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Koch, Mughal Architecture

HAA 183 Lecture: Syllabus and Readings

Professor Ebba Koch

Fall 2008: M, W 11 -12am, Sackler 318

Sackler 413; (617) 495-2355

[email protected]
Office hours: Monday 3:005:00

MUGHAL IMPERIAL ARCHITECTURE (1526-1858 A.D.)

AND ITS LINKS TO CENTRAL ASIA, IRAN AND THE WEST

From the 16th to the 18th centuries India was synonymous with the "Empire of the
Great Moghul". The Mughal dynasty, so called, because descendants of Chingiz
Khan and Tamerlane (Timur), ruled from 1526 to 1858 over the larger part of South
Asia and represented with the Safavids in Iran and the Ottomans in Asia Minor,
the Balkans and the Near East, one of the three Muslim superpowers of the modern
period. As a new dynasty which felt a strong need to assert its status and as an
elitarian minority ruling over a vast territory of peoples of different creeds and
cultures the Mughals grounded their claim to universal rule in a multi-cultural
perspective. They were highly aware of the potential of architecture as a means of
self representation. To express their 'multiple identity' architecturally, they drew
from many divers supra regional and regional traditions which they synthesised and
'imperialised' so successfully that they created with the Taj Mahal the universally
most widely accepted building.

Koch, Mughal Architecture

This course provides a view of key themes of Mughal architecture within a

loose chronological frame work. Buildings, architectural complexes and also formal
gardens are studied through a range of methodologies:

architectural surveying,

formal analysis and comparison, and an examination in light of their

cultural,

political and socio-economic context. Themes include patronage (which involves also
issue of gender), the question of the architects, landownership of the nobility,
urban planning and the relationship between form, function and symbolic meaning.
Mughal court culture is addressed as well as the artistic interactions with other
Islamic courts and Europe.

COURSE WEBSITE

http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/courses/HistoryofArtandArchitecture.html
Click on course link highlighted in blue

READINGS
The basic reference works for the course is Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture: An
Outline of Its History and Development (1526-1858), (Munich: Prestel, 1991, 2nd ed.
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002) as well as C. B. Asher, Architecture of
Mughal India, The New Cambridge History of India, 1,4, (Cambridge, New Yok,
Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1992). The specific readings are indicated
below for each lecture.
All required readings from books (in italics) are on reserve at the Fine Arts
Library. Articles are arranged in a binder by the authors last name. Ask for the
binder at Fine Arts Library circulation desk.

REQUIREMENTS

Attendance at lectures and the completion of readings before the class meeting for
which they are assigned. There will be a midterm examination (20% of final grade)
and a final examination (35% of final grade) based on the readings, lectures, and a

Koch, Mughal Architecture

selection of slides from the lectures. Three written assignments, with the due dates
listed below, comprise: 1. an analysis of a Mughal building or a work of art
(Company drawing of a Mughal monument) in the Sackler Museum, Harvard
University Art Museums; and 2. and 3., short papers that respond to specific
thematic and/or methodological questions framed through selected readings (each
paper should be no more than 5 pp. max. and carries 15% each of the final grade).

LECTURES AND READINGS

September 15

Introduction: " Why are the Mughals so Important for

the Study of Islamic Architecture?"

DRAMMATIS PERSONAE

September 17

THE MUGHAL DYNASTY (1526- 1858)

READINGS:
Annemarie Schimmel, The Empire of the Great Mughals, pp.
21-63; Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj Mahal, pp. 915.

September 22

PATRONS AND ARCHITECTS

READINGS
Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture, pp. 13-14; Ebba Koch, The
Complete Taj Mahal, pp. 83-84. W. M. Thackston, The
Jahangirnama, pp. 98-99; W. E. Begley and Z. A. Desai, Taj
Mahal, pp. xli- xlix.

