Qutb Minar

Also called: Qutub Minar · Topic: Turkic Invasions and the Delhi Sultanate · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"

Meaning

The Qutb Minar (also spelt Qutub Minar) is a red sandstone tower, 72.5 m high, in the Qutb complex at Mehrauli in Delhi [3]. Qutb-ud-din Aibak laid its foundation in AD 1199, and his successor Iltutmish finished it [2]. It is the best-known building of early Delhi Sultanate rule and the centre of a UNESCO World Heritage Site [3]. Exams test its builders, size and the other monuments around it. Its story also shows both the building skill and the destruction of the early Sultanate.

Explanation

Background: why it was built

• The NCERT chapter dates the start of the Delhi Sultanate to the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan in 1192.
• After this victory, the Turkic commanders stayed and ruled from Delhi. Earlier raiders had taken plunder and gone home.
• A new ruling power needed buildings that showed its faith and its power. The Qutub Minar complex became the most important building project of early Sultanate rule.
• Qutb-ud-din Aibak was the first ruler of the Mamluk ('Slave') dynasty [4]. A mamluk was a soldier who was bought as a slave, trained for war, and later freed and promoted. Aibak rose to power this way.
• Its purpose: the tower was built so that the mu'azzin (the man who calls Muslims to prayer) could give the call from a height [2].
• It stands next to the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, which ASI dates to AD 1198 [2]. So the tower was planned as part of the mosque.

How it was built, stage by stage

Stage	Ruler	Work done
AD 1199	Qutb-ud-din Aibak	Laid the foundation and raised only the first storey [2]
AD 1211–36	Iltutmish (Aibak's son-in-law and successor)	Added three more storeys [2]

• The tower took two reigns to build.
• Aibak died before he could go beyond the first storey.

• Iltutmish finished the work, so the credit is shared between the two rulers.

• Exam trap: Aibak started the Minar. He did not complete it.

Style and materials

• Material: mainly red sandstone [3].
• Size [3]:
• Height: 72.5 m
• Width at the base: 14.32 m
• Width at the top: 2.75 m

• So the tower gets narrower as it rises.

• Flutings: the outer wall has alternating angular and rounded flutings [3]. Flutings are the long ribs that run up the outside of the tower. Each storey has this ribbed pattern.

• It is one of the earliest large buildings in India in the new style that the Sultans brought from Central and West Asia.

Results and meaning

• A symbol of the new rule. A tall tower beside the first big mosque showed everyone that a new power now held Delhi.
• A record of destruction. The mosque beside it was built using materials from 27 destroyed Hindu and Jain temples. An inscription at the site says so.
• A model for later rulers. Later sultans added buildings to the same complex. One example is Alauddin Khalji, who built the Alai Darwaza (1311) and started the Alai Minar [3].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: early Delhi Sultanate, Mamluk dynasty. It was begun in AD 1199 and finished under Iltutmish (AD 1211–36) [2].
• Place: the Qutb complex at Mehrauli, Delhi.
• Key people:
• Qutb-ud-din Aibak: first ruler of the Mamluks and founder of the Minar [2][4].

• Iltutmish: his son-in-law and successor, who added three storeys [2]. His tomb is also in the complex [3].

• Heritage status: a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed as "Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi" [3]. The site is looked after by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) [2].

• Other monuments in the complex [3]:
• Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque
• Alai Darwaza (a gateway, built 1311)
• Madrasa of Alauddin Khalji (a madrasa is a school of Islamic learning)
• Tomb of Iltutmish
• Alai Minar

• Iron Pillar

• How we know:

• ASI records give the founding year (1199), the builders and the purpose (the call to prayer) [2].
• UNESCO's listing gives the measurements and the list of monuments [3].
• An inscription at the mosque records the reuse of material from 27 Hindu and Jain temples. UNESCO's description gives a different figure, "some 20 Brahman temples" [3]. Use the NCERT figure of 27 in the exam.

Don't confuse with

• Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque: this is the mosque next to the Minar. Its name means 'Might of Islam'. ASI dates it to AD 1198 and calls it the earliest surviving mosque built by the Delhi Sultans [2]. The Minar is the tower, begun in 1199.
• Alai Minar: a second tower in the same complex, linked to Alauddin Khalji of the Khilji dynasty [3]. It was never finished. The Qutb Minar is the Mamluk tower that was completed.
• Alai Darwaza: a gateway built in 1311 by the Khiljis [3]. It is not a tower, and it does not belong to the Mamluk period.
• Iron Pillar: it stands in the same complex [3], but it is much older than the Sultanate. The Sultans did not build it. Do not credit it to Aibak or Iltutmish.

Prelims Hooks

• Qutb Minar: foundation laid by Qutb-ud-din Aibak in AD 1199. He built the first storey only [2].
• Iltutmish (AD 1211–36) added three more storeys [2]. Trap: "Aibak completed the Qutb Minar" is wrong.
• Purpose: built so the mu'azzin could give the call to prayer from a height [2].
• Size: 72.5 m tall, 14.32 m wide at the base, 2.75 m at the top, red sandstone, with alternating angular and rounded flutings [3].
• UNESCO site "Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi" includes the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, Alai Darwaza (1311), Alauddin Khalji's madrasa, Iltutmish's tomb, Alai Minar and the Iron Pillar [3].
• Building order in the complex: Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque (1198) [2] → Qutb Minar begun (1199) [2] → Iltutmish's storeys (1211–36) [2] → Alai Darwaza (1311) [3].

Mains Points

• The same building shows great skill and great loss.
• The Qutb Minar is a 72.5 m fluted tower and a UNESCO World Heritage Site [3]. It is a high point of early Sultanate building.
• The mosque beside it was built with material from 27 destroyed Hindu and Jain temples, as its inscription says.

• In a GS-I answer on heritage, state both facts together. The art and the cost at which it was made are part of one story.

• The tower shows how a new state announced itself.

• After 1192, the Turkic rulers stayed in Delhi instead of going home with plunder.
• A mosque and a very tall tower for the call to prayer showed their faith and their power over the conquered city.

• It was begun by Aibak and finished by Iltutmish [2]. This shows that the Mamluk rulers carried the building plan from one reign to the next, even though the Sultanate's politics were often unstable.

• The complex is a record of continuity and change.

• Later dynasties such as the Khiljis added the Alai Darwaza (1311), a madrasa and the Alai Minar [3].
• So one site shows how Sultanate building grew over more than a hundred years. It is useful for answers that trace how the Indo-Islamic style of building developed.

Related concepts

• Delhi Sultanate
• Mamluk dynasty
• Iltutmish
• Turkan-i-Chahalgani
• Sultan Ghari
• Raziya Sultan
• Ghiyasuddin Balban
• Theory of kingship of Balban
• Sijda and paibos
• Sayyid dynasty

Read more

• The five dynasties and the character of Sultanate rule