Religious Heritage | Wazir Khan Masjid (Mosque)

The Wazir Khan Mosque (Punjabi and Urdu: مسجد وزیر خان ‎; Masjid Wazīr Khān) is 17th century mosque located in the city of Lahore, capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab. The mosque was commissioned during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as part of an ensemble of buildings that also included the nearby Shahi Hammam baths. Construction of Wazir Khan Mosque began in 1634 C.E., and was completed in 1641.

Considered to be the most ornately decorated Mughal-era mosque, Wazir Khan Mosque is renowned for its intricate faience tile work known as kashi-kari, as well as its interior surfaces that are almost entirely embellished with elaborate Mughal-era frescoes. The mosque has been under extensive restoration since 2009 under the direction of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Government of Punjab, with contributions from the governments of Germany, Norway, and the United States.

Location:
The mosque is located in the Walled City of Lahore along the southern side of Lahore's Shahi Guzargah, or "Royal Road," which was the traditional route traversed by Mughal nobles on their way to royal residences at the Lahore Fort. The mosque is situated approximately 260 metres west of the Delhi Gate, where the mosque's Shahi Hammam is located. The mosque also faces a town square known as Wazir Khan Chowk, and the Chitta Gate.

Background:
The mosque was commissioned by the chief physician to the Mughal Court, Ilam-ud-din Ansari, who was widely known as Wazir Khan. Wazir Khan later became the subedar, or Viceroy of Punjab, and commissioned several monuments in Lahore. Wazir Khan owned substantial amounts of property near the Delhi Gate, and commissioned the Wazir Khan mosque in 1634 in order to enclose the tomb of Miran Badshah, an esteemed Sufi saint whose tomb now lies in the courtyard of the mosque.[6] Prior to construction of the Wazir Khan Mosque, the site had been occupied by an older shrine to the saint.

The mosque's interior was richly embellished with frescoes that synthesize Mughal and local Punjabi decorative traditions, while the exterior of the mosque was lavishly decorated with intricate Persian-style kashi-kari tile work.[11] Wazir Khan's mosque superseded the older Maryam Zamani Mosque as the Lahore main mosque for congregations Friday prayers.

Wazir Khan's mosque was part of a larger complex that included a row of shops traditionally reserved for calligraphers and bookbinders, and the town square in front of the mosque's main entrance.

Wazir Khan Mosque features South Asia's first example of a purpose-built Central Asian charsu bazaar, or four-axis bazaar - although in the Wazir Khan Mosque adaptation, two of the four axises are aligned as the mosque's entryway, while the other two form the Calligrapher's Bazaar.

In addition to the row of shops that formed the "Calligrapher's Bazaar," the mosque also rented space to other types of merchants in the mosque's northern and eastern façades, and also ran the nearby Shahi Hammam. Revenues from these sources were meant to serve as a waqf, or endowment, for the mosque's maintenance.

History:
Construction of the mosque began under the reign of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in either 1634 or 1635, and was completed in approximately seven years. In the late 1880s, John Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard Kipling, wrote about the mosque and its decorative elements in the former Journal of Indian Art. The British scholar Fred Henry Andrews noted in 1903 that the mosque had fallen into disrepair.

Architecture:
The mosque is built on an elevated plinth, with the main portal opening onto the Wazir Khan Chowk. The outer perimeter of the Wazir Khan Mosque measures 279 feet (85 m) by 159 feet (48 m), with the long axis parallel to the Shahi Guzargah. It was built with bricks laid in kankad lime.

Wazir Khan Mosque
مسجد وزیر خان

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P.S: information is taken from Wikipedia and second picture is taken by me.