Koch, Mughal Architecture

SOURCES AND RESEARCH

September 24

SOURCES AND RESEARCH

READINGS
Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture, pp. 143-46; Ebba Koch,
"Reflections on Mughal Buildings in the Punjab in the Context
of an Austrian Project on Islamic Architecture of the Indian
Subcontinent", pp. 97-104; browse Mughal monuments in
James Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture; E.
B. Havell, Indian Architecture, Percy Brown, Indian
Architecture ( Islamic Period); browse C. B. Asher, The
Architecture of Mughal India, pp. 335- 56.

THE MUGHAL GARDEN

September 29

BABUR AND THE MUGHAL GARDEN

READINGS:
W. M. Thackston, The Baburnama, pp. 359-60,
J. L. Wescoat, "Picturing and Early Mughal Garden";
Ebba Koch, "The Mughal Waterfront Garden".

October 1

PALACE GARDENS
READINGS:
Ebba Koch, "Mughal Palace Gardens".

October 6

MUGHAL APPROACHES TO LANDSCAPE AND NATURE

READINGS:
Ebba Koch "My Garden is Hindustan" ; Maria Subtelny, Le
Monde est un Jardin, pp. 103-06. C. B. Asher ,Babur and the
Timurid Char Bagh".

THE MUGHAL CITY

October 8

AGRA A RIVERFRONT GARDEN CITY

READINGS:
J. L. Wescoat, Garden versus Citadels: The Territorial Context
of Early Mughal Gardens"; Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj
Mahal, chapter 1.
First paper due in class

Koch, Mughal Architecture

October 13

Holiday

October 15

No class meeting

October 20

DELHI AND THE RITUAL OF IMPERIAL VISITS

READINGS:
Ebba Koch, "The Delhi of the Mughals prior to
Shahjahanabad".

THE MUGHAL MAUSOLEUM

October 22

HUMAYUN'S TOMB AND THE EIGHT PARADISES

READINGS:
R. A. Jairazbhoy, "The Taj Mahal in the Context of East and
West"; Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture, pp. 44-50; Ebba
Koch, "The Delhi of the Mughals", pp. 174- 76;; Ebba Koch,
The Complete Taj Mahal, pp. 26-27; browse D. FairchildRuggles, "Humayuns Tomb and Garden: Typologies and
Visual Order".

October 27

JAHANGIR AND THE "BUILT TOMB CONTROVERSY"

READINGS:
R. Nath, "Plan of Akbars Tomb at Sikandra (Agra) and a
Proposed Dome over it"; Michael Brand, Orthodoxy,
Innovation, and Revival: Considerations of the Past in Imperial
Mughal Tomb Architecture"; Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj
Mahal, pp. 85-88; Parodi, L. E. The Bibi-ka Maqbara in
Aurangabad".

October 29

MIDTERM EXAMINATION

November 3

THE TAJ MAHAL : ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES

READINGS:
Ebba Koch "Taj Mahal: Architecture, Symbolism and Urban
Significance"; Ebba Koch, " Taj Mahal", The Complete Taj
Mahal, pp.104-05

Koch, Mughal Architecture

MOSQUE AND MADRASA

November 5

MOSQUE AND MADRASA

READINGS:
Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture, pp. 63-66, 83, 117-123,
129-31.
Ebba Koch, "The Madrasa of Ghaziu'd-Din Khan at
Delhi".

November 10

PRINCESS JAHANARA'S DUAL PATRONAGE: JAMI`MASJID

VERSUS SUFI MOSQUE
presented with Afshan Bokhari
READINGS:
Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture, pp. 96, 117; The Complete
Taj Mahal, p. 41; Afshan Bokhari, "The `Light' of the
Timuria: Jahan Ara Begum's Patronage, Piety, and Poetry in
17th Century Mughal India", Marg 2008 (forthcoming,
typescript available)

THE MUGHAL PALACE

November 12

THE GREAT AKBARI SYNTHESIS: FATEHPUR SIKRI

READINGS:
Michael Brand and G. D Lowry, eds. Fatehpur Sikri, pp. 12148; C. B. Asher, Architecture of Mughal India, pp. 51-67;
Ebba Koch, "The Intellectual and Artistic Climate at Akbar's
Court"; browse E. W Smith, The Moghul Architecture of
Fathpur- Sikri.

