Delhi is the home of many of the greatest mosques built in the Mughal era and even before them. As relics of the Mughal Empire, each of these structures in Delhi’s Old City tells its own unique tale.
Apart from the Mosques in Delhi, India, you can also check these 10 greatest mosques in Turkey that belong to the Ottoman Caliphate.
Jama Masjid
Jama Masjid of Delhi is one of the greatest mosques in India. It is also known as the Masjid-i Jahan-Numa. In 1644 a Mughal emperor Shah Jahan commissioned its construction and it gets completed in 1656. An Imam from Bukhara presided over its opening ceremony.
Built from white marble strips and red sandstone, the mosque’s three great gateways, four towers, and two 40-meter-tall minarets were finished in 1656. More than 25.000 people can fit in the courtyard of Jama Masjid of Delhi.
The terrace’s three domes are bookended by the minarets. A total of 899 black borders are put out on the floor for worshippers to stand within. The north gate cabinet contains several Muhammad artifacts, including a red beard hair, a pair of sandals, the prophet’s footprints engraved in marble, and a Quran inscribed on deerskin.
Built from narrow slabs of red sandstone and polished white marble, the mosque features three massive gateways, four towers, and two 40-meter-tall minarets. The emperor and his family would enter through the eastern gate.
Among the last Mughal structures commissioned by Shah Jahan was this magnificent mosque. After its completion in 1656, the monument served as the imperial family’s mosque until the fall of the Mughal Empire.
Each of the minaret’s five levels features a jutting balcony. A great deal of calligraphy can be seen in the adjacent buildings. Badshahi Masjid, constructed by Shah Jahan’s son Aurangzeb in Lahore, Pakistan, follows a design and layout identical to that of the Jama Masjid.
Submit your India visa application so that you can visit Delhi and can explore the historical Jama Masjid Delhi.
Fatehpuri Masjid
Located at the westernmost extremity of Delhi’s oldest roadway, Chandni Chowk, the Fatehpuri Masjid dates back to the 17th century. It is located on the other end of Chandni Chowk from the Red Fort.
Fatehpuri Begum, who was one of Shah Jahan’s wives, and a native of Fatehpur Sikri, constructed the mosque now known as Fatehpuri Masjid in 1650.
Muslims from the USA can get their Indian visa for US citizens and can explore the Fatehpuri Masjid along with many other greatest mosques in Delhi.
The mosque’s red sandstone construction is topped with a fluted dome decorated with a mahapadma and kalash. The mosque’s prayer hall has the customary seven-arched apertures that are framed by the minarets.
On either side of the mosque are residential buildings, some of which are two stories tall. Following the 1857 war, the British auctioned off the mosque to Rai Lala Chunnamal, who bought it and restored it for Rs. 19,000.
After the British reopened Old Delhi to Muslims in 1877, the government bought the area for four villages and gave it back to the Muslims at the Delhi Durbar.
It wasn’t until after Fatehpuri Masjid was built that the neighboring Khari Baoli spice bazaar began to take shape.