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The Great Architect
[English] Kenneth Powell, eds
Translated by He Keren zhou Yufang
Published by the Commercial Press
The Great Architect establishes four nodes in the development and transformation of time and technology: the pioneer of structure, the age of iron, concrete and steel, and new horizons, and outlines the lives of 40 great architects and engineers, and is a rare architectural history with characters as clues. In the book, you will follow the masters through ancient and modern times, visit the design and construction site, admire their genius inspiration, and learn the architectural thinking of the masters. At the same time, you can also admire the well-known buildings up close and without dead ends, and feel the unusual stories behind the heirloom buildings.
Shah Jahan: Mughal emperor and architect
Eba? Cork/Author
Shah Jahan (reigned 1628-1658), the fifth ruler of the Mughal dynasty in India, was the perfect combination of ruler and architect. This tradition dates back to ancient Mesopotamia. Shah Jahan explored and perfected the building as a symbol of royal rule, hiring a team of architects and consultants to personally lead them in building projects and developing design principles. He even suppressed the reputation of his architects, attributing his achievements to himself. Shah Jahan established himself as the great architect of the Mughal dynasty: any architect he employed was merely a tool to realize his designs. His greatest construction was the Taj Mahal, which earned him immortal prestige.
The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan for his wife, and the intention of this building was to reproduce a dwelling on the earth of her in heaven and to become the ultimate memorial of Shah Jahan's time
"King of the World"
Shah Jahan ("King of the World") was born in Lahore on 15 January 1592, during the reign of his grandfather Akbar (reigned 1556–1605); he was the third son of Akbar's son Salim, the future Emperor Jahangir (reigned 1605–1627). He was named Kulam (meaning "happy"), and in 1617 he succeeded in conquering deccan for his father, giving him the title Shah Jahan. His father called him "Babahuram" and had been rigorously educated since he was 4 years old and was circumcised according to tradition. His teachers were all excellent scholars, poets, and Sufi mystics, just like the excellent scholar and physicist Hakim Ali Gillani. It was not only the Mughal "master of the pen" but also the "master of the sword" who taught Prince Shah Jahan, who seemed to be more fond of the latter. He became a swordsman, hunter and sharpshooter. Shah Jahan could speak Persian, the official Mughal language, as well as Hindawi in northern India. In 1612 he married Ajumand Banu Bergam, daughter of an Iranian family with significant influence in the Mughal palace, and he loved his wife so much that he named her Montaz Mahal (meaning "heavenly choice"). When she died in childbirth in 1631, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as her mausoleum, a realistic version of the Garden of Paradise described in the Koran.
Shah Jahan showed his interest in architecture early on. One historian, Khamber, once described Shah Jahan as having an "extraordinary love of gardening and architecture" before he ascended to the throne. At the age of 15, he built an amusement palace in The Royal Garden of Kabul, Urtabagh, and was praised by his father, Jahangir. The garden was built by Shah Jahan's ancestor, the Mughal king Babur, who founded the Mughal dynasty, and he himself was a garden builder. He built a palace garden by the water's edge of his Agar residence, and during his conquests he did not forget to build an entertainment palace and apartment in central India. Recognizing his son's architectural talents, Jahangir entrusted him with royal construction projects and in 1620 ordered him to build the Shalimar Gardens on the shores of Lake Dahl in Kashmir.
When Shah Jahan succeeded to the throne in 1628, the Mughal dynasty was in its most prosperous and stable phase. This was the classic period of the Mughal dynasty, which the historian Hafi Khan later called the Golden Age in the 18th century. Shah Jahan reached the height of centralized rule, using court life and art systematization to proclaim royal glory. Architecture and art, which were pompous and ostentatious, became indispensable tools for strengthening rule. It is also in line with the long-standing conception of art in the Islamic world that architecture and art are the most direct expressions of the rulers.
A metaphorical portrait of Shah Jahan
Tight court control
Shah Jahan established himself as the supreme administrator in the court, while using political elements for art to emphasize his authority. He exercised strict control over his court, his management, and his artists. Under his management, Mughal art reached a standardization that had never been achieved before. All historians acknowledge that Shah Jahan regarded personally supervising the work of the artist as his own daily affair. In this way, in pursuit of perfection, he became his own art director, and most importantly, he worked on a daily plan with his own architects, who had to remain obscure and only occasionally have certain people's names appear. Abdul Karim Muhan ("Master Builder") was the chief architect of the Jahangir period, and was mentioned only as the overseer of the Taj Mahal along with the senior administrator Maklamat Khan, and other names that appeared included Ustad Ahmed Lahori and Ustad Hamid, the founders of the King's new shah Jahan forbidden city in Delhi. Here we can only guess at their contribution.
