Editing Architecture of India (section)

==== Delhi Sultanate ====
[[File:Under The Shade - Tomb of Muhammad Shah - Delhi - DSC 0001 02.jpg|thumb|Tomb of Muhammad Shah, [[Lodi Gardens]]]]
The start of the [[Delhi Sultanate]] in 1206 under [[Qutb al-Din Aibak]] introduced a large Islamic state to India, using Central Asian styles.<ref>Harle, 423–424</ref>  The important [[Qutb Complex]] in Delhi was begun under [[Muhammad of Ghor]], by 1199, and continued under Qutb al-Din Aibak and later sultans. The [[Qutb complex#Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque|Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque]], now a ruin, was the first structure. Like other early Islamic buildings it re-used elements such as columns from destroyed Hindu and [[Jain]] temples, including one on the same site whose platform was reused. The arches were [[Corbel arch|corbelled]] in the traditional Indian way.<ref>Yale, 164–165; Harle, 423–424; Blair & Bloom, 149</ref> [[Qutb Minar complex#Alai Minar of Khalji|Alai Minar]], a minaret twice the size of [[Qutb Minar]] was commissioned by [[Alauddin Khalji|Alauddin Khilji]] but never completed. Other examples include the [[Tughlaqabad Fort]] and [[Hauz Khas Complex]].
[[File:Qutb complex (Q1074330)- Mehrauli- Delhi -N-DL-93 2.jpg|left|thumb|[[Qutb Minar complex|Qutb complex]]]]
Another very early mosque, begun in the 1190s, is the [[Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra]] in [[Ajmer]], [[Rajasthan]], built for the same Delhi rulers, again with corbelled arches and domes. Here Hindu temple columns (and possibly some new ones) are piled up in threes to achieve extra height. Both mosques had large detached screens with pointed corbelled arches added in front of them, probably under Iltutmish a couple of decades later.

At Ajmer the smaller screen arches are tentatively cusped, for the first time in India.<ref>Blair & Bloom, 149–150; Harle, 425</ref> By around 1300 true domes and arches with [[voussoir]]s were being built; the ruined [[Tomb of Balban]] (d. 1287) in Delhi may be the earliest survival.<ref>Harle, 425</ref>  The [[Alai Darwaza]] gatehouse at the Qutb complex, from 1311, still shows a cautious approach to the new technology, with very thick walls and a shallow dome, only visible from a certain distance or height. Bold contrasting colours of masonry, with red [[sandstone]] and white [[marble]], introduce what was to become a common feature of Indo-Islamic architecture, substituting for the polychrome tiles used in Persia and Central Asia. The pointed arches come together slightly at their base, giving a mild [[horseshoe arch]] effect, and their internal edges are not cusped but lined with conventionalized "spearhead" projections, possibly representing [[lotus flower|lotus]] buds. [[Jali]], stone [[openwork]] screens, are introduced here; they already had been long used in temples.<ref>Blair & Bloom, 151</ref>

By the time of Tughlaqs Islamic architecture in India had adopted some features of earlier Indian architecture, such as the use of a high [[plinth]],<ref>Blair & Bloom, 149</ref> and often [[Molding (decorative)|mouldings]] around its edges, as well as columns and brackets and [[hypostyle]] halls.<ref>Blair & Bloom, 156</ref>  After the death of Firoz the Tughlaqs declined, and the following Delhi dynasties were weak. Most of the monumental buildings constructed were tombs, although the impressive [[Lodi Gardens|Lodi Gardens in Delhi]] (adorned with fountains, ''[[charbagh]]'' gardens, ponds, tombs and mosques) were constructed by the late Lodi dynasty. The architecture of other regional Muslim states was often more impressive.<ref>Harle, 426; Blair & Bloom, 156</ref>