Delhi, India

The best surviving example of Ghurids architecture was built by Qurb AI-Din Aibak, a Turkish slave commander of the region for Muizz AI-Din Muhammad. Known as the Quwwat AI-Islam (Might of Islam), it was the first mosque built in Delhi after the Islamic conquest of India. Construction began during the 1190s on the site of a Hindu temple. Similar to pre-Islamic temples in the region, the mosque is set on an elevated platform reached by staircases on three sides. The mosque itself comprises a large open courtyard surrounded by halls supported by columns reused from ancient temples. The available columns were not tall enough to create a lofty space, so two or even three temple columns were set on top of each other to gain the necessary height. The columns sup­ported beams, which in turn supported a flat roof, the traditional construction technique found in India; using horizontal beams and lintels. Because of the warm climate, the building was largely open to the elements.

The original mosque was received an arched screen in front of the prayer hall and a huge sandstone Minaret known as the Qutb Minar built in the courtyard. Under Iltutmish, in the 13th century, the size of the mosque was tripled; it was later tripled again and a huge second minaret constructed.

In 1198 Qurb Al-Din Aibak ordered an arched wall added to screen the prayer hall from the courtyard. The screen consists of a high and wide central arch flanked by pairs of lower and narrower arches. Because the local masons did not know how to build true arches, which were unknown in India, they had to imitate them with corbelling, in which each course of stone is projected our slightly from the one below until the courses meet in the middle. A corbelled structure, however, cannot support any weight, so it could not serve as a support for a dome, and the arch serves only as a screen to mask what lies behind it. The Aibak screen is richly decorated with naturalistic vines and calligraphy. This carved decoration shows how native masons adapted local techniques to serve the needs of new Muslim patrons. Hindu and Jain architecture erected before the Muslim conquest was often decorated with exuberant figural sculpture, including gods and goddesses with multiple arms and legs - Muslims naturally replaced them with purely vegetal and geometric ornaments carvings on new construction.

The Mosque at Delhi was insufficient to meet either the size of the rapidly growing Muslim population of the city or the pretensions of the local rulers, who also saw public architecture as a fitting symbol of their expanding power. In 1199 construction began on a huge sandstone tower known as the Qutb Minar. Like earlier towers erected by the Ghaznavids and Ghurids in Mghanistan, the Qutb Minar comprises several superposed flanged and cylindrical shafts decorated with inscriptions, and separated by balconies carried on Muqarnas corbels. Later rulers added more stories to the tower, so that by the time the fifth story was completed in 1368, the tower soared an amazing 72.5 meters (238 feet).

Aibak had been the architect of the Ghurids conquests in India, but after his master Muizz AI-Din Muhammad died in 1206, Aibak assumed independent power, with the title of Malik (king). His son-in-law and successor Iltutmish (1211-1236) severed the Indian provinces from the Ghurids domains and was the real founder of the dynasty of the Delhi sultans. To mark his authority and to meet the demands of the expanding Muslim population of Delhi, Sultan Iltutmish tripled the size of the Quwwat AI-Islam Mosque so that it measured some 230 x 330 feet (70 x 100 meters), with the enormous Qutb minaret standing in the southeast corner of the courtyard. It took several decades to carry out this gargantuan project, which was completed only in 1229. The lower story of the Qutb Minar has 24 flanges, alternately semi-cylindrical and angular, and is encircled by several magnificent inscription bands set within complex arabesque borders. The cursive style of writing, with swelling vertical shafts, contrasts sharply with the angular Kufic script favored for Ghurids inscriptions in Afghanistan and shows the emergence of a distinctly Indian style of Arabic epigraphy.