Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Iran, Iraq
imamzadeh
Iranian term for venerated tomb of holy man.
imaret
Ottoman Turkish term for a kitchen which dispenses
soup and bread free to the poor, students and
wandering mystics (dervishes). Imarets usually form
part of a larger religious complex which normally
includes a mosque, madrassa and bath house
(hammam).
India
The Republic of India is the largest country in south Asia
and occupies the greater part of the Indian subcontinent
which it shares with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The present population of India is nearly 800 million
of which almost 80 million (10 per cent) are Muslim,
making it the second largest Muslim country in the
world after Indonesia. Geographically India is fairly
well defined, with the Himalayas to the north
isolating it from the rest of Asia, whilst the Indian
Ocean surrounds the country to the south. Within
this vast area there are many regions each with its
own languages, traditions, climate and environment,
varying from the cool mountains of Kashmir to the
tropical heat of the Deccan.
India differs from other parts of the Islamic world
as it does not share the Roman and Sassanian
traditions of the Middle East and North Africa,
instead it has its own complex history which includes
many different religions, cultures and ethnic groups.
The most significant of these is the Hindu religion
which was a highly developed culture well before
the Muslim conquest and continues to be the major
religion of the country. The effect of this on
architecture means that Indian buildings have
distinct design and building characteristics which
distinguish them from Islamic buildings elsewhere.
The most significant influence on architecture was
the Hindu temple. Initially Hindu temples were
destroyed and the remains were used to build
mosques, such as the Quwwat al-Islam Mosque in
Delhi which was built out of the remains of twenty-
seven temples; later, however, Hindu features were
copied for use in mosques and have now become
characteristic of Indo-Islamic architecture. Examples
of Hindu features incorporated into Islamic
buildings include domed chatris, projecting chajjas
and bulbous dome finials. Later on the influence of
India can be seen in the mosques of south-east Asia,
many of which are Indian in form.
Islam arrived in India by two routes, the overland
route through Central Asia and the maritime coastal
route. In general the overland route was used by
Turkic and Afghan peoples who arrived in India as
warriors and conquerors. These peoples established
the first Muslim states in India starting in the north
and later expanding to the south and east. The coastal
route is less well documented and consists of the
gradual development of independent Muslim trading
communities along the coast in a similar manner to
the establishment of Islam in East Africa. Some of the
oldest established coastal communities are in Gujarat
and the Malabar coast from where Islam eventually
spread to south-east Asia as testified by the Gujarati
gravestones found in Malaysia and Indonesia. The
coastal communities were usually fairly small with
no territorial or dynastic ambitions and consequently
produced little monumental architecture apart from
small local mosques. Occasionally there was some co-
operation between the inland Muslim dynasties and
the coastal Muslims as can be seen in Gujarat and the
Deccan.
There are few documented remains of early
Muslim coastal communities. This is partly because
of the lack of archaeological work and partly because
the monumental character of inland sites has taken
India

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