Dictionary of islamic architecture

partially demolished). At the end of each of the aisles
there is a mihrab made of coloured marble. The central 
Ahmadabad

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8
aisle is three times the height of the rest of the
building and contains projecting balconies looking
in to the central area. To the east of the mosque is the
tomb of Ahmad Shah which consists of a square
domed mausoleum in the centre with four smaller
square domed chambers at the corners and pillared
verandas in between.
One of the finest buildings of the city is the Rani
Sipri Mosque built in 1514. The building is quite
small and has a pronounced Hindu character with
elaborate carved decoration and fine perforated jalis
or screens.
See also:
Gujarat, India
Further reading:
G.Mitchell and S.Shah, 
Ahmadabad,
Bombay 1988.
Ajdabiya (Roman Corniclanum)
Prominent Fatimid city in Libiya.
Ajdabiya’s owed its importance to its position on
the junction of two important routes, the coastal
route from Tunisia to Egypt and the desert caravan
route from the oases of Jaly and al-Ujlah. Although
the site was known in Roman times, it was during
the Fatimid period that the city achieved its greatest
development.
Jami Masjid, Ahmadabad, India
Plan of the tomb of Ahmad Shah, Ahmadabad, India
Ajdabiya (Roman Corniclanum)

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Several remains of the Fatimid complex have
been recovered including a rectangular mud-brick
enclosure wall, the qasr or palace and the mosque.
The palace is a rectangular stone built structure
approximately 22 by 33 m with solid circular corner
towers and semi-circular buttress towers. The
palace has one entrance in the north wall leading
into a courtyard enclosed by apartments. At the
opposite end to the corner from the entrance there
is a large T-shaped suite of rooms which probably
functioned as the royal apartment. The royal
apartments were once luxuriously decorated with
stucco work.
The most important building at the site is the
mosque located in the south-west corner of the
complex. Extensive archaeological work on the
mosque has defined a Fatimid and pre-Fatimid
phase above an earlier Roman site, but only the
Fatimid phase has been investigated in any detail.
In 912 the Fatimids sacked the town of Ajdabiya
and destroyed the mosque building a new one on
the site. The Fatimid mosque consists of a
rectangular structure (47 by 31 m) built out of mud
brick with corners, piers, jambs and other
structurally important points built out of stone.
There was one entrance in the north-west side
opposite the mihrab and several other side
entrances, all of which appear to have been plain
in contrast to the monumental porches at Mahdiya
and Cairo. Inside there is a large courtyard paved
with flagstones and a water tank in the middle at
the northern end of the mosque. The courtyard is
surrounded by arcades and on the south-eastern side
is the sanctuary. The latter has a wide central aisle
running at right angles to the qibla wall where it
meets a transept running parallel to the qibla wall;
all the other aisles are aligned at right angles to the
qibla.
To the left of the main entrance is a large square
block 4 m high which was the base of a minaret with
an octagonal shaft. This is the earliest example of
this type of minaret which was later developed into
the characteristic Cairene minaret form. There are
also traces of a staircase built into the wall which
have been interpreted as the remains of a staircase
minaret used before the erection of the later
octagonal one.
Little remains of the mihrab apart from the
foundations and some stucco fragments; however,
nineteenth-century drawings depict it as a curved
recessed niche with a horseshoe arch.