Maryam Zamani Mosque Lahore of

the Mughal period

100 yards outside the East or Masti (Masjidi) Gate of Lahore fort stands the oldest
dated mosque in the city, founded, as an inscription on the north entrance records,
by Maryam Zamani, mother of the emperor Jahangir, in A.D. 1614. Architecturally
Maryam Zamani Mosque is of severe and early design; the five arches of the
prayer chamber have simple four-centred heads, the central arch under the usual
tall framing-arch, which is also four-centred and has a half-dome ornamented with
interlaced ribbing. The building has three flat domes, and at each corner of its
facade are square towers carrying small cupolas on octagonal drums, whilst two
equivalent turrets with cupolas rise from the roof at the back corners. Internally, the
central dome has interlaced ribbing or tracery and honeycombed squinches, whilst
the side-domes have interlaced pendentives.
The building of Maryam Zamani Mosque would be of little note but for the
paintings with which the walls of the interior are covered. These paintings are,
however, unrivalled in Pakistan, and perhaps in India, for their delicacy and lively
variety, and for their harmonious golden tone which is due only in part to age. The
panels include flowerpots, cypresses, palms and other trees, and a miscellany of
flower-designs, partly framed in elaborate geometrical patterns. Compared with the
relatively coarse and indifferent brushwork on Lahore monuments of the second
quarter of the century, these are of outstanding beauty and distinction. Maryam
Zamani Mosque would appear that the liberal use of mosaic tile work under
Janhangirs successor, Shahjahan, induced or at least coincided with decay in the
quality of wall-painting, but at the date of the present mosque the rival technique
had scarcely yet appeared at Lahore.