Plate 1. Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan at Lahore.

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 The Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan at Lahore:
A Reconstruction of Its Original Decoration
by Masooma Abbas

Few people, even residents of Lahore, are aware that a mid-seventeenth century
Mughal Tomb exists at Mughalpura, Lahore. Unfortunately, this structure, the
Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan, built in1656-1657, has received slight attention in
terms of its preservation and is now bereft of almost all its exterior and interior
ornamentation (plate 1). The objective of this paper is to restore theoretically this
once spectacular structure, as it would have been at the time of its completion.
History records Ali Mardan Khan an important place at both the Safavid
and Mughal courts. His father Ganj Ali Khan held the positions of commander
of the armed forces and governor of Kirman, Sistan and Qandahar during Shah
Abbas I rule (1588-1629). The Shah gave him the nickname of bābā (father).1
When Ganj Ali Khan died in 1624, Ali Mardan Khan received his charge and
was given the title bābā-yi-thāni (second father) by Shah Abbas I. However, when
Shah Abbas I died and Shah Safi ascended the throne, Ali Mardan, who was
the governor of Qandahar at that time, faced threats of execution from the new
emperor. Seeing that the situation was not in his favor, Ali Mardan believed his
survival was in joining the Mughals; and he surrendered the fortress of Qandahar,
which he then commanded, to Shahjahan in 1638. The grateful Mughal ruler
gave him the highest post, of 7000 horse, and the title of amīr al-umarā. In that
same year he was appointed governor of Kashmir; later Punjab also came under
his administrative domain. Until his death on 16 April, 1657 he held the post of
governor of Kabul too.2
Ali Mardan was a civil engineer, an architect, a commander of Shahjahan’s
forces and an able administrator as well. As a Safavid engineer and architect, he
built the cistern in the Ganj Ali Khan Complex at Kirman, restored the Old Fort
at Qandahar, and constructed Qandahar’s Bagh-i Nazar and its new Fort at Mount
Laka. He also constructed a new market at Kabul and built bridges there.3 At the
Mughal court, he is famous for the construction of the Grand Canal (Shah Nahar)
of Shalimar Garden and for the reactivation of Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s old canal in
Lahore, and the covered market (Bazaar-i Musaqqaf) at Peshawar. According to
Lahore lore, the tomb in which Ali Mardan Khan’s son Ibrahīm Khan buried him
at Lahore was one Ali Mardan built for his mother.4

1 Mehrnoush Soroush, “Ali Mardan Khan” Encyclopaedia Iranica 2010, under “Articles,” www.iranica.com/
articles/ali-mardan-khan (accessed November 23, 2010).
2 Ibid.; Syad Muhammad Latif, Lahore: Its History, Architectural Remains and Antiquities (Lahore: Sang-e-
Meel Publications, 2005), 153.
3 Soroush, “Ali Mardan Khan.”
4 Ibid.; Latif, Lahore, 2005, 153; Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture: An Outline of Its History and Development
(1526-1858), (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1991), 124; R. Nath, History of Mughal Architecture IV, pt. 1 (New
Delhi: Abhinav Publications), 332.
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 Today, the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan is within the premises of Pakistan
Railway Workshop, as it has been since British rule, and is approachable only
through a long narrow alleyway covered by iron-bars. During British rule, the iron
bars were installed over the passage to avoid theft of the iron that was scattered
about the railway premises.5 The tomb is only open on Thursdays, when people
from the vicinity come to pay homage to the deceased (who, in their view, is
believed to be a pious man). Due to its secluded position, the monument, although
mentioned by a few scholars, has received very limited aesthetic appreciation.
The Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan is among the prominent examples of the
mausoleums of the nobles at Lahore. The octagonal tomb belongs to the mature
phase of Mughal architecture. It competes with the royal tomb of Jahangir and
his brother-in-law Asif Khan at Shahdara. With its broad range of decorative
techniques and designs it is an important component of the study of Mughal
funerary architecture at the end of the first half of the seventeenth century.
Funerary architecture enjoyed a considerable status in the Mughal Period. The
Mughal emperors favored sepulchers of both octagon and square plan. The plan of
Ali Mardan Khan’s tomb is octagonal and not novel but had its origin at the Dome
of the Rock built in 691 CE and in the earliest octagonal Abbasid tomb—Qubbat
al-Sulaibiya at Samarra of mid-ninth century.6 Unlike the tomb of Ali Mardan
Khan, the two earliest tombs included a passageway for circumambulation of the
central structure. Afterwards, the octagonal plan had several variants. One was the
storied form, like the Tomb of Öljeitu of 1304 at Sultaniya, and its contemporary,
the Tomb of Shah Rukn-i Alam of 1320 at Multan. Among the earliest examples
of this plan at the imperial capital, Delhi, under Sultanate rule, was the Tomb
of Khan-i Jahan Tilangani of 1368. This tomb became a prototype for the future
octagonal Sultanate tombs of the Sayyid and Lodhi dynasties, and found its climax
in the Tomb of Sher Shah Suri, at Sasaram. Earlier Mughal octagonal tombs
situated at Delhi include the Sabz Burj and Nila Gumbad, both dating from the
first half of the sixteenth century; like the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan, they have
arched openings, and a crowning dome on a drum but no rotating verandah.7 On
the other hand, Delhi’s so-called octagonal tombs of the Humayun Period are, in
fact, square in plan with chamfered corners.
The Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan has similarities with several Mughal tombs
of the later sixteenth/early seventeenth century. The Tomb of Shah Quli Khan of
1574-75 at Narnaul, the Mausoleum of Mumin Hussaini of 1612-13 at Nakodar;
the Tomb of Shamsher Khan of 1589-90 at Batala and the octagonal tombs at

