ANTHONYWELCH
A MEDIEVAL CENTER OF LEARNING IN INDIA: THE HAUZ KHAS MADRASA IN DELHI
In December 1398, the Central Asian conqueror Timur seven to the southwest. Timur's decisive defeat of the attacked and captured the city of Delhi. A seat of govern army of the last Tughluq sultan Mahmud II (r. 1393-99) ment since the establishment of an independent Delhi took place outside the walls ofJahanpanah on Wednes Sultanate in 1206, it had been the most important center day, the eighth day of the month of Rabic al-thani, 800 ofIslamic culture in India until the death of Sultan Firuz (17 December 1398). The vanquished sultan fled from Shah in 1388. Like Babur a century later and his Mughal the city through the Hauz Rani gate in the south that descendants, Timur was keenly interested in architec adjoined a great reservoir built before the Muslim con ture and cities. He was generally impressed with the pros quest. His vizier Mallu Khan also fled from the south perity, size, and appearance of the great city, and, though through the Baraka gate. From a western reservoir, the he permitted his army to run wild and destroy several Hauz Khas (BauQ Kha~~)/ one could go through the palaces and murder thousands of people, he carefully Maydan gate to the maydan, or central square, ofJahan described Delhi in his "memoirs", the Mal[iiziit-i Timiiri panah, where the city's Cidgiih, "a lofty and extensive (or Tiizuk-i Timiinj. Sharaf aI-Din Yazdi's biography of building," was located; it was there that Timur sat in state Timur, the l,ajarniima, essentially repeats this account in to receive the obeisance of the conquered city's Muslim most regards but adds a few details of its own. The follow notables. It was either in the Old Delhi or in the Jahan ing paragraphs summarize the valuable information the panah mosque that the initial khutba in Timur's name two provide for late-fourteenth-century Delhi.! was recited. A palace called Jahannuma was located nine kilome DELHI AS TIMUR FOUND IT ters to the north of Delhi. The palace was built for Sultan Firuz Shah Tughluq (1351-88) (the architectural frag Delhi then consisted of three distinct metropolitan areas ment known as the Pir Ghaib on the Northern Ridge is unified within an enclosing wall with thirty gates. Old all that can be identified with it now). Timur first noticed Delhi in the southern part of the urban area (see map) it from his encampment on the eastern bank of the was built around the firstjamiC masjid (now known as the Jumna river and ordered a contingent of his army to Quwwat aI-Islam or Qutb Mosque), its parts constructed plunder the area around it. Then he crossed the river between 1192 and 1316. It had a round wall, as did the himself, inspected the area to the southeast of Jahan somewhat smaller city of Siri that lay about two kilome numa, and selected a battlefield for his impending clash ters to Old Delhi's northeast, which had been con with the armies of Sultan Mahmud II. structed under Sultan cAla:> aI-Din Khalji (1296-1316). The day after the foray against Jahannuma, Timur Jahanpanah was a unification of the two earlier cities by ordered his army to cross the Jumna, gain control of all means of an enclosing wall ordered by the second Tugh the fords, and proceed against Loni, a fort located be luq sultan, Muhammad Jauna Shah (r. 1325-51). This tween the Jumna and the Halim rivers eleven kilometers third city had its ownjamiC masjid (the so-called Begam to the northwest of Delhi. The entire Hindu population pur mosque), built around 1343, and an adjacent palace died, either by self-immolation or in battle, and the fort (known then as now as the palace of Hazar Sutun), was seized. At Firuzabad on the west bank of the Jumna which was famous enough that the women of Timur's river was the citadel of Firuz Shah, three kos3 to the north harem specifically asked if they could tour it. of Delhi. Timur proceeded there after the sack of Delhi, Of Old Delhi's ten gates, five opened into Jahanpanah stopped to examine, in particular, its stonework, and ap and five to the outside; three of Siri's gates led into parently accorded it the same admiration he extended Jahanpanah and four into the open country; Jahanpa to other architectural works of Firuz Shah. He went to nah itself had thirteen gates, six to the northeast and pray at the citadel's congregational mosque and must 166 ANTHONYWELCH
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Vasant Vlhar 0 garden
~ Madrasa oJ Prlhce Naslr aI-DIn Mahmud (Sultan Chart)
I!) Anthony Welch
Map of Delhi under the Sultans. This map indicates approximate distances, probable roads, and the location of key sites and structures built under the Delhi Sultans from the late twelfth to the early sixteenth century.