The Shaikpet Mosque and Sarai is a former mosque and a sarai (rest house) in a partial ruinous state, located near Golconda in Hyderabad, in the Hyderabad District of the state of Telangana, India.[1] The former mosque and serai are listed as a state protected monument.

History

It was built by Abdullah Qutb Shah in AH 1043 (1633/1634 CE) for the benefit of various travellers to Golconda and was located on the way to Bidar.[2] It is a heritage structure and, as of 2018, was in need of restoration.[3][4]

Architecture

Mosque

The former mosque stands upon a rectangular plinth. The plinth measures 37 by 24 metres (121 by 78 ft), and has a height of 0.91 metres (3 ft). The mosque is constructed out of limestone. The façade has three arched entrances, each being about 4.6 metres (15 ft) high and 3.0 metres (10 ft) wide. Above the entrances is a band, approximately 0.91 metres (3 ft) with, of blue, green, and yellow enameled tiles, with white text. Most of the tiles have fallen off. The roof of the mosque is supported by three shallow domes.[5][6]

There are traces of enameled tile-work in the interior of the mosque. The western wall contains six panels of inscriptions, carved in black basalt. Four of these contain Persian verses, one contains an excerpt from the Quran, and the final panel records the date of its construction as AH 1043 (1633/1634).[1][5]

Sarai

The sarai had 30 rooms, stables for horses and camels, and a tomb of an unknown Sufi saint. It could accommodate 500 people.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Sherwani, Haroon Khan (1976). History of The Qutb Shāhī Dynasty. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. pp. 545–546.
  2. ^ Varma, Dr. Anand Raj. "Shaikpet sarai ravaged by nature". Telangana Today. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  3. ^ "Crumbling Shaikpet Sarai & mosque crave attention". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  4. ^ "Shaikpet: A historic locality lost". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  5. ^ a b Yazdani, Ghulam. Annual Report Of The Archaeological Department Of His Exalted Highness The Nizams Dominions, 1346 F. (1936-37 AC) (PDF). Baptist Mission Press. pp. 2–3.
  6. ^ Nayeem, M. A. (2006). The Heritage of the Qutb Shahis of Golconda and Hyderabad. Hyderabad Publishers. ISBN 978-81-85492-23-0.

Media related to Shaikpet Mosque and Sarai at Wikimedia Commons

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