Mughal architecture and its wondrous brilliance as can be witnessed in the present times, is indisputably the most sublime, the most lofty, the most elaborate of all architectural wonders that have ever arrived to India. Truly, Mughal architecture is the ideal instance of par excellence in India. As such, a question might just arise to the admirer`s mind, as to from which precise source did these brilliant men derive such unforgettable plannings that one still gets to view in its original form. As such, the Islamic sources of Mughal architecture can be regarded as the most stellar and incandescent of the said emperors, who have time and again borrowed potential influences from their Islamic predecessors to chisel masterpieces. The precise Islamic sources of Mughal architecture are committed by historians to the very initial Muslim rulers, who had arrived to India, heavily saturated with their Arabian, Persian or Iranian charms.

The Delhi Sultanate, beginning their rule in 1192, was the first to keep a footstep unto India, with the motley of ruling dynasties to arrive, regarded as the inaugural Islamic source to Mughal architecture. Among the earliest persisting Islamic monuments in India (referring to the erstwhile Undivided Indian territory, prior to 1947) are the foundations of the walled city and mosque at Banbhore near Thatta in Sind, presently in Pakistan. The site was embarked soon after the birth of Islam and is tenably the earliest Arab settlement in the South Asian continent. Other remains hinting at an early Islamic source to Mughal architecture is the presence of a tomb dated to the mid-12th century, discovered at Bhadreshvar in the coastal regions of Gujarat in western India. Another aspect of Islamic presence were the sporadic invasions, more `destructive` than `constructive`, intended to plunder valuables and not to fabricate any record of a permanent presence. The incursions into India made by Mahmud of Ghazni during the 11th century exactly falls into this category. However, in 1192, Qutb Ud Din Aibak, a military commander of the Afghan Ghorid Dynasty had overpowered the last Hindu ruler of Delhi. Within a few years, an enormous section of north India was under Ghorid control. In 1206, Qutb Ud Din Aibak had cleverly asserted his independence from the Ghorids, declaring himself Sultan of India. He and his successors had thus erected architecture that served as one foundation of Mughal art.

Among the foremost concerns of the `conqueror` (referring to Qutb Ud Din Aibak) was the construction of a congregational `Jami` mosque. This move was looked as obligatory for the legitimisation of the sultan in this newly-acquired territory, as well as for the validation and spread of Islam. Qutb Ud Din Aibak`s first-ever mosque, appreciably now named the Quwwat al-Islam or Might of Islam, was chiselled in Delhi, the capital of the new Muslim rulers. Constructed from the architectural appendages of temples, believed to also serve as the first of the Islamic sources of Mughal architecture, the mosque in its first phases emerges to be modelled loosely on a common form of Ghond-penod mosques. Such mosques, espousing a general Iranian fashion, possessed a central open courtyard surrounded by cloistered halls on three sides; the prayer chamber was built on the fourth side. Each side further possessed a central vaulted entrance or aiwan. Hence, such mosques are acknowledged as four-aiwan types. In India, their outlook is somewhat modified and by the Mughal period the term aiwan had donned a different meaning. During this very early period, the mosque entrances were not vaulted. The prayer chamber was placed on the west, the side that in India faces Mecca - thus answering for the direction toward which all Indian mosques are oriented since. Variances of this Iranian four-aiwan plan continued to be constructed even through the Mughal period, which truly had served as most authentic Islamic sources to Mughal architecture.

This inclination toward intense patterning over a whole stone-carved surface reappears in the early phases of Mughal architecture, which had heavily relied on sources of their preceding Islamic dynasties. Bountiful surface decoration is characteristic of much Islamic ornamentation, in both India and abroad.

The subcontinent`s first monumental Islamic tombs were built under Iltutmish, which later on was to impact profoundly upon Mughal architecture and its Islamic sources. One, for instance, recognised today as the Sultan Ghari tomb, was constructed for his son and a second was erected for himself - both in Delhi. The interior of Iltutmish`s own square-planned tomb was fancified in a fashion similar to his screen at the Quwwat al-Islam mosque.

No major Islamic structures remain in India that date between the death of Iltutmish in 1235 and the beginning of the 14th century. However, under the Khilji Sultan Ala ud-din (ruling period 1296-1316), Indo-Islamic architecture had assumed supreme regenerated importance. Concentrating upon the monument that had persisted symbolically paramount, Ala-ud-din Khilji had begun expanding the Quwwat al-Islam mosque to triple its initial size. However, the project was never completed. In fact, the only remaining parts of the Khilji addition to the Quwwat al-Islam mosque complex are an enormous unfinished minaret, pillared galleries and an entrance portal on the south, known universally as the Alai Darwaza. Dated back to 1311, numerous epigraphs on this gate are interestingly not Quranic, rather hyperbolically praising its patron, Sultan Ala-ud-din Khilji. Although it is not a monumental structure, it is one that later builders, including the early Mughals, looked upon as a tremendous Islamic source of inspiration for Mughal architecture.

