The styles and designs of the mosques differ from one country to another, but there are a few things common that can be seen in the architecture of every mosque. Some common architectural parts of the mosques are minaret, mihrab, prayer hall, minbar, and doom.

Some rules or ethics are considered while entering in any mosque. There are some mosques in which only Muslims are allowed to enter and practice their religious rituals. Modest dress is preferred for entering in a mosque, and the shoes must be removed outside. Muslims remain silent and reverent in the mosques, as they are bound to perform their religious rituals peacefully in the mosques.

Pakistan is well known for its cultural heritage that is related to religion. The mosques in Pakistan represent the Islamic architecture, and are an exact manifestation of its heritage. Mosques in Pakistan represent the identity of Pakistan as an Islamic state that came into being on the name of Islam. There is variation in the styles and designs of mosques that can be clearly seen.

Many mosques in Pakistan represent a true picture of the heritage of Pakistan. There are some mosques in Pakistan that have no comparison with the mosques all over the world. Badshahi mosque and Faisal mosque are the largest mosques in the world while mosque Wazir khan and Jamia mosque are the most beautifully decorated mosques of the world. Faisal mosque represents the true Islamic architecture, and is the most modernised example of the Islamic architecture. Shah Faisal mosque is a very beautiful mosque that is located in Islamabad that can accommodate approximately 10,000 people in prayer hall.

Badshahi mosque is also called royal mosque, made up of red sand stones. Different colours are used for painting beautiful floral designs on the mosque, but the overall impression of the mosque is very simple, and elegant, and indicates sobriety. Another very beautiful mosque in Pakistan called golden mosque is located in Kashmiri bazaar. It has three golden coloured domes that elevate the beauty of the mosque.

Mosque at Bhong, decorated with gold leaves, represents the heritage of Muslims. The calligraphic work in the mosque is unique, and shows the usage of art of calligraphy. There are many famous mosques in Multan as well that include wali Muhammad mosque, mosque phulhatt, baqarabadi mosque, and Eidgah mosque.

Tooba mosque or Gol Masjid is another largest single dome mosque located in Karachi. It is the site of tourists’ attraction and portrays Islamic architecture. Muhabbat khan mosque is located in Peshawar that was built in 1670. Moti masjid or pearl mosque is located in Lahore that is built using white marble. Generations passed by, but the mosque is still attractive, and represents the unique designs of architecture.

In the town of Thatta (100 km / 60 miles from Karachi) itself, there is famous Shahjahani Mosque with its beautiful architecture. This mosque was built in 1647 during the reign of Mughal King Shah Jahan, also known as the builder King. The mosque is built with red bricks with blue coloured glaze tiles probably imported from another Sindh’s town of Hala. The mosque has overall 100 domes and it is world’s largest mosque having such number of domes. It has been built keeping acoustics in mind. A person speaking inside one end of the dome can be heard at the other end.

Dai Anga Mosque

Zeb Un Nisa aka Dai Anga, was a wet nurse of Mughal King Shah Jehan and was well respected in the royal family. The tomb of Dai Anga is known as the Gulabi Bagh. Her family was closely associated with the Mughal empire. Her husband Murad Khan served Emperor Jahangir as Magistrate of Bikaner, and her son Muhammad Rashid Khan, was the best archers in the kingdom, and died fighting in the service of Shah Jahan’s eldest son Dara Shikoh. Shah Jahan highly regarded Zeb Un Nisa.

Introduction

The mosque is located at the distance of 200 kilometers from Bahawalpur and 50 kilometers from Rahim Yar Khan and is well known for its exquisite design and architectural beauty with gold leaves carved for the intricate decorative patterns and the stylish calligraphic work.

Sardar Rais Ghazi Mohammad, a wealthy Saraiki landowner, commissioned this mosque in 1932 to be the jewel of his new palace compound, which already included a mosque and a prestigious Madrasa (religious school) and was completed in 1982.

