Taj Mahal 38

The designer of the taj mahal may have done what?

Conceived the mausoleum as the throne of god perched above the angels of paradise on judgement day. The minarets hold up the canopy of that throne.

The delhi sultans had erected what?

Had erected tombs in Inda but none could compare in grandeur to the fabled Taj Mahal and at Agra

Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658)

Jahangir's son built the immense mausoleum as a memorial to his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, although it eventually became the ruler's tomb as well.

Mumtaz Mahel

The dome on cube shape of the central block has antecedents in earlier Islamic mausoleums and other Islamic buildings such as the Alai Darvaza at Delhi but modifications and refinements in the deign of the Agra tomb have coverted the earlier massive structures into an almost weightless vision of glistening white marble.

The taj mahal pointed arches lead the eye in a what?

The eye in a sweeping upward movement toward the climactic dome shaped like a crown (taj). Four carefully related minarets and two flanking triple domed pavilions enhance and stabilize the soaring from the mausoleum. The architect achieved this delicate balance between verticality and horizontality by strictly applying an all-encompassing system of proportions.

What caused the impression of translucency

The interplay of the shadowy voids with light reflecting marble walls that seem paper thin creates an impression of translucency.

Tal Mahal follows what?

The plan of Iranian garden pavilions, except that the building stands at one end rather than the center of the formal garden. The tomb is octagonal in plan and has typically Iranian arcuated niches on each side.

Abd al-hamid Lahori (d. 1654)

a court historian who witnessed the construction of the taj Mal, compared its minarets to ladders reaching toward heaven and its surrounding gardens to paradise. Inscribed on the gate way to the gardens and the walls of the mausoleum are carefully selected excerpts from the Koran that confirm the historian's interpretation of the tomb's symbolism.`

In islam the most revered place of burial is what?

beneath the throne of god.

Agra mausoleum

seems to float magically above the tree-lined reflecting pools that punctuate the garden leading to it. Reinforcing the illusion that the marble tomb is suspended above the water is the absence of any visible means of ascent to the upper platform. A stairway does exist but it was hidden arch. from who approaches it.

momumental tombs

were not part of either the Hindu or Buddhist traditions but had a long history in Islamic architecture.