5 According to Akmal Sahib, the site attendant, interview by the author at the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan,
September 2, 2010.
6 Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1994), 254; K.A.C. Creswell, A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture (Baltimore: Penguin Books,
1958), 288.
7 Koch, Mughal Architecture, 36-37; G. H. R. Tillotson, Mughal India (London: Penguin Books, 1991), 48.
According to both these authors, this style has an Iranian derivation, especially from the late- and post-
Timurid Period, as seen at the memorial of Momo Sharifan of 1500 at Ghazni and the Abu Nasr Pasha
Mosque at Balkh.

14|
Bahlolpur, all have octagonal plans.
Catherine B. Asher compares the
Sher Mandal at Delhi and the Hatha
Mahal at Fatehpur Sikri with Persian
pavilions, which in her view have
similarity, and this style was favored
in the second quarter of seventeenth
century.8 While Iranian pavilions
are the direct inspiration for Mughal
octagonal tombs, an octagonal plan
crowned with a dome and a prominent
drum and having no rotating verandah
or chamfered corners is witnessed at
Ottoman Tombs, for example, at the
Yeşil Türbe of 1424 at Bursa. Within
the architectural boundaries of the
Mughal world, octagonal tombs were
built on raised octagonal platforms
and surrounded by gardens (chāhār
bagh). At Lahore, the Tomb of Asif
Khan built in 1641 at Shahdara, has Figure 1. Site plan of Ali Mardan Khan’s Tomb at
both an octagonal podium and its Lahore. Source: By the permission of
Mr. Salim-ul-Haq, Director, Department of
original chāhār bagh.
Archaeology, Lahore, Government of the Punjab.
The Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan
was undoubtedly surrounded by a larger garden during the time of Shahjahan; it
was part of the extensive gardens along the way to Shalimar Gardens of that time.9
The present wall enclosing the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan is a later addition and
the location of the tomb within its larger garden cannot be calculated.
One original gate to the chāhār bagh remains, on the north of the tomb facing
the Railway Workshop building (plate 2). An iron grill has permanently closed the
gate since the British Period.10 During Sikh rule (1799-1849), this gateway building
served as the residence of Gurdit Singh, Colonel of a Sikh battalion known as the
Misārnwāli.11 The rectangular gate, known as a chintgarh, is double-storied with a
large three-centered central arch flanked by two smaller arches of the same shape,
one above the other (plates 2 and 3).12 The central arch has an arched opening
above the main entrance archway whereas the flanking arches on both levels have
rectangular openings. The central arched opening and the upper storey flanking

8 Catherine B. Asher, The New Cambridge History of India: Architecture of Mughal India (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1992), 83-84.
9 Saifur Rahman Dar, Crafts of Lahore (Lahore: Punjab Small Industries Corporation, 2010), 56.
10 According to Akmal Sahib, the site attendant, interviewed by the author at the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan,
September 2, 2010.
11 Latif, Lahore, 153.
12 J. P. Vogel, Tile-Mosaics of the Lahore Fort (Karachi: Pakistan Publications, 1920), 58.

