1870.] Notes on Old Delhi. 81 



Muhammad Tughluq's hand, and that of Begumpur near the 

 road from Delhi to the Qutb, are both much finer specimens of 

 Jahan Khan's erections than the Black Mosque. Whatever may 

 be the architectural beauties, however, of these mosques, they have 

 a certain historical interest, as they were the fruits of Jahan Khan's 

 desire to ingratiate himself with the people, when he was taking 

 advantage of his master Firuz Shah's age and consequent imbecility 

 and his own position as vazir, to intrigue for the succession to the 

 already almost vacant throne. 



Tomb of Firuz Shah Tughluq. 



This monument stands in the village of Hauz Khac. It is a 

 square lofty building of masonry. The principal entrance is on the 

 south, where a stone wall of grey sandstone about two feet high 

 with a broad coping stone forms a diminutive court by which to 

 approach the door, which is raised by three steps, and is wide and 

 oblong, but set in an arch, the upper portion being filled in with 

 stone lattice work ; the lintels and side-posts of the door are of grey 

 stone, and at the top, the side-posts are made to project and carved 

 slightly. The east door resembles the one just described; at the 

 west and north are recesses in the wall, resembling those in which 

 the opposite doors are set. At the side of the north recess is a 

 narrow pointed arch now blocked up, but leading apparently to the 

 Madrasah. At a considerable height above the floor, the shape of 

 the walls is changed from a square to an octagon and then to a six- 

 teen sided figure and so on, by filling up the corners with masonry 

 worked into a beautiful honey- comb kind of pattern, and richly 

 painted. The dome, a hemispherical one, is of considerable dia- 

 meter, with a large circle painted in an elegant pattern at the top, 

 from which belts cutting each other are drawn down to the bottom 

 of the dome. In the intersections of the belt are three rows of 

 medallions of different sizes and figures : the belts and medallions 

 being all painted on the white ground of the dome. Outside the 

 south door is an Arabic inscription. Round the top of the square 

 building, and around the low cylinder, from which the dome springs, 

 is a narrow band of red stone, carved in a graceful pattern. Inside 

 are three marble, and one masonry tomb, all much injured. Sayyid 

 11 