November 17

PALACES AND CEREMONIES

READINGS:
C. B. Asher, Architecture of Mughal India, pp. 182-200; Glru
Necipoglu, "Framing the Gaze", pp. 312-318; Annemarie
Schimmel, The Empire of the Great Mughals, pp. 65-71.
Second paper due in class

Koch, Mughal Architecture

ARCHITECTURE AND ALLEGORY

November 19

MOSQUE AND AUDIENCE HALL

READINGS:
Ebba Koch, "Diwan-i `Amm and Chihil Sutun"; Jean Sauvaget,
"The Mosque and the Palace".

November 24

THE SOLOMONIC VAULTS OF JAHANGIR

READINGS:
Ebba Koch, "Jahangir and the Angels"; Priscilla Soucek,
"Solomon's Throne/Solomon's Bath".

November 26

THE NEW ORGANIC STYLE AND THE BALUSTER COLUMN

READINGS:
Ebba Koch, "The Baluster Column".

Monday 1 December Thanksgiving Break

December 3

SHAH JAHAN'S SOLOMONIC THRONE AT DELHI

READINGS:
Ebba Koch, Shah Jahan and Orpheus.

LATER MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE AND ITS RECEPTION

December 8

THE DISCOVERY BY THE WEST: EARLY VIEWS AND

PHOTOGRAPHS
READINGS:
Mildred Archer, Company paintings, pp. 11-19, 129-32 and
browse following illustrations; Mildred Archer, Early Views of
India, pp. 27-43; John Falconer, "A Passion for Documentation:
Architecture and Ethnography, pp. 69-79, 86-93; Maria
Antonella Pelizzari, "From Stone to Paper: Photographs of
Architecture and the Traces of History", pp. 22-31.

Koch, Mughal Architecture

December 10

LATER MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE, AND THE RECEPTION TO

THE PRESENT DAY
READINGS:
Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture, pp. 125-33;
Thomas Metcalfe, An Imperial Vision, pp. 66-77
Patrick Conner, Oriental Architecture in the West, chaps. 9, 10,
p. 179; Raymond Head, The Indian Style, pp. 101-110;
Renata Holod and Hasan-ud Khan, The Contemporary Mosque,
pp. 92-94, 148-49.
Third paper due in class

Koch, Mughal Architecture

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alfieri, B. M. Islamic Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent (London 2000)

Asher, C. B., Architecture of Mughal India, The New Cambridge History of India, 1,4,
(Cambridge, New Yok, Oakleigh 1992)

Babur and the Timurid Char Bagh: Use and Meaning. In Mughal
Architecture: Pomp and Ceremonies, Environmental Design (1991, no.
1-2): 46-55
Archer M., Early Views of India: The Picturesque Journeys of Thomas and William
Daniell 17861794 (London 1980)
Company Paintings: Indian paintings of the British Period (London and
Ahmedabad, 1992)
Begley, W. E. and Z. A. Desai Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb: An Anthology of
Seventeenth-Century Mughal and European Documentary Sources (Cambridge
1989)
Bokhari, A. "The `Light' of the Timuria: Jahan Ara Begum's Patronage, Piety, and
Poetry in 17th Century Mughal India", Marg 2008 (forthcoming, typescript
available)
Brand, M., Orthodoxy, Innovation, and Revival: Considerations of the Past in Imperial
Mughal Tomb Architecture", Muqarnas 10 (1993), pp.323-34

Brand, M. and G. D. Lowry eds, Fatehpur Sikri, Selected papers from the
International Symposium on Fatehpur-Sikri held on October 17-19, at
Harvard University, Cambridge MA and Sponsored by the Aga Khan Program
for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and the Department of Fine Arts at Harvard
University ( Bombay1987)
Brown, P. Indian Architecture (Islamic Period), 6th reprint of the 1956 edition,
(Bombay 1975)
Conner, P. Oriental Architecture in the West (London1979)