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 Plate 2. Gateway to the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan, facing north.

Plate 3. Rear façade of the gateway to the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan, facing south.

16|
arches have “patterned stucco vaults generating lozenge-shaped muqarnas.”13
This is a typical nesting of arches as found in other Mughal gateways of the mid-
seventeenth century at Lahore.
The façade of the gateway is similar in its architectural elements and surface
decoration to the gateway to the Tomb of Asif Khan at Shahdara near Lahore built
in 1645 (plate 4),14 the Gulabi Bagh gateway of 1655 and Chauburji at Lahore
of 1646.15 Identical alcoves on both sides of the interior gateway are on raised
platforms, and are deprived of almost all decoration; they are similar to, but
smaller than, ones on the entrance gateway of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore of
1673 that also have stucco muqarnas with traces of ornamentation. The roof of the
gateway is approachable on the east and the west by staircases that are now in a
damaged state.
No traces of causeways or pathways, or any fountains of the garden are visible
on the surface today. The Tomb is built on an octagonal platform with flights of
stairs on the north and south to approach the platform (figure 2). On the plinth
level, on each of the four cardinal directions, there is a water tank (figure 3). There
is limited space on the sides of the tanks that parallel the tomb structure and edge
of the platform. As compared to the huge structure, the plinth area is relatively
small and congested. The dried tanks have lost their plastered coating and no
evidence for a fountain can be detected. The floor of the platform was paved with
kiln-burnt bricks but only a few of these peep out from among the bushes now
growing there.
Each side of the octagonal tomb has a four-centered arch opening (figure 4)
divided into two sections; the lower section has a pointed archway, with radiating
voussoirs, for entrance, and the upper one has an arched opening. The muqarnas
of the arch has fragmentary fresco paintings while the area below them has lost
its core. A shallow parapet (43 feet, 1 inch above plinth level) is devoid of any
decorative element, unlike the embattled parapets of Sultanate octagonal tombs. At
its lower exterior construction, the structure is slightly battered.
On each corner of the octagon rising above the parapet are small octagonal
kiosks or chattris (of which only three survive) consisting of an octagonal base, pillar
supports, arched openings, a projecting chajja (eaves) on brackets above and a high
rising cupola (figure 5 and plate 5). The cupola of the kiosk is constructed by means
of the trabeate system, with corbelled bricks in concentric circle (plate 6). They are

13 According to Koch (Mughal Architecture, 70), the pseudo-structural network system generating lozenge-
shaped muqarnas is a typical feature of the Jahangir Period and was inspired by Safavid architecture, which
derived from the Timurid arch-netting of the phase of transition.
14 R. Nath, “The Transitional Phase of Colour and Design, Jehāngīr, 1605-1627 A.D.” in History of Mughal
Architecture: (Lahore: Nadeem Book House, 1994), 229, says that there are subsidiary gateways at Asif Khan’s
Tomb on the north and the west but now no traces for a passage or entrance remains on this northern
gateway and for this reason it is considered as a garden pavilion. The western side has a three-arched single-
storied pavilion identical to the damaged pavilion on the east, rather than being a subsidiary gateway.
15 See Masooma Abbas, “Islimi: Its Development In Muslim Architecture and Book Illumination” (PhD diss.,
Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, 2008), plate 328, for Chauburji gateway; Ihsan H. Nadiem,
Lahore: A Glorious Heritage (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publication, 2006), 153, for Gulabi Bagh gateway.

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 Plate 4. Gateway to the Tomb of Asif Khan at Shahdara, built in 1645.

Figure 2. Front elevation of Ali Mardan Khan’s Tomb. Figure 3. Ground floor of Ali Mardan Khan’s
Drawing by the author. Tomb. Source: by the permission of Mr.
Salim-ul-Haq, Director, Department of
Archaeology, Lahore, Government of the
Punjab.
18|
Figure 4. Ground floor of Ali Mardan’s Tomb. Figure 5. Roof plan of Ali Mardan Khan’s
Source: By the permission of Mr. Salim-ul-Haq, Tomb. Source: By the permission of Mr. Salim-
Director, Department of Archaeology, Lahore, ul-Haq, Director, Department of Archaeology,
Government of the Punjab. Lahore, Government of the Punjab.

