Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Aleppo, Basra, Damascus, Lebanon,
Qasr al-Hayr East, Qasr al-Hayr West, Raqqa
Syria (Arabic: al-Sham)

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tabhane
Turkish term for the hostel attached to a mosque
where travellers (usually dervishes and mystics)
could live free for three days. In early Ottoman
mosques these formed separate chambers although
they were later incorporated into the main body of
the mosque.
Taj Mahal
Major Islamic tomb complex built by the Mughal emperor
at Agra in India.
The Taj Mahal was begun by Shah Jahan in 1631 and
took over twenty years to build. The tomb was built
for Shah Jahan’s wife Arjumand Banu Begam (also
known as Mumtaz Mahal) who he married in 1612
before he was made emperor. She was the niece of
Jahangir’s wife Nur Jahan and granddaughter of his
famous Persian minister Iltimad al-Daulah. Mumtaz
Mahal was the emperor’s favourite wife and during
nineteen years of mar-riage she bore him fourteen
children. Her death whilst accompanying him on a
campaign in the Deccan caused the emperor great
sorrow and inspired him to build the most beautiful
tomb complex in the world.
Although unique in its size and beauty, the Taj
Mahal forms part of a series of imperial Mughal
tombs of which it is undoubtedly the greatest. The
earliest Mughal tombs copied those of their Islamic
predecessors the Lodi sultans of Delhi and were
octagonal domed structures surrounded by arcades.
Another popular tomb form in the early Mughal
period was the square chamber-tomb as seen in the
‘Barber’s tomb’ in Delhi. Later on in the Mughal
period the two forms were combined to produce
octagonal tombs with four sides shorter than the
others, thus producing a square with the corners
cut off. In the tomb of Humayun at Delhi four of
these ‘square’ octagons were assembled around a
central octagonal space which was then covered
with a dome. The area between the octagons was
bridged by iwans which formed the main access
points to the central domed area. This is essentially
the same design that was used in the Taj Mahal. In
Humayun’s tomb, however, the central area is
surrounded on four sides by an arcade of pointed
arches at ground level and is made of red sandstone
with marble inlay, neither of which features are
found in the Taj Mahal. Similarly the dome on the
roof is lower set than in the Taj Mahal so that it
does not produce a dominant upright form but
rather a pyramidal one.
The Taj Mahal is located on a terrace on the banks
of the Jumna river and can be seen from the
emperor’s palace in the Agra Fort. The building is