Sardar Rais Ghazi Mohammad, client, designer, patron and landlord conceived, directed and funded the entire building construction. The construction of mosque was carried out by specialists gathered from all over Pakistan and India: master masons from Rajisthan, India; craftsmen from Multan for the glazed tile, mosaic and woodwork; and painters and calligraphers from Karachi. Workshops were set up to train craftsmen in skills that had originally been passed from father to son. Materials and crafts used range from the traditional – teak, ivory, marble, colored glass, onyx, glazed tile, fresco, mirrors, gilded tracery, ceramics, calligraphy and inlay – to the modern and synthetic marbled industrial tile, artificial stone facing, terrazzo, colored cement tile and wrought iron. Rais Ghazi’s intention was to represent as many forms of popular craft and as many Islamic religious architectural features as possible.

Over the 50 years of its evolution, the Bhong Mosque Complex has generated jobs and trained approximately 1000 workers and craft men in indigenous crafts. Its construction laid an edifice for socio-economic development and provision of basic amenities of life including market roads, schools, electricity, gas, bank, hospital, post office etc. to the local population.

Infrastructure

The construction of the mosque was carried out by specialists gathered from all over Pakistan and India: master masons from Rajasthan, India, craftsmen from Multan for the glazed tile, mosaic and woodwork, and painters and calligraphers from Karachi. Workshops were set up to train craftsmen in skills that had originally been passed from father to son. The mosque’s design is a mix of Islamic styles, using rare and traditional materials such as ivory, teak, and onyx, along with industrial elements like terrazzo and artificial stone facing. Broadly eclectic in their use of sources, the builders borrowed stylistic elements from nearby Lahore, as well as Iran, Spain and Turkey, and combined them with Western colonial elements of the 1940s.

Benefactor

The mosque was commissioned in 1932 by Rais Ghazi Mohammad, a wealthy Saraiki landowner, to be the jewel of his new palace compound where another mosque and prestigious religious school already stood. Rais Ghazi Mohammad was given the highest civilian award of Pakistan from the government namely “Sitara-e-Imtiaz” on March 23, 2004 in recognition of his services.

Aga Khan Award for Architecture 1986.

In recognition of his significant sole attempt to create a local Islamic Center of learning and building crafts, Sardar Rais Ghazi Mohammad was awarded the Agha Khan Award of Architecture by His Highness Prince Karim Agha Khan in 1986 at Morocco. In the words of the Jury “Bhong enshrines and epitomizes the popular taste in Pakistan with all its vigor, pride, tension and sentiment. Its use, and misuse of signs and symbols expresses appropriate growing pains of an architecture in transition.” The President, Islamic Republic of Pakistan has posthumously conferred upon Sardar Rais Ghazi Muhammad, “SITARA-I-IMTIAZ” on March 23, 2004 on Pakistan Day for his outstanding contribution to the field of Public Service (Bhong Mosque Architecture).

Critics, mostly Western, have called it “Arabian Nights a la Hollywood,” noting how much it delights the Pakistani, yet bemoaning the fact that such a work will now set an architectural standard. To date, it has been the most controversial of the Aga Khan Architecture award winners.

‘The facade of the sanctuary is practically covered with kashi and is divided into the usual oblong panels. A beautiful border is carried rectangularly round the centre archway, and inscriptions in Persian characters occur in an outer border, in a long panel over the archway, and in horizontal panels along the upper portions of the lower walls to right and left. The spandrels are filled in with extremely fine designs.’

‘With the minars, however, the facade of the sanctuary, and the entrance gateway, where a small portion of the surface was left for plaster, the effect of the gorgeous colours against the soft blue of a Punjabi sky, and saturated with brilliant sunlight and glowing purple shadow is indescribably rich and jewel-like.’

‘Right and left of the sanctuary are two stately octagonal minars 100 feet in height. On the long sides of the quadrangle are ranged small khanas or cells, each closed by the usual Indian two-leaved door set in a slightly recessed pointed arch, of which there are thirteen on each side by a pavilion rising above the general level, containing larger apartments and an upper story reached by two flights of steps, which also give access to the roof of the arcading and pavilions…these pavilions occur, in the centre of the north and south sides of the lower level of the pavement. In the pavilion on the south side is a fountain set in a circular scalloped basin, and served from the main which supplies the tank in the quadrangle.’

Within the inner courtyard of the mosque lies the subterranean tomb of Syed Muhammad Ishaq, known as Miran Badshah, a divine from Iran who settled in Lahore during the time of the Tughluq dynasty. The tomb, therefore, predates the mosque.