similar to the first Islamic shallow domes built at Quwwat al-Islam Mosque of 1220
at Delhi. These octagonal chattris have cut brick work on their bases and traces of
fragmentary fresco painting on the plastered exterior that give evidence of a once
attractive architectural decorative element. The fresco designs are stylized but
simplified and belong to the decorative vocabulary prevailing at the end of the first
half of seventeenth century. These chattris at each angle break the monotony of the
huge drum; their shape is in harmony with the dome.
The kiosk or chattri is an element utilized in the Muslim architecture of India
since the Sultanate Period. According to R. Nath, such kiosks were the outcome of
experimentation at the Tomb of Telingani
of 1368-1369 at Delhi, where they were
found initially, not as small kiosks, but
as cupolas. They were later found in
abundance at Kalan Masjid (1370-1371)
and Khirki Mosque (c. 1375), both at

Plate 5. Kiosk rising above each octagonal Plate 6. Interior of the cupola of the small kiosk.
corner.

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 Delhi, of Tughlaq style.16 It seems more
appropriate that the ones at the tomb of
Ali Mardan Khan had direct inspiration
from the kiosks of the tombs of Sayyids
and Lodhis because these type of chattris
are employed for most of their octagonal
and square mausoleums at Delhi.17 The
structure of the kiosk resembles both
the crowning structure of a minaret, the
earliest seen on the minaret of Ibn-i Tulun
Mosque of 878, at Cairo, and, closer to
home, the pillared and domical pavilion
of graves which were found in the vicinity Figure 6. Plan of double dome of Ali Mardan
Khan’s Tomb. Source: By the permission of
of the Tomb of Telingani at Delhi. These
Mr. Salim-ul-Haq, Director, Department of
kiosks provide a happy fusion of an Archaeology, Lahore, Government of the
indigenous element with an Iranian Punjab.
version of an octagonal tomb construction.
The exterior of the lofty drum has stairs leading to its openings on the east
(figure 5), which is now closed, and the west, where the inner lower shell and the
rising high outer shell of the double dome can be examined (figure 6). The diameter
of the drum is 200 ft and the height of the drum and dome is 60 ft. The total height
of the facade up to the parapet is almost equal to the height of the dome and drum
if one includes a measurement for a missing finial.
The domical construction is massive, grand and disproportionate as compared
to the structure below. The tomb would have been better proportioned if the height
of the drum had been decreased by four to five feet. In shape, it is different from the
almost contemporary dome and drum of the Tomb of Asif Khan at Shahdara.The
dome and high drum of Ali Mardan’s tomb are similar in proportion to those at
the Tomb of Mulla Hasan Shirazi, belonging to Mongol Period at the beginning of
fourteenth century, at Sultaniya, Iran.18 Another element of the latter tomb similar
to one at Ali Mardan’s tomb is that the drum and dome are almost equal in height
to the lower structure. While comparing this Iranian fourteenth-century structure
with our seventeenth-century Mughal tomb it should be noted that the absence of
chattris at the former makes the drum and dome stand isolated on the skyline and
increases the feeling of height and elevation but the presence of kiosks at the latter
provides a proportionate and aesthetic appearance.
A petal motif runs around the top of the drum giving the impression of blind
arcades with stalactite segments in plaster stucco (plate 7). It imparts a feeling

16 R. Nath, History of Sultanate Architecture (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1978), 85; Satish Grover, The
Architecture of India: Islamic (727-1707 A.D.) (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1981), 46.
17 Ibid. See plates LXXIX, LXXXVI, LXXXVIII, and XCI, for kiosks of Sayyid and Lodhi period.
18 Dominique Clevenot, Ornament and Decoration in Islamic Architecture (London: Thames and Hudson,
2000), 59, plate 72; the difference of Mulla Hasan Shirazi’s tomb is that it has no kiosks and has a square plan
with chamfered corners.

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 Figure 7. Split leaves joined face-to-face with minimal appearance of the vine. This design on
the neck of the dome runs all-around in black marble inlay. Drawing by the author.

that a stylized lotus is holding up the dome. This is similar to the pronounced
mahapadma motif at the neck and base of the dome of the Tombs of Golconda
near Hyderabad, Deccan.19 Above the drum are holes, most likely pigeonholes, at
the base of the dome. They are now partially destroyed but some still accommodate
birds.
The surface decoration of the dome and drum has been largely destroyed
revealing its underlying fabric of kiln-burnt bricks and plastered surfaces. However,
there are a few traces of the dome’s original cover of white marble inlayed with

Plate 7. Decorative element at the top of the drum.

