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    Moti Masjid Lahore

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    Tariq Maqbool
    Moti Masjid is a historical Mughal-era mosque located near the main entrance to the Lahore Fort. It was built in 1598 AD during the reign of Emperor Nur-ud-Din Jahangir. The mosque served as a praying area for the Imperial harem and is constructed of white marble from Makrana. Over time, the mosque was converted to a Sikh temple and later used as a government treasury by the Sikhs and British, before being restored to its original use as a mosque.

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    Moti Masjid Lahore

    Uploaded by

    Tariq Maqbool
    61 views5 pages
    Moti Masjid is a historical Mughal-era mosque located near the main entrance to the Lahore Fort. It was built in 1598 AD during the reign of Emperor Nur-ud-Din Jahangir. The mosque served as a praying area for the Imperial harem and is constructed of white marble from Makrana. Over time, the mosque was converted to a Sikh temple and later used as a government treasury by the Sikhs and British, before being restored to its original use as a mosque.

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    Moti Masjid is a historical Mughal-era mosque located near the main entrance to the Lahore Fort. It was built in 1598 AD during the reign of Emperor Nur-ud-Din Jahangir. The mosque served as a praying area for the Imperial harem and is constructed of white marble from Makrana. Over time, the mosque was converted to a Sikh temple and later used as a government treasury by the Sikhs and British, before being restored to its original use as a mosque.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    61 views5 pages

    Moti Masjid Lahore

    Uploaded by

    Tariq Maqbool
    Moti Masjid is a historical Mughal-era mosque located near the main entrance to the Lahore Fort. It was built in 1598 AD during the reign of Emperor Nur-ud-Din Jahangir. The mosque served as a praying area for the Imperial harem and is constructed of white marble from Makrana. Over time, the mosque was converted to a Sikh temple and later used as a government treasury by the Sikhs and British, before being restored to its original use as a mosque.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 5

    Moti Masjid (The Pearl Mosque) Lahore

    Moti Masjid is a well known historical mosque of Mughal era, located near the
    Alamgiri Gate, the main entrance to the Lahore fort on the western side. It is
    very close to other splendid structures of Lahore fort, ‘the Shish Mahal’ and
    ‘Naulakha Pavilion.’Moti in Urdu language means pearl and thus it means the
    Pearl mosque. It was customary among the Mughals to use generic names for
    the gemstones to name religious buildings. Other such examples are Mina Masjid
    (Gem Mosque) and Nagina Masjid (Jewel Mosque) in Agra fort. This mosque was
    built in the reign of emperor Nur-ud-Din Jahangir. The evidence comes from the
    following Persian inscription recorded over the arched entrance leading to the
    outer court-

    “In the twelfth year of the fortunate reign of His Imperial Majesty the shadow of
    God, like Solomon in dignity, Kyamurs in pomp, victorious in arms like Alexander,
    the Defender of the Faith, Shah Nur-ud-din Jahangir, son of Jalal-ud-din Akbar,
    the King, the Conqueror of the infidels, this noble edifice was completed in 1007
    A.H (1598 A.D.) by the efforts of the humblest of disciples and the least of slaves,
    his devoted servant, Ma’amur Khan.”1

    This mosque served as a praying area for the Imperial harem. The court for
    worshippers measures fifty feet from north to south, and thirty three feet from
    east to west. The structure is simple, austere, and chaste with a touch of
    majesty. It is made of white marble brought from Makrana. The front of the
    mosque constitutes cusped arches supported by baluster columns with their
    smooth and fine contours. The mosque has three finely swollen domes, two
    aisles of five bays, and a slightly raised portal with a rectangular frame. The
    interior of the mosque is simple with the exception of the ceiling that is
    decorated and designed in four different orders, two curved and two trabeated.
    The floor of the mosque is of pure marble. The lustre of this white marbled
    structure proves a match for the lustre of the pearl.

    1
    -(Latif, Reprinted 2005, First Edition 1892.)
    1
    2
    3
    4
    When the Mughal power diminished in the eighteenth century, the foreign
    invaders like Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali attacked Punjab frequently and
    undermined the local government. This resulted in the rise of Sikh power in
    Punjab. During the days of Sikh confederacy (1716-1799), the mosque was
    converted into a Sikh temple.2 The pinnacles and turrets were divested of their
    precious inlaid stones by the Sikhs. Later, in the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
    (1799-1839), it was used as the Government treasury. When the British took
    over Punjab in 1848, they found diamonds and other precious stones in rolled up
    bits of rags which were placed in velvet purses and scattered all over the
    mosque.3 The British like Sikhs first used the mosque as Government Treasury,
    but later, restored it to its original status as the mosque.

    2
    -(Latif, Reprinted 2005, First Edition 1892.)
    3
    -The Login Inventory of the Lahore Fort (Article by Mahmood Zaman published in the
    Daily Dawn dated 25th January,2002.
    5

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