EPIGRAPHS, SCRIPTURE, AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE EARLY DELHI SULTANATE

The Dome of the Rock (691) in Jerusalem was the first expensive, aesthetically oriented religious structure in Islamic history. It was also the first to use architectural inscriptions as part of its overall theme and decoration. Though these inscriptions were small and difficult to see in the dimly lit interior, they offered several themes that had direct bearing on the social and religious functions of this shrine in a city with a Christian population that was both large and powerful and took notable pride in its many splendid monuments. The Arab -traveler al-Muqaddasi noted in 985 that it was vital for Islam in its first century to construct magnificent structures that would match and transform the inherited architectural environment. Thus the epigraphic program of the Dome of the Rock makes explicit references to Islam's unyielding monotheism, to its rejection of Christ's divinity but its acceptance of Christ's role as a prophet, and its belief in Muhammad's unique role as Allah's Messenger bearing the final revelation. It has been convincingly argued that there was nothing haphazard about the selection of the Qur'anic verses that make up the larger part of these epigraphs and that it was the written word that was considered the suitable vehicle for these central beliefs.' The Dome of the Rock is not alone in having a specific and very carefully chosen epigraphic program. In significant ways Islam's subsequent experience in late-twelfth and early-thirteenth-century India paralleled seventh-century Syria and Palestine. The vast majority of the population of the Delhi Sultanate in its first 128 years of existence under the Mu'izzi and Khalji sultans from 1192 to 1320 consisted of nonMuslims who adhered to faiths possessing rich figural traditions in the arts and architecture, and the visual landscape abounded in monuments erected to display the tenets of these other faiths. But there were also important differences: Islam came to India under Ghurid leadership, not as a recently revealed faith, but rather as a long-established religion that had a fivehundred-year-old culture with complex theologies and a vital architectural heritage of its own. Islam brought not only the distinctive, identifying traditions of architecture necessary to create structures symbolizing an enduring state, but also its own, virtually unique means of demonstrating central religious convictions through the use of monumental epigraphy. It is this particular facet of architectural history that will be explored here, not in terms of stylistic development, but instead as a means of investigating and elucidating the political, social, and religious history of medieval Sultanate India through its visual culture.2 The central monument for the early history of Islam in northern India is the earlyjami' masjid of Delhi, begun in the late twelfth century during the reign of Sultan Mu'izz al-Din and continued by his Mu'izzi and Khalji successors.3 Both in its architectural style and in its extensive epigraphs it owes much to Ghaznavid and Ghurid precedents. This essay will examine all of the extant inscriptions in or near this complex and in the jami' masjid of Ajmer. Given the diversity of religious currents in Central Asia and northern India, then, this study can only be regarded as an initial foray into unraveling theological and social complexities and pointing to possible future research directions. Its underlying premise is that inscriptions were carefully selected to set out key doctrinal points and to support, emphasize, and elucidate recent history and contemporary events.