Through a study of the mosques and their interpretative histories at different periods of time, this volume shows the link between past and present. It documents the continuities and ruptures of different early medieval regional rules and the Ghurid state that are reflected in the architectural traditions of the time.

Finbarr Barry Flood is Assistant Professor, Institute of Fine Arts and Department of History, New York University.

Introduction F.B. Flood; Part I Mercantile Communities and Early Indian Mosques -Chapter 1 'The Mosque in South Asia: Beginnings' Alka Patel; Part II Temple, Mosque, and Conquest-Chapter2 'The Idols of Hind' André Wink; Chapter 3. 'Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States' Richard M. Eaton; Part III The Qutb Mosque, the first Friday Mosque of Delhi-Chapter 4 Controversy Between J.D. Beglar and Alexander Cunningham regarding the origins of Qutb Mosque and Qutb Minar; Chapter 5 'The Qutb as a Social Document' Mohammad Mujeeb; Chapter 6 'Architecture of the Early Sultanate Period and the Nature of the Muslim State in India' Fritz Lehmann; Chapter 7 'Qutb and Modern Memory' Sunil Kumar; 'Epigraphs, Scripture, and Architecture in the Early Sultanate of Delhi' Anthony Welch, Hussein Keshani, & Alexandra Bain; Part IV Early Mosques in Rajasthan-'The "Two-and-a-Half-Day" Mosque' Michael Meister; 'Political Symbolism in early Indo-Islamic Mosque Architecture in the case of Ajmir' Robert Hillenbrand; 'Indian Islam's Lotus Throne: Kaman and Khatu Kalan'