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The Qutub Minar is Delhi’s most famous monument. About 6 km away from it, and not very far from the Delhi airport at Palam is another monument built by the same king who completed Qutub Minar. It’s called Sultan Ghari. Not ‘garhi’, which means a fort, but ‘ghari’ – a cave.
Before we talk about this monument, let’s quickly recap some Delhi history. Muslim rule started in north India in the year 1192, when Muhammad Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan. But Ghori did not rule India directly. He left it in the care of his general Qutubuddin Aibak.
Aibak started building the Qutub Minar, which is named after him. But he died early. Then his general, Iltutmish or Altamash, became king in the year 1210. He ruled till his death in the year 1236. This is his tomb in the Qutub Minar grounds.
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Okay, back to Sultan Ghari in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area. This little-known monument is important because it is the first Muslim tomb in India. I find this hard to believe because Islam had arrived in India in the 7th century. So, a few small or big tombs must have existed before Sultan Ghari.
But experts insist Sultan Ghari is the first. Perhaps they mean this is the first ROYAL Muslim tomb in India. On that point, we can agree with them because Qutubuddin Aibak died in Lahore and was buried there. So his tomb is now in Pakistan
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Now we know that Qutubuddin Aibak’s successor Iltutmish lived till the year 1236. But one of his sons, a capable young man named Abul Fath Mahmüd, or Nasiruddin Mahmud, who was the governor of Bengal, died in the year 1229.
Sultan Ghari is the tomb of this prince – Nasiruddin Mahmud – and it was built by Iltutmish himself. It was completed in the year 1231 – well before Iltutmish’s tomb – which indeed makes it the first royal Muslim tomb in India.
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We know that Mehrauli, where the Qutub Minar stands, was the real city of Delhi in the 13 century. So why did Iltutmish build his son’s tomb so far out of town?
Well, the area where Sultan Ghari stands was not such a barren and lifeless place in those days. About 250 years earlier, the Tomar king Mahipal had built a small dam nearby, due to which there was water and the place had become a large settlement. In fact Mahipal’s name lives on in the nearby Mahipalpur village to this day.
But we don’t know the original name of the Sultan Ghari tomb. The current name, Sultan Ghari, simply means ‘cave king’, and it was coined by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan – founder of Aligarh Muslim University – in 1846. I found this information in a scholarly paper published by an Archaeological Survey of India officer named S.A.A. Naqvi in January 1947.
So why did Sir Syed call it a cave? Well, that’s because the prince’s body is buried in an underground chamber or crypt.
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When Iltutmish died, he was succeeded by a son named Ruknuddin Firoz Shah. He was a weak king and his nobles killed him after a few months. Then Iltutmish’s famous daughter, Sultana Razia, became the ruler for a couple of years, until she was killed by her brother Mu‘izuddin Bahram Shah, who became the next king, only to be murdered soon after.
So, Iltutmish’s line came to a bloody end.
I am telling you all these names because the small tombs of both Ruknuddin Firoz Shah and Mu‘izuddin Bahram Shah are just outside the wall of Sultan Ghari, but ASI officer Naqvi wrote it was not clear which prince was buried under which canopy. As for Sultana Razia, her grave is in the Shahjahanabad area of Delhi, far from her father and three brothers.
Only one of the small tombs has survived, and it has a proper dome over it, which means it was built much later. How do we know that? You see, in the 1200s, when Muslim rule had newly started in India, Indian artisans did not know how to make a proper arch and domes. So the domes that were built at that time turned out to be weak, and collapsed. That’s the reason why Sultan Iltutmish’s tomb does not have a roof.
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So then, who built the smaller tomb with a dome?
Well, who else but the Shahjahan of the 14th century, Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq. He repaired the Qutub Minar, and the Qutub’s top two stories that you see now are his work. He also built many buildings and repaired many old ones. In Firoz Shah’s time Sultan Ghari had become dilapidated, so he repaired and restored it, and also made it prettier.
We know that Prince Nasiruddin Mahmud is buried in the white underground chamber, so what was the purpose of the fort-like building around his tomb?
Well, it was a madrasa or college. And by Firoz Shah Tughlaq’s time this college had been destroyed. Firoz Shah claims he rebuilt it and fitted it with sandalwood doors. He replaced the old pillars with stronger ones and plastered the court of the monument. The staircase at the entrance is also his addition.
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When you visit Sultan Ghari, you will see ruins of many buildings around it. These are the remains of the village that existed around it in the late Mughal period. They are not architecturally important, but a reminder nonetheless that the first royal Muslim tomb had a ‘subject’ population around it.
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