Moth Ki Masjid and (right) Kalu Sarai Mosque examples of deliberate neglect of India’s rich Muslim heritage (Credit:Nasreen Ali/The Muslim News)
Delhi’s historical mosques decay as government forsakes Muslim heritage
Nasreen Ali
“Kuch nahi [there is nothing].” The modestly clad, elderly gentleman with a welcoming smile who guards New Delhi’s Moth ki Mosque shrugs his shoulders. “There is no security, no protection here. Nobody cares. But you are welcome,” he says with polite exasperation.
The Moth ki Masjid (lentil mosque) stands majestic, a testament to a glorious bygone era. It was built in the first decade of the sixteenth century by Miyan Bhoiya, a prime minister under Sultan Sikander Lodi (reg. 1489-1517). Legend has it that the mosque was built from the proceeds of the plentiful harvests reaped from a single lentil that Sinkander Lodi found at the mosque and presented to Miyan Bhoiya in jest.
Today the mosque is a victim of deliberate neglect. Beer and wine bottles and old newspapers, are strewn in the entrance by the five-towered passageway with impressive arches. A somewhat eerie silence greets visitors, most of whom are local hooligans and gamblers.
“It is no longer a working mosque. You don’t need to wear a scarf,” my tour guide tells me with a smile. The entrances to the building are sealed, and it is only possible to gaze at the giant structure by strolling the passage. There is time to reflect on the legends about the building of the mosque: One of them is that Sikandar Lodhi gave a minister named Miya Buhwa a lentil seed he found while strolling.
The Wazir considered this a gift from the Sultan and instead of throwing it away, planted it. The resultant crop grew more lentils, which he sold and built Moth ki Masjid from the proceeds.
Another lesser-known variation is that Mian Buhwa and Sikandar Lodhi were at prayers when the Sultan rose from his knees and Buhwa noticed a lentil seed on the mat. The minister took it and used the money he made from selling the crop to build the mosque. Some legends say that, this was the minister’s private mosque.
Unlike other traditional mosques, Moth ki Masjid has no minarets, calligraphic decorations, or embellishments. It is made of red sandstone, a common theme during the Lodhi Dynasty. The stunning gumba, or dome roof, a structural design commonly seen in most structures of that era is slowly disintegrating. Raised on a high plinth, the mosque has a square layout.
Its gateway, made of red, blue, black, and white coloured sandstones, is from the eastern side of Moti Masjid. It resembles Hindu temples with elephant trunk carvings and square pillars. Many scholars say that this is a fine example of Indo-Islamic architecture and, like most Islamic structures.
It is impossible to see the windows with latticework screens, octagonal cenotaphs, a small semi-circular dome, open arches and double-storeyed towers with their beautiful floral designs described in tourist guides.
Those with imagination can visualise the light golden structure. The stately turrets rise majestically above the present squalor and dirt of the surroundings. The places, now covered with filth, are used for parking. Two and three-storey residential buildings have been constructed painfully close to the mosque and overshadow it.
There are some encouraging words from the Archaeological Survey of India about the mosque being a protected monument. A board at the start of the small road that leads to the mosque states: “This monument has been declared to be of national importance under the ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains an act of 1958.
Whoever destroys, removes, injures, alters, defaces or imperils this monument shall be punishable with imprisonment, which may extend to three months or with a fine which may extend to 5,000 rupees or both.” But scant attention is paid to these fine words, which echo the language of the British colonisers.
Delhi’s Moth ki Masjid is not the only victim of the state’s deliberate neglect of Muslim historical sites. Mohammed Mirza, in an article published by the Muslim Mirror in January 2021, identified eight other historic mosques in Delhi which are disintegrating.
The 600-year-old Kalu Sarai Mosque built by Juna Shah Maqbool Telangani, Wazir of Feroz Shah Tughlaq, has been illegally occupied by squatters for years. Some of its domes have collapsed, and the family residing in it, is making modifications and accretions to the heritage structure as it pleases.
The grandest of all seven mosques built by Maqbool Telangani, the Khirki Masjid, is said to be the largest roofed mosque in the world. Today, those living nearby the 14th-century structure have continued to expand their dwellings at the expense of the mosque’s land, and the authorities merely watch in despair. The mosque now serves as a home for anti-socials and runaway young couples. Outside the mosque, the signboard has been vandalized, and every mention of “mosque” has been haphazardly whitened.
Within the ruined fort of Tughlaqabad, built-in 1321-23 CE by the founder of the Tughlaq Dynasty, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, lies the unique Tughlaqabad Mosque with a long sloping roof and no domes. Surprisingly, it survived, even though many of the original structures of the fort have, in time, been lost.
During partition, the Chauburji Mosque was vandalised and illegally occupied. The encroachers have long gone, yet the mosque remains deserted. Likewise, the Darwesh Shah Mosque from the Lodhi era within the confines of Gulmohar Park has been left to the vagaries of nature as has the Madhi, Masjid, which sees the plaster that covers its sturdy stone walls fall with each passing day.
The architecture of the Begumpur mosque impressed Tamerlane so much that he had a mosque similar to it called the Bibi-Khanym Mosque built in his capital, Samarkand. Unlike the restored Samarkand’s Bibi-Khanym Mosque, the Begumpur Mosque has been neglected and many of its domes have collapsed and a sizeable portion of its land has been encroached. It finds itself in a horrid state even though it has been under the purview of the ASI since 1928.
The Mubarak Shah Mosque stands wedged between residential buildings and shops. It is one of the rare surviving mosques built by the Sayyids even though buffalos roam in its courtyard and empty beer bottles strewn about its prayer chamber. The loss of its physical fabric is so great that it may soon become unsalvageable.
It is ironic that while the iconic Taj Mahal is an internationally recognised symbol of India, nothing as the lone custodian of the Moth ki Majid so aptly put it – is done to preserve other historic Islamic sites.
But can anyone be surprised when Muslims can now be arrested for praying in public, while Hindu pilgrims are congratulated by state officials? The state celebrates the Hindu religion, while protests are orchestrated against Muslim customs like wearing the hijab and the call to prayer. Hindu vigilante groups attack Muslims and their businesses.
The neglect of Muslim heritage sites is another addition to the scandalous catalogue of injustices perpetrated by the Hindu-dominated government against the country’s 200 million Muslims, who account for about 15 per cent of India’s population.
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