Kali Masjid inscription of Rustam Dil Khan (1702)

The Kali Masjid stands outside the Yaqutpura gate of Hyderabad.¹ It is beside the graves of two Mughal governors of the city, Jan Sipar Khan and his son Rustam Dil Khan.¹ Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami listed it in 1927 as monument No. 34 in his survey of the antiquities of Hyderabad.¹ He dated it AH 1114 (1702; AH is the Islamic way of counting years), and said that it should be protected.¹ See the Mughals in the Telugu country and Rustam Dil Khan.

The text

Bilgrami says that “over the central arch of Kali Musjid the following inscription is fixed on black basalt”.¹ He gives the Persian text with this translation:¹

“By God the founder of this abode of God (mosque) is the Exalted Khan Rustam Dil, “Open your lips for prayers and say, “This mosque is the prototype of Kaaba, 1114 (A.H.) written by Muhammad Ali Husaini.”¹

He adds that verses were painted in colours on the polished black basalt prayer niche.¹ He translates them as follows:¹

• “Hasten to say prayers lest ye miss them”¹
• “Hasten in penitence (vowing to sin no more) lest ye perish”¹
• in circles, “The help is from God and the success is close by”¹

Bilgrami does not describe the script, and he gives no plate of the inscription.¹

The builder and the graves

Bilgrami explains the graves from the history of the family.¹² Jan Sipar Khan had taken the captive Abul Hasan to Daulatabad after the fall of Golconda in AH 1098 (1687).¹² He took over the government of Hyderabad from Ruhullah Khan, and died in office in AH 1113 (1701–02).¹² He was buried near the Imli Mahal, where his house stood.¹²

His son Rustam Dil Khan, the founder of the mosque, followed him as governor.¹² After Aurangzeb’s death, Rustam Dil Khan was trampled to death by an elephant on the orders of Prince Kam Bakhsh.¹² He too was buried close to his house near the Imli Mahal.¹²

Irvine, writing from the Persian chronicles, also places Rustam Dil Khan’s grave “under the trees in the garden of the Imli Mahal, near a palace of the former kings”.³ The inscription is dated AH 1114, the year after his father’s death in AH 1113.¹²

Footnotes

1. Syed Ali Asgar Bilgrami, Landmarks of the Deccan (1927), p. 96 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹

2. Bilgrami, Landmarks (1927), p. 97 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. William Irvine, ed. Jadunath Sarkar, Later Mughals, Vol. I (1922), p. 54 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