Begum Shahi Mosque

Begum Shahi Mosque, also known as The Mosque of Mariyam Zamani Begum, is an early 17th-century mosque in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. During the reign of Mughal Emperor Jahangir, the mosque was built in honor of his mother, Wali Nimat Mariam-uz-Zamani Begum Sahiba, the primary consort of Emperor Akbar, between 1611 and 1614.

It is Lahore's first surviving Mughal-era mosque, and it influenced the design of the bigger Wazir Khan Mosque a few decades later. According to one of the inscriptions on the mosque, the Dowager Empress Wali Nimat Mariam-uz-Zamani Begum Sahiba personally laid the foundation in 1611.

During the Sikh era in Lahore, Ranjit Singh converted this mosque into a gunpowder factory, for which it was renamed Barudkhana Wali Masjid ("Gunpowder Mosque"). When the British Raj began in Lahore in 1850, the edifice was given to Muslims, who renovated it as a mosque.

It illustrates a transitional period in architecture, including Mughal influences as well as elements from the preceding Pashtun Lodi Dynasty which governed the region. The older Lodi style is represented by short domes and wide arches, while the Mughal style is shown by the mosque's balconies, side rooms, and ornamentation.

Begum Shahi Mosque contains Lahore's first five-bay prayer hall, which was eventually adopted by all subsequent Mughal mosques such as the Wazir Khan Mosque and Badshahi Mosque. The central bay of the mosque is designed in the Persian Char Taq style, with one lesser dome on either side. The mosque originally had three gateways, two of which remain.

The prayer chamber in the mosque measures 130.5 feet long and 34 feet broad. The hall is divided into five bays, each of which is capped by one of three arches, the greatest of which is over the center bay. The mosque also boasts a 128-by-82-foot courtyard with an ablution pool for Islamic ceremonial washing. The mosque's interior has Mughal fresco art, which would serve as a model for the ornate and enormous frescoes at the Wazir Khan Mosque a few decades later. The majority of the frescoes are flowery in style, and the calligraphy on the walls incorporates non-Quranic material, making it the first mosque in Lahore to do so.

Location: Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan