Ajmer Islamic Monuments.

	Ajmer Islamic Monuments
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Often overlooked by visitors, the Adhai-din-ka-Jhonpra, or "two-and-a-half-day mosque", 400m north of the Dargah, is the oldest surviving monument in the city and unquestionably one of the finest examples of medieval architecture in Rajasthan. Originally built in 1153 as a Hindu college by the first Chohan emperor, Raja Visaldeva, it was destroyed forty years later by the Afghan Ghors, who later renovated it.

Tradition holds that the mosque's name derived from the speed with which it was constructed, but in fact the reconstruction took fifteen years, using bricks and finely sculpted panels plundered from Hindu and Jain temples (including the Visaldeva's college). Motifs of pre-Muslim origin are still clearly discernible on the pillars and ceilings.

However, the mosque's most beautiful feature is the bands of Koranic calligraphy decorating its arched facade. Writing in the nineteenth century, shortly after the building had been restored by the Scindias, the dilettante and architectural historian, James Ferguson, claimed that "nothing in Cairo or in Persia is so exquisite in detail, and nothing in Spain or Syria can approach [the inscriptions] or beauty of surface decoration".

A more recent Islamic relic is the squat sandstone Daulat Khana , also known as the Magazine , a massive rectangular palace at the heart of the city that was used by Akbar and his son Jahangir during their visits to the Dargah.

A panel outside it records that here, in 1615, Sir Thomas Roe became the first British ambassador to be granted an official audience, after four years of trailing between the emperor's encampments. The effort, however, bore fruit.

By granting the British East India Company trading privileges in exchange for naval protection, Jahangir effectively paved the way for future British power. In spite of his diplomatic coup, Roe was none too impressed by Ajmer, which had never fully recovered from the first Muslim onslaughts in the twelfth century.

The makeover initiated by the Moghals was continued by the British, whose residents and army took shelter in the Magazine during the 1857 Mutiny. Today, the old palace houses a small museum (daily except Fri 10am-4.30pm; Rs3), displaying mainly Hindu Rajasthani statues dating from the eighth century. more...