Pir Kamal Masjid
Ahmedabad, India

The mosque known as Pir Kamal Masjid, or formerly as Malik Alam Masjid, is a large mosque in what was once a suburban village to the south of the historic walled city of Ahmedabad, now a neighborhood in the greater urban area. Stylistically, the mosque dates to the middle of the fifteenth/ninth century AH.

The mosque is a rectangular building enclosed on three sides and mostly open on its fourth, eastern facade. The east facade consists of a a central portal and two side wings. The central portal consists of a large archway framed by two stout minarets. In older photographs, a chhatri (pavilion with four columns and a roof) surmounts the arched opening. The minarets once rose well above the level of the roof, but were shortened after being compromised in an earthquake during the nineteenth/thirteenth century AH. Flanking this central block are two open colonnades of four pairs of columns each that give access to north and south wings of the prayer hall.

Five large domes cover bays in the center of the prayer hall. These domes ares supported by twelve pillars each and are separated from one another by the space of an aisle and from the qibla wall and entrance facade by an aisle. The central dome is carried on a second story that rises higher than the ones to its north and south. This second story is a gallery open to the exterior. Five mihrabs mark the qibla on the western wall in line with the large domed bays. Windows on the side walls and qibla wall admit additional light to the depths of the hall.

Sources: 

Burgess, James. The Muhammadan Architecture of Ahmadabad. Part I - A.D. 1412 to 1520, 26-28. Archaeological Survey of Western India. London: William Griggs & Sons, 1900.

Location

Ahmedabad, India

Images & Videos

Associated Names

Events

mid 15th/mid 9th c. AH

Variant Names

પીર કમલ મસ્જિદ
Original
Pir Kamal Mosque
Translated

Site Types

religious