Plate 8. Fragmentary design on the neck of the dome.

19 Grover, The Architecture of India, 118.

|21
 other stone (plate 8). The design
around the lower edge of the dome
is comprised of two superimposed
vines with inverted split leaves
(figure 7). The pronounced sharp
edges of the split leaves were helpful
in determining the exact design in
the fragmentary remains. Impression
of this same design on the overall
surface of the dome shows that
the entire dome was covered
with patterns in inlay with only
a minimum area above the drum
unornamented. The slightly raised
area around the apex of the dome
suggests that it had an inverted
padmakosa, an indigenous element
present on almost every Mughal
Plate 9. Interior hall of the Tomb of Ali Mardan
domical construction since the
Khan.
Sultanate Period.
Like the exterior, the interior

Plate 10. Underground chamber of Ali Mardan Tomb.

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 of the tomb is also in a poor state. The
main floor is entered from the archway on
the south; the seven other archways have
ducts opening from the underground burial
chamber that block the entrances. An area in
the centre of the octagonal hall show where
the original raised platform with a cenotaph
would have stood (plate 9).
Directly beneath the cenotaph area is
Figure 8. Plan of the basement of
the underground burial chamber (plate
Ali Mardan’s Tomb. Source: By the 10), approached by stairs near the southern
permission of Mr. Salim-ul-Haq, entrance on the left. The underground burial
Director, Department of Archaeology, chamber is in a better condition than the hall
Lahore, Government of the Punjab. above. On a raised platform are three graves,
the central and right one are of adult size, the
one on the left for a child. The middle one
has Ali Mardan Khan’s name while the other two have no inscriptions (plate 10).
The tombstone has verses in Persian

“amīrē sāhib-i daulat, mushīrē sāhib-i hishmat

sanāgōy-i ‘Alī u mard-i haqq-āgāh Mardān Khān
safar chun kard zīn dunyā-yi dūn sūy-i baqā ākhir
nidā āmad ba tārīkhash ki ‘ālī-jāh Mardān Khān (= 1066)”

A commander of great good fortune, a counselor of magnificence,

A praiser of Ali, a man aware of God, Mardan Khan,
When he traveled from this nether world toward eternity
A cry came as the date, saying, He of exalted position, Mardan Khan.20

It is said that the other adult grave is of Ali Mardan Khan’s mother.21 The
roof of this underground chamber has muqarnas created with plaster stucco and
embellished with stylized and simplified floral patterns and acanthus leaves (plate
11).
20 My thank to Wheeler M. Thackston for the transcription, transliteration, and translation of this tombstone
and the reading of its abjad date.
21 According to Akmal Sahib, the site attendant, interview by the author at the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan
September 2, 2010.

|23
 Seven arch-shaped ducts
lighting the burial area lead
to rectangular openings
above placed in front of every
doorway, except the south
one (figure 8 and plate 10).
However, this is an unusual
and awkward arrangement
not found in other Mughal
monuments at Lahore.
The main burial hall has
lost surface plaster from its
walls and also its flooring
Plate 11: Ceiling of the underground burial Chamber.
(plates 9 and 12). From
the inside, each side of the
octagon has two arch niches,
one above the other. The lower
ones contain the entrance
ways while the upper ones
have small arched windows
within recessed arches that
illuminate the interior.
The octagonal shape of the
construction offers an easy
phase of transition from walls
to dome with pendentives
(plate 12).
Plate 12. View of the inner surface of the dome and arches
The only remains of
of the burial hall.
decoration in the interior are
two patches of incised plaster
stucco on the dome (plate
13 and figure 9). The design
on this stucco is similar to
the remnants of stuccowork
on the inner surface of the
dome of Asif Khan Tomb,
where the design can be more
easily examined. Both show
a European influenced lattice
pattern comprised of acanthus
leaves, either facing each other
or in a clustered form, and
Figure 9. The remaining decoration of the interior dome.
Schematized paired acanthus facing each other attached
to thick vines with split ends. Drawing by the author.
24|
Plate 13. Remains of incised stucco work on the inner surface of the dome.

