Indian Antiquary Vol 50

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 72

62
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
FEB., 1921
period of construction are settled, can be easily complicated by the action of Salah ad-Din (8alsappreciated. And further, the value of the work din) in making two of the walls into one for defencan be well understood thereby. To my mind sive purposes in 672 A... Mr. Creswell's argu. it is epoch making, and I recommend it to all who ment on this is that there were four walls origin. would seek a thorough knowledge of the genesis ally, built at different periods, of which the first of Muhammalan architecture in India.
has admittedly long disappeared, and that there The Islamic architecture of Cairo is especially are three styles of work visible in the remains of valuable for the purpose of fixing the periods of the existing wall, of which the part he is describ. the evolution of that important art, because of the ing is the oldest and the second in point of date remarkable series of monumento available for (viz., that of 480 A.H.). This is what he says in study-a series close and unbroken for seven im- support of his statement : "My own archaelo. portant centuries-the ninth to the fifteenth of gical examination, during which I have traversed the Christian Era. Damascus starts with the great
the whole length of the Wall of Cairo, and walked, Umayyad Mosque, but cannot approach Cairo
crawled or climbed into practically every tower, in the number of its monuments, and its nearest
sometimes entering houses to do so, has revealed rival, Delhi, only starts with the Quwatu'l Islam to me three distinct styles of work, and I maintain Mosque of 1197 A.D.
that portions of the work of Badr al GamAly (480 Nearly half the monuments mentioned in this
A.X.) and of the earlier and later work of Baladin
(566 and 672 A.H.) still exist." The part he is work-bay 110-are dated by Captain Creswell on the evidence he has collected without the aid
describing is Badr al Gamaly's wall. Here too of inscriptions, and the value of his statements
he gives a bibliography and shows no timidity in in support to students of architecture can be seen
controversy.. from this consideration alone. His method is
In pp. 68-69 are described at length and with to fix the high and low limits of the structure, and
the same minuto personal knowledge the Wal; As the result of the evidence he has collected and
of Fusat, the Bourg af-rafar, and parts of the of his own personal examination of the buildings,
North Wall of Cairo. As they must have been the he has felt justified in bringing each specimen into
late work of Saladin, they are dated 572-589 A.H. close limits as to date.
(1176-1193 A.D.). Captain Creswell is not afraid to tackle matters
Although the book is printed in English, the
reader must beware of the fact that it is the of controversy and I will adduce two examples of his method. The great Aqueduct (pp. 88-92)
product of a French press and that the transli
teration is in the French form of Egyptian Arabic. has been a source of much dispute na to date, and Captain Creswell fixes it & A.H. 711 (1311 A.D.)
R. C. TEMPLE. by the following method, quoting him verbatim :"A number of statements relative to aqueducta | HISTORY OY AURANGZIB by JADUNATH SARKAR, M.A. are found in Maqrizi, and the following are those vol IV. Bouthern India, 1646-1689. Calcutta. which bear on the one under consideration. To- 1919, pp. 412. gether with the recent archeological discoveries This fourth volume of Mr. Sarkar's account they should enable us to settle the much disputed carries the story into Southern Indis up to 1689, question of its date." Maqrizt says: "In 711 when, as Mr. Barkar says, Aurangzib made him W-Malik an-Nasir Muhammad ibn Quan cops. self "unrivalled lord paramount of Northern tructed four adqiyas on the Nile, from which water India and the Deccan alike," and then he proceeds was transportod as far as the Wall and from the to quote (p. 407) his own Studies in Mughal India Well to the Citadel." Captain Creswell then ar. in words that are worth reproducing: "All gues out the question in the light of lato discoveries, seemed to have been gained by Aurangzib now: and shows why Maqrizi is right in his date and but in reality all was lost. It was the beginning how the confusion as to dates arose in the minds of his end. The saddest and most hopeless chap. of various writers, of whose worka he gives biblio. ! ter of his life now opened. The Mughal Empire graphy at the end of the article.
had become too largo to be ruled by one man or The second example that take in two parts is from one centre... His enemies rose on all the Walls of Cairo. At pp. 64-66 is a description sides : he could defeat but not crush them for ever. of "part of the North Wall of Cairo," which Cap. Lawlessness reigned in many parts of Northern tain Creswell dates in 480 A.H. (1087 A.D.). Maq. and Central India. The administration grow nizi says that Cairo was thrice endowed with walls slack and corrupt. The endless war in the Deccan
in 369, 480 (and 666 AR. This statement is exhausted his tremury. Napoleon I. used to say.