page_title: Qutb Minar complex
section_title: Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque
hierarchical_section_title: Qutb Minar complex / Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque
caption_attribution_description: English: The picture depicts a carving of Jain Tirthankar at the Twenty seven Jain temple complex ruins near Qutub Minar.
context_page_description: The Qutb complex are monuments and buildings from the Delhi Sultanate at Mehrauli in Delhi in India. Construction of the Qutub Minar "victory tower" in the complex, named after the religious figure Sufi Saint Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, was begun by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who later became the first Sultan of Delhi of the Mamluk dynasty. It was continued by his successor Iltutmish, and finally completed much later by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, a Sultan of Delhi from the Tughlaq dynasty in 1368 AD. The Qubbat-ul-Islam Mosque, later corrupted into Quwwat-ul Islam, stands next to the Qutb Minar.
  Many subsequent rulers, including the Tughlaqs, Alauddin Khalji and the British added structures to the complex. Apart from the Qutb Minar and the Quwwat ul-Islam Mosque, other structures in the complex include the Alai Darwaza gate, the Alai Minar and the Iron pillar. The Quwwat ul-Islam Mosque was originally built from the remains of 27 older Hindu and Jain temples. The pillars of the temples were reused and the original images plastered over. Inside the complex lie the tombs of Iltutmish, Alauddin Khalji and Imam Zamin.
context_section_description: Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque (Arabic: قوة الإسلام ) (Might of Islam) (also known as the Qutub Mosque or the Great Mosque of Delhi) was commissioned by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, founder of the Mamluk or Slave dynasty and built using the ruins of 27 Hindu and Jain temples. It was built over the site of a large temple located in the centre of a citadel. 
  'The conqueror entered the city and its vicinity was freed from idols and idol-worship; and in the sanctuaries of the images of the gods, mosques were razed by the worshippers of the one God.'
  — Quṭb al-Dīn Aibak's chronicler, Hasan Nizami, Taj-ul-Maasir
  It was the first mosque built in Delhi after the Islamic conquest of India and the oldest surviving example of Ghurids architecture in Indian subcontinent. The construction of this Jami Masjid (Friday Mosque), started in the year 1193 AD, when Aibak was the commander of Muhammad Ghori's garrison that occupied Delhi. To leave the imprint of his religion to the new territory, Aibak decided to erect a mosque epitomising the might of Islam and chose his site, the heart of the captured Rajput citadel of Qila Rai Pithora. The Qutub Minar was built simultaneously with the mosque but appears to be a stand-alone structure, built as the 'Minar of Jami Masjid', for the muezzin to perform adhan, call for prayer, and also as a qutub, an Axis or Pole of Islam. It is reminiscent in style and design of the Adhai-din-ka Jhonpra or Ajmer mosque at Ajmer, Rajasthan, also built by Aibak during the same time, also constructed by demolishing earlier temples and a Sanskrit school, at the site.
  Of the site selected by Aibak for the construction of a mosque, Ibn Battuta, the 14th century Arab traveller, says, before the taking of Delhi it had been a Jain temple, which the Jains called elbut-khana, but after that event it was used as a mosque'. Archaeological Survey of India states that the mosque was raised over the remains of a temple and, in addition, it was also constructed from materials taken from other demolished temples, a fact recorded on the main eastern entrance. According to a Persian inscription still on the inner eastern gateway, the mosque was built by the parts taken by destruction of twenty-seven Jain temples built previously during the reigns of the Tomaras and Prithviraj Chauhan, and leaving certain parts of the temple outside the mosque proper. Historical records compiled by Muslim historian Maulana Hakim Saiyid Abdul Hai attest to the iconoclasm of Qutb-ud-din Aibak. This pattern of iconoclasm was common during his reign. Some medieval Muslim historians and travellers often ascribed the construction of the complex to Mamluk Sultan Iltutmish, rather than to Qutb ud-Din Aibak as is commonly accepted. Ibn Batuta also states that near the eastern gate of the mosque were two very big idols of copper connected together by stones. Every one who left the mosque treaded over them.
  The mosque is one of the earliest extant mosques in India. The original dimensions of the mosque had a courtyard measuring 43 m (141 ft) by 33 m (108 ft). The prayer hall, located on the west measures 45 m (148 ft) by 12 m (39 ft). The mosque has grey colonnades made of greystone with three bays in east and two bays deep on the north and the south. Extensions were made to the mosque during 1296 when its dimensions in north and south were extended by 35 m (115 ft). The famous iron pillar is located on the stone pavement in front of it, while Qutub Minar is located west of the main entrance. The central arch of the mosque is ogee in shape and is 6.5 m (21 ft) wide and 16 m (52 ft) tall. The side arches are smaller in size. The screen is sculpted with religious texts and floral patterns. Desai believes that the mosque was not constructed in scientific style but in Corbel style as indicated by the variations in the pattern of the arches.
  The mosque is built on a raised and paved courtyard, measuring 141 ft (43 m). X 105 ft (32 m), surrounded by pillared cloisters added by Iltutmish between 1210 and 1220 AD. The stone screen between prayer hall and the courtyard, stood 16 mt at 
caption: The ancient ruins of twenty-seven Jain and Hindu temple complex over which a mosque was constructed beside Qutub Minar
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