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Sidi Sayyid MasjidAhmedabad, India
The Mosque of Sidi Said is located in the northeast corner of the citadel and once formed part of Ahmedabad's city walls. It was previously attributed to a slave of Ahmad Shah I (r. 1411-1442/813-845 AH), but the architectural style suggests a much later date and it is now attributed to a noble of the time of Sultan Muzaffar III (r. 1561-1572/968-979 AH). The mosque is open in front, with five arches, and there are unfinished octagonal minarets at the front corners that do not extend beyond the roof. Inside are eight pillars dividing the space into fifteen bays. The roof is flat, with fifteen small cupolas.
The mosque is famous for its ten carved semicircular tympani windows with exquisite tracery in the form of tree stems and branches, each 3 m wide and 2 m high. The windows are cut in Gujarati sandstone and have both Hindu and Islamic influences. Two of the four windows on the western wall are considered to be the finest examples of carved stone tracery in India. Decorated in a "palm and parasite" motif, one of the windows is composed of a series of palms alternating with flowering trees, with leaves and tendrils filling the background, and the second window has a single tree entwined around a palm, with branches covering the field of composition. There are also three other windows in the south end, and three empty spaces on the north end for similar windows, though those were never added.
The mosque is considered to be the last great building in the Gujarati style.
Sources:
Alfieri, Bianca Maria, and F. Borromeo. Islamic architecture of the Indian subcontinent, 122. London, WC: Laurence King Pub., 2000.
Merklinger, Elizabeth Schotten. Sultanate architecture of pre-Mughal India, 83-84. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2005.
Michell, George, and Philip Davies. The Penguin guide to the monuments of India. Vol. 2, 341. London, England: Viking, 1989.
Location
Ahmedabad, India
Associated Names
Associated Collections
Events
1572/979 AH
Variant Names
Sidi Said Masjid
Alternate transliteration
Sidi Said Mosque
Translated
Site Types
religious
Materials/Techniques
Sidi Sayyid MasjidAhmedabad, India
The Mosque of Sidi Said is located in the northeast corner of the citadel and once formed part of Ahmedabad's city walls. It was previously attributed to a slave of Ahmad Shah I (r. 1411-1442/813-845 AH), but the architectural style suggests a much later date and it is now attributed to a noble of the time of Sultan Muzaffar III (r. 1561-1572/968-979 AH). The mosque is open in front, with five arches, and there are unfinished octagonal minarets at the front corners that do not extend beyond the roof. Inside are eight pillars dividing the space into fifteen bays. The roof is flat, with fifteen small cupolas.
The mosque is famous for its ten carved semicircular tympani windows with exquisite tracery in the form of tree stems and branches, each 3 m wide and 2 m high. The windows are cut in Gujarati sandstone and have both Hindu and Islamic influences. Two of the four windows on the western wall are considered to be the finest examples of carved stone tracery in India. Decorated in a "palm and parasite" motif, one of the windows is composed of a series of palms alternating with flowering trees, with leaves and tendrils filling the background, and the second window has a single tree entwined around a palm, with branches covering the field of composition. There are also three other windows in the south end, and three empty spaces on the north end for similar windows, though those were never added.
The mosque is considered to be the last great building in the Gujarati style.
Sources:
Alfieri, Bianca Maria, and F. Borromeo. Islamic architecture of the Indian subcontinent, 122. London, WC: Laurence King Pub., 2000.
Merklinger, Elizabeth Schotten. Sultanate architecture of pre-Mughal India, 83-84. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2005.
Michell, George, and Philip Davies. The Penguin guide to the monuments of India. Vol. 2, 341. London, England: Viking, 1989.
Location
Ahmedabad, India
Images & Videos
architectural drawing
35 mm color slide
Ahmedabad. Sidi Sayyid Mosque. E Facade.
35 mm color slide
35 mm color slide
35 mm color slide
Ahmedabad. Sidi Sayyid Masjid. W Facade.
35 mm color slide
35 mm color slide
Ahmedabad. Sidi Said Masjid. Exterior view of W Facade.
35 mm color slide
35 mm color slide
View all 10
Associated Names
Associated Collections
Events
1572/979 AH
Variant Names
Sidi Said Masjid
Alternate transliteration
Sidi Said Mosque
Translated
Site Types
religious