broad vine motifs. According to Percy Brown, this design is inspired by Italian or
Sicilian textile.22 This same motif was employed for ornamentation at the Badshahi
Mosque at Lahore. This is the only stuccowork that survives at the Ali Mardan
tomb. Fires frequently set to clear the bushes growing on the premises in modern
times have damaged the ceiling.
Almost all the mediums utilized for the ornamentation of seventeenth century
Mughal monuments are present at the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan: faience mosaic,
fresco paintings, inlay work and stucco. The missing cenotaph probably was made
of marble in inlay or carving. The significance of this tomb lies in the fact that it
amalgamates indigenous Indian, Iranian, and European decorative elements. It
affirms that by the end of the first half of seventeenth century the Mughal style of
decoration was an outcome of a synthesis of various styles, all present at this tomb.
At Ali Mardan Khan’s Tomb there is a uniformity in the ornamental style
throughout the structure, a uniformity not found in some other Mughal
monuments of the second quarter of the seventeenth century at Lahore, such as
the Wazir Khan Mosque. At the Mosque tile mosaic has designs inclining towards

22 Percy Brown, Indian Architecture: Islamic Period, 4th ed., (Bombay: Taraporevala Sons & Co., 1956), 107.

|25
 Iranian inspired islimi-khata’i but most of the fresco paintings have a dominant
Mughal decorative vocabulary, as influenced by European decorative patterns.23
Mughal ornamental vocabulary was adopted from Safavid artistic traditions of
the first half of sixteenth century. It incorporated both Timurid and Safavid islimi-
khata’i.24 Islimi enjoyed a prominent status in Mughal art of the second half of
sixteenth century and first quarter of seventeenth century. From the beginning of
Mughal art ornament received indigenous naturalistic influence as well. Naturalistic
Indian trees were depicted with fruits and foliage especially in the Akbar Period.25
These were subordinated to other subjects in the second half of sixteenth century,
but gradually in the first quarter of seventeenth century, due to Jahangir’s interest in
naturalism, this secondary theme emerged as a separate part of Mughal decorative
repertoire. In the Shahjahan period, during the second quarter of the seventeenth
century, single plant motifs rapidly attained a prominent status and were utilized in
every decorative situation.
Ali Mardan Khan’s Tomb portrays not only islimi-khata’i and single plant motif
but also the newly developed Mughal decorative style; dominantly inspired by
European patterns such as naturalistic floral motifs, lyre-shape designs, acanthus
motifs, and discontinuous cartouches.26 The Mughal decorative style is, in fact,
a mixture of all three influences: Iranian, indigenous Indian, and European, and

Figure 10. Cloud collar motif filled with acanthus on a lyre-shaped

pedestal and vases with flowers. Drawing by the author.

23 Islimihas etymologically a Persian background. This word is derived from the Arabic word islami that
means in the Islamic manner and khata’i (in the Chinese manner) is a branch of islimi comprised of flower,
bud and leaf motif on vine executed with the same islimi principles. These words appear in sixteenth century
Safavid treatises on painting, see W.M. Thackston, trans., A Century of Princes: Sources on Timurid History
and Art (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 1989), 381; under
“Muqarnas/ ArchNet/Digital Library,” http://archnet.org/library/documents/one-document.jsp?document_
id=11281 (accessed October 4 2010); John Richardson, Dictionary Persian, Arabic and English (Lahore:
Sang-e-Meel Publications, 1929), 92; Sadiqi Beg Afshar, Qanun al-Suwwar, lines 76-79, in Yves Porter,
Painters, Paintings and Books: An Essay on Indo-Persian Technical Literature, 12-19th Centuries, trans. S.
Butani (New Delhi: Manohar Publivcations, 1994), Annex 2, 109; Qadi Ahmed Qomi, Golestan-e-Honar
o Tazkere-ye Khoshnevisan va Naqqashan, trans. V. Minorsky as Calligraphers and Painters, (Washington:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1959), 178.
24 Abbas, “Islimi”, 110-111.
25 Clevenot, Ornament and Decoration in Islamic Architecture, 140, plate 196.
26| 26 Barbara Brend, Islamic Art (London: British Museum Press, 1991), 212.
 by close observation of the
remnants of ornamentation
at the Tomb of Ali Mardan
Khan, every motif can be
singled out here.
The decoration of the
Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan
shows this hybrid Mughal
Decorative style in its mature
phase. The soffits of the
arches of the façade of the
gateway and its interior and
the eight arched openings
of the Tomb structure have
fresco paintings now in a
vulnerable condition. The
fresco paintings of the
gateway have especially faded
due to the atmospheric effects
and smoke but the mosaic
work is still in an examinable
condition, those even though
they too are gradually falling
Plate 14. Faience mosaic panel from the façade of the apart. Faience mosaic is
gateway of Ali Mardan Khan’s Tomb. today only found at the
entrance gate whereas the
only remaining visible exterior decoration at the tomb is the fresco painting on the
muqarnas segments of the four-centered arches. The mosaic work of the façade of
the gateway facing the north is in a better state as compared to the one facing south;
otherwise, the patterns are the same except for some variety in background colors
(plate 2).
A faience mosaic border of cloud collar motifs frames the gateway on three
sides (figure 10). Cloud collar is a Chinese motif popular among the Mughal artists.
This motif is reciprocal (first upright then upside-down) and filled with naturalistic
single plant motifs, acanthus leaves and lyre shapes. The area between and around
the central arch and the flanking arches are all covered with faience mosaic panels,