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Koch, Mughal Architecture

Falconer, J. "A Passion for Documentation: Architecture and Ethnography", in India

through the Lens, Photography 18401911 edited by V. Dehejia,
(Washington, D.C. 2000), pp. 69-118
Fergusson, J. History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, 1876; revised and edited
with additions by James Burgess and R. Phene Spiers, 1910; reprinted London
and (New Delhi 1972)
Havell, E. B. Indian Architecture: Its Psychology, Structure, and History from the First
Muhammadan Invasion to the Present Day, 1913; 2nd edition ( London1927).
Head, R. The Indian Style (London 1986)
Holod, R. and H. Khan, The Contemporary Mosque ( New York 1997)
Jairazbhoy, R. A. "The Taj Mahal in the Context of East and West: A Study in the
Comparative Method", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 24,
1961, pp. 59-88
Koch, E. , "The Baluster Column a European Motif in Mughal Architecture and
its Meaning", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 45
(1982): 25162 (repr. in Koch 2001, pp. 3860)
"Jahangir and the Angels: Recently Discovered Wall Paintings under
European Influence in the Fort of Lahore", in India and the West, ed.
by J. Deppert (New Delhi 1983), pp. 17395 (repr. in Koch 2001, pp.
1237)
,,Shah Jahan and Orpheus: The Pietre Dure Decoration and the Programme
of the Throne in the Hall of Public Audiences at the Red Fort of Delhi
(Graz 1988) (repr. without intro. in Koch 2001, pp.38129)
"The Copies of the Qutb Minar", Iran, 29, 1991b, pp. 95-107 (repr. in Koch
2001, pp. 269-87)
"The Delhi of the Mughals prior to Shahjahanabad as Reflected in the
Patterns of Imperial Visits", in Art and Culture: Felicitation Volume in
Honour of Professor S. Nurul Hasan, ed. by A. J. Qaisar and S. P. Verma
(Jaipur 1993), pp. 220 (repr. with tables of imperial visits in Koch
2001, pp. 16382)
"Diwan-i Amm and Chihil Sutun: The Audience Halls of Shah Jahan",
Muqarnas 11 (1994): 14365 (repr. in Koch 2001, pp. 22954)

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Koch, Mughal Architecture

"The Mughal Waterfront Garden", in Petruccioli 1997, pp. 14060 (repr. in

Koch 2001, pp. 183202)
"Mughal Palace Gardens from Babur to Shah Jahan (15261648)",
Muqarnas 14 (1997): 14365 (repr. in Koch 2001, pp. 20328)
Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology: Collected Studies (New Delhi 2001)
Mughal Architecture: An Outline of Its History and Development (1526
1858) (Munich 1991, 2nd edn New Delhi 2002)
The Intellectual and Artistic Climate at Akbars Court, in J. Seyller, The
Adventures of Hamza: Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India, exh.
cat. (Washington, D.C./London 2002)
"The Taj Mahal: Architecture, Symbolism, and Urban Significance",
Muqarnas 23 (2005): 12849
"Reflections on Mughal Buildings in the Punjab in the Context of an Austrian
Project on Islamic Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent". In Austrian
Scholarship in Pakistan: A Symposium Dedicated to the Memory of Aloys
Sprenger. (Islamabad: Austrian Embassy, 1997), pp. 97-143
The Complete Taj Mahal and the Riverfront Gardens of Agra (London 2006)
"The Madrasa of Ghaziu'd-Din Khan at Delh"i, in The Delhi College, edted by M.
Pernau (New Delhi 2006), pp. 35-58
"My Garden is Hindustan: The Mughal Padshah's Realization of a Political
Metaphor". in Middle East Garden Traditions: Unity and Diversity:
Questions, Methods and Resources in a Multicultural Perspective, ed. Michel
Conan , papers presented at the 31st Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the
History of Landscape Architecture, held at Dumbarton Oaks, 2007
(Washington 2007), pp. 158-75.
Metcalf, T. R., An Imperial Vision: Indian Architecture and Britain's Raj (London 1989.
Nath, R. "Plan of Akbars Tomb at Sikandra (Agra) and a Proposed Dome over it", in
Some Aspects of Mughal Architecture (New Delhi 1976), pp. 8691
History of Mughal Architecture, 4 vols: vol. 1, Formative Period [Babur to
Humayun] (New Delhi 1982); vol. 2, Akbar (15561605): The Age of
Personality Architecture (New Delhi 1985); vol. 3, The Transitional Phase of
Colour and Design: Jehangir, 16051627 A.D. (New Delhi 1994); vol. 4, pt 1,

