HISTORIC-archaeological accounts often do not make for interesting reading, either because they are written from a purely hard-fact perspective or because they are divorced from their context, failing to make the link between the artefact, and its social, historical, and civilisational underpinnings. This leaves such books with a relatively narrow audience, comprised of either the history lover or the academic with a specific interest in the subject. Non-fiction writers are, therefore, left with the difficult task of combining fact with concept to make history relevant for the reader.

In this vein, Muslim Architecture in Pakistan: Aspects of Public Welfare by Khurshid Hasan Shaikh provides the reader with an ingenious amalgam of concept and fact. While research on religious Muslim monuments is relatively commonplace, the book is a first work of this genre as it explores public works of a secular nature under four Muslim rulers known for their widespread investment in the latter, namely Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq, Sher Shah Suri, Akbar and Jahangir. The research encompasses territory that now constitutes Pakistan, and is based on the writer’s site-based documentation, archival data, literature, and extensive cross-referencing from available scholarship on the subject.

The book is written neither solely from the architect’s perspective, nor the archaeologist’s or historian’s, and this is what makes it a success. In an inter-disciplinary mode, Shaikh engages the reader. Discussing the baoli (stepwell), caravanserai, baradari (pavilion), kos minar (wayside pillar), daak-chauki (post house), bridge, and hammam (bath), he goes not into the mere description of the relic from a brick-and-mortar point of view, but creates a multifaceted historical narrative around it. Importantly, the book is essential in its subject matter, as it undoes our skewed notion of the British being the key public welfare developers of our recent history.

Shaikh does not divorce the artefact from context, but weaves into it the threads of motive that provide a true insight into the priorities and paradigms of the era’s governance practices. The work is therefore not constructed in the colonial ‘cabinet of curiosity’ model which showcases the artefact as a spectacle, with the primary purpose of inspiring awe. Instead, the writer treats it as a living entity, intelligently building into it questions from various avenues of knowledge. This not only provides the narrative with a pulse, but incites readers to draw their own parallels and make connections between people, objects, architecture, and politics.

Providing insight into the zeitgeist of the time, the work brings back the argument that public welfare was in fact an essential aspect of governance even under some of the subcontinent’s monarchies, and makes us realise that today’s dominant global model relegating much of the government’s welfare-related responsibilities to the ‘market’, does not have a far reaching history. Just one example of this would be Sher Shah; “Sher Shah was undoubtedly a capable monarch and a great administrator. Sher Shah’s governance can fairly be termed as a welfare state. His philanthropic measures which were aimed at ameliorating the lot of the common people, are unprecedented in the history of the subcontinent.”

The caravanserai is discussed with reference to the changing nature of human settlement in civilisation, elaborating upon the concept of the caravan and the fact that travel was increasingly undertaken across Asia for purposes of trade, the pursuit of knowledge, and pilgrimage. The role of the caravanserai hence became three-fold: to provide security, boarding, and the company of locals assigned to look after travellers. “[They] were provided with provision from the state, appropriate to their status. Fodder for their horses was also made available. At the gate of every serai, pots full of water were kept for drinking. Arrangements were made to provide the guests hot and cold water as well. Bakers were also there in the serais. Villages were established all around the serais. Brahmans were settled in every serai for the companionship of the Hindus.”

In view of the difficulties faced by travellers, the construction of the caravanserai in many cases became an act of piety and was also undertaken by philanthropists. Numerous surviving caravanserais are described by the writer in terms of their structure, but also in their role as an institution of sorts, through which the kingdom exercised inter-religious, inter-class goodwill towards both foreign travellers and its own citizens.

The hammam or ghusl khana (bath) is discussed as a design marvel in combination with its sophisticated system of waterworks including a series of cold, warm and hot chambers, where both the purposes of bathing and the holding of secret meetings by the emperor were fulfilled. According to Shaikh, the concept of providing privacy to the act of bathing has developed gradually in ancient times with the evolution of towns and city states, and the hamman is in fact modified from the classic Roman bath. Shaikh notes that it is to the reign of the emperor Suri that the institution of ghusl khana can be traced, and that the majority of hammams under the Mughals were for exclusive use by royalty, with the Wazir Khan Hamman inside Delhi Gate, Lahore, being among the few for use by the public.

Similarly, the baoli is discussed with reference to the importance of water in civilisation, and the geographic distribution of historic water infrastructure in the region. In Pakistan, Shaikh notes that baoliyaan (stepwells) are mostly found along the Grand Trunk road and other caravan routes in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Fascinating for the reader is the nomenclature of much of these works, giving us cues about their origins. The Brahmanabad baoli, south-east of Lahore, lies in a pre-Partition village originally inhabited by Hindus. Because the village is located on the Lahore to Delhi trade route, it becomes clear that it was constructed for travellers. In Pakistan, according to the author, baoliyaan are found mostly along the Grand Trunk road, and other old caravan routes in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“It is a strange phenomenon,” he observes, that while the neighbouring region of Gujarat (India) abounds in baoliyaan, such water works are conspicuous by their absence in Sindh. Shaikh also emphasises that the baoli was not merely a functional edifice, but in terms of the value of water as both a life-giver and a purifier, much importance was given to the aesthetics and the ornamentation of these enchanting semi-subterranean structures.

Further, the work brings to the fore two building types generally neglected in architectural discourse on Muslim architecture in the subcontinent; these are the daak chawki and the kos minaar. The post-house was part of a horse-courier system develop­ed by Suri, where the daak chawki served as a transitory point for changing post horses. The kos minaar , on the other hand, was a series of towers or pillars built along major caravan routes acting as navigation milestones marking distance travelled, one kos being the medieval standard measure of distance equivalent to approximately three kilometres. Although very briefly touched upon in the book possibly due to the fact that few of these unassuming structures survive to this day, their inclusion completes the picture of the administrative and welfare-oriented focus of the Muslim ruler under study.

Shaikh makes history, and the surviving glimpses we have of it, a meaningful, thought-provoking journey into the past. Without preaching, Shaikh analyses and leaves just enough room for us to form our own mental maps. In the end, the study becomes a relevant piece of research, inciting curiosity, and providing us with important lessons from which to access and understand the evolution of our world and its present state. The one thing the book leaves wanting is the quality of photographic printing, that perhaps in today’s age of visual overdrive, decreases the book’s graphical appeal. However the substance of the material in this historical treasure more than makes up for this minor flaw.

Books&Authors will be carrying an interview with the author of Muslim Architecture next week.

Muslim Architecture in Pakistan: Aspects of Public Welfare

(ARCHAEOLOGY)

By Khurshid Hasan Shaikh

Oxford University Press, Karachi

ISBN 978-0199065103

257pp.