Plate 15. Faience mosaic panels with varied composition on the façade of the gateway.

|27
 cartouches and borders. Square and
rectangular panels enclose vases
in arches with floral motifs again
placed on lyre-shaped pedestals
(plates 14 and 15).
The vase was another popular
Timurid theme, although vases
have been depicted in Islamic
art since the Umayyad Period,
notably at the Dome of the Rock
at Jerusalem. During the Timurid
Period, the vases were rendered
Plate 16. Islimi-khata’i on the spandrels of the flatly and filled with vine and split
central arch of the gateway leaf motif (similar ones are still
used as an ornament for surface
decoration today). Almost all
important Mughal monuments
of the seventeenth century at
Lahore have vases with springing
naturalistic foliage, flowers,
and blossoms called guldasta
composition.27 Indigenous or
Iranian inspired floral motifs were
depicted, but gradually floral and
leaf motif of European origin
Plate 17. Faience mosaic from the lower side arches attained primary position. The
of the south façade of the gateway of Ali Mardan mosaic panels at the gateway to
Khan’s tomb. the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan are
similar in design and layout to ones at Chauburji monument in Lahore but have
more Europeanized decorative motifs.28
One of the Ali Mardan panels shows a vase placed in an arch that has an
angular profile with vine and acanthus leaves in its spandrels (plate 14). The
vase has paired split leaf filling and is placed on a pedestal between smaller
floral bunches. The curved parenthesis-shape pedestal is a European motif of
the sixteenth century.29 Other panels of ornamentation, relatively smaller or
horizontally oriented, show various other vase themes and single plant motifs.
Stylized acanthus leaf motif is again dominant and utilized for contours of the
cartouches, as a leaf for floral bunches and, in some instances, replaces the split
leaf motif (plate 15). The spandrels of the central arch on both sides of the gateway
have the same design except that the north or front side has a white background

27 R. Nath, History of Mughal Architecture, 638.

28 Chauburji gateway has vase theme panels in faience mosaic on both sides of the double storied flanking
arches of the central arch.
29 Brend, Islamic Art, 212.

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 whereas the façade facing south has a yellow one. The
central motif on the spandrel shows islimi comprised of
blue paired split leaves joined back-to-back with orange
flaps on the scrolling vine (plate 16). The islimi pattern is
superimposed on a khata’i design of lotuses and serrated
leaves on a more delicate vine. The central lotus is of
special interest as it is placed on a lyre-shaped pedestal
(figure 11). This lotus contains an inner pomegranate;
the design was inspired by a Safavid lotus found at
Isfahan, at the Mosque of Sheikh Lutfullah built between
1602-1618 and the Mosque of the Imam (1611-1629)
that were also in faience mosaic.
On the south side of the gateway, decoration on
Figure 11. Lotus with an one of the lower arches remains (plate 17). The vines of
inner pomegranate on this spandrel have split ends with jagged contours that
a lyre-shaped pedestal,
from the spandrel of the
grow like creepers towards the corners of the spandrel.
central arch of the gateway. A similar vine contour was also seen on the archway of
Drawing by the author. Chauburji gateway at Lahore, also in faience mosaic.30
This style seems to be an inspiration from contemporary
designs of Mughal carpets. The two vines are joined at the upper point and are
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connected at their waists by a straight line, another European motif of the sixteenth
century.32 The line serves as a pedestal for a small vase.

