Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Oualata, Timbuktu, West Africa
Aghlabids
Dynasty which ruled the north African province of
Ifriqiyya during the ninth century.
Although nominally under Abbasid control, the
Aghlabids were able to exercise a great deal of
independence. Militarily their great achievement was
the conquest of Byzantine Sicily.
The Aghlabids were great patrons of architecture
and much of their work has survived. Their work
demonstrates a mixture of Byzantine and Abbasid
building styles. One of the most important projects
was the rebuilding of the Great Mosque of Qairawan
and the addition of the huge three-tiered minaret/
tower. The Aghlabids were also responsible for major
irrigation and water supply systems the most famous
example of which are the huge circular cisterns of
Qairawan. Much of their effort was also directed
towards the development of the coastal towns as
bases from which to launch the conquest of Sicily.
The military nature of Aghlabid rule is further
reflected in the large number of ribats or fortified
monasteries which they constructed.
See also:
Tunisia
Plan of the Great Mosque, Agades, Niger. Minaret shaded (after
Prussin)
Aghlabids

---

7
Further reading:
A.Lezine, 
Architecture de l’Ifriqiyya: recherche sur les
monuments aghlabides,
Paris 1966.
Agra
City in central northern India famous for its Mughal
monuments.
Agra is located on the banks of the river Jumna 160
km south of Delhi. Although Agra was an ancient
Hindu city the present city was refounded as a
capital by Sikander Lodi at the beginning of the
sixteenth century. In 1505 Iskander built a mud-
brick fortress by the banks of the river at the centre
of his new city. However, in 1526 the Lodis were
defeated by Babur at the battle of Panipat and Agra
was incorporated into the expanding Mughal
Empire. Although Agra became one of the principal
Mughal cities, little construction took place until
1565 when the third emperor Akbar demolished the
old fort of Sikander Lodi and built a new fort faced
in red sandstone. For the next eighty years Agra
was the imperial capital apart from a brief period
between 1571 and 1585 when Akbar moved to
nearby Fatehpur Sikri.
The main monuments of Agra are the fort and
the Taj Mahal which are located 1.5 km apart on the
west bank of the river. The fort consists of a roughly
triangular area enclosed by a huge red sandstone
wall capped with pointed crenellations. The walls
have two main gates (the Delhi Gate and the Amar
Singh Gate) and are surrounded by a deep paved
moat. The fort is the product of several construction
phases the earliest of which belongs to the reign of
Akbar. Little of Akbar’s original palace survives,
except for the enclosure walls and the Jahangari
Mahal which is a Hindu-style pavilion in the south