Shah Jahan devoted himself to the creation of architecture, partly because of his own interests, and on the other hand, he saw architecture as a form of artistic expression that represented the most suitable ruler. Architecture, as the most reputable and practical art, can show a ruler and his country in the eyes of the general public, and can make it pass through the ages. Shah Jahan's architecture and regular garden expresses to us his design principles in "quiet and fluid words". In his notes on the daily meetings of the emperor and his architects, the chief historian Raouri describes: "The emperor's mind is as clear as the sun, and he is very concerned with the towering edifices and the sturdy buildings, which is exactly what the so-called 'great architecture will tell us', in a long and quiet and fluent language, reflecting the high expectations and authority of their masters, forever commemorating his love of architectural planning, rich decoration and pure nourishment... In this period of peaceful reign, construction work reached such heights that the most difficult travelers to please were stunned by these incomparable works of wonder. ”
Shah Jahan's design orientation was to systematically and highly utilize aesthetic forms to express a special sense of the state, that centralization and hierarchical clarity bring balance and harmony. Shah Jahan was the most tireless builder of the Mughal dynasty after Akbar. After 1628, he rebuilt the palaces of the Red Fort of Agra and the Fort of Lahore, and also built a new city and a new palace (1639-1648) called the "Forbidden City of Shah Jahan" outside the old Delhi city of The Sultan. He also built a series of suburban palaces, country houses, hunting palaces, and huge regular gardens, most notably in Kashmir (1620 and 1634), Lahore (1641-1642) and Delhi (1646-1650). These were supported by his favorite spouse in his later years, Akbarabati Mahal. Shah Jahan built more mosques than any previous Mughal king, the largest of which was the Jami Mosque (1650-1656) in the Forbidden City of Shah Jahan, the most beautiful of which was the Pearl Temple of the Red Fort of Agra (1647-1653). Shah Jahan's numerous buildings also include a number of mausoleums: for example, the mausoleum he built in Lahore for his father Jahangir (1628-1638), supervised by Jahangir's wife, Nur Jahangir. However, the largest mausoleum he built was the Taj Mahal (1632-1648).
Taj mahal
Shah Jahan envisioned the Taj Mahal as a universal symbol of timeless fame and amassive Mughal architecture – a creative building that blended the architectural traditions of Central Asia, India, Persia and Europe. Not only is its design strictly symmetrical and rational geometric form, this monumental building sublimates Shah Jahan's architectural principles into classics. Hierarchy is expressed through careful grading of materials, forms and colors, even to the finest details of the decoration (especially the beautiful combination of white marble and sandstone). At the same time, the emphasis on hierarchy, the relationship between proportions and the unity of architectural types and elements form the characteristics of architecture. In addition, intricate marble carvings, sandstone reliefs, and semi-precious stones set in hard stones all reflect the sensual treatment of details; the original floral motifs show the choice of natural elements; and finally, the use of flat and integral forms to express the symbolism of architecture.
Aquarius-shaped pillar in the Royal Tower
Under the leadership of the emperor, the entire court also followed. Royals and ministers were required to respond to Shah Jahan's architectural taste, and members of the royal family also served on construction projects — especially Montaz's father, Assaf Khan, who was responsible for writing guidelines for construction according to the emperor's will. The Emperor's daughter Jahanara fully inherited her father's love of architecture, continuing the tradition of Mughal women undertaking architectural projects: before her were Jahangir's mother, Mariam Zamani, and his wife, Nur Jahan. They not only undertook the funding, but also participated in the design, and architecture became a regular topic of conversation in the court. Jahanara and the Emperor's favorite son, Dar Shikon, under the guidance of their spiritual mentor, Magnolia Shah Badaksh of the Sufi occult teachings, designed and built a series of buildings in Kashmir.
Detailed accounts of court historians during Shah Jahan's reign, as well as descriptive eulogies from court poets, reflect in detail the importance of architecture during Shah Jahan's time. Because the emperor himself supervised the compilation of history, statements about architecture often appeared suddenly in historical records. This is not very harmonious with the precise and coherent Persian language, and can only be the will of the emperor. Never before in the history of the Mughal dynasty have there been so many exhaustive written descriptions of related buildings. Both theory and symbolism are embodied in the building itself, while historical and poetic texts provide clues about dates, architectural vocabulary, forms, types, functions, and architectural meaning.
Shah Jahan had completely transformed the indian architectural landscape before his death, and his innovative curves and floral elements were formally characteristic — bulbous domes, curved Bengal roofs, multi-round pointed arches, aquarius pillars and natural plant decorations — which formed the hallmarks of later Mughal architecture, forming a pan-Indian architectural style.
Author: Ebba? Cork
Editor: Zhou Yiqian