Plate 18. Remains of fresco painting on the arched recesses of Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan.

30 Thisdesign is found on the spandrel of the central archway of Chauburji gateway.

31 See Daniel Walker, Flowers Underfoot: Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era (London: Thames and Hudson,
1998), figures 39-40.
32 See Owen Jones, Grammar of Ornament (London: Dorling Kindersley, 2001), plate 8.
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 Plate 19. Muqarnas segment from the arched recess of the octagonal Tomb with sunflower as its
centre of interest.

The fresco painting on the gateway is very

similar to that on the arched recesses of the
octagonal tomb, and, even though both are in
poor condition, the decorative vocabulary can
be examined in the muqarnas segments (plate
18). The color scheme used in the muqarnas
units is rich with contrasts of bright tones and
is executed with great finesse. Each segment
shows precise minute details and has a different
composition. Floral motifs such as lilies,
tulips, chrysanthemum, carnation, hibiscus,
peonies, daisies and roses; acanthus leaf motif
on delicate vine and lyre-shaped pedestals
are part of the ornamental repertoire. Some
Plate 20. Abr (cloud) motif on the
muqarnas segments show indigenous flowers muqarnas segment of the four-
and simplified stylized floral shape depicted centered arch.
with keen observation. In other segments, still
life objects and feathery split leaf motif can be detected.
One of the segments shows a scrolling vine with loti flower (a hybrid form of
sunflower and lotus) at its centre with delicate vines shooting from it carrying lilies,
hibiscus and peonies with leaves (plate 19). A similar composition is also seen on

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the spandrels of the central arch of the façade of the Badshahi Mosque of 1673, at
Lahore. Other larger muqarnas segments have the same layout but with different
combinations of flowers. This design follows typical Iranian khata’i layout—with
floral and leaf motifs placed at different points on the vine—but the vine in the
Mughal Decorative Style is intermittent whereas Iranian khata’i has a continuous
scrolling vine.
Other painted muqarnas segments at the tomb of Ali Mardan Khan have lyre-
shapes composed of acanthus leaves that serve as a pedestal from which flowers
like lilies and tulips, leaves and blossoms spring. Some of the smaller muqarnas
segments hold only a rose in the centre, attached to paired discontinuous vine
ending in flowers. Dishes with fruits, a local motif, are also placed on paired
acanthus leaves with vine.
One unusual layout on a muqarnas segment shows candles placed on acanthus
leaves and acanthus vines shoot from a pomegranate that, in turn, has a floral base.
This composition is again similar to European ornamental designs and is a type of
decorative later found at the Badshahi Mosque.
A final painted motif on the muqarnas segment of the Tomb of Ali Mardan
Khan is a convoluted abr (cloud) motif (plate 20). The cloud motif is of Chinese
origin and entered in the Islamic decorative vocabulary in the thirteenth century
with the advent of the Mongols. It was a major decorative motif of Islamic
ornament during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Mughal cloud motif
of the second half of sixteenth and first quarter of the seventeenth century was
generally similar to the cloud motif found in Safavid book illumination of the first
half of sixteenth century. However, the abr found in the muqarnas segment at Ali
Mardan Khan’s Tomb is similar to Safavid ones at Isfahan and has the same ribbon-
like configuration as seen on the entrance façade of the Mosque of the Imam of
1611-29, at Isfahan in haft rangi. On the other hand, the cloud band found at the
Wazir Khan Mosque of 1634 at Lahore is similar to the cloud bands in Safavid
book illumination of the first half of the sixteenth century under Shah Tahmasp.
However, at Lahore, the cloud motif is not superimposed on vine and split leaf
design but has naturalistic flowers with vine and leaves.
After the Tomb of Ali Mardan Khan Mughal mausoleums with such qualities
are not found at Lahore. Even after witnessing unsympathetic treatment by the
Sikhs and the British this tomb is a complete example of Mughal Decorative style.
Unfortunately, this monument, which displays all the varied ornamental styles of
Mughal art is in a state of almost terminal decline.

* All photographs are by the author. My great thanks to Mr. Salim-ul-Haq, Director,
Department of Archaeology Lahore for providing excellent plans of Ali Mardan
Khan’s Tomb.

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