Kutch dargah is India's oldest Islamic bldg: Historian

Heritage architecture in Gujarat will have one more feather to its cap if claims of a Japanese historian and architect are to be believed. According to Prof Fukami Naoko (in pic), who has been working in Kutch for a post-earthquake rehabilitation project, Ibrahim dargah at Bhadreshwar, Kutch is India’s first example of Islamic architecture.

Prof Naoko said that Ibrahim mosque – built in the year 1159 – is also the first such construction to have corbelled walls and dome. Citing references from a book, Naoko said based on the Arabic inscription on the dargah, it is believed to be the oldest Islamic structure in India.

Prof Naoko who delivered a lecture on heritage port cities of Gujarat, at House of Mangaldas on Friday, said that Islaimc architecture in Gujarat was introduced much earlier than it was in the rest of India.

According to her, arched walls found in structures at Kutch date back to 1159, whereas the earliest example of the same in Delhi buildings is from 1198. Similarly, in Gujarat corbelled domes were found in buildings at least five decades earlier than in Delhi.

“At the time, Bhadreshwar was ruled by a Jain monarch. He had established a Muslim community in the area, which is believed to have constructed the dargah. From the material used, it seems that the monarch also involved Hindu craftsmen in its making. For, Ibrahim dargah did not utilise re-used materials, unlike other Islamic monuments such as Ahmad Shah mosque in Ahmedabad,” she said.

The two oldest mosques in Delhi don’t have any inscription to determine when they were built while one in the southern part of the country doesn’t have a building to prove claims that it was made in 7th century AD, Prof Naoko said further. She referred to Qutub Minar as the second oldest example of Islamic architecture in India.

Bhadreshwar flourished as a port town between the 11th and 14th centuries, she said.