeded by his son Humayun. His senior widow, Haji Begum, and mother of his son Akbar, built the beautiful Humayun’s Tomb.

Akbar controlled north and central India and Afghanistan. He ordered the building of several forts in defence of his major cities. The main construction was the magnificent Agra Fort, made of red sandstone. In 1571, Akbar ordered the building of a completely new city called Fatehpur Sikri, near Agra, which was abandoned soon after it was built, apparently due to lack of water.

During Akbar’s reign, the Mughal Empire conquered the Sultanate of Gujarat. In this period, Muslim, Hindu and Jain styles were melded in Gujarat to produce remarkable Indo-Islamic mosques and tombs, characterised by elaborate carvings found in Jain temples, and intersected in Hindu fashion by slender pillars meeting in delicate arches. In Ahmadabad many outstanding mosques testify of this period.

The Mughal emperor and his court spent much of the year in Srinagar in Kashmir. They made terraced gardens with streams running alongside stairways, carrying cool water down from the mountains to nearby lakes. There was also a complex system of fountains and cascades. Akbar’s son Jahangir left for Kashmir in 1618 and never returned.

In the 17th century, Akbar’s grandson, the emperor Shah Jahan, built mosques and other buildings within the Red Forts of Delhi and Agra. These buildings were made of glistening white marble. So too was the magnificent Taj Mahal, the tomb that Shah Jahan ordered for his wife beside the Jamuna River, at Agra. Despite modifying the Agra Fort and building the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan moved away from Agra to built the huge city of Shah Jahanabad, now known as Old Delhi with Chandni Chowk, the Red Fort and the Jama Mashid mosque.

Shah Jahan’s building spree overstretched the financial reserves of the Mughal Empire which forced his son Aurangzeb to take over the reign of power in 1658 and to imprison his father in his marble palace in the Agra Fort where he died in 1666. Aurangzeb built a new citadel in Aurangabad. It acted as a centre of operations for his military campaign in central India which occupied him for the second half of his 49-year reign.

The Mughal Empire began to break up soon after Aurangzeb’s death in 1707. By 1730, many provincial governors acknowledged the Mughal emperor in name only. For all practical purposes, they were independent rulers. The nawab of Oudh (Lucknow) in the north, the rulers of Bhopal in central India, and the nizam of Hyderabad in the south became powerful rulers. Mughals continued to rule a small kingdom at Delhi until Great Britain took control of India in the 1800’s.