78 Notes on Old Delhi. [No. 2, 



roof, whicli is flat, rests on parallel rows of columns, from each one 

 of which, excepting of course the outside rows, spring four narrow 

 arches, two resting on the two adjacent pillars in the row parallel 

 to the west wall, and two on the two adjacent pillars in the row at 

 right angles to that wall, the spandrels of the arches forming a 

 part of the solid roof, which is built of rubble masonry. 



Tomb of Ghidsud-din Balkan. 



Just beyond a mosque known at the Qutb as that of Jamali 

 Kamali, stand the remains of the tomb of this famous slave king. 

 It is situated in a small yard, surrounded by a low wall, pierced 

 by a row of arched openings. Under the north door, which is 

 approached by two flights of steps parallel to the wall, is an aper- 

 ture, out of which water seems to have flowed through a pipe, as a 

 slab of stone worked into the ordinary honey-combed pattern, is 

 placed under the pipe. The tomb itself is a square building of 

 masonry, covered with plaster and painted. The four corners have 

 been cut off on the exterior by a six-sided recess becoming circular 

 at the top. Inside over the east and west doors are inscriptions in 

 Arabic. There is no trace now of the actual grave, and the inside 

 is encumbered with massive fragments of the dome which has 

 fallen in within recent memory. The qiblahgah is constructed 

 in the wall of the court, which, opposite to the west door of the 

 tomb, is raised to about double the height of the rest of the wall. 

 The gateways in the court wall are narrow and flat at the top, but 

 arched over with masonry. Ibn Batuta, who visited Delhi about 

 fifty years after Balban's decease, says (p. 113, Lee's Translation), 

 " One of his (Balban's) pious acts was his building a house, which 

 was called the House of Safety ; for, whenever any debtor entered 

 this, his debt was adjudged ; and in like manner every oppressed 

 person found justice ; every manslayer deliverance from his adver- 

 sary ; and every person in fear, protection. When he died, he was 

 buried in this house, and there I myself visited his grave." If the 

 Dar ul-aman were no larger than the tomb or even its court, the 

 skirts of Balban's protection were but scanty ; I should be inclined, 

 however, to think that the tomb was erected in the grounds of the 

 house, both because the present area seems too limited for an 



