page_title: History of domes in South Asia
section_title: Medieval period
hierarchical_section_title: History of domes in South Asia / Medieval period
caption_attribution_description: English: Qutb Minar and its monuments, Delhi, INdia Español: Complejo de Qutb de Delhi, la India
context_page_description: Islamic rule in South Asia brought with it the use of domes constructed with stone, brick and mortar, and iron dowels and cramps. Centering was made from timber and bamboo. The use of iron cramps to join together adjacent stones was known in pre-Islamic India, and was used at the base of domes for hoop reinforcement. The synthesis of styles created by this introduction of new forms to the Hindu tradition of trabeate construction created a distinctive architecture.
  Domes in pre-Mughal India have a standard squat circular shape with a lotus design and bulbous finial at the top, derived from Hindu architecture. Because the Hindu architectural tradition did not include arches, flat corbels were used to transition from the corners of the room to the dome, rather than squinches. In contrast to Persian and Ottoman domes, the domes of Indian tombs tend to be more bulbous.
context_section_description: The earliest examples include the half-domes of the late 13th century tomb of Balban and the small dome of the tomb of Khan Shahid, which were made of roughly cut material and would have needed covering surface finishes. The Alai Dawarza, a gate in the Qutb complex built in 1311, has the first dome in India made of finely dressed stone cut into voussoir blocks. Arches transition a square chamber to an octagon, which transitions to a sixteen-sided polygon through the use of corbelled brackets. The cut stone dome over the tomb of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (d. 1325) uses alternating rings of shallow and deep stones to produce a better bond with the core material. The use of finely cut stone voussoirs for these domes suggest the migration of masons from the former Seljuk Empire.
  Domes from the late 14th century use roughly shaped stones covered in render, due to the dispersal of skilled masons following the movement of the capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and back again. Examples include the Khirki Masjid (c. 1375) and the tomb of Firoz Shah (d. 1388). The domed tomb of Khan-i-Jahan Tilangani (1368) is generally referred to as "the first octagonal tomb in Delhi with the domed central chamber surrounded by an ambulatory verandah with three arched openings on each facet", although it is predated by the tomb of Zafar Khan.
  Under the Lodi dynasty there was a large proliferation of tomb building, with octagonal plans reserved for royalty and square plans used for others of high rank, and the first double dome was introduced to India in this period. There are multiple candidates. The tomb of Sikander Lodi was built from 1517 to 1518 and is cited, but is predated by the brick tomb of Zain-ul-Abidin's mother, built around 1465 in Zaina Kadal, Srinagar. The Sabz Burj in Delhi may be earlier still, but is dated to 1530-40 by written sources. Although the tomb of Sikander Loki clearly has a double dome, with a distinct space between inner and outer shells, the earlier tomb of Shihab-ud-din Taj Khan (1501) has "an attempt in this direction". Although double domes had long been used in Persia, Iraq, and western Asia, Indian domes prior to this time domes had a single shell of stonework. Afterward, most of the large domes were built with two shells in order to preserve good proportions in both the interior and exterior.
  
  According to Anna Suvorova, author of Muslim Saints in South Asia: The Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries: 
   The domed cupola design of Data Durbar is typical of the pre-Mughal Muslim architecture of South Asia: while erecting the cupolas topping a square building, an intermediate form of squinches or arched transitional supports was used. These squinches are the arches built diagonally across the corners of a square to create this transition from the square to the spherical base of the dome. However, the technique of erecting domes on squinches did not prove strong enough when the domes were excessively high or had too large a radius: such structures could not withstand natural calamities.
  
  The Makli Necropolis, near Thatta, Sindh province is described in the Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial as: 
  The most common form of Muslim funerary monument is a square cube-like building covered with a dome. The origin of this architectural form is a matter of debate, though it may relate either to pre-Islamic Iranian or to Byzantine forms. There are a vast number of variations on this basic theme, including tall honeycomb-like domes seen in Iraq (e.g. Sitt Zubayda), polygonal tent-shaped domes in Turkey and Iran, and bulbous domes, as seen in India and South Asia. ... One of the largest collections of mausolea is located in the Makli hills near Thatta in And province, Pakistan, in a vast cemetery with a circumference of 8 kilometres. Many of these medieval mausolea are decorated with Islamic and Hindu motifs, whilst the later mausolea resemble the domed constructions of Central Asia.
caption: The Alai Dawarza in Delhi.
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