Moti Masjid ( موتی مسجد), one of the “Pearl Mosques”, is a 17th century religious building located inside the Lahore Fort. It is a small, white marble structure built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, and is among his prominent extensions (such as Sheesh Mahal and Naulakha pavilion) to the Lahore Fort Complex.The mosque is located on the western side of Lahore Fort, closer to Alamgiri Gate, the main entrance.

Subsequent history

After the demise of the Mughal Empire, the mosque was converted into a Sikh temple and renamed Moti Mandir during the period of the Sikh Confederacy (1716—99). Later, Ranjit Singh also used the building for the state treasury. When the British took over Punjab in 1849, they discovered precious stones wrapped in bits of rags and placed in velvet purses scattered inside the mosque, along with other inventory. The building was later revived to its former status, and the religious relics were conserved at the nearby Badshahi Mosque.

Design

The structure, located in the northwestern corner of Dewan-e-Aam. The facade is composed of cupped arches and engaged baluster columns with smooth and fine contours.The mosque has three superimposed domes, two aisles of five bays, and a slightly raised central quadrangle, is typical of Mughal architecture of Shah Jahan’s times. It is completely built of white marble that was brought from Makranapishtaq, or portal with a rectangular frame. This five-arched facade distinguishes it from other mosques of the similar class with three-arched facades. The interior is simple and plain with the exception of ceilings that are decorated and designed in four different orders, two arcuate, and two trabeated.

Capable of accommodating over 55,000 worshippers, it is the second largest mosque in Pakistan, after the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. The architecture and design of the Badshahi Masjid is closely related to the Jama Masjid in Delhi, India, which was built in 1648 by Aurangzeb’s father and predecessor, emperor Shah Jahan.

Badshahi Masjid is one of the famous locations where Qari Basit recited quran.

The mosque was built under the patronage of the sixth Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb Alamgir. It was completed in 1673 under the supervision of Aurangzeb’s foster brother Muzaffar Hussain (also known as Fidaie Khan Koka) who was appointed governor of Lahore in May 1671 and held this post until 1675. He was also Master of Ordnance to the emperor. The construction of the mosque took about two years from May 1671 to April 1673. The mosque was built opposite the Lahore Fort, illustrating its stature in the Mughal Empire. In conjunction with the building of the mosque, a new gate was built at the fort, named Alamgiri Gate after the Emperor.

From 1852 onwards, piecemeal repairs were carried out under the supervision of the Badshahi Mosque Authority. Extensive repairs were carried out from 1939 to 1960 at a cost of about 4.8 million rupees, which brought the mosque to its original shape and condition. The blueprint for the repairs was prepared by the late architect Nawab Zen Yar Jang Bahadur.

In 2000, the repair work of marble inlay in the main vault was repaired under the supervision of Saleem Anjum Qureshi.

On the occasion of the second Islamic Summit held at Lahore on February 22, 1974, thirty-nine heads of Muslim states offered their Friday prayers in the Badshahi Masjid, led by Maulana Abdul Qadir Azad, the ‘Khatib’ of the mosque.

Recently a small museum has also been added to the mosque complex. It contains relics of Muhammad (PBUH), his cousin, and his daughter, Hazrat Fatima Zahra.

The mosque is located in the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. It is situated at the north end of Faisal Avenue, putting it at the northernmost end of the city and at the foot of Margalla Hills, the westernmost foothills of the Himalayas.
Design

The Faisal Mosque is the work of famous Turkish architect, Vedat Dalokay who won the Agha Khan Architectural Award with this project. The mosque’s relatively unusual design fuses contemporary lines with the more traditional look of an Arab Bedouin’s tent, with its large triangular prayer hall and four minarets. However, unlike traditional masjid design, it lacks a dome. The minarets borrow their design from Turkish tradition and are thin and pencil like. The interior of this prayer hall holds a very large chandelier and its walls are decorated with mosaics and calligraphy by the famous Pakistani artist Sadequain. The mosaic pattern adorns the west wall, and has the kalimah writtern in early Kufic script, repeated in mirror image pattern.

The mosque’s architecture is a departure from the long history of South Asian Islamic architecture. It is one of the most outstanding and modern Islamic architecture examples in the world.