Construction of the Qutb Minar
Beside the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, raised in Delhi after its conquest by the Ghurids, Qutb ud-Din Aibak began a tower of red and buff sandstone, and his son-in-law and successor Iltutmish added three more storeys. The Qutb Minar, 72.5 m high in its present form, is one of the best-known monuments of the Delhi Sultanate.
- Date
- between 1193 and 1199 – between 1220 and 1232exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 30 years
- Place
- Qutb Minar (Mehrauli)today: Mehrauli, Delhi, India · South Asia
- Participants
- Qutb ud-Din Aibak, Iltutmish, Ghurids, Delhi Sultanate
- Threads
- Asia, Africa and the Americas in the 13th century
- Also known as
- Qutub Minar; Kutb Minar; Кутуб-Минар; Quwwat-ul-Islam; Куввату-ль-Ислам
The minaret stands by the Quwwat-ul-Islam, the congregational mosque that Aibak began in the 1190s, soon after the Ghurids took Delhi; according to a Persian inscription on its gateway, it was built with material from 27 demolished temples. The tower is thought to have been inspired by the brick minaret of Jam in the Ghurid homeland (c. 1190). Aibak, then the Ghurid governor in India, finished only the first storey, whose inscribed bands praise his master Muhammad of Ghor; Iltutmish (reigned 1211–1236) added three more. The Qutb Minar served as a minaret and as a tower of victory; it is usually thought to be named after Aibak, though some link the name to the Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki.
The dates differ from source to source: the start is usually given as 1199, sometimes as 1193, and Iltutmish’s storeys are dated to about 1220 or to the early 1230s. After lightning struck the tower in 1368 or 1369, Firuz Shah Tughlaq replaced its damaged top storey with two new ones, and Sikandar Lodi repaired it after an earthquake in 1505 (by another account, after lightning in 1503). The Qutb Minar and its monuments were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Second Battle of Tarain1192 · South AsiaThe victory at Tarain in 1192 opened Delhi to the Ghurids; their general Aibak made it his capital early in 1193, and the minaret was raised as a tower of victory over Prithviraj
Related events
- Founding of the Delhi Sultanate1206 · South AsiaAibak, who began the minaret as the Ghurid governor, became the first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206
Same participants
- Reign of Razia Sultan in DelhiNovember 1236 – April 1240 · South Asiavia Delhi Sultanate
Same place
- Alauddin Khalji becomes Sultan of Delhi21 October 1296 · South Asia
Adjacent events in the thread
- Yaqut’s Dictionary of Countries1224–1228 · Middle East and Egypt
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa16 July 1212
- Francis of Assisi founds the Franciscan orderbetween 1209 and 1210
- Battle of Bouvines27 July 1214
- Magna Carta15 June 1215
- Fourth Council of the Lateran11–30 November 1215
+ 6 events
Eastern Europe
- Battle of Lipitsabetween 21 April and 22 April 1216
- Battle of the Kalka River31 May 1223
Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Adrianople14 April 1205
- Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204
- Saint Sava wins autocephaly for the Serbian Church1219
- John III Vatatzes and the revival of the Empire of Nicaeabetween December 1221 and December 1222 – 3 November 1254
- Stefan Nemanja unites Serbiabetween 1166 and 1168 – 1196
Middle East and Egypt
- Yaqut’s Dictionary of Countries1224–1228
- Treaty of Jaffa18 February 1229
Africa
- Rock-hewn churches of Lalibelac. 1181 – c. 1221
- Mapungubwe Hill, capital of the kingdom of Mapungubwec. 1220 – c. 1300
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
- Great Zimbabwe, the stone capital of a Shona kingdom1200–1299 – c. 1450
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Central and Northern Asia
- Kurultai of 12061206
- Siege of BukharaFebruary 1220
- Siege of SamarkandMarch 1220
- Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire1219–1221
- The minaret of Jam is raised in Ghorbetween 1174 and 1194
+ 1 event
East Asia
- Fall of Zhongdubetween April and June 1215
- Death of Genghis Khanbetween 18 August and 25 August 1227
- Zhu Xi and the Neo-Confucian synthesis1175 – 23 April 1200
- Genpei War and the rise of the Kamakura shogunate5 May 1180 – 21 August 1192
- New schools of Kamakura Buddhism: Shinran, Dōgen and Nichiren1224–1253
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Construction of Angkor Thom and the Bayon1181 – c. 1218
North America
- Ancestral Puebloans build Cliff Palace at Mesa Verdec. 1190 – c. 1280
- The Thule migrate east across the Arctic to Greenlandc. 1200 – c. 1300
- Mississippian centres after Cahokia: Moundville, Etowah and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complexc. 1200 – c. 1450
Latin America
- Founding of Cusco in Inca traditionc. 1200
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
- Fall of Tulabetween 1140 and 1200
- The Kingdom of Cusco: the Inca state before the empirec. 1200 – c. 1438
- Mayapan, capital of Postclassic Yucatán1220s – between 1441 and 1461
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Qutb Minar
- Wikipedia (English): Qutb Minar complex
- Wikipedia (English): Iltutmish
- Wikipedia (Russian): Кутб-Минар
- Wikipedia (Russian): Илтутмиш
- Flood F. B. Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval “Hindu-Muslim” Encounter. — Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.