Ustad Ahmad Lahori
Architect from the Mughal Empire (1580–1649)
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Through Lahore, Mughal Empire and Shah Jahan
He was also one of the leading architects responsible for the establishment of the imperial city of Shahjahanabad. His architecture is a combination of Indo-Islamic and Persian architectural styles, and thus, a major instance of Indo-Persian culture.
Life
Ustad Ahmad Lahori hailed from the city of Lahore, as his nisba indicates. Lahori was from a family of Timurid architects, originally from Herat. Even after his family's migration to Delhi, his family is still referred to by the epithet "Lahori". He was a skilled engineer who later in life was given the title of Nadir-ul-Asar ("wonder of the age") by Shah Jahan. Two of his three sons, Ataullah Rashidi and Lutfullah Muhandis, also became architects, as did some of his grandsons, Shah Kalim Allah Jahanabadi one among them. Ahmad Lahori was learned also in the arts of geometry, arithmetic and astronomy, and according to his son Lutfullah was familiar with the Euclid's Elements and Ptolemy's Almagest.
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Career
In 1631, Shah Jahan appointed him for the construction of Taj Mahal. The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by Ahmad Lahori. The project took twelve years to manifest into reality. Afterwards, he was relocated to Delhi where the emperor commissioned him for the construction of the new imperial city, Shahjahanabad, in 1639. The building of the city, including the Red Fort, was complete by 1648. In 1648, Ahmad Lahori started working on the project of the imperial mosque in Delhi, now known as Jama Masjid, Delhi. He died in 1649, before the foundations of mosque were laid.
In writings by Lahori's son, Lutfullah Muhandis, two architects are mentioned by name: Ustad Ahmad Lahori and Mir Abd-ul Karim. Ustad Ahmad Lahori laid the foundations of the Red Fort at Delhi, which was built between 1638 and 1648. Mir Abd-ul Karim counted as the favourite architect of the previous emperor, Jahangir, and is mentioned as a supervisor, together with Makramat Khan, for the construction of the Taj Mahal.