By the Khilji period, Indo-Islamic culture had come into its own identity. Underscoring this was the then contemporary works of Amir Khusro, still weighed as one of the greatest Indian poets. Writing in Persian, the official language of most Muslim courts and kings in India, Khusro had utilised motifs such as the parrot, mangoes and flowers. And basing their architectural works on the matchless Amir Khusro, the Mughals had drawn heavily to influence them, later looked as most convincing Islamic sources for Mughal architecture. These motifs were then only found in India which could indeed supplement `Persianate` imagery, such as cedars and tulips, completely alien to the Indian subcontinent. By this period, umpteen motifs - architectural and literary - possessed no strictly sectarian implication. To call a motif Hindu or Muslim possessed little meaning, because elements such as the lotus or even trabeated architecture, still found in parts of Ala-ud-din`s extension to the Quwwat al-Islam mosque, are now part of a well-established architectural tradition developed under the Indian sultans.

Following the Khiljis under the Delhi Sultanate Islamic source for Mughal architecture, the Tughlaq Dynasty had emerged as the ruling power. Taking over control in 1320 over an area that included much of the Indian subcontinent, their territory quickly weakened as provincial governors avowed independence from central authority, leaving them little more than Delhi and its suburbias. While the dynasty survived only in name until 1412, Delhi was sacked in 1399 by the invasion of Timur, the legendary ancestor of the Mughals.

The Tughlaqs were however inexhaustible providers of architecture, especially under the third ruler, Feroz Shah Tughlaq (r. 1351-88), whose extensive building campaigns were in a sense a `cover` for his politically weak regime. In general, architecture under the Tughlaqs had become increasingly austere into the 14th century. For instance, richly carved stone facades and interiors were replaced with plain stucco veneers and Quranic inscriptions rarely ornamented any structure. While Tughlaq buildings may have been painted, yet, multi-coloured stones on their surface were exceedingly infrequent.

The Mughals subsequently banked on Islamic sources heavily for their architectural wonders. And just like their Tughlaq predecessors, Mughals too provided support for the welfare of all subjects. For instance, the Tughlaq sultans and nobles had endowed the Hindu temples. A likewise movement was also noticed under the Mughal dynasty, who had voraciously patronaged and provided for Hindu monuments.

The most dramatic illustrations of distinctly regional style are found in the architectural traditions of Bengal and Gujarat. In Bengal, the cast of the village hut with its sloping roof, well suited for heavy rains, was adapted for tombs and mosques, for example, the Eklakhi tomb in Pandua, West Bengal, dateable to the 15th century. Probably the curved roof was used in palatial architecture as well, but sadly there exists no such surviving examples. Such Islamic sources were very common in Mughal architecture, commencing around the mid-17th century. Such roofs were referred to as bangala in Mughal documents and were often employed by the end of the 17th century far from Bengal in Mughal architecture.

In Gujarat, as in Bengal, architecture under the newly established Ahmad Shahi dynasty (1408-1578) acquired a distinctly regional character. Features found commonly on tombs, mosques and saints` shrines (dargahs) include ones such as serpentine-like gateways (toranas) or lintels above prayer niches (mihrabs), bell-and-chain motifs chipped upon pillars and walls, pillars supporting corbelled domes and ceiling insets and carved panels often depicting trees. All of these singular carvings were brilliantly ultimately derived from Gujarati temple traditions. Such an uncanny amalgamation of influences was very much evident in the creations of Emperor Akbar, considered inimitable Islamic sources of Mughal architecture.

After some hundred years, during which Delhi had enjoyed little prestige, the Afghan-descended Lodi dynasty (1451-1526) had endeavoured vigorous efforts to revitalise the city`s status. They had vanquished their enemies, the Sharqis of Jaunpur and soon afterwards, commenced extensive building in Delhi itself. Particular motifs on Lodi buildings are identical to those witnessed earlier only at Jaunpur. This is the case, for instance, with engaged colonettes beautified with an interwoven pattern on the Bara Gumbad. This intimates that artists were taken to Delhi from Jaunpur, in an attempt to revive the prestige of the traditional capital. The revitalisation of Delhi was accelerated under the reigns of the first two Mughals - Babur and Humayun, who had eventually succeeded the Lodis, bringing an end to the Delhi Sultanate. The Delhi Sultanate was the most stellar instance of abundant Islamic source for Mughal architecture. Following the reigns of Babur and Humayun, however, Mughal authority in India was briefly interrupted when the Delhi throne was arrogated in 1540 by the Afghan ruler, Sher Shah Suri and his successors (1538-55). Although fifteen years of Mughal rule separated the periods of Lodi and Suri authority, the architecture produced under these two Afghan dynasties are mostly discussed simultaneously, due to their closeness of influence in form and spirit.

The dominant themes of Mughal art accompanied with the all pervading presence of geometry were indeed a direct influence of Islamic architecture. Whether in a mosque or a bejewelled mirror-back it is the clever use of the arabesque pattern to achieve patterns of dizzying complexity the Mughal architecture echoes the Islamic influence. The relatively austere yet sublime effect of calligraphy on buildings or on manuscript pages; the preponderance of flowers in all manner of stone or cloth or metal signifying the omnipresence of the omnipotent once again establishes the Islamic influence in Mughal architecture. The lofty ornamentation; and the frequent appearance of animals and birds in Mughal architecture still stand as a proof of serving as a bridge of Islamic source to subsequent Mughal architectural ornamentation.