On the famous GT road, a few kilometers from Gujranwala, a junction “Morr Eminabad” connects to a village that silently seeps the subcontinent’s history and ancient folktales. The town ‘Eminabad’ is home to a number of religiously significant monuments; a Gurdwara, temples and a crumbling mosque all peacefully coexisting.

A travel writer Salman Rashid believes the mosque can possibly be one of the oldest in Pakistan, built during the Lodhi dynasty. The Gurdwara Rori Sahib, three Shiva temples, and a Hindu water tank dating back to the pre-Mughal era are one of the historical sites found in this otherwise small village.

A few kilometers ahead, towards the east, in the town of Kotli Maqbra is a mesmerising octagonal structure raised on a platform with four minarets on each side.

It is hard to miss the arched edifice rising above the fields as one approaches Kotli Maqbra. The conical minarets with cupola at the center are all built in lock brick work and glazed tiles with geometric and floral patterns on the exterior.

The minarets are quite similar to the early 17th century buildings like Jahangir Tomb, Dai Anga Mosque and the Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore. The arched entrance to the underground grave chamber is on the southern side, with three graves wrapped in green silk sheets that bear Islamic inscriptions on them.

Rashid in his book, Gujranwala, The Glory That Was writes:

“...built as it is in the middle of a great nowhere and in the absence of any accessible historical reference to it, it has quite naturally acquired a metaphysical complexion and the local attribute it to jinns”.

While Salman Rashid wrote this book in the early 90s, it seems the local narrative has changed since then, people from nearby villages now acknowledge the building as a man-made structure.

They now believe the tomb to be associated with Sheikh Abdul Nabi, Sadrus Sudur (Chief Qazi) during Akbar’s era.

This idea is based on the research of some of our renowned archeologists, for example Ihsan H. Nadiem in an article on historic monuments in Gujranwala writes:

“The tomb is associated with Sheikh Abdul Nabi who was a tutor of the great Akbar. The sheikh reached the status of Sadrus Sudur but was exiled to the holy places (Makkah and Madina) when the emperor was poisoned by Sheikh Faizi and Abul Fazal.

“He was ordered not to return to his country unless called by the emperor. On receiving rumors of disturbed conditions in India under Akbar he, however, came back without the permission of the emperor and settled in Ahmadabad in Gujarat in 1583. He was, therefore, arrested by Akbar and sent to prison under the charge of his old rival, Abul Fazal.

“Another version tells of his having been murdered, while yet another attributes it as a natural death. But both accounts agree that it happened in 1584.”

Furthermore, in the same article, the veteran archaeologist says that there is no dated inscription record about the monument yet the architectural features on comparative basis suggests it dates back to the early 17th century of Shahjahan’s rule (1628-1658).

However, the comparative historical notes suggest that Sheikh Abdul Nabi was imprisoned and died in Fatehpur Sikri in 1583.

It seems strange that the body of a person who was oppressed by the emperor was shifted so far away, and for what reason?

Why was he buried in this great wilderness, as it surely has been towards the end of 16th century when the sheikh died.

Our archeologists do not accommodate this query.

But the historic record that we do have is a testament to the fact that Sheikh Abdul Nabi, the Sadrus Sudur, was buried in Narnaul in the Indian state of Haryana. This place is not too far from Fatehpur Sikri where the sheikh died while in prison.

The other school of thought regarding the tomb relates it to the Diwan Abdul Nabi Khan who is said to be the governor of Wazirabad under Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb’s era.

Dr. Saif ur Rahman Dar the archeologist and Salman Rashid the travel writer are leading on this thought.

Dr. Dar even establishes that Diwan Abdul Nabi Khan was a tutor of the grandchildren of Nawab Saad Ullah Khan, the prime minister, under Shah Jahan.

However, there is no such prominent governor named Abdul Nabi known during the period of the two said Mughal emperors. At least the biographies of the emperors are silent about this information.

From credible historic records, we find a person named Abdul Nabi during the Shah Jahan period. He is the son of Khwaja Sabir (Khan-e-Duran Nusrat Jahang), one of the high ranking courtiers of Shah Jahan, who died in 1645 and is buried in Lahore. His tomb stands amidst the carriage workshop of Pakistan Railways in Mugalpura, Lahore.

Ma'asir al-umara and Shah Jahan Namah provide sufficient details of this distinguished emir of Shah Jhan’s court.

It also note worthy that when Khan-e-Duran was murdered during his way back from Kashmir in 1645 by a Kashmiri Brahmin, the king conferred his two elder sons Sayed Muhammad and Syed Mahmood with first class rank of 1000 zat (personal ranking) and swar (horsemen), and Abdul Nabi who was only 12-years-old, was ranked with 500 zat and 200 swar.

This beautiful Mughal monument has not received any attention from British historians and archaeologists and this disinterest continued in the post partition era, eventually leading to its dilapidation.

The monument not only battles to survive harsh environment, weather, old age and lack of conservation but is also a regular target of burglars seeking to find hidden treasure beneath the tomb.

Villagers claim that unknown persons pretending to be contractors of an archaeology department arrived in November last year. They camped in the tomb's vicinity and lived there for a few days.

At night, they managed to climb up the dome and dismantled the pinnacle of the central dome. The next day, when the residents encountered the situation they reported the matter immediately to the police and the press.

The Police registered FIR against the unknown culprits and the media too, highlighted the news, but the monument is still nowhere to be found, stripping this exquisite structure off its glory forever.

The writer is a Lahore based photojournalist.