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Koch, Mughal Architecture

The Age of Architectural Aestheticism, Shah Jehan, 16281658 A. D. (New

Delhi 2005)
The Taj Mahal and its Incarnation (Jaipur 1985)
Necipoglu, Glru, Framing the Gaze in Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Palaces, in
Pre-Modern Islamic Palaces, edited by Glru Necipoglu, Ars Orientalis, 23
(1993), pp. 303-342
Parodi, L. E. The Bibi-ka Maqbara in Aurangabad. A Landmark of Mughal Power in
the Deccan? East & West 48 / 3-4 (1998): 349-383.
Pelizzari, M. A. "From Stone to Paper: Photographs of Architecture and the Traces of
History", in Traces of India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of
Representation, 1850-1900, edited by M. A. Pelizzari, M. A. (Montral New
Haven, Ahmedabad, 2003), pp. 21-57
Petruccioli, A. Fatehpur Sikri: La capitale dell'imperio Moghul la meraviglia d'Akbar
(Milan 2007)
Petruccioli, A., ed. Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires: Theory and
Design, Muqarnas Supplements, vol. 7 (Leiden/New York/Cologne 1997)
Rizvi, S. A., and V. J. A. Flynn, Fathpur Sikri (Bombay1975)
Ruggles, Fairchild D. Humayuns Tomb and Garden: Typologies and Visual Order,
in Petruccioli 1997, pp. 17386
Sauvaget, J. "The Mosque and the Palace", translated from the French "La mosquee
et le palais" by Matthew Gordon, in Early Islamic Art and Architecture, ed. J.
M. Bloom (Aldershot, Hampshire,: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2002) pp. 109147.
Schimmel A., The Empire of the Great Mughals (New Delhi 2005)
Smith, E. W., The Moghul Architecture of Fathpur- Sikri, Achaeological Survey of India
New Imperial Series (ASINIS), 4 vols., 1894-98; reprinted Delhi 1985)
Akbar's Tomb, Sikandarah near Agra, Described and Illustrated, ASINIS 35,
(Allahabad 1909)
Soucek, P. P. "Solomon's Throne/Solomon's Bath: Model or Metaphor", in PreModern Islamic Palaces, edited by Glru Necipoglu, Ars Orientalis, 23, 1993,
pp. 109-34.

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Koch, Mughal Architecture

Subtelny, M. E. Le monde est un jardin: aspects de l'histoire culturelle de l'Iran

mdival , Cahiers de Studia Iranica 28 (2002).
Thackston, W. M., trans., ed. and annotated by, The Baburnama: Memoirs of
Babur, Prince and Emperor, (Washington, D.C./New York 1996)
trans., ed. and annotated by, The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir,
Emperor of

India, (New York 1999)

Wescoat, J. L., Jr., Picturing an Early Mughal Garden, Asian Art 11, 4 (1989): 59-79.
Garden versus Citadels: The Territorial Context of Early Mughal Gardens,
Garden History: Issues, Approaches, Methods, Dumbarton Oaks
Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture 13, edited by John
Dixon Hunt (Washington, D C 1